phoning home from Poland

Smokeyone

Could i have some advice please on phoning home to a landline from a mobile in Poland. After my last Orange bill (contract) I thought I had bought a tele co. It's a nokia phone. Do I unlock the phone and then find a new roaming sim card. Besides Poland for a few days I also visit Germany, the odd day, France a few days, Hungary planned for the summer.
Any suggestions for the best option.
Thanks very much

elljay20

vodaphone do a thing called passport. not sure about poland, theres a list on there web site, but germany and france you just pay 75p connection and the rest of the call comes off your mins as if you were in the uk.

Smokeyone

Thanks for the tip. I'll have a look at their site.

Smokeyone

Poland is not on the vodaphone list.
Plan B..............
Does anyone know of a co called Oneroam, seems Poland, France, Germany & Hungary are all 28p min to the UK. time seems to be rounded up to one minute units.
Is this connection service reliable.

Thanks very much

redux

You are right about getting the phone unlocked - Nokias are easy to do, by entering a code - see a thread at the top of the board.

I've had the Riiing SIM [2 products merged since then], bought elsewhere, for a while. It is reliable, but sometimes using cheap call operators to reach the Liechtenstein number is a bit variable.

I noticed that Oneroam cut the SIM price recently by several pounds. The call tariff is actually slightly higher as they don't include exchange rate or VAT in that. It would be worth getting subsequent top-ups directly from United Mobile.

For longer stays in a country, local calls etc, especially if travelling with friends, it may be worth also getting a local SIM card. The cheapest Polish networks for direct int'l calls are the mvno's Heyah and Sami Swoi, around 25 or 30p per minute. But use either a calling card or callback, which would work out a bit cheaper. Info on Polish networks and others, on this site ...
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/poland.html

From Germany and France - they have been expensive, but it's getting more competitive - maybe Simyo or Aldi in Germany. And various bolt-on packages are appearing on the French networks. Again, cheaper with calling card or callback

Smokeyone

http://globalsim.net/EN/index.php?p=3

Thanks for the advice. Have also just found this co........................

redux

Yes - another United Mobile agent. I'd have recommended them or Freedom Mobiles in Glasgow before Oneroam dropped the SIM price a bit. Or you can buy direct
http://www.united-mobile.com/website/index.asp

Smokeyone

Thanks for mentioning the other co. Have you used these co's.............
Also, how I understand the blurb is....
.39 euro plus connection charge and you have nine months to use the credit.
Otherwise after nine months or when the credit is used up just top up.
When it says the system will ring you back does this mean you hang up after you make the call (press the red button on the phone) or do you just leave it.......

Thanks again

redux

You need to make a chargeable call in nine months (or a text I suppose is cheaper). Maybe a top-up would do instead but I don't know.

Call the desired number, and you get a screen that says Call not allowed, or similar. There's a Please wait/Bitte warten message, and then it calls you back. On some older phones (eg Nokia 3310), direct entry doesn't work and you use the menu-based dialling system instead. Either method can be used by entering a number, or from the phonebook (the menu-based version works from the SIM only).

There is a cheaper method of using a separate callback as well, which is described on the forums at PrepaidGSM, and also on HowardForums. There are other international SIMs mentioned too, but they look still fairly new, and without much feedback yet

Smokeyone

Thanks again

Smokeyone

I have just found the simply fone site through this group. Does anyone use them while abroad for phoning home to the UK. I am on an Orange contract.

Thanks very much