I am in Greece and since yesterday there is no network connection, emergency calls only.

[Pebbles7]

I have tried turning the phone off and on again; airplane mode on, phone off, phone on, airplane mode off (was suggested by somebody). Tried numerous times to set network (Cosmote) manually.

[Pebbles7]

I am on Lipsi, Dodecanese.

Btw, connection is off again but at least I know it is not the SIM card.

It might be that the pressure on the internet is too much, many school children are getting on line lessons and we, with our foreign mobiles, are last on the list. 

[Phenotype]

The vast majority of the kids are connecting to their home broadband. Still I am not talking about Internet. So I don't think that is the issue.

But yeah maybe the local greek networks might have blocked  or greatly reduced the access to the roaming UK providers.

There is no signal at all ever since Thursday on my end. On Twitter one can find numerous people experiencing this in Greece.

At the end of the day this is very serious as some people cannot access bank accounts, investment accounts due to OTPs.

Again I am talking about Athens not a remote area, mountain island or sth like that.

I will attach pics that there is access to the network but Virgin is unable to connect to it.

[Emma_C]

Hi Pebbles7, Phenotype and Davidakos, 

Thanks for your posts and welcome to our community. 

We're really sorry you're all having some trouble using the services in Greece, this isn't good. 

We're keen to do some checks and know a little more about what's going on, so I'm going to pop you all private messages to grab some details. 

I'll do this now and look forward to hearing back from you all soon. 
 

[Phenotype]

The chat team are suggesting I should reach out to the 2nd line team. How am I supposed to do that if I do not have signal???

Why can they reach out to the 2nd line team ?  I have pointed them out this thread.

Might be cheaper to go back to the UK, then come back to Greece with a different mobile provider.

[Emma_C]

Thanks for the message and letting me know. 

There is no need to raise this with our second line team, we're working on figuring out what's happening from here and will let you know when we need further information. 

[Pebbles7]

Broadband is still internet. Apparently the first day in the latest lockdown when the kids went en masse on line for their lessons the system collapsed.

Athens or some remote island, where I am (no mountains!),  we all depend on our mobile phones for various reasons.

I sincerely hope Virgin can sort out this mess.

[Emma_C]

Our team is looking into this and as soon as we have any updates we'll let you know on here 🙂 

[Hapoyincrete]

On behalf of many British Virgin mobile users in Greece who have posted on FB and on local forums:

We have noticed a gradual decline in access to the network for the last few months from occasional drop outs to complete loss if network in the last few weeks coinciding with the latest lockdown! This problem has not been resolved via, live chat or calls to customer service by Virgin customers staying here. I contacted the APN Proximus Belgium and they said there was a technical fault but couldn't do anything.

This is very serious for many people here as they cannot communicate with relatives in the UK, airlines and most importantly cannot receive verification codes from banks and money transfer companies. We are stuck!!!

This needs to be resolved urgently as some people have been without for phones for a few weeks....and still paying subscriptions!

[Hapoyincrete]

I have spent a total of 5 hours communicating with Virgin Customer Service and nothing works.....it won't because this is a Greece wide problem and a technical issue!

[MrChesters]

Hi Emma_C,

Please could you provide an update on the investigation and findings from the technical team so far and also an estimated date for fixing the problem. If the problem is going to persist for some time then I will need to move to another provider as I can not perform vital day to day tasks without a mobile signal.

Thanks.