bug cascade

Given I am a o2 customer
 and I own a Huawei G700 Dual Sim mobile phone
 and Sim1 is used for all data and private phone calls
 and Sim2 is used exclusively for job phone calls
 and both Sim cards are active
When I select Sim1 as the active sim card for the next call
 and I dial a number
Then I want the call to be made

Sounds like a simple scenario, doesn’t it? Call a number and talk to someone. Not any longer for me.

o2 Germany recently acquired another provider called e-plus. To improve network coverage inland roaming is now available, which pretty much means that when the e-plus network is better than my o2 network, the phone will automatically switch to the e-plus network. So far, so good. There is a known bug, though. On some phones you will have to turn on data roaming. The Huawei G700 is one of them. Since I am not living close to the boarder, there is no danger to accidentally connect to a foreign network. But this a valid danger in some areas. What is really ticking my off is a feature of my cell phone, which really turns in a bug (or a huge usability flaw, call it whatever you want…) for me. It seems that the other network is way better in my area, at least the phone is in roaming mode most of the time. Whenever I want to call someone now from my Sim1 or send an SMS (yes, I am that oldschool that I still do that…) and click on the call/send symbol, the phone doesn’t do that directly. A new confirmation message pops up, asking me if I really want to do that or if I want to change to Sim2, since that one is not in roaming mode. Which pretty much means a double confirmation for every action. It is a nuisance when using the phone with your fingers, and it is a showstopper when using voice control. No way to get beyond that confirmation message. My quick and dirty workaround was to turn off data roaming at all. Oh, wait, the phone connects to the roaming network, but blocks all data. So no internet, not really the solution. Changing the phone from automatic network connection to manual connection was the next step I made. o2 network only, but at least internet (and pretty much the status quo before o2 went to that roaming idea). Great, it works! Uhm, yeah, for a while. The mode switches back to automatic after a while (I haven’t really figured the trigger for this out, yet). So here we go again…

I went to a local o2 store, but the young guy there didn’t really know about the topic and tried the old “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature” trick.

My next impulse was to get a new phone, although I am very satisfied with my phone, especially since I don’t have to carry a work phone and a private phone around since I bought it. Since dual sim is a basic requirement for me, I don’t think a new phone will be the solution. Looking at the list provided by o2, most phones on the list are dual sim phones.

Last exit: Getting rid of the roaming problem by finding myself a new provider. That’s probably what I will do, when my contract expires, which is in over a year from now. If anyone has an idea, please let me know!

While I really like finding bugs at work, being a real life bug magnet isn’t really what I was striving for.

Addendum: There is a workaround! Shouting out to 02 via twitter helped as they showed me how to turn that nerve-wrecking message off. Thanks, guys.