Texts and Calls from Abroad

Sweet_Sugar_1984

Hi.

I am going to Barbados next week for a couple of months and I'd like to take my mobile with me. I am currently on an O2PAYG tarriff.

I was just wondering if anyone knows if I'll be able to use my free 300 text messages to send texts to the UK and if not, do any other networks/tarriffs allow this?

Also, what would be the best way for my family and friends to contact me on my mobile whilst I'm there, as I do not want to pay ridiculous roaming charges for receiving calls from home.

Thank you.

schiff

Hi SS1984 I doubt it. I spend lengthy spells in France and use my UK mobile simply for text messages, in and out, when the 'other end' of my call is also a UK mobile, in France or in the UK. They all cost me 40p to send, nix to receive. I also have a French mobile contract (which costs me £29 a month - and it's not used when I'm back home, so expensive, but worth it. I get 270 minutes a month included and use a 'provider' number in Paris to route my calls through to the UK - or indeed other countries outside France. That I find very cheap, it's with Onetel France but there are complications! When people phone me in France on my French mobile, I usually phone them back if it's a call that is likely not to be short - to save my embarrassment at what they would have to pay for their call to me. Heaven knows what BT charges for daytime calls to a French mobile phone!). It's a similar price for texts to the UK on my French contract.

There is a lot of useful info via the home pages - fairly straighforward to find but a bit complex to follow; may I suggest you start there rather than my trying to summarise it, when I certainly haven't retained everything I've read.
I think you will find that you will have to take responsibility for the phone calls
- it's very expensive to receive calls on a mobile when you are abroad and it's usually expensive to make them on a UK mobile. It's not fair to the recipients, particularly if they don't know how expensive it is to phone you!

2ax

You will not be able to use the free 300 messages; you can send messages, but at greater cost. However, some people on here have suggested that there is some 3 or 4 to 1 equivalence; this would need checking. You'll be able to receive messages to the O2 SIM free of charge though.

For making calls, it will be expensive roaming the UK SIM, especially a payg one. It would be much better to get a local SIM card to use - make sure your phone is unlocked from the O2 network (try another network SIM in it here to find out, and get unlocking advice on other threads here)

Here is some info on the networks available in Barbados
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_bb.shtml

As the phone networks in the Caribbean have been installed by different suppliers, different frequency bands are in use - 900, 1800, 1900. The first 2 are European; 1900 is American. What this means is that a tri-band phone is most versatile; if yours is dualband, you can still use 2 of the 3 networks [*edit -see below] though (it doesn't look like the fourth is built yet).

The GSMWorld site didn't seem to have website links - here are some

http://www.digicelbarbados.com/tariffs/index.php?pa=digiflex

http://www.candwcell.com.bb/bMobile_Plans/prepaid/index.html
1900 only, don't forget

nb - I couldn't find the other network website; it's part of Cingular, and seems to have been sold to Digicell; GSMWorld a bit out of date then

I think I'd prefer Digicell to C&W then.

If you have a local SIM like this, then friends and family can call you using the cheap calls providers in the MSE Callchecker for about 7p to 10p per minute from landlines.

International calls from the Barbadian SIM seem to cost 40p (30p off-peak) per minute. If you just call home briefly to get them to call you back, that would be ok, but if you want to make a lot of outgoing calls, you could either use a callback service with the SIM (from 19p/min), or look for calling cards there to use from a phonebox.

FF99

I would be extremely sceptical as to what you see about which networks are in operation in the Caribbean. Even the TMobile UK website has information which is incorrect. It may simply be trial and error when you get there.

DesG

O2 allow you to use 4 texts to send a text when abroad, but I don't know if this is only on contract or if they do it on payg.

Cheers, Des.

2ax

FF99 wrote:

I would be extremely sceptical as to what you see about which networks are in operation in the Caribbean. Even the TMobile UK website has information which is incorrect. It may simply be trial and error when you get there.

As I looked at the websites I referred to, including the Digicell takeover of Cingular's interests that I mentioned, I think that you can accept this as reasonably accurate.

In other cases though, that can easily be true, including the odd mixture of 1800 and 1900 bands sometimes even on the same network. And some islands are close together but different countries/networks. So a tri-band phone would be useful.

And there are new networks being rolled out all the time, Digicell Trinidad & Tobago soon, Haiti, Netherlands Antilles ...

iceburn

Sweet, other thing for you to use whilst aboard for family/friends to send SMS and you back is http://www.smsbug.com/ it can be very cheap.

johnnycab

Sweet_Sugar_1984,

I took my O2 PAYG whilst travelling to the Asian sub-continent, earlier this year. By the time I realised, I had paid a small fortune for roaming on this contract. The amount of time spent was miniscule compared to the money charged! However, now having learnt an expensive lesson - I will ALWAYS invest in local telephony everytime I travel.

Since, most phones allow you to copy your contacts over from the SIM card. You can always send your new contact details - over to your nearest & dearest and still be contactable without having to route your calls through UK i.e. picking up messages or getting charged for receiving calls etc. I would advise you to put away your 02 SIM card, as soon as you acquire a new number in Barbados.

pin

Get a local PAYG sim over there. Make calls back home using a calling card while you there. Make sure you stop your o2 answerphone while you are over there, otherwise you will get hit for roaming when people try and leave you a message.

iceburn

I never use them, just found them whilst looking for a good VOIP for my wife mum to call Moscow - Russia

http://www.rhinobell.net/services/sms-callback

Using that service whilst over there you send an sms with the number (either hotel/payphone/local simcard) number and than the number you want to reach and you get a call back with the other number being called. It might be cheaper, it might not.

2ax

That looks interesting; presumably they then charge a tariff for the two halves of the call added together. As you say, some rates will be cheaper than other callbacks, some more expensive. Landline rates are quite good, but the mobiles look a bit more expensive.