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[Simon Raffeiner <sturmflut@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My thoughts on this:

- Network mergers have already happened and seem to become more common,
especially in joint markets like the EU. So this is not going to go
away.

- The providers have explicitly decided to go for national roaming
instead of handing out new SIM cards or creating a new, larger, joint
network. In many cases existing customers can only get a replacement SIM
for a fee.

- How is this intended to work correctly, and how do other platforms
handle it? People are telling me that they can use national roaming
between o2 and e-Plus here in Germany with their Android devices without
even having to enable roaming at all. They just had to restart their
phone once and after that if automagically worked. Apparently older
Android version had a "Enable National Roaming" switch, but it was
removed, so was the process automated, and if yes, how?

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1449990

Title:
  National Data Roaming on the bq Aquaris E4.5

Status in ofono package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Situation:
  German mobile network operator "o2-de" (MCC 262, MNC 07) has merged with another operator, "e-Plus" (MCC 262, MNC 03). Both operators have decided to allow national roaming between their networks for all customers and for all services (phone calls, SMS, data). The "other" network appears to the customer with the name of their original, provider, but an  added plus sign, e.g. if you're an "o2-de" customer the e-Plus network will appear as "o2-de+" to you.

  
  Expected behavior:
  The bq Aquaris E4.5 roams into the other network if necessary and all services are available. Ideally the device would not even go into "real" roaming mode because national roaming is different from international roaming.

  
  Actual behavior:
  The bq Aquaris E4.5 roams into the other network and mobile data is deactivated because the phone does not differentiate between national and international roaming. The "mobile data roaming" switch has to be explicitely enabled, which can cause problems for the user since the phone supports two SIM cards.

  
  Complications:
  - Both operators are changing their networks during live operation, other phones have problems too.

  - There is a long list of MVNOs and every one of them has to adapt to
  the changes too. For example I have a SIM card by o2-de MVNO
  "netzclub" in my bq phone and the network list now also shows the
  expected "netzclub+" entry, roaming to it works. On the other hand I
  have a SIM card by e-Plus MVNO "MEDIONmobile" in my Android Nexus 5
  and there the network list does not show the expected "MEDIONmobile+"
  entry, but just an entry for "o2-de", and I cannot roam to "o2-de"
  even if I force it.

  
  Notes:
  II think there should be a similar situation in Sweden, where operators Tele2 and Telenor created a shared 4G network, and there are probably other countries with comparable setups.

  
  Debugging data:
  - I added the output of /usr/share/ofono/scripts/list-operators on the bq phone.

  - I added two outputs of /usr/share/ofono/scripts/list-modems on the
  bq phone, once while connected to my original "netzclub" MVNO network
  and once while roaming in the "netzclub+" network. All personal data
  has been removed, but I am willing to share it in private.

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