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Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 07:58:41 GMT

Landed in Oz, installed an esim for data only but kept my BT mobile as primary line for voice. Im able to send and receive text messages byt cannot make or receive phone calls. Tris doing hard reset on iphone 12 and turned on and off airplane mode etc but cant get to make calls.

tried manually switching operators in Oz and every time i get an sms to say ive got a New Voicemail …

tried taking out bt sim, and putting in a vanilla phone with no esim and still cannot make or receive calls …

BT mobile im led to believe has international roaming turned on …

any ideas ?

Re: Esim in Australia

imjolly — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 10:32:00 GMT

you need to check MYBT that international calls is turned on and that you have set a spend limit above £0

Re: Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 11:36:27 GMT

Thanks - my understanding is international calling is turned on by default , previously travelled to US and EU without issues and spend cap is above £0 also … will try and BT on chat as I can’t call the offshore help line

Re: Esim in Australia

imjolly — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:17:55 GMT

if you have used international roaming before recently then I would expect it still to be on but no harm in actually checking. from previous similar posts international roaming didn't seem to be turned on by default and need to be turned on

Re: Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:21:27 GMT

Just managed to call Bt support using Viber.

essentially Bt do not have any roaming partners in Australia or the US so the only solution is move to EE (or another operator) that do have roaming agreements but you can’t do that whilst you are abroad …. Shocked BT do not having roaming agreements in place with these major countries..

Re: Esim in Australia

imjolly — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:58:22 GMT

you must have had same problem when in USA as like Australia they are not covered with BT roam like at home but need to purchase a Mobile travel data pass

Re: Esim in Australia

Alex_H — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:59:20 GMT

Hi @Darrenjh,

Thanks for visiting the BT Community

I am sorry to hear you are having issues with making calls whilst in Australia, we do have roaming agreements in place so I am sorry you were told otherwise.

Try and set your network mode to 4G only and see if the call works. I know you mentioned testing out other networks, but test again after changing that and when switching networks make sure to give it a couple of mins before testing a call if you did not already. What is actually happening when you try and make a call, do you get a recorded message?

Alex

Re: Esim in Australia

imjolly — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:14:00 GMT

@Alex_H

you need to pay for a Travel Data Pass as roam like home does not apply

https://www.bt.com/help/mobile/going-abroad/buying-mobile-data-add-ons-to-use-abroad/bt-mobile-travel-data-pass-add-on

Re: Esim in Australia

Alex_H — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 16:02:06 GMT

@imjolly Yes that is correct roam like home wont apply when in Australia and if OP wanted data on the BT SIM rather than their local eSIM they would need that travel data pass. If they are able to, when making or receiving calls they would be paying Zone 3 prices, available page 140 on the tariff guide.

My reply was just to address what the OP has been told, which is that we have no agreements with local networks in Australia or USA to allow our customers to connect and use their phones when roaming in those countries, which is not the case. You should be able to connect and use your phone, you would just pay the relevant charges for that usage as its not covered by roam like home.

Alex

Re: Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 23:47:12 GMT

Hi alex

tried this just get a beep x3 by switching to 4g only

assuming I don’t need to by a travel data pass… have an eSIM for data only .

Re: Esim in Australia

Alex_H — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:22:07 GMT

@Darrenjh Yeah you only need the travel data pass if you are looking to use the BT SIM for data. Just checking is this with the SIM in the iPhone and it was in Mobile Service > Mobile Data Options > Voice and Data> 4G only you set? And set as default voice line between the two SIMs?

Was the 3 beeps the same you got when calling before moving to that setting or was it different? Have you tested calling both UK numbers and Australian numbers and its both the same?

Is Telstra one of the options you have available to connect to? If you try manually connecting to that one and restarting your phone and then testing again with that 4G only setting to see if there is any change.

Alex

Re: Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 09:54:06 GMT

Hi Alex

Thanks for your continued support.

beeps x3 happens with UK and AUS numbers

tried rebooting and also doing a ‘hard’ reset on iPhone - volume up down and keep finger on off button until Apple symbol. Also turning airplane mode on and off.

when I do make a change of carrier I always get a SMS saying new voicemail so something is happening on the carrier side

i I have attached a few screenshots

Re: Esim in Australia

Alex_H — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:31:50 GMT

@Darrenjh Thanks for trying. After having checked with our team for further information the advice given regarding our team not being able to fix it was unfortunately correct but it has not been explained correctly leading to the confusion.

We do have agreements with roaming networks in Australia which is why you are able to make/recieve texts and would be able to use data if needed, so that part was incorrect.

The issue is BT Mobile does not support 4G calling when roaming and Australia and USA are both countries where the networks have now phased out 2G and 3G which is the issue here. You can get a 4G signal but cannot use 4G calling and there is no 3G or 2G to fall back on for the call.

So for the future before roaming it would be best to move to EE or another network that does support 4G calling when roaming and it should work ok. I am sorry there is not a way we can fix it whilst you are out there currently.

Alex

Re: Esim in Australia

Darrenjh — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 19:25:56 GMT

Hi Alex

ok thanks for confirming - still can’t believe BT would not have agreements in place if EE does (assuming Vodafone does as well as Vodafone exist in Australia).

I should not have to change mobile providers in 2025 in order to make a phone call in a G20 country IMHO.

thanks again for your support.

darren