Roaming problems with Lebara

Normanp · 17 Apr 2022 at 11:47

I use a monthly paid Lebara sim in the uk and get perfect 3g/4g coverage. On the train to Amsterdam I got roaming 4g when in France, but now in the Netherlands get no roaming data, but can make phone calls & send texts. Phone is Android 11, Nokia 3.4.
Any help appreciated. I have already done the usual: new APN, restart, Aeroplane mode, system reset wifi etc. I do NOT want to factory reset the phone.
Thanks!
It would help if I could find a complete description of an Android APN for a uk phone that works roaming in the Netherlands.

Terminal_Boy · 17 Apr 2022 at 11:59

Lebara might not have any data roaming agreements with the Dutch networks.

Have you tried a manual network search to see what networks the phone reports?

Don’t forget that your home network (Lebara subscription) decides whose networks you roam on and the service they offer, not what APN settings you load into your phone’s settings.

Normanp · 17 Apr 2022 at 13:33

Thanks. Lebara offers full eu roaming as standard to uk users. They use Vodafone and I am connected to 'Vodafone NL - Lebara'. I have tried connecting to the other 2 possible networks but both report no service. The issue is that my phone cannot get a data service when connected to this.

Terminal_Boy · 17 Apr 2022 at 17:24

Normanp said:
Thanks. Lebara offers full eu roaming as standard to uk users. They use Vodafone and I am connected to 'Vodafone NL - Lebara'. I have tried connecting to the other 2 possible networks but both report no service. The issue is that my phone cannot get a data service when connected to this.

Have you tried switching to 3G when roaming on Vodafone NL?

Do you have VoLTE enabled? That used to cause issues when roaming on Vodafone networks.

It might be they don’t allow 4G/LTE roaming.

Normanp · 18 Apr 2022 at 14:10

Choosing 3g/2g doesn't help. I don't have the voLTE option available.

Normanp · 18 Apr 2022 at 16:20

So I have just put the sim in my old Android 10 phone & got 4g. I then wrote down all settings, put the sim back into my Android 11 phone, updated all settings to be the same as the Android 10 phone, restarted, and still got no 4g (gsm only). The Android 11 phone does not get 4g in Safe Mode either.
Very mystified...

Terminal_Boy · 18 Apr 2022 at 17:33

Android 11 phone isn’t a dual SIM version by any chance?

Normanp · 19 Apr 2022 at 06:48

Yes - the Android 11 phone is dual sim. Could this make a difference?

Terminal_Boy · 19 Apr 2022 at 08:55

Normanp said:
Yes - the Android 11 phone is dual sim. Could this make a difference?

Have a read of the manual as there will be menu options to set which sim slot is used for data and which is used for voice/sms.

Normanp · 19 Apr 2022 at 10:12

Thanks. At the moment there is only one sim in it - in slot 1 (I did try slot 2 btw - still no roaming data). Also with one slot empty those options don't appear. You've given me an idea though - buy a cheap 10 euro sim to put in slot 2, then investigate if choosing slot 1 for data cures the problem. At worst I can maybe use the cheap sim for data in my old Android 10 phone! If this enables my old sim in slot 1 to get roaming data then it is a firmware fault I think as with only one sim that should function anyway...