Roaming problem to Singapore with prepaid

[carleric]

Greetings,

                 I just wanted to warn people who are using a prepaid account and are roaming to Singapore, it seems that roaming witn prepaid SIM does not work in Singapore. I have contacted fido customer support telling them the issue and they answered it would work, but it does not and I have tried with the following phones: GT-I9000M, and Nokia 5310. If someone has ever succedeed in roaming to Singapore with prepaid Fido let me know.

Best regards,

Carl Eric

***Edited to add labels***

[FidoJudhy · Accepted solution]

Hey carleric!

I would like to confirm that prepaid customers can roam in Singapore. We have a roaming agreement with StarHub in this specific country. The frequencies they support are 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz.

Both of the phone you have mentioned were compatible with these frequencies. If you did not have network connection, it is possible that you were not in an area covered by StarHub, that roaming was blocked from within your phone's settings or that the network search was set to Manual and Fido.

I hope this clarifies.

[jackhh]

hi

I have just tried also.  Selected Manual and selected Starhub and it says Network Lost - your selected cellular network is no longer available.  My phone is Iphone 4.  My son is sitting next to me and uses Starhub - so we do have coverage here.  The Prepaid FIDO SIM is simply not registerting.  What do we need to do?

[Wufai]

Quick tip did any of you called Fido to enable your roaming service prior to departure? I recall I have to do this back in.... 2003? I was using a monthly plan back then.

Also you might want to check your balance, I do know if you have to keep a minimum balance to have roaming but I gather the roaming rate would be expensive.

[MTBOnt]

Old thread but FYI for anyone else doing a search on prepaid roaming heading to Singapore (or already in Singapore), this problem can still happen. Lucky for me the hotel provides a free smartphone with unlimited calling and free WiFi. And a local SIM card is cheap if needed. 

[EFTC]

Roaming can be a hit or miss especially if you are in a foreign country (i.e. not in US).  Majority of the time there is nothing wrong with the phone or the net work.  It is the "handshake" process between the phone and network went wrong. SInce you have a Fido SIM card installed in your phone the phone will scan a series of frequencies that is used for Fido / Rogers network.  When it is uanble to find a secure connection, the phone will then look for other frequencies that are located in its design. 

Sometimes the phone will get "stuck" looking for a signal at the Fido frequency or sometimes the "handshake" between Fido and its roaming parters will go wrong.  That's when you are stuck with a phone with 0 signal even though your friend sitting beside you is chatting and surfing away like he or she is in heaven.

Note: the same thing can happen regardless of Pay as you go and monthly subscribers. 

Best thing to do is unlock your phone and get a local sim card.  Usually it will minimize or eliminate the issue altogether.  Alternatively you can use the hotel provided phone.  Usually those phones are cheap (in quality), but the phone might be loaded with every promotional discounts you can find (since it is ad supported).  You can get like 20% off train ticket rides to airport and so on.  Last time when I was in HK I saved $20-40 for taking the airport express train by booking via the app on the hotel phone.

[Original_Lucy]

New one for me, I didn't realize that we can roam while on prepaid. Even newer one, is that your hotel looked after you so well with cell phone and unlimited use while there. Hope you had an awesome time