Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

Boohoo

I did post a thread in the overseas travel bit.
i wanted to know what is the best/cheapest option of calling the uk from Malta. I need to keep upto date with a relative who will be having an major operation while i am in Malta. I will call the uk everyday for about 15mins. I wont have a smartphone and i am on Icard mobile now. Most networks cost 28 ppm and i thought about getting a local sim but don't know what one i should get.
Any help would be great.

redux

The two Malta networks are Go and Vodafone. They don't have attractive international rates - more than €0.50 a minute, but I've found something which could work around that if you get Vodafone.

If you just stick with the UK SIM, you could try to arrange that people call you, for 7 pence a minute incoming (they pay their normal rate to call you even though you are abroad).

I'd suggest you might also sign up with another provider which has a callback service. This sets up two calls, one incoming to you, and one out to your destination, and connects the calls together.

So you pay 7 pence a minute on your SIM, and the callback firm charges you the sum of the two call legs, your mobile plus a landline or mobile. Rates can be from under half a penny to landlines, and from about 2 to 4 pence a minute upwards for UK mobiles. So it would come to less than the network 28 p/min for dialling outgoing roaming calls.

But that would still gradually add up for calls lasting 15 to 30 minutes, and the interesting thing I saw at Vodafone Malta is an option to have 30 cents a call up to an hour long to Vodafone mobiles and landlines

https://www.vodafone.com.mt/talkmoreplan

So use that with something like a calling card which has access via a local landline number

I'm going to suggest set up an account with Localphone, which as well as calling card access allows you to set up a handful of direct local numbers diverted to your favourite numbers.

So you'd pay Vodafone Malta the 30 cents to call a local landline for up to an hour, and Localphone for diverting the call.

Their rates to UK landlines are 0.4 pence a minute to landlines, and [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] now 1.9 pence a minute to UK mobiles, both rates plus VAT.

Don't worry about having too much credit, as they have useful services you can still use when you get home, including making VoIP calls, or callback as described above, which comes in useful from time to time.

If you sign up for an account and don't add credit straight away, they might send you an message 3 or 4 days later reminding you to make a trial call, and offer you a bonus £1 if you add £1 [+ VAT]. That £2 would buy 500 UK landline minutes at 0.4p, and the minimum further top-up is £1 + vat with some payment options

Make sure to keep an eye on the time, and if you approach an hour, hang up and call again, or you'd presumably incur a per minute rate to Vodafone after that.

Bijon

My father's job require a lot of moving from country to country. Mostly he would only stay a week to two in one place. I had been doing the Skype calls but i am not always available to internet, so sometimes it is a problem, but yes i will just try the Jajah. Hope it works.

Boohoo

Thank you redux for the reply.

I will look into that solution.

Stephen7372

Anyone tried togglemobile

bertietheblue

Hi all

I want to work month-on-month-off from a mobile office, in France, but I don't want UK clients (and indeed friends and family) to incur the cost of calling a French SIM. On the other hand, I need a French SIM for data roaming/tethering (I was thinking Free Mobile - but is their deal too good to be true (see my next post/question)?). Is there a VoIP or other solution (currently clients ring a VoIP landline number which redirects to my mobile but my provider tells me this only works if UK mobile no.)

Thanks for any advice
Bertie

bertietheblue

Can anybody shed any light on this too-good-to-be-true sounding deal from France's Free Mobile - 20 euros per month, PAYG, 3GB and no overage charges, tethering allowed, unlimited calls, no need for a French bank account, 4 million + free wi-fi hotspots in the homes of people in Free Mobile's Freebox community.

Surely, I'm missing something, but the only thing I can find on an internet search is that since they are a new provider (from January 2012), their coverage (around 40%) is nowhere near as good as the established providers (would be good to have a coverage map, but I can't locate). On the other hand, they've taken on over 5 million subscribers (8% of the market) in their first year of activity, so the French must think they're onto a good thing, I suppose.

Anybody know anything about them?

Thanks
Bertie

redux

bertietheblue wrote: »

Hi all

I want to work month-on-month-off from a mobile office, in France, but I don't want UK clients (and indeed friends and family) to incur the cost of calling a French SIM. On the other hand, I need a French SIM for data roaming/tethering (I was thinking Free Mobile - but is their deal too good to be true (see my next post/question)?). Is there a VoIP or other solution (currently clients ring a VoIP landline number which redirects to my mobile but my provider tells me this only works if UK mobile no.)

Thanks for any advice
Bertie

You might look at Toggle Mobile mentioned in the post above, for which I have a SIM but haven't used it yet.

You can log in and add a country identity before travelling there, and that adds a local mobile number, and then gives outgoing rates from 3 pence a minute. Free incoming calls anyway across most of Europe.

The local number expires after 30 days, or there is an option to add it permanently for £5 a year, which I imagine would interest you.

Calls can come in on any of the local number IDs added, including the UK one. For UK it is a Lyca prefix though, which T-mobile seems to have sanctions against and exclude from minute bundles, so to help some people you might choose to continue having a VoIP based landline number forwarded, and probably to the French number might be a slightly cheaper tariff (other providers can do this if your current one doesn't).

You might get your most frequent family and regular business caller(s) Toggle SIM(s) as well, then you'd be calling each other for 3 pence a minute

Data on that is 15 pence a megabyte, so ok for occasional browsing, but if you want more including tethering I think you're going to have to investigate data bundle options on French SIM cards.

For your next post, I'd heard of Free and that it's becoming popular, but don't know a lot about it. There is also B&You as another possibly interesting fairly new brand

https://www.b-and-you.fr/

bertietheblue

redux wrote: »

Yto help some people you might choose to continue having a VoIP based landline number forwarded, and probably to the French number might be a slightly cheaper tariff (other providers can do this if your current one doesn't).

Any suggestions? I'm currently with Soho66.



Data on that is 15 pence a megabyte, so ok for occasional browsing, but if you want more including tethering I think you're going to have to investigate data bundle options on French SIM cards.

I was thinking of a EuropaSIM dongle.
http://www.europasim.com/en_GB

Thanks for the tips, Redux. I rang Toggle and they said I can keep my UK mobile number if I go to France so as far as everyone in the UK is aware, when they make or receive calls, I'll be in the UK (change in ringtone excepted). A bit confusing because they also said that if I ring someone in France they will also see my UK mobile number, but they can ring back on my French number if I've given it to them and won't incur international call charges. To be honest, I'm not sure if all that is correct - it doesn't inspire you with much confidence when the Toggle operator's English is a bit limited.

redux

bertietheblue wrote: »

Thanks for the tips, Redux. I rang Toggle and they said I can keep my UK mobile number if I go to France so as far as everyone in the UK is aware, when they make or receive calls, I'll be in the UK (change in ringtone excepted). A bit confusing because they also said that if I ring someone in France they will also see my UK mobile number, but they can ring back on my French number if I've given it to them and won't incur international call charges. To be honest, I'm not sure if all that is correct - it doesn't inspire you with much confidence when the Toggle operator's English is a bit limited.

I think that's correct. I've seen on another forum a reference to a similar message back from their CS that so far that SIM only supports sending the UK number as caller ID, even when it's in another country and registered under the other country ID. And that was to a person who'd done a couple of test calls and then enquired.

French (or any) callers can reach the French (or UK) numbers, and all numbers should be reachable to someone who has several.

For example on that other forum a German person is saying their firm has people based in and travelling across France and Germany, and they would consider getting some of these for the people who make the most calls

Europasim certainly looks interesting for people who have occasional use, not always in the same country. But maybe when you are in France most of the time, and using data more than 2 or 3 days, you'd find a monthly French SIM bundle a better deal.

VoIP providers for reaching a French mobile number, with an allocated UK landline number? Well, of course there are loads to choose from. The Dellmont VoIP brands have decent rates for the calls, but don't always have incoming numbers available. At the moment I quite like Localphone and it's range of services, decent tariffs (2.9p France mobiles, 4.8 p UK main network mobiles, 9.8p Lyca mobiles, hence my suggestion to divert to the French number on the Toggle SIM), incoming number, and callthrough and callback options which may be useful as well from time to time.