Cheapest way to use phone in Dubai please

bootman

I am going to Dubai on business, I went a couple of months ago and came home to a mobile bill of £1500:eek:

I am constantly havine to make and receive calls and I just wondered if there was a cheaper way to do this.

I am with vodafone, I also have a laptop with me.

Many thanks

redux

The laptop will not be useful for making phone calls via VoIP, as this is banned there. Do you use the laptop with the phone as modem,or are you usually in range of wi-fi networks?

I'm thinking you might take two phones, as unlocking and using a local SIM in that one will lose you incoming calls on the UK number, and with that volume I assume you couldn't possibly tell everyone another number or expect them to ring the foreign one anyway, so would accept that some calls will be on the Vodafone one.

An Etisalat SIM has very cheap local calls, at 3 or 4p per minute, and free incoming calls of course. You could give your UK office and family the number, and they could use cheap calls providers to reach you. The MSE Callchecker shows rates from around 12p per minute, about on a par with ordinary rates to UK mobile from landlines here.

Go to http://www.etisalat.ae/index.jsp and look for Wasel, the prepaid SIM. Also take a browse around there for calling cards (from landlines)and internet dial-up access (2p/min).

I can't find the page of international rates on Wasel at the moment, but I think I remember about 25p a minute from looking it up for a friend. But it is cheaper to use a callback service with this SIM to the UK; about 13p to landlines is possible.

You might instead (or as well), and if you visit other countries a lot, consider one of the various global roaming SIMs, which have free incoming calls in a lot of countries, though they vary a bit in which ones. Typical outgoing tariffs are from 20 to 30p per minute, though there are cheaper workarounds here too.

seaniboy

International calls

http://www.etisalat.ae/assets/downloads/Rates/IntlIDDRates.doc




Roaming

http://www.etisalat.ae/assets/downloads/Rates/Roaminglist.doc

ard123en

http://www.oneroam.co.uk/calculator.aspx?m=12&mi=65&ms=0

United Arab Emirates
calls to the uk £0.27 per minute
calls to other countries £0.27 per minute
Incoming calls Free
SMS outgoing £0.24
SMS incoming Free
Balance enquiry Free
Balance recharge Free
Helpdesk hotline £0.27
Call set up (one time) £0.17

just leave a voice mail on your uk phone saying to ring you on the one roam number works for me

redux

As I said, there are several global roaming SIMs
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html

One of the ones with an Isle of Man number might be worth going for, partly for cheaper calls (Geodesa), partly as it is cheaper for people to call you.

iceburn

As the second person already suggested get a local simcard. But to add a second bit to it, I assume you want ppl to call your vodafone number still. Well don't know would it be cheaper or not. But get an account with http://www.voipdiscount.com/ for example where you have a UK number which you can divert to your UAE mobile number. You than get your vodafone mobile number unconditional divert to the UK landline number that has just been created. You can than use your vodafone minutes (I think) for diverting the call to the uk number (Afterwards charge at uk landline rate.) Whilst Voipdiscount will charge you 23.2p per minute to divert from UK to your UAE mobile number.

redux

iceburn has reminded me of the bit I left out

Voipfone has not only the 13p callback rate for the UAE SIM, but the same tariff for forwarding to the SIM. They will give you a free 0560 number, or you can rent an ordinary area code one for £1.99 a month. I'm not sure that 0560 comes from your Vodafone inclusive minutes, so probably the latter course - which should.

https://www.voipfone.co.uk

nb though they are VoIP operators, you wouldn't be using VoIP in UAE, only the gsm network

iceburn

also other thing to look at (I have to say I NEVER USE THIS SERVICE) a person on other topic on this forum posted this service
http://www.simplytravelsim.com/ where you get a UK mobile number (Isle of Man) and calls to UAE are free and again you might (DO CHECK CAUSE SOME NETWORKS DO NOt CLASS ISLE OF MAN AS A UK MOBILE) be able to divert your vodafone number to the Isle of Man number. You can also call direct from it to UK for 23p a minute. (or use a callback service.) If your calls are mostly local through than the 56p a minute to call locally will hurt a bit :-(

redux

I believe you have never used this service, as it was only launched today. I've already pointed to an IoM version with lower tariffs, and I'd go for it or the local SIM with Voipfone.