I’ve recently been traveling abroad to Ireland and Scotland with my wife and our best friend, taking in the sights, the history, and most of all, a good amount of whiskey, or scotch, depending on which country we were in. era.
Unfortunately, while strolling through Edinburgh on June 27, cell phone service for many Americans traveling abroad went blank. The reason? According to Syniverse, a third-party service provider that helps connect AT&T (T), T-Mobile (TMUS), and Verizon (VZ) users roaming abroad, a network partner has faced issues with its own service partner , creating a cascade of problems that cut off users’ connectivity.
My wife, our friend, and I lost service while walking through a city we weren’t familiar with, cutting off our access to Google Maps, ride-sharing apps, voice services, and texting — heck, everything you’d use on your phone for. I couldn’t even post photos on Instagram, the most important part of any trip.
I spent the rest of the day trying to update my network settings, resetting my phone, and generally panicking because I couldn’t check my email every 10 minutes. My wife and friend were not pleased.
Eventually everything was resolved on the network side and we came back online. But the experience reminded me of some tips that can help when your smartphone’s connection drops, whether due to a network problem, power outage or other problem.
Use Wi-Fi whenever possible
If you’re in a big city, there’s likely some sort of Wi-Fi available almost always. Sometimes this comes in the form of free public Wi-Fi networks. Other times, it means having to walk into a coffee shop or restaurant to connect. Either way, Wi-Fi will help you do everything from sending messages through chat apps to contacting people at home, to checking your email, using ride-sharing services, and more.
I would connect to Wi-Fi while eating lunch or a drink at a pub, then stand outside the front door to stay online long enough to call an Uber to transport us to our next location. Wi-Fi also allowed us to connect to news sites to catch up on information about the network outage and search for nearby attractions we wanted to visit.
Screenshot of important items
We had several sites we wanted to see during our time in Edinburgh, many of which required tickets. But without cellular connectivity, getting our digital tickets to enter various attractions was a huge headache. If a venue offered Wi-Fi, we could go online and show them at the entrance, but Edinburgh Castle, one of the city’s most popular venues, had spotty Wi-Fi coverage at best.
In situations like this, your best bet is to take screenshots of important items whenever you can. Heck, it’s a good idea even if you’re not experiencing network difficulties. The idea is that you can present your ticket, whether for a huge castle or a simple train ride, without worrying about whether you are connected to the internet.
I took screenshots of our train tickets while traveling from Edinburgh to Inverness to see Loch Ness and its most famous resident, Nessie, and it worked perfectly. The ticket agent scanned the screenshots of our tickets and we were able to continue our journey without any problems.
This can also help when you need to provide proof of a restaurant reservation or want to make sure you’re keeping track of your receipts while you’re out.
Download offline versions of Google Maps
Using Google Maps in offline mode can be one of the most useful tips if you are dealing with connectivity issues on the go. To do this, connect to a Wi-Fi network, log into Google Maps, and type the name of a city into the search bar. A city information card will appear at the bottom of the screen. Swipe from right to left on the top card bar, where you see Routes, Save, and Add Label, and you’ll see a button that says, “Download offline map.”
Press the button and then press “Download” on the next page. The download should only take a few seconds, and once it’s finished, you can use Maps to navigate your city without a network connection.
It’s an extremely useful feature and one you might want to take advantage of if you live in a big city. After all, you never know if your network connection will drop when you’re in an unfamiliar neighborhood.
Overall, your best bet is to remain calm if you lose network connectivity. You can try resetting your phone, but if that doesn’t work, it could simply be an issue with your carrier. And if that’s the case, you now have the tools to help survive without an Internet connection. What’s more, you might even get a relaxing reprieve from our online world for good. Or you could freak out like me and spend your vacation desperately trying to get back online. It really depends on you.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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