Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

Tree_sar

GOSIM Warning - and no doubt similar phone cards all operated by |||Ekit.com
We were recently caught out by the wording on the Gosim pages. You can receive calls for free on a UK mobile number +44. What is not made clear is that this is not a standard mobile number (although it looks like one) so it is not included in your free minutes. We have just had a bill of almost £1000.00 for calling our daughter (lots) as she is traveling round the world. Now don't get me wrong the concept of the number is very good however this MASSIVE FACT that you have to pay £0.31 minute to call from uk is tucked away on one page. The bottom line is either the caller or the receiver has to pick up the call charges and that is hard to find on all the literature
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AdamMuffins

Not sure if this has been covered, as some of the messages are quite dated and there's nigh 900 of them;
I'm looking to go on a Euro trip this Summer, and whilst I won't want to be in constant with my family in England, it'd be nice to be able to contact them without having to methodically count the minutes.
I've seen options of buying local SIM cards, but I'm going to be going to about 23 different cities in the space of 30 days, spanning over a dozen countries, so 'local' isn't really applicable to my situation.
Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what I could do? I'm currently with Orange (EE) but their travel bundle isn't at all appealing (cost wise)
Thanks in advance for your help

mrcamp

It has been covered here so many times. There are several international sim out there. For me, I have just recently purchased piranha. I also have one from Ekit Mobile.

http://piranha-mobile.com/

AdamMuffins wrote: »

Not sure if this has been covered, as some of the messages are quite dated and there's nigh 900 of them;
I'm looking to go on a Euro trip this Summer, and whilst I won't want to be in constant with my family in England, it'd be nice to be able to contact them without having to methodically count the minutes.
I've seen options of buying local SIM cards, but I'm going to be going to about 23 different cities in the space of 30 days, spanning over a dozen countries, so 'local' isn't really applicable to my situation.
Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what I could do? I'm currently with Orange (EE) but their travel bundle isn't at all appealing (cost wise)
Thanks in advance for your help

kevin14433

I have a phone and I want to know that is this phone will work in Canada as my girlfriend bought it in Canada. This phone was the CDMA one and now I unblocked it from CDMA to GSM. Is this phone will accept those sim cards that are use in Canada's phone.
Please help me

Regards,
Kevin

GKeeper

scouseman wrote: »

I am going to to China and Thailand for a couple of weeks at the end of the month and have been looking for a suitable sim card to take with me. I have narrowed my selection down to simstogo.co.uk & worldsim.com . I am having trouble deciding on which company to go for as they are both reasonably similar in cost. Does anybody have any experience with either of these company's or any other suggestions would be most appreciated.
Cheers
scouseman

Hi you should check out the Tree sar post below before you choose any of the two sim mentioned as these use same high termination rate numbers, i personally use the piranha mobile sim which uses low termination rate numbers and comes within UK bundled mins.

Cheers and good luck GKeeper.

mrcamp

What kind of phone is it, name, model, etc. Is is CDMA/GSM? What do you mean by "unblocked it from CDMA to GSM"?

kevin14433 wrote: »

I have a phone and I want to know that is this phone will work in Canada as my girlfriend bought it in Canada. This phone was the CDMA one and now I unblocked it from CDMA to GSM. Is this phone will accept those sim cards that are use in Canada's phone.
Please help me

Regards,
Kevin

redux

GKeeper wrote: »

Hi you should check out the Tree sar post below before you choose any of the two sim mentioned as these use same high termination rate numbers, i personally use the piranha mobile sim which uses low termination rate numbers and comes within UK bundled mins.

Cheers and good luck GKeeper.

They aren't particularly high termination rate numbers. They just happen to be excluded by some but included by other UK networks

There are providers which charge exactly the same rates to a Piranha number as to Isle of Man, Jersey, Lyca, Truphone, etc, which is only slightly more than charged to the main networks

GKeeper

redux wrote: »

They aren't particularly high termination rate numbers. They just happen to be excluded by some but included by other UK networks

There are providers which charge exactly the same rates to a Piranha number as to Isle of Man, Jersey, Lyca, Truphone, etc, which is only slightly more than charged to the main networks

I personally have not come across any major network in the UK that allows you to use your bundled minutes (and I have called them all, looking for best deal) to call any IOM or Jersey numbers posing as a +44 UK numbers, this is due to the fact that they all use high termination rate numbers, which allows free roaming, you must understand nothing is truly free, someone always pays. If you read the article on the piranha mobile site "Free roaming do not be fooled" it explains how free roaming companies make their money, there are also many discussion threads on this subject at prepaidGSM forum. I am sure if this info had been available Tree Sar would not have been stung for £1,000.
Most people just want to buy a Sim, make and receive calls, all for the best possible price and not be conned into believing they are buying a Sim with a proper UK number until it is too late, in the case of Tar Sar.

redux

GKeeper wrote: »

I personally have not come across any major network in the UK that allows you to use your bundled minutes (and I have called them all, looking for best deal) to call any IOM or Jersey numbers posing as a +44 UK numbers, this is due to the fact that they all use high termination rate numbers, which allows free roaming, you must understand nothing is truly free, someone always pays. If you read the article on the piranha mobile site "Free roaming do not be fooled" it explains how free roaming companies make their money, there are also many discussion threads on this subject at prepaidGSM forum. I am sure if this info had been available Tree Sar would not have been stung for £1,000.
Most people just want to buy a Sim, make and receive calls, all for the best possible price and not be conned into believing they are buying a Sim with a proper UK number until it is too late, in the case of Tar Sar .

Isle of Man and Jersey and various other non main UK network prefixes such as Lyca Swiftnet and Truphone are inclusive on some networks, as I already said yesterday and have said in the past.

I have read the article there, and frankly I'm a bit surprised how outspoken the proprietor has chosen to be.

But this forum exists to help us inform each other about a range of products rather than support potentially contentious words they may happen to use about each other.

Some of the prefixes in question do indeed cost the same to call as UK main networks, from providers such as BT charging FM1 and FM6 rates (same as to O2 and Three), while Piranha's prefix is also slightly higher from some providers, charged by other third parties at the same rate as those other brands it criticises.

If a provider like Localphone can sell calls to these at 8 pence a minute + vat, and retail customers of these island providers can call each other at retail rates of 9 or 12 pence a minute, then perhaps those termination rates aren't quite so wildly high after all

But I seem to be repeating myself.

GKeeper

I agree we are here to help each other and not the networks.

unfortunately I cannot agree with your maths, I have just called one of these IOM numbers (free roaming Sim) that I was using before I changed and it certainly did not come within my EE bundled minutes, the fact is I was charged for making an international call:

09/12/2012 18:30:03 07872XXXXX FM1 Voice Call to Intl Mobile
10 Seconds £0.70

Could you please inform me which Major networks allow IOM or Jersey numbers to be called within bundle. I know the roaming Sim I use now does but that's a true UK number, I would be happy to copy and paste the call.

After all we are here to help people save money not waste it.:)