Is it free to receive calls on US PAYG Sim in US?

Flashfly

I'm about to move the US for 5 months and am looking for cheap ways for home to keep in touch with me. I'll have no landline, but Skype is an option, however I was hoping that I could get a pay-as-you-go / pre-paid US sim so that my friends and family could call me using their free minutes in line with Martin's Article (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1105983163,80958,)

The problem is that I've heard that in the States you have to pay to receive calls when on a pre-paid plan. I've done some research but it is hard to know where to start as I'm not sure which US providers are reputable or not.

Does anyone have any experience of doing something similar? Or does anyone have any other suggestions that I've maybe not thought about?

Thanks, and Happy New Year,
Flash.

BexTech

In the USA it is the callee (the mobile user) that pays the additional termination costs, in virtually the rest of the world it is caller pays the extra charge.

This means that in the USA it costs the same to call a landline as it does a mobile, and people can port their landline number to a mobile and mobile to landline, and therefore you probably wouldn't know whether this number being called is mobile or landline.

As in the USA the mobile phone owner has to pay the difference, it does indeed cost to receive calls on your USA mobile when in the USA.

On a PAYG phone it's around 10 - 15c per minute. On a contract it will usually come out of your minutes, hence the high number of minutes given away and the usually high cost of contracts.

This was another reason why mobile phones took years longer to take off in the USA, also it being a large country, service coverage is very patchy.

Many people in the USA who want a GSM service usually go with T-Mobile, you can get SIMs from eBay, but you'd be better off getting the phone and SIM when you are there, you can change the phone number issued to one with a local area code, if the SIM was sourced from a different area to where you are going to be in.

As the USA were very slow to adopt GSM, the usual worldwide standards of 900MHz and 1800MHz were already used up, so a Dual band phone bought in Europe, Australasia, Africa etc won't work in the USA, and a USA dual band phone won't work elsewhere.

If you want to take a European sourced phone then you really need a quad band phone, as a tri-band could be useless if you are in an 850MHz area instead of an 1900MHz area.

The USA uses 850MHz and 1900MHz whereas the rest of the world (apart from a few small SA countries) use 900Mhz and 1800Mhz.

chartreuse_2

I've had several US pre-cell phones and they all had a called party pays element. Never found a way around it. In fact, IIRC, that applies to contract phones too (only had one of them so not as sure).

Best deal I found for pre-pay was t-mobile. Put $100 on and you get "gold" status, so your minutes never expire.

System

The other posters are correct, the mobile phone market is different in the US/Canada than here and most other places. Triband should be ok for major cities, but anywhere else you'd be best with a Quad band phone.

One of the best GSM pre-paid packages is from 7-11.

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa/7eleven.html
http://www.7-eleven.com/products/product_detail.asp?catalog%5Fname=7ElevenNew&category%5Fname=Cash+%26+Communication&subcategory%5Fname=Cash+%26+Communication&product%5Fid=1012&thumb=1

However, the incoming calls are still not free. But it is valid for a year, you'd have to buy a phone when you arrive.If you dont like the phone, the sim would work in an unlocked phone from the UK too.

Another option is a Pre-Pay from T-mobile UK.Its 55p per minute for calls made/recieved in the USA. You could also use this with smsbug, costs 3p/4p to send a text.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/Dispatcher?country=United+States+of+America&menuid=ctl_rlt_cwa_ri
http://www.smsbug.co.uk

Have a good time in any case! :beer:

Flashfly

Thank you to the three of you for taking the time to respond.

I've had a look at smsbug and I think I get the concept - I'd get a USA Sim (such as the 7-11 one) and my friends would use the application on their phones to text me, and then if I wanted to text them I'd use the application on my US mobile ??

I'm also going to investigate further into my existing O2 contract phone for texts only. It'll be free for friends to text me (as part of their allowances) and according to the O2 site I'd not pay to receive texts, but would however pay 4 bundled texts to text them back. I see the texts as a way of being able to schedule free Skype chats.

For calls to family without Skype I'd have to use Skype-out or a calling card from a local payphone...........but I'm still investigating this one.

Flash.

redux

Payphones have a surcharge for callling card use, usually a fixed fee of about 50c, so it wouldn't be that good for short calls.

You might also look at Tuyo mobile, which is a virtual network on T-mobile there, and has 10c a minute calls, with +1.5c for UK landlines, and the balance can also be used as a calling card from landline access as well

http://www.tuyo.com/default.aspx?lang=en

Or, see other prepaid operator details on
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/usa.html

I think for texts, if you can have two phones, then use the O2 SIM as your friends will probably use inclusive ones, and the 4 for 1 sending is good too.

I'm not sure which of the US prepaid SIMs will include wap/gprs use that you'd need to use smsbug, or similar ones such as vgsmail, mobisms, Babble and Vyke (the last is cheapest at 2c, and with $1 free trial credit)

Flashfly

Thanks for the info and advice. I've had a look at TUYO and they look a good deal.

Flashfly wrote:

.........according to the O2 site I'd not pay to receive texts, but would however pay 4 bundled texts to text them back......

Just spoke to O2 and my international texts would cost 25p and are not covered by my inclusive allowance. :-(

So I guess I could use my O2 phone to receive texts and then send from a TUYO phone (10c each). I can also use TUYO to call (non-Skype) friends and family at at a reasonable rate (11.5c/min). I also suppose people can call me on my TUYO phone from the UK using a UK override number, though it would be free for them, I'd pay 10c/min.

redux

I'm hoping that the person you spoke to at O2 misunderstood the question about int'l/roaming text costs.

Certainly when I've used mine while in Europe, UK-bound ones have this 4 for 1 use of the contract-inclusive ones.

Flashfly

redux wrote:

I'm hoping that the person you spoke to at O2 misunderstood the question about int'l/roaming text costs.

Certainly when I've used mine while in Europe, UK-bound ones have this 4 for 1 use of the contract-inclusive ones.

Yeah I thought it was a bit funny. The person I spoke to muttered something about me being on an old tariff, but then I only upgraded in July. I specifically asked if I could use my inclusive minutes or buy extra bolt-ons to use but she said no. My Girlfriend is on O2 too and travels to Europe several times a month and I'm sure she gets them included. I wonder if it is just because it is the USA?

Flashfly

......I've just tried O2/Carphonewarehouse again but they are closed. I fly on Tuesday so I guess I'll not get hold of anyone til then. But I have just checked the O2 website and it does say "For those customers with Messaging Bolt Ons, each message sent while abroad uses 4 message units" http://www.o2.co.uk/international/travellingabroad/paymonthlyabroad/textmessages

BexTech

Weren't the O2 contracts via CPW at one time, CPW just buying in airtime from O2, so the contract was actually with CPW and not O2, and there were often some variation with a contract via CPW and one direct from O2?