IPhone 4S No Service ABROAD?

I have had my iPhone 4S since December 2012 I had a contract with the phone but the contract has since ended! Whenever I had taken my phone abroad it had always said NO SERVICE I could not get a signal no matter what I tried, from the minute I landed to the minute I left and this was every trip.
I have since gone on to pay as you go on the same iPhone I'm wondering if it's likely to be a handset issue or if it was a SIM card/account issue?

Were you using the Local SIM? If you were using your regular SIM abroad unless you r roaming it will say NO SERVICE. Try buying the Local SIM

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