Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

sam10

redux wrote: »

You don't have to organise a bundle for calls. It's an option, not compulsory, and for low expected use I wouldn't bother

So the question is how much data you would use. It is possible to get by on a few tens of kilobytes a day, but intensive use would seem to indicate bundles, especially if the maps application is Google Maps

However, you might consider taking two phones and putting a local SIM with a decent data bundle in your normal phone, ok as long as it's network unlocked, and just have a basic one for receiving calls and text messages on your UK number.

Thanks Redux - good thinking.
I think, judging by my data use at home, and how we are unlikely to spend too much time in towns where was can find wifi, a local SIM might be a good option. Can I buy one here in the UK before I go... any suggestions for where to buy? Thank you!

NFH

sam10 wrote: »

Thanks Redux - good thinking.
I think, judging by my data use at home, and how we are unlikely to spend too much time in towns where was can find wifi, a local SIM might be a good option. Can I buy one here in the UK before I go... any suggestions for where to buy? Thank you!

For a French SIM card, see this thread, particularly post 17. For an Italian SIM card, go to the Prepaid GSM forum; the guy who runs it is Italian so you'll receive particularly good advice for Italy.

mutley74

NFH wrote: »

If you don't need data, then that changes things. Get a Toggle Mobile SIM card. You will have a normal UK mobile number on which you can receive calls for free in Singapore and for 19p/min in Thailand.

not expecting incoming calls (have email and text) but was mainly for emergency and odd call home if we cant get wifi. Toggle is expensive for calls back to UK, otherwise it looked good.

NFH

mutley74 wrote: »

not expecting incoming calls (have email and text) but was mainly for emergency and odd call home if we cant get wifi. Toggle is expensive for calls back to UK, otherwise it looked good.

When roaming, it is usually much more expensive to make outgoing calls back to the UK than to receive incoming calls from the UK. Therefore always operate on a callback basis whereby you briefly dial a friend's UK mobile number and give them a missed call; they then call you back using their inclusive minutes, costing you nothing or relatively little.

tipco

My first post so excuse my ignorance but I seem to have suffered from an international sim with an Isle of Man number being called by my son while I was away in Europe. He had bundled minutes but was then charged a huge amount for calling an Isle of Man number. Very irritating! Reading these threads it seem very common but can anyone tell me why? It seems to me that the whole telecoms business suffers from what someone described a "smoke and mirrors marketing"

NFH

tipco wrote: »

My first post so excuse my ignorance but I seem to have suffered from an international sim with an Isle of Man number being called by my son while I was away in Europe. He had bundled minutes but was then charged a huge amount for calling an Isle of Man number.

If, as you suggest, the phone from which the call was made was in another European country at the time of the call, then of course you will pay roaming charges and the call will not come out of your inclusive minutes.

Remember that the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are neither in the UK nor in the EU or EEA, so the EU roaming regulations don't apply to roaming calls made to these destinations. The regulations apply only to EEA destinations.

tipco

My question was obviously not clear. The phone making the call was in england and my sim provider says the call back number is a uk number which technically it is because the channel islands are in the uk but why do providers use IOM and Channel Island numbers and not an english number?

portlandboy

My son is working in Florida for a year from next February. Does anyone know the cheapest option for using a mobile for US-US calls/texts as well as US-UK calls/texts?
Would it pay to buy a US SIM for US-US (which would be the majority of his usage while there) and have a separate "local" SIM for US-UK use?
Thanks

mrcamp

I believe it has been discussed in this thread already. Lycamobile is one of the better options now, especially with calls back to the UK. He can also get a free sim mailed to a US address. http://www.lycamobile.us/en/

portlandboy wrote: »

My son is working in Florida for a year from next February. Does anyone know the cheapest option for using a mobile for US-US calls/texts as well as US-UK calls/texts?
Would it pay to buy a US SIM for US-US (which would be the majority of his usage while there) and have a separate "local" SIM for US-UK use?
Thanks

jnm21

redux wrote: »

Not true.

It's not a foreign number in any case, as Lyca is based in the UK

But you're not doing exactly what is descibed in that post, as you're moving a number in the other direction.

If you port your number to giffgaff, then giffgaff will treat it as a giffgaff number.

Others may still treat it as a Lyca number though.

If someone ported a giffgaff or O2 number to Lyca, I believe it would be treated by other non-O2 networks as still an O2 number.

The principle seems to be that only the number originating network and the network ported to actually know the port details, and otheres will still count it as the original

I haven't tested this myself, but base it on other posts I've read here.

So for example it seems worthwhile to consider porting an O2 number to Toggle, as both Toggle and O2 will treat it the same, and O2 includes Lyca numbers in bundles, whereas those such as T-mobile that sanction Lyca numbers would then include the O2 number.

Given that wholesale rates for calling UK mobile numbers now start from about a penny a minute, that might come in handy.

Test it before getting carried away though.

My bad - remembered the example wrongly: see here (makes sense now - number is lyca, which some networks treat as foreign).

Hmm, so can one port a true UK number to lyca?

Interesting - I still think OFFCOM should be ashamed of the farce that is a confusion about what numbers are UK & what are non-UK.