Help data connectivity and roaming issue

[Gary Carter]

So I have a blue vivo 4 and I switched from T-Mobile to straight talk about 2 weeks ago. I noticed I wasn't getting data, and my phone keeps saying I'm not getting any data connectivity because I don't have roaming turned on. So I turn roaming on to see if I get data and that doesn't do anything. I called straight talk about it and they had me manually configure my APN settings. That didn't work, so they had me call my phones company (Blu) Blu could find out that my phones sim was roaming so they had me go and turn it off the exact same way as straight talk had me do to turn it off. Both company's are really confused about this. I don't really want to go out and buy a new phone just so I can have data. Any ideas as to why my sim car is roaming when I have roaming turned off?

 

[mikedt]

A Vivo? Chinese brand, distributed in Asia mostly.
Hi-Fi and Smart™...I see their slogan everywhere at the moment.
http://www.vivo.com.cn/
Same company also does Oppo phones.

Did you buy it online and imported it, and shipped from Hong Kong probably. Problem with devices like this, they're sometimes not compatible or don't play nicely with North American cellular bands and modes. Here in China, no problems with them of course. Straight Talk, that's a pre-paid MVNO isn't it, running on Sprint or Verizon CDMA?... which this phone will not work on. Whereas T-Mobile, that's a regular GSM, HSDPA network from what I understand.

For reference, this is a useful site.
http://willmyphonework.net/

EDIT:

A bit more digging on this. Apparently Vivo phones are imported by Blu and sold on Amazon.

So the best and most compatible carrier might be AT&T...and if you're on an MVNO like Straight Talk...good luck!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AH1BXJI

So I'm thinking if Straight Talk is an MVNO operating across multiple networks. Phones in China don't usually work like that, and if it's on a different network for the SIM, it will be roaming. There's no MVNOs in China. I know in the UK there are MVNOs, like GiffGaff or Lebara, but they only operate on one host network, e.g. Lebara uses Vodafone. And all networks are compatible with each other, no CDMA etc.

 

[Gary Carter]

A Vivo? Chinese brand, distributed in Asia mostly.
Hi-Fi and Smart™...I see their slogan everywhere at the moment.
http://www.vivo.com.cn/
Same company also does Oppo phones.

Did you buy it online and imported it, and shipped from Hong Kong probably. Problem with devices like this, they're sometimes not compatible or don't play nicely with North American cellular bands and modes. Here in China, no problems with them of course. Straight Talk, that's a pre-paid MVNO isn't it, running on Sprint or Verizon CDMA?... which this phone will not work on. Whereas T-Mobile, that's a regular GSM, HSDPA network from what I understand.

For reference, this is a useful site.
http://willmyphonework.net/

EDIT:

A bit more digging on this. Apparently Vivo phones are imported by Blu and sold on Amazon.

So the best and most compatible carrier might be AT&T...and if you're on an MVNO like Straight Talk...good luck!
View attachment 109291

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AH1BXJI

So I'm thinking if Straight Talk is an MVNO operating across multiple networks. Phones in China don't usually work like that, and if it's on a different network for the SIM, it will be roaming. There's no MVNOs in China. I know in the UK there are MVNOs, like GiffGaff or Lebara, but they only operate on one host network, e.g. Lebara uses Vodafone. And all networks are compatible with each other, no CDMA etc.

So I have a blue vivo 4 and I switched from T-Mobile to straight talk about 2 weeks ago. I noticed I wasn't getting data, and my phone keeps saying I'm not getting any data connectivity because I don't have roaming turned on. So I turn roaming on to see if I get data and that doesn't do anything. I called straight talk about it and they had me manually configure my APN settings. That didn't work, so they had me call my phones company (Blu) Blu could find out that my phones sim was roaming so they had me go and turn it off the exact same way as straight talk had me do to turn it off. Both company's are really confused about this. I don't really want to go out and buy a new phone just so I can have data. Any ideas as to why my sim car is roaming when I have roaming turned off?

Well that's good to know, thanks. It turned out that my service provider set the settings on my sim card to roam, and the only roaming settings I can control wasthe data roaming. So I got a new sim card, one that wasn't set to international roaming and I'm getting faster data, then when I was with T-Mobile. And I have all 4 bars o 4Gf straight talk service. Thanks for the help that's actually really good to know, because my phone wasn't "playing nice" with T-Mobile

 

[Gary Carter]

Yes I did buy it online. And yes the manufacturer is Blue. Its actually a pretty good company, but then again every thing has a own side

 

[mikedt]

Blu is the importer. The phones are actually manufactured by Vivo(BBK Electronics, who also makes Oppo phones, and OnePlus as well), a Chinese company, which does mainly sell here in mainland China, other countries in Asia mostly. I've not even sure the Blu one on Amazon I posted earlier is fully optimized for use with US carriers. T-Mobile it's only shown as partial compatibility for voice and text, and LTE 4G is only partial compatible as well, for both T-Mobile and AT&T. Which it most likely means it doesn't have all the bands used in the US, and so may well have coverage issues. They don't even list Straight Talk or other Tracfone MVNOs.

This is for Vivo X5, apparently supposed to be a "Global" version. But for Straight talk, only partial for 2G and 3G, and no 4G at all.

AFAIK Straight Talk uses either T-Mobile or AT&T's networks, and that might be why it assumes it's roaming, like it thinks they're foreign networks for the Straight Talk SIM. Sure we've had this issue before actually with Straight Talk, or some other US MVNO and imported Chinese phones. When you were using T-Mobile with its own network, it was OK then.

So I don't think you can easily do anything about it, other than changing to another phone, probably one supplied by Straight Talk themselves, or switching back to T-Mobile, or using AT&T, i.e. carriers with their own networks. NOT Verizon or Sprint though. What's Straight Talk's policy on BYOD anyway? I know some US carriers it's approved compatible devices only, or possibly you just can't, you must use a phone that they supply.

 

[Gary Carter]

Blu is the importer. The phones are actually manufactured by Vivo(BBK Electronics, who also makes Oppo phones, and OnePlus as well), a Chinese company, which does mainly sell here in mainland China, other countries in Asia mostly. I've not even sure the Blu one on Amazon I posted earlier is fully optimized for use with US carriers. T-Mobile it's only shown as partial compatibility for voice and text, and LTE 4G is only partial compatible as well, for both T-Mobile and AT&T. Which it most likely means it doesn't have all the bands used in the US, and so may well have coverage issues. They don't even list Straight Talk or other Tracfone MVNOs.

This is for Vivo X5, apparently supposed to be a "Global" version. But for Straight talk, only partial for 2G and 3G, and no 4G at all.
View attachment 109310

AFAIK Straight Talk uses either T-Mobile or AT&T's networks, and that might be why it assumes it's roaming, like it thinks they're foreign networks for the Straight Talk SIM. Sure we've had this is

Yeah its not LTE compatible but it gets 4g data

Blu is the importer. The phones are actually manufactured by Vivo(BBK Electronics, who also makes Oppo phones, and OnePlus as well), a Chinese company, which does mainly sell here in mainland China, other countries in Asia mostly. I've not even sure the Blu one on Amazon I posted earlier is fully optimized for use with US carriers. T-Mobile it's only shown as partial compatibility for voice and text, and LTE 4G is only partial compatible as well, for both T-Mobile and AT&T. Which it most likely means it doesn't have all the bands used in the US, and so may well have coverage issues. They don't even list Straight Talk or other Tracfone MVNOs.

This is for Vivo X5, apparently supposed to be a "Global" version. But for Straight talk, only partial for 2G and 3G, and no 4G at all.
View attachment 109310

AFAIK Straight Talk uses either T-Mobile or AT&T's networks, and that might be why it assumes it's roaming, like it thinks they're foreign networks for the Straight Talk SIM. Sure we've had this issue before actually with Straight Talk, or some other US MVNO and imported Chinese phones. When you were using T-Mobile with its own network, it was OK then.

So I don't think you can easily do anything about it, other than changing to another phone, probably one supplied by Straight Talk themselves, or switching back to T-Mobile, or using AT&T, i.e. carriers with their own networks. NOT Verizon or Sprint though. What's Straight Talk's policy on BYOD anyway? I know some US carriers it's approved compatible devices only, or possibly you just can't, you must use a phone that they supply.

I'm not sure if there's any type of phone that they can't connect if that's what your meaning about BYOP, I'm not sure if that matters as much with straight talk. So Blu is manufactured by a different company, because they make a lot of different types of phones. Like the vivo, dash, advanced, life, etc