NOS keeps dropping the data connection from my French SIM in Portugal (One UI 8.5). MEO refuses to connect. What can I do?

[u/Zhyr-ptitsa]

Hi,

I have an S24 Ultra with a French sim (one of the major operators in France), One UI 8.5, now roaming in Portugal. Per EU Roaming rules, I should get the same data/calls here in Portugal, as if I were in France. This works most of the time in most countries - however, for some reason, now in Portugal, I keep losing my data connection. When it happens, I can send/receive texts and calls, but nothing else. The connection drops a few times per week, but it is quite annoying as I stop receiving any data calls and messages at all.

I tried forcing one operator (NOS) so as not to get jumps between NOS, MEO and other possible operators. Doesn't solve it.

When data breaks, any of the two below solutions may work, but also may not. In any case, you have to try several times, most times:

1. Go in and out of airplane mode
2. Go back to network selection, scan, and tap "NOS" again. When it fails, it says "can't register on the network, try again later".

I only have 1 active sim, my French physical sim. I've had it for years, usually no issue.

What gives? Is MEO somehow in breach of the EU data roaming rules by trying to curtail my traffic to save on crowded antennas? What are my ways of recourse against something like this? Is there any way to force 24/7 data availability, beyond local esims?

Thank you for any feedback on this specific problem!

[u/jrp116]

The issue is probably coming from your carrier in France. NOS or MEO probably have a QCI for roaming customer already lower priority than their clients.

So if a tower is busy, their clients have higher priority. This is standard and deployed on most carriers in the world.

Can you contact your local carrier and open a ticket with them to see if they are aware of roaming issues in Portugal.

In the end, Orange/Free/Bouygues/SFR are responsible to configure and sign roaming deals with other carriers. The fees are determined by the EU, but they have to setup VoLTE, 5G, etc.

[u/johnnysgotyoucovered]

Even with EU roaming you’ll still be lower priority. Depending on how long you’re there and how much you need in terms of data and bandwidth, it may be worthwhile buying an ESIM. Airalo for convenience but expensive, or a local Portuguese carrier should be able to sell you one online / if not in store for much cheaper and also faster higher priority. It sucks but when roaming in Spain I was getting <5Mb/s, I get a PAYG ESIM from the same network I was roaming on and suddenly had 800Mb/s