Help ASAP please, husband In Germany with Orange ... ?!

longforgotten

Picked up my phone to find my husband has left me a message about his mobile phone.

He is in Germany wanting to use his mobile phone. His contract is with Orange now, formerly with T-mobile. Anyway from what I can make out his phone is not picking up the Orange network ( at least its not called Orange )and he's on about being about to choose which network to pick up.

Hoping someone out there understands this, sorry its a ramble.

I have just added his number to my 1866 and 18185 account just in case this should be of any help to him...

He's given me orders to check on the Orange website about prices but this whole thing is double-dutch to me.

Mic2904

It depends on who has signed the contract! You or your husband? WHoever signed the contract, need sto call orange and from my point of view it seems his contract is not set up for roaming.

If it shows all different networks (E-Plus, T mobile, Vodafone etc) thats most likely the case...

longforgotten

Yes, you're right it is my husbands contract.

And if its not been set up for roaming there's a big boob there as it is the first thing he discusses when choosing contracts as he goes abroad alot. In his phone message he said ' they did not mention this in the shop'.

This does not bode well then as he left Orange a few years ago because they gave him duff information with regard to using the phone in India. They refunded him and he had compensation. Only went back to them because of coverage.

He is not going to be a happy bunny !

Jon_01

If roaming isn't setup, doing now only has a 50/50 chance of working (once you've left the home network the sim updates are unlikely to get to the phone).

Are you sure he doesn't mean when he try to find Orange in the network list when he goes to manually find networks it's not there ? If that's the case it's not a problem, he won't find Orange but the phone should put up an the partner networks Orange have roaming agreements with and use them. They'll come up on the phone as their own name and not Orange. Any of the one's it finds and can use will be fine (IF that's the issue !!).

longforgotten

Jon01, yes I think that must be the issue.

I've phoned him up just now and his mate, who is with Orange, will be arriving there soon. They can check notes :beer:

Yes I'm thinking the 'sister' networks are showing up. See, I'm getting the lingo now

drbesty

It'll find all the networks in the area, it'll only log onto a network which Orange have a roaming agreement with (which given that he's in Germany should be pretty much all of them), if there's no roaming on the account (and by default there isnt) then there's a good chance once it's added it won't activate until he returns home, but it's worth a try

redux

There isn't an Orange network in Germany. The 4 German networks are E-plus, O2, T-mobile and Vodafone. Despite the names those count as different networks than their namesakes here.

An Orange phone will roam on any of them, and the cost is the same whichever is used - incoming calls 14p a minute, outgoing to UK and Germany and western Europe 38p a minute.

You might use cheap calls providers to reach him, but you can't affect how much he is charged for receiving the call.

It might be worth him getting a German SIM, as then there would be no cost to him for incoming calls, and some have cheap direct-dialled international calls. I'd suggest the virtual brands Fonic or Solomo, which are 9 cents a minute to UK landlines.

longforgotten

It might be worth him getting a German SIM, as then there would be no cost to him for incoming calls, and some have cheap direct-dialled international calls. I'd suggest the virtual brands Fonic or Solomo, which are 9 cents a minute to UK landlines.

That's very interesting ! Don't know if husband is that brave to go and buy the German SIM card as his German is not that good. Well worth looking into for his next visit though

Many thanks