Globe prepaid roaming on 4G in the USA

I recently heard of a similar situation with Vodafone Ireland. This is something you need to address to your Philippine carrier. For T-Mobile's part, they are perfectly happy letting other carriers roam their LTE network. 

Close… T-MObile will decommission 3G on July 1, 2022

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network-evolution

• El 31 de marzo de 2022, se retirará la red 3G (CDMA) más antigua de Sprint
• A partir del 30 de junio de 2022, se retirará la red LTE de Sprint
• A partir del 1 de julio de 2022, se retirará la red 3G UMTS más antigua de T-Mobile

Oddly enough, Sprint LTE is still running today.

Hey Ejg2, 

Traveling to different countries has always sounded like a super exciting opportunity. I have never been able to do it myself so I am super excited for you and hope your upcoming travels are AMAZING. 

There are many factors that can play into the ability to roam on another network. You would want to check with Globe Philippines to make sure that they offer roaming in the US and that your plan allows it. They would also be able to tell you what carrier your phone will be allowed to connect to. The other factor is whether or not your phone has the antenna built in to pick up our service. If all of those stars are aligned, I see no reason why the sim card itself would not be able to allow access to our networks. 

Hope this helps!

I have had issues with my 4G Globe pre-paid SIM as well.  It used to work fine before having connected to T-Mobile most of the time, occasionally AT&T.  Now it won't latch on to either.  Tried other phones without success.  Purchased a Globe 5G pre-paid SIM on eBay for testing; also without success.  (I've purchased from this seller in the past, he's legit)

I have tried to contact Globe, and as usual their CS reps are useless.

I tested a friend's Smart pre-paid sim and immediately it worked.  But for the life of me I can't remember if it latched on to T-Mobile or AT&T.

I’m not a phone tech and not sure what exact configuration are on a SIM card, but my suspicion is that perhaps Globe SIMs are not configured correctly for USA networks after the 3G/2G shutdown from T-Mobile and AT&T. 

Same issue here with a Globe pre-paid SIM.  I've been using it in the US for almost a decade.  This summer I took it out of a phone, and didn't put it back in until recently, now it won't connect.  I tried it in a Galaxy S22, S10, and 4G hotspot (just to test if it would connect).  So far, no luck.

There are a few main factors that might be preventing the 4G connection.  4G LTE band support is the first thing that comes to mind when roaming.  Are the devices you have tried compatible with the bands deployed where you are trying them?  Your device might be lacking a band or two that is deployed for service in the location you are in.  Devices must be VoLTE compatible with the T-Mobile (stock Google) implementation for calling or the device will fall back to 3G for calls, if available.

I came here in the US on June 2022 with my Globe Postpaid. Roaming worked consistently fine; My phone's Cellular Voice & Data were set to LTE and has been connected to T-Mobile.

Fast forward to January 2023, my postpaid contract expired. I had my sibling in Philippines go to a Globe store on my behalf to request for "Porting" (changing my account from postpaid to prepaid). A store agent assisted my sibling, though the agent gave a disclaimer; The agent previously did the same thing (change a postpaid account to prepaid of someone in the US) and the user lost their roaming signal afterwards. I told my sibling to go ahead with it. The transaction was completed and we were told that it will take 24 hours for the changes to take effect. Over the next 24 hours, my Globe line was still connected to T-Mobile. Then afterwards, line went off and network indicator became "SOS only". I fiddled on my phone's Cellular settings including roaming, network selection, and cellular voice & data connection mode. My phone's signal went back when I switched the connection mode to 3G. It still connects to T-Mobile.

A side note - I also have a Smart line which was also a postpaid line ported to prepaid when I came here. It is set to LTE and connects to AT&T. So it baffles me that Globe prepaid only works with 3G when 3G is supposed to be already decommissioned here in the US.

Knowing that there's low chance of figuring this out (why prepaid line cannot roam on LTE while postpaid can) thru Globe's customer support channels, I decided to be at peace with it. What matters is that my line can still receive SMS for Philippine transactions where the number is enrolled at.

For short-term travelers who need LTE/5G mobile data access, it’s best to get a local prepaid SIM like T-Mobile’s.

I bought a brand new prepaid Samsung phone in the Philippines. Brought it back here and found out that my roaming feature does not work. Supposedly it has the new 5G SIM. Does anyone out there figured out how to make this PI phone work here in the USA? My data roaming is already ON on my phone.

LBrownace wrote:

I bought a brand new prepaid Samsung phone in the Philippines. Brought it back here and found out that my roaming feature does not work. Supposedly it has the new 5G SIM. Does anyone out there figured out how to make this PI phone work here in the USA? My data roaming is already ON on my phone.

If you're using SMART SIM, try setting your network to 4G/3G only, not 5G. 5G Samsung phones from Philippines/Asia are usually not compatible with the 5G band of T-Mobile. If you're using Globe SIM, set your network to 3G only.