Connecting to the Internet whilst abroad

desjazz

I'm going to the Dominican Republic for a couple of weeks and need to be able to keep in touch via email, as I run a small business.

I'll be bringing my mobile along with me and it has a modem and bluetooth installed, so I know I can connect to the net, via my laptop but the question is- are there any cheap numbers I can call to get Internet access whilst I'm away?

I'll be getting a sim4travel sim card to reduce any fees for receiving calls whilst abroad but I need to make sure I can get cheap internet access as well.

Can anyone help?

2ax

Some ISPs have arrangements for roaming; perhaps you could ask? And use dial-up via a landline.

If you'll only be using a mobile, maybe your cheapest possibilty would be using GPRS with a local Orange SIM - I don't think the Riiing SIM had data.

desjazz

Thanks for that. I didn't know about Riiing.

I found a company called netaway (http://www.netaway.com) and they provide a service where you get 5 hrs for £25.

Does anyone else know of any other options?

2ax

sorry, didn't explain - Riiing is the United Mobile SIM that sim4travel are reselling

and I should have thought of Netaway, as it's connected to the Onspeed product I use

desjazz

OK, so I should get the Riiing SIM (from sim4travel or direct from Riiing?) and is connecting through netaway the best way for me to deal with this? I've looked on the net and these two seemed to be a reasonable solution.

You seem to know what you are talking about, so I hope you don't mind me asking?

2ax

I don't know anything about ISP roaming, or about GPRS use. If you've used your mobile and laptop together before, then the GPRS on the local Orange SIM could be an idea.

On the Netaway site, unless I'm not looking properly, they seem a bit coy about the access numbers - I'm assuming that it's a local number, not freephone, as they wouldn't need to list as many.

Riiing seem to not sell SIMs directly but do top-ups online. I've read that sim4travel have modified the SIM slightly, but I don't know if this is actually true - stuff like making you use their top-ups. Other dealers in this country are Freedom Mobiles, Go-sim and Oneroam. Or you could try Globalsim or Call4t in Germany. The British dealers are a bit more expensive, but if you're only buying one, then the postage from abroad will mean there's hardly any difference. Get the top-ups online from abroad, as something about VAT makes it more expensive here.

A local Orange SIM with a separate callback service would give you calls to UK landlines for about 9p/min. You can also use Riiing with a second callback on top of its own for 7p/min; it starts to get confusing.

Here are some callback companies - I have an Enlinea account

http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Telecommunications/Services/Callback
https://www.enlinea.com
https://www.callbackworld.com

hope that's useful for now; any more, ask

sorry to anyone that thinks this is going off-topic

desjazz

Thanks again. The only thing I think that might be inaccurate is the call rate using a callback company on top of Riiing, as Riiing charge 26p/min for local calls and so you'd have to pay this on top of the callback charges for the second company, wouldn't you?

Anyway, that's the mobile sorted for phone calls but as that is off topic, I think I still need to sort the Internet connection, as the fact that the mobile will always ring you back, would prevent a connection, as far as I know.

Does anyone have any Internet connection info via a mobile using an international dial up service? More importantly, is it possible to get this to work with a computer?

2ax

desjazz wrote:

Thanks again. The only thing I think that might be inaccurate is the call rate using a callback company on top of Riiing, as Riiing charge 26p/min for local calls and so you'd have to pay this on top of the callback charges for the second company, wouldn't you?

No, because you're not making a call, only receiving one.

desjazz

I get what you're saying here. You would just go to the other callback company and request a call to your phone, but not actually involve Riiing, as they would just accept it as a normal incoming call. So you wouldn't be using the Riiing callback service, as such, but just taking advantage of the free incoming calls.

2ax

yes - but in fact 2 choices

1. use a different phone, or wap to trigger the call to the other, or

2. dial the other trigger on Riiing, wait for callback, answer, hang up on busy/not answered tone, wait for 2nd callback

and I forgot to check/say, Orange Dominicana on 1900 MHz, so you'll need a tri-band phone from here, or a US spec GSM one,

and this is their GPRS rate: RD$ 0.09/KB - € 0.002/KB - you'll have to get someone else to connect the phone and laptop together

http://www.orange.com.do/ - some English pages ...

desjazz

Thanks again. I wish I'd read your post sooner as I bought the sim4travel SIM just after answering (I found a couple of discoutn codes to get £10 of the price!). But I feel as though the orange local sim and the https://www.enlinea.com callback service would be best as I could just connect locally to the GPRS service.

Can you tell me where you go the rate for the rate for the local orange GPRS service?