Unable to make/receive calls and send/receive SMS after activating International Roaming (IR) pack

[varkey 51]

I've been having a lot of trouble with Jio after activating the international roaming pack for Rs 1101. 

16th Nov 17:32 - Recharged for Rs 1101 to activate the IR pack through the MyJio app. Received SMS confirmation stating the recharge was successful. In 5-10 min, I lost signal which was restored in a minute or so. Since then I am unable to make/receive phone calls (VoLTE does not show at all) and send/receive SMS. The funny part is that, data works fine without issues. 

16th Nov 18:44 - Finally customer care registered a complaint, after making me check pointless things on my phone (well you can't blame them)

I was leaving for an international trip the same night (hence the IR pack) and until 3 AM the issue remained the same. 

Landed at Frankfurt, Germany at around 1 PM IST (17th Nov) and surprisingly international roaming worked and I was able to make/receive calls and all queued incoming SMS got delivered. There were no issues with international roaming and my number worked just fine all throughout my journey. I just needed it for SMS and maybe emergency calls. It served the purpose without any issues. 

In fact Jio called me up while I was roaming abroad regarding my original complaint/SR and said its fixed now. I stressed that the issue was with calls/SMS within India and I was assured the issue has been fixed. 

5th Dec 3 AM - Back to India and its the same issue as before I left. Data works, but no SMS or calls. VoLTE does not show as active. Inserting the SIM in another known working device fails and shows the same symptoms. And inserting another Jio SIM in my primary phone works as well. 

Its now 6th Dec 5 AM and the issue is still not fixed. I spoke to customer care multiple times and they keep asking the same pointless questions and said they need to send it to the backend team and will get it fixed soon etc etc. I also spoke to a supervisor who again went through the same cycle and assured me that he has updated the case with all the info and will get it fixed soon. 

Has anyone else faced similar issues? Any pointers on getting this fixed? It seems to be some sort of provisioning issue to me where non data services got disabled for some reason while not roaming, but how do I reach the right backend team who would have the required privileges to get this fixed? This is my primary number as well which is causing all sorts of issues (banking and others).

 

 

Edited December 5, 2017 by varkey

[LTE4G 195]

@varkey Go to Sim Toolkit and switch ON National Roaming (Home IMSI) - restart and everything will start working. (in India you shall keep this setting AFAIK).

Edited December 6, 2017 by LTE4G

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Hmmm... Looks like, it's better not to activate IR in Jio, even if it's our primary number.

Your case looks like, Jio has downgraded your sim services from volte to non volte one. Try the sim in non volte  4G phone like Lenovo A6000 and try activating voice via jio4gvoice app, till the problem resolves as it's your primary number.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

@varkey In SIM Tool Kit, two options are available,

Home IMSI  & International IMSI.
If in your phone such option is available, try switching to Home IMSI now.

[varkey 51]

14 hours ago, LTE4G said:

@varkey Go to Sim Toolkit and switch ON National Roaming (Home IMSI) - restart and everything will start working. (in India you shall keep this setting AFAIK).

In Sim Toolkit, there is only International Roaming and its set to Off. I tried to toggle it to On and off, but it doesn't let me. 

[varkey 51]

9 hours ago, rajanmehta said:

@varkey In SIM Tool Kit, two options are available,

Home IMSI  & International IMSI.
If in your phone such option is available, try switching to Home IMSI now.

No such option sadly  Only international roaming option is present there. 

 

[varkey 51]

14 hours ago, KanagaDeepan said:

Hmmm... Looks like, it's better not to activate IR in Jio, even if it's our primary number.

Your case looks like, Jio has downgraded your sim services from volte to non volte one. Try the sim in non volte  4G phone like Lenovo A6000 and try activating voice via jio4gvoice app, till the problem resolves as it's your primary number.

Yeah IR seems to be seriously messed up.

How do I get the right backend team to look into this? I posted on Twitter, emailed them, called them, and they keep asking pointless questions. The last update from them is to replace the SIM, and I went to a Reliance Digital to get it replaced. The funny part is that EKYC is not available if you don't have the local address in Aadhaar, but to get a new connection EKYC is not an issue for outstation customers. 

I then had to submit a physical form with photo and copy of Aadhaar, which would be processed manually he said within 24 hours. I hope SIM replacement fixes it. 

Thanks for the suggestion of Jio4GVoice, that actually worked on my handset. It sent an OTP to my alternate number registered in the system and I was able to activate it. So SMS and calls are partially working, but Jio4GVoice is unstable and goes offline every hour or so and I need to turn off data and back on to get it Online again. 

I guess I will just port out of Jio, this has been frustrating. 

Edited December 6, 2017 by varkey

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Good to see it worked @varkey . Yes, jio4gvoice app is half baked for voice calls. But it's better than total black out, imho. Just wait for new sim activation and if still problem persists, use MNP then, as it's your main number.

[commonman 228]

not sure if  Jio support call forwarding to other Jio numbers. if yes, then if your problem sorts out, take another jio SIM and use that for roaming in future, using call forwarding feature in your main number. same applies for anyone else who wants to use Jio for  IR.

there is a possibility that the issue may get sorted out once the validity of your IR recharge is over. on the other hand, I have a doubt that even with SIM change, as long your IR pack is active, you may not get VoLTE.

 

[me_saket 73]

IMHO

 

SIM swap or IR pack Termination (naturally or forcefully) should end ur Problem.

 

Lets see how things gets improved. If someone technically troubleshoot can easily restore ur service. but Jio doesnt have any such strong support team

 

Call forward is handicapped solution, because, When one need sms, that to bank OTP, call forwards solution fails in both Domestic and international roaming.

[varkey 51]

16 hours ago, KanagaDeepan said:

Good to see it worked @varkey . Yes, jio4gvoice app is half baked for voice calls. But it's better than total black out, imho. Just wait for new sim activation and if still problem persists, use MNP then, as it's your main number.

Yeah true. Apparently the first store I went to never submitted the request for SIM change, so I went to another store and got it done in front of me. This time I got the SMS notifications and things like that the SIM change process has been initiated, but again as I have an outstation Aadhaar, it needs to go through a manual verification. I hope it gets done in the next couple of hours. 

Yep, I have initiated MNP as well, hope that goes through quickly. This has been a really bad experience. 

5 hours ago, commonman said:

not sure if  Jio support call forwarding to other Jio numbers. if yes, then if your problem sorts out, take another jio SIM and use that for roaming in future, using call forwarding feature in your main number. same applies for anyone else who wants to use Jio for  IR.

there is a possibility that the issue may get sorted out once the validity of your IR recharge is over. on the other hand, I have a doubt that even with SIM change, as long your IR pack is active, you may not get VoLTE.

 

Call Forwarding works and that's what I have done now for calls, as Jio4GVoice doesn't stay "Online" half the time and leads to calls getting nowhere. So I am carrying two phones now. The main reason I activated IR was to get the SMS OTPs and maybe emergency calls if required during my trip, for just international roaming I think Airtel has much better plans than Jio.

Yeah, it seems to be tied to the IR pack definitely as it stopped working right after I activated it, but I am surprised that they are still unable to detect that it has messed up and fix it. 

 

[commonman 228]

23 hours ago, me_saket said:

Call forward is handicapped solution, because, When one need sms, that to bank OTP, call forwards solution fails in both Domestic and international roaming.

SMS works even without VoLTE as long as data is functional.

[varkey 51]

19 minutes ago, commonman said:

SMS works even without VoLTE as long as data is functional.

Yes, but in my case, both SMS and calls were not working, data works just fine. I was unable to send or receive SMS as well. Also, in case of Jio without activating the IR pack, it won't even get registered on a foreign network so won't be able to get SMS either. 

Anyway my SIM swap got processed by around 11:30 AM today and with the new SIM VoLTE is active and I am getting SMS as well. Finally problem solved. I am guessing its some sort of provisioning issue on their end which on SIM swap gets re-triggered solving the problem. I am sure their L2 or L3 team could have solved this without a SIM swap but no way to reach them.

[commonman 228]

45 minutes ago, varkey said:

Yes, but in my case, both SMS and calls were not working, data works just fine. I was unable to send or receive SMS as well. Also, in case of Jio without activating the IR pack, it won't even get registered on a foreign network so won't be able to get SMS either. 

Anyway my SIM swap got processed by around 11:30 AM today and with the new SIM VoLTE is active and I am getting SMS as well. Finally problem solved. I am guessing its some sort of provisioning issue on their end which on SIM swap gets re-triggered solving the problem. I am sure their L2 or L3 team could have solved this without a SIM swap but no way to reach them.

This becomes a learning point for others. Never use international roaming on Jio. Use call forwarding and any other SIM.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

Great to see your problem got solved. Being a 4g only operator, jio is not the go-to operator for IR. But your xp proves that we should never  even think about IR in jio at all. 

[me_saket 73]

15 hours ago, commonman said:

SMS works even without VoLTE as long as data is functional.

I never recieved any sms when inserted SIM in non-VOLTE phone.

 

Have you tried and tested.

4 hours ago, KanagaDeepan said:

Great to see your problem got solved. Being a 4g only operator, jio is not the go-to operator for IR. But your xp proves that we should never  even think about IR in jio at all. 

again 

Quote

Call forward is handicapped solution, because, When one need sms, that to bank OTP, call forwards solution fails in both Domestic and international roaming

 

 

bottom line is Dont Expect BANK OTP when your primary number is JIO, and Risk is high for activating IR pack on jio.

[LTE4G 195]

Confirmed SMS DOES NOT WORK when Volte is disabled.

I tried sending as well as receiving sms sent from my other number with Volte switched off. Didn't work.

[varkey 51]

19 hours ago, me_saket said:

I never recieved any sms when inserted SIM in non-VOLTE phone.

 

17 hours ago, LTE4G said:

Confirmed SMS DOES NOT WORK when Volte is disabled.

I tried sending as well as receiving sms sent from my other number with Volte switched off. Didn't work.

Is this a recent change? Cause last year I remember using a non-VoLTE unlocked Airtel hotspot (I think it was a Huawei E5573) with a Jio sim and I was able to send/receive SMS. I have used it to get OTPs multiple times. 

[LTE4G 195]

2 hours ago, varkey said:

 

Is this a recent change? Cause last year I remember using a non-VoLTE unlocked Airtel hotspot (I think it was a Huawei E5573) with a Jio sim and I was able to send/receive SMS. I have used it to get OTPs multiple times. 

SMS on what? Jio4GVoice, JioJoin or any other similar app - means software based messaging.

[varkey 51]

18 hours ago, LTE4G said:

SMS on what? Jio4GVoice, JioJoin or any other similar app - means software based messaging.

Not through any app, the hotspot exposes a web interface to configure and manage the device and alongwith that comes with an interface to send/receive SMS. 

[csmart 472]

I've started a petition for frequent call drops and poor net speed on mobile. Request you all to sign the same. I also request you to please ask friends and acquaintances to sign the same. It is for the all of us.

Sign the petition

Edited January 18, 2018 by csmart
Spelling mistake n info added

[Sailesh Ghelani 0]

I just had the same problem. Called and told them. Bit of a panic. But then I removed the SIM card from the slot and then reinserted it and started up the phone. Works fine now.