Whats the best mobile deal for Frequent travellers

caylem00

Hi
My partner works abroad at least half of the year and travels to different countries all the time, he needs to use his mobile to receive and make calls..does anyone know who offers the best international deal or is there another method of buying a mobile (not sim) in another country who does offer a better tariff...He is currently on orange and spending between £300-£500 per month

Cavey

All depends on what you're using it for.

If in another country you want to ring a local number, using a local mobile is the best idea. If you are ringing home, however, you're (plural) gonna get rinsed either way (either by him paying lots or you paying lots).

The best idea appears to find a net connection and use Skype OR for him to have a local mobile and then you use Skype to call him (costs about 20p/min for mobiles, 7p if you ring a landline).

The best idea in my mind seems to be having two phones, one UK and one local. The UK one can be the consistent line people can ring to get the local phone lines details.

But as I said, it all depends on what you are using it for.

jamiex

If he's in many different countries then a global sim card could be useful, from providers such as Sim4Travel which offer a Jersey-based mobile phone number. This can be called from a landline for about 8p/minute and it would be free for him to receive calls in most countries. It would also be cheaper for him to make calls.
http://www.sim4travel.com/

If he's in countries with a Vodafone network and he tends to make long rather than short calls, then a Vodafone contract with Vodafone Passport (75p per call then use inclusive minutes) might work out cheaper.

If he mainly goes to Australia, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Sweden or Hong Kong then a 3 contract would be very cheap (he could use his inclusive minutes in these countries and receive calls for free)

It really all depends what he's doing, where he's going and how long he stays on the phone! If he's spending £300/month he could afford to get a contract with 3, a contract with Vodafone and a global sim card and it would probably still work out cheaper than he's paying at the moment.

Regards,
Jamie

caylem00

Hi Jamie,
he works in F1 and A1 motorsport and is therefore in lots of different countries so local sims don't work. He makes calls and receives calls on the mobile for his work (but is self employed so has to pay the phone bill himself)...usually people ring from the UK to whatever country he is in and he would need to make calls from the country he is in to US,New Zealand and the UK.(from a UK mobile)

I usually use a post office phone card to speak to him in the hotel as that saves us money but its his work calls that are the problem and he cannot not take them...

Thanks very much for your reply, that has helped..I will look into the global sim...

deano27_2

I think if you want to maintain a regular number then a global sim will probably be your best bet. Incoming calls in Europe are free where as most operators will charge you for that.

Ok you need to have another number , but you can forward it to your new number when you leave the UK.

http://www.saversim.com/index.html

The reason they can offer cheaper calls as it re-routes calls through the local fixed network and off the mobile network. It is a call back offering, but very slick and after a few goes you wont even notice.