Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

redux

Bigcammy wrote: »

I'm looking advice for the daughter of a friend. She's heading to Canada for a three week holiday and is looking the cheapest way to text and occasionally phone home. She's currently on O2, thanks

well, it depends slightly

there are not many cheap roaming deals there - some global SIMs have achieved cheap rates in USA, but not yet in Canada

so it might be a question of getting a Canadian SIM, such as Rogers, Fido, or new brands such as Bell Telus and Wind, but these latter ones are 3g only, Wind on 1700 MHz which we don't have, and still patchy coverage

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/canada.html

but Canadian SIM rates aren't that brilliant

there is also a SIM sold by ekit, called SIMple Calling, which is based on a US network and does have reasonable rates there - well, they have different rates depending whether you but it as UK or US supplied, and the US ones are better, and the best place to buy either is from them on eBay,

but I think I'd go for this for making calls within Canada, and use callthrough with it for calling UK

but now I've waffled about those, I'd say that as you mention texts to and from home, then maybe just using O2 would be ok, but that depends, as I said at the start

older O2 contracts have a finite sized bundle of text messages included, and these can be used back to the UK from abroad, at the rate of 4 for 1 from the bundle

however, this year's contracts have unlimited texts included, and these are not usable from abroad like this

if she's on Pay & Go, that doesn't apply either

there are some firms which simulate text messages using an installed Java program and the phone's data connection, and this works out a lot cheaper than the network's sms rates

some are mobisms, smsBug, Vyke and Fishtext - I'd recommend Fishtext and it's the cheapest at about 2 pence a message, and data used is charged by the network itself, about 0.5p

they also have on online mode, and if both phones are on there is no message charge - but don't leave it on permanently as the constant pinging to check uses up more data

so maybe take two phones, and use Fishtext to text home, and maybe SIMple Calling if she also needs to call Canadian numbers

sorry if this is a bit long and doesn't read clearly - ask any questions to clarify

redux

Global_Traveller wrote: »

Hello,

There's some great information on the thread and in the article, thanks everyone, but I'm still really stuck on what would be best for me for my trip.

I'm taking in Russia, China, Vietnam, Canada, India and Australia over seven months. As well as receiving and occasionally making calls to the UK, I'd like to use my phone to make local calls while I'm in those countries.

While it would probably be best to get a global SIM, I've spent hours checking the tariffs and most seem to be really expensive for receiving and making calls to the UK in the particular countries that I'm going to - while one card may be cheap in Australia, it's expensive in China; and while another is cheap in India, it's expensive in Canada, etc. There don't seem to be any packages out there that cheaply over the whole range of countries that I'm going to.

I could buy a local SIM in every country I go to (as I'm in each long enough for this not to be too much of a hassle), but then receiving calls from the UK still seems to be very expensive (in China particularly). I just wanted to see if anyone had any advice for a good global SIM that covers all these countries? Any advice much appreciated!

Many thanks.

Yes, I think this isn't going to be solvable with only one global SIM

Australia and Vietnam shouldn't be any problem for global SIMs, though perhaps not all have free incoming in Vietnam.

Russia can be cheap on one or two brands of global SIM, and for some it may depend on which Russian network you're roaming on, for example some seem to have free incoming on Tele2, but it would be worth checking

Canada, see a reply I did just above.

India, there are just about no SIMs with cheap roaming there, and many are a quid or two a minute. It's because of high charges imposed by the networks there, much like US networks also do, though some global SIMs have worked around the USA case by having multi-IDs including a US mvno. However, there might be one interesting possibility I need to check on.

So I think have a global SIM - you can always receive text messages on it free (except possibly on the US number of those multi ones while in USA), and get some local SIMs as well

To compare networks and tariffs, and with links to network websites (click on logo from each country page)

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html

they don't yet have info about Vietnam though, which you can find via GSM World

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_vn.shtml

redux

magic57 wrote: »

Hello all

Has anyobe used uk2abroad to call home from the USA please. It looks like a reasonable option but would be please to hear anyones opinion.

I don't know, except note that this seems to be a separate product to the global SIM they are reselling.

I'd guess it is just a resold US SIM card rather than a roaming product, one with decent rate int'l calls, maybe Tuyo or H2O Wireless

Ziggy_Stardust

redux wrote: »

It's a reseller of Wire9, which has a number of other resellers such as Gymsim

Wire9 is also used by the ex-Callkey operation for their multi-ID SIMs which include cheap roaming in the USA; Callkey resellers include Easyroam, Geosim and Worldsim

They all seem to be gradually moving towards the multi-ID ones. I have one of these brands and it's fine when I've used it.

Thanks . Which brand do you have? Its just that my daughter is going away for a month to Kenya and we need something reliable otherwise she will panic and not know what to do if she can't contact us - kids eh?

Raven

redux wrote: »

It's a reseller of Wire9, which has a number of other resellers such as Gymsim

Wire9 is also used by the ex-Callkey operation for their multi-ID SIMs which include cheap roaming in the USA; Callkey resellers include Easyroam, Geosim and Worldsim

They all seem to be gradually moving towards the multi-ID ones. I have one of these brands and it's fine when I've used it.

A big thanks redux for all that info and especially for taking the time to reply, really appreciated.



Raven

Raven

Ziggy_Stardust wrote: »

Its just that my daughter is going away for a month to Kenya and we need something reliable otherwise she will panic and not know what to do if she can't contact us - kids eh?

Hi Ziggy

Well the sims2go one will allow her to call you for 20p per minute and receive calls/texts from you for free. And it seems its 10p p/m for you to call her from a bt line (or like me 18p daytime,13p evening using ntl) or just use your inclusive minutes from your mobile (if you use one) in which case its free.


I'm going to go with it as they offer a reduced price when you buy two, so I can let my son use one which will mean he will still be contactable even when he's maybe in the hotel while we are on the beach.



Raven

Ziggy_Stardust

Raven wrote: »

Hi Ziggy

Well the sims2go one will allow her to call you for 20p per minute and receive calls/texts from you for free. And it seems its 10p p/m for you to call her from a bt line (or like me 18p daytime,13p evening using ntl) or just use your inclusive minutes from your mobile (if you use one) in which case its free.


I'm going to go with it as they offer a reduced price when you buy two, so I can let my son use one which will mean he will still be contactable even when he's maybe in the hotel while we are on the beach.



Raven

That's what I like, it all seems so simple. Other sims have connection charges and charges to receive calls and it all gets so complicated trying to work it all out. Do you know where your calls get sent through, is it the IOM or Estonia or the like?

Raven

Not sure where its going through but we'll be back mid July so will let you know how we get on with it.


Of course it worth remembering you daughter needs to be in an area which receives decent signal strength, so if out on safari it may be ropey (whichever product she uses)




Raven

magic57

I bought a uk2abroad sim for my sons trip to America so I'll let you know how he gets on with it.

He'll be using skype most of the time but I'd like to be able to keep in touch when he is on the move.

Raven

Ziggy


Ordered yesyerday, received today (via recorded post) and loaded up tonight - all good so far.


Brother has now also ordered a pair to take to Turkey, so there will be a few of us trying them out.





Raven