No network signal in Northern Ireland

[KevinK5794]

Good afternoon guys,

With cross-border travel now allowed, I made my first trip up to visit family in Northern Ireland.

Despite having roaming enabled, I had no network signal at all in the North so my phone was essentially useless.

Does the 48 network not allow roaming in UK/NI or is there an extra charge for this?

[dalyer]

Roaming in NI/UK should work:

https://48.ie/charges/roaming

Any chance you're using an iPhone and this is the issue due to the stupid way that Apple do things?

https://community.48.ie/t5/Most-Popular-Questions/iPhone-abroad-issue/td-p/36862

Hope this helps.

[KevinK5794]

No I'm not using an iPhone, I am using an Android (Google Pixel 4a 5G) phone.
Literally lost service as soon as I crossed the border into Northern Ireland and it returned again immediately as soon as I was back in the Republic. I checked my phone settings and roaming was definitely activated, so I'm not sure what the issue could be. I tried to use the online chat on the 48 website but I keep getting an AI chat bot whilst I would prefer to speak with an actual person.

[dalyer]

Did you do a search for networks and try to manually connect to one in NI?
Normally shouldn't be necessary but might work in some cases.

http://www.helpforsmartphone.com/public/en/google/pixel-4a/android-10/guides/4/Set-up-roaming-Google...

Otherwise I don't know why roaming didn't work for you.

Sometimes you have to enable roaming AND data roaming if these are separate options.

Hope this helps.

[KevinK5794]

Could the issue be because my network was manually set to 48 instead of the 'Automatically select network' option? I suppose I won't be able to properly test this for another while until I go back up North again.

[dalyer · Accepted solution]

Yes that could be an issue if you set it to only connect to 48.
You should set that to auto.

[MervinA1659]

Stayed for 5 days in NI as soon as I crossed the border signal was gone the whole Stay no signal, I've tried manually putting the other network with no hope..

[dalyer]

Not an iPhone I presume?
What happened when you searched for NI networks?

[JamesB1805]

I had exact same problem once I crossed the border. Only difference was on returning to the Republic Ireland my phone was permanently broken. Tried changing Apn , factory resets several times but phone is completely useless now.

[dalyer]

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@JamesB1805 wrote:
I had exact same problem once I crossed the border. Only difference was on returning to the Republic Ireland my phone was permanently broken. Tried changing Apn , factory resets several times but phone is completely useless now.

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It's extremely unlikely that roaming will have "broken" your phone or rendered it "completely useless".

See here:

https://community.48.ie/t5/Internet/No-network-after-trip-to-Northern-Ireland/m-p/56304/highlight/fa...

Hope this helps.