call rates for international 3 phones

the_big_fact_hunt

does anyone know what the rates are to call someone on 3 in another country???????
my brother lives in Dublin and has just got a 3 phone because he can call me in England with his inclusive minutes, but i am on O2 and i dont know if calling him is classed as international. i usually use mobile world to call him for 20p per minute which is cheap enough, but i dont want to chance a huge bill.
his number starts 00353 so it is an irish number......... any suggestions????

dan2002

hi as far as I know if you and him were on the same 3 network you can talk and use your inclusive minutes as if you both were in the uk ,I live in N/Ireland and if i'm in the south I make sure I am on the 3 network as I can make and receive calls without those stupid roaming charges, so if you are on 02 as you said its going to cost you big time and by the way 02 Ireland has scrapped roaming charges, not like 02 uk, as 02 uk are making a lot of money on people using there phone outsite the uk.why not pick up a 3 contract phone for say £17 and use these minutes to talk to ur brother ,work it out at 20p pre min you can talk for 5 mins a day for 17 days for £17 or 300 mins with the 3 contract and 50 video mins for 30 days for £17 ,that is why my family changed to 3 ,hope that is of some help

fonesaver

I'm suprised that your brother can call you out of his inclusive minutes. three.ie states that a call to be a UK number is €0.30/min when made from Ireland.

'3 Like Home' applies when roaming which your brother isn't when he is in Dublin!

Of course if your brother had a 3 UK contract then he would be able to call you out of inclusive mins as he would be roaming (as per dan2002's example).

Or have I misunderstood??

the_big_fact_hunt

thanks for the info. i am on O2 1100 mins contract so i wont be taking any other contracts, for the time being i'll just stick to mobile world

fonesaver

You could use 18185.co.uk 11p/min + 4p connection and the call to their 020 access number could come out of your inclusive mins (but only off-peak on your contract?).

redux

Sorry to take issue, but some of this information is wrong.

A 3 UK contract would not have calls to 3 Ireland from inclusive minutes, and I'm rather surprised that you say 3 Ireland can call UK mobiles. And someone might correct me, but I think O2 Ireland's free roaming here only applies to business contracts.

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/Services/Travelling+Abroad/?wcmArea=

But O2/Telefonica are in the middle of launching new roaming products, so this might be about to change

In fact an O2 UK mobile on ITS can call Irish mobiles for 14 pence a minute, thus cheaper than Mobile World.

http://www.o2.co.uk/international/callingabroadfromtheuk/pricespaymonthly

Daytime weekdays, you might be able to use a callthrough number from your inclusive minutes

http://www.planettalkfree.com/PlanetTalk0870/tabid/57/Default.aspx

But if you have a spare phone or two, I think you might get spare SIM cards to send to each other.

For example you send him a 3 UK payg SIM (or even a cheap phone as well) which would have free incoming calls there when on 3, and then you could call it from your inclusive minutes. He could send you either 3 or Meteor, which would have free incoming calls on 3 and on T-mobile respectively, and would come from his inclusive minutes.

http://www.meteor.ie/payg_roaming_uk.html

dan2002

sorry to tell you all but there are now 6 countrys that when you are on the 3 network in any of these 6 countrys the calls do come out of your inclusive ,as I have use it in the south of Ireland and it does come out of your mins ,you can even use planet 3 free. check out the 3 web site and as for 02 ireland roaming it is free to anyone not just business as I have found that an 02 ie phone will cost from 69 euro and they give you 75 euro credit over 4 months free and when I am in Spain its cheaper to use this to ring home to the Uk ,just another note to anyone using Dublin airport to fly outside the EU ie Gran Canaria ,you can buy say that phone at 69 euro and tell them you are going to a country outside the EC you only pay 53 euro ,something about not paying tax, done this 2 weeks ago and got a phone for 53 euro and 75 euro credit over 4 months free

redux

Dan, we know about that, but there is a difference between roaming and making international calls to another country. If you call the UK while in Ireland this is from your inclusive minutes, but if you call Ireland I think they may charge you 25 pence a minute or something like ...

But the OP's brother lives in Ireland. If he had a 3 UK phone you would be correct, but if he has a 3 IE phone, and +353 is mentioned, then this will not be the case, and this cannot be called from O2 UK's inclusive minutes,

That's why I suggested the payg SIM swap

As for O2 IE, maybe I found the wrong page that hadn't been updated yet. O2 UK has recently launched new roaming deals, but with a monthly fee, so their rates are not too bad now either