cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Roaming - Tips for using your Virgin Mobile whilst abroad

ModTeam
Moderator
Moderator

Heading abroad with your Virgin Mobile? Don't sweat it! We've got you covered with these handy tips for getting up and running whilst away:

It's always best to check that you’re all set up to use your phone abroad before you leave, by simply logging into Your Account or calling +44 7458 333 789.

It’s also a good idea to check that there’s network coverage where you are. See Roaming Costs to check the coverage in the country you’re visiting.

If your phone doesn't connect to a network when you arrive, try turning the phone off and then back on again. Sounds simple, but it'll refresh the network signal on your phone and, more often than not, it does the trick. If that doesn't work, you can try a manual network search. Here's how:

  • Go into Settings on your phone
  • Now go to Phone Settings
  • Then choose Network Selection
  • Select Manual network selection instead of Automatic and let the phone search for available networks. This might take up to a minute
  • Now you should have a list of networks you can use

If your phone has a removable battery and you are still stuck, try what we call a hard reboot. Just remove the battery from your phone without turning it off first, then wait about 20 minutes before putting it back in and switching the phone on.

This reboots your phone and it normally does the trick.

If that also doesn’t work, you may need to update a SIM setting on your phone before trying the network search again. Here’s how you do that:

Android

  • Select Apps from the Home screen or swipe to access
  • Select the Virgin SIM toolkit option. Depending on the SIM slot the SIM is in this may be ‘Virgin’ or ‘Virgin2’
  • Select Roaming
  • Select Select Mode
  • Select Manual
  • Select International

iPhone or iPad with a Physical SIM

  • Select Settings from the Home Screen
  • Select Mobile Data
  • Select SIM Applications
  • Select Roaming
  • Select Select Mode
  • Select Manual
  • Select International

iPhone or iPad with an eSIM

  • Select Settings from the Home Screen
  • Select Mobile Data
  • Select the Virgin data plan
  • Select SIM Applications
  • Select Roaming
  • Select Select Mode
  • Select Manual
  • Select International

Once you return to the UK you’ll need to follow the steps above again but make sure you’ve set the both the Network and SIM Modes back to Automatic, otherwise your device may not reconnect to our network in the UK.

20 REPLIES 20

enlli
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

The SIM kit may be hidden. No idea about Windows but the Pixel will be on Android.

Try going into Settings / Apps and see what's listed. Maybe called SIM,  Virgin, Toolkit etc.

 

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

No joy at all revealing the tool kit settings on the Pixel 3a however I have managed to access some hidden SIM settings via the windows phone resulting in an operator profile being available to select.  I changed from 'base' to 'mobile vikings' applied the change and restarted.  Blow me, now successfully roaming on the Manx networks even if I migrate the SIM across to the Pixel phone so clearly this was a hidden away SIM setting.  Three cheers to a defunct platform assisting unlocking these changes.  Glad we got there.  It does seem these changes do not happen seamlessly however so I would agree with the person who recommends publishing the adjustments on the website. 

Hi Djjazzyjc, thanks for the message and welcome back to the forums. I am glad to hear that the roaming issue has been resolved and that you are able to connect. A bit thankyou to the community for helping you with this. Please let is know if you need anything further. ^Chris

MikeG72
Tuning in

What is the sim tool kit then can't find it 

It's not easy to find on some handsets. I recall I found an old foreign version of the utility either on the windows store or the Android one. Couldn't see where it went on the Android one but somehow I got in through the backdoor in the windows phone settings. No option for automatic which meant it could be either national or international. International meant it worked abroad but when returning home, it didn't work. Had to transfer the sim back to windows phone to select national so I couldn't have it both ways. Quite a fafth. Not long got back from Cyprus and found the roaming didn't work. That's because I only took my Android handset with me. Then having returned home I found an icon on the Android desktop simply called "Virgin." The image of the icon is a grey Sim card. I launched this where it ran what looked like a DOS or MS script allowing me the national, international or automatically settings. Now it's on automatic so presumably it would work anywhere in the world where there is a roaming agreement but also at home. My contract runs out later this month. Can anyone tell me what the benefits are of this new Virgin partnership with O2 from the customer's point of view? Now that my contract is up, I'm considering migrating to O2 but if someone can convince me that the perks of both operate, then there would be no need. Roaming far less of a fafth with the other network and often with no costs. Apologies for going away from the scope of this thread but I consider it all linked in.

 

Hi @MikeG72

 

Thank you for your post an welcome to our community.

 

Are you using an Android or iPhone please?

 

Please pop back to us when you can. 

Vikki - Forum Team


New around here? To find out more about the Community check out our Getting Started guide


Hi @Djjazzyjc

 

Thank you for your response. 

 

I have included a link here for you which explains the benefits for our customers of being both with O2 and Virgin Media 🙂

Vikki - Forum Team


New around here? To find out more about the Community check out our Getting Started guide


I'm responding to the advice given here as I'm not sure it's entirely safe. As I was unable to get a phone network registered when I was on Guernsey last week (having set up my account for abroad two days before leaving) I followed the steps suggested. But neither switching phone off & on nor manual network search worked (though there may have been some question of whether roaming had been properly switched on) so I then went on to the third one: Apps/Virgin SIM toolkit/Roaming/Select Mode/Manual/International. Not only did this not work, leaving me unable to make normal phone calls for the rest of my stay, but I later discovered that I had irrevocably put my sim out of action. After much time-wasting trying to get this sorted, Virgin Help are sending me a new sim. So I feel I should post this as a warning. My phone is a moto g7 play.

Hi @rjkl

 

Thanks for posting on our community forum and sorry to hear about the issues with your SIM. 

 

Glad to hear the team have sent out a new SIM to correct the issue for you, please do keep us updated with how you get on when using the new SIM and we will investigate further if needs be.

 

Regards

 

 

Travis_M
Forum Team

New around here? Check out the do's and don'ts, in our Community FAQs


Hi Travis -

Thanks for replying. I trust someone's looking into it.

My first update would be that it would help if I hadn't had to wait six working days for the sim, which still hasn't arrived.