EE landline and EE sim only need to call Cyprus

Legacy_user

We will need to establish the cheapest way to communicate by phone to family member in Cyprus soon for three years. I've made a bit of progress:-

I have recently joined EE for broadband and home phone and it appears from my landline I can call a landline in Cyprus free (up to 59 mins). That being so, whichever provider provides the link FROM there, would I receive any pick-up charges?.

I also have an EE sim only contract mobile and now wish to establish what charges are involved to :-

a) phone their mobile in Cyprus also EE, and
b) receive calls from their mobile charges.

Being in Facebook, I'm aware of video calls and messenger and have used Viber,Hangouts etc. So we have most things covered. If you think I've missed something, then please tell me.

Timalay

How about Skype on your mobiles.

J_B

islandman wrote: »

We will need to establish the cheapest way to communicate by phone to family member in Cyprus soon for three years.

You don't actually say, but it seems that your family are going to live in CY for 3 years and you are staying in UK.

We have owned property in CY for nearly 20 years now and luckily times have moved on from the days that I used to call Mrs on her UK mobile and we ended up with a bill for about £90 for a week!!!
We have a 'holiday home' near Paphos, so don't have a landline and have a wireless internet system that is switched on for us, as and when we need it

Anyway, if family have a landline in CY and you have inclusive calls then that's the best way to go
They have EE mobiles which they will keep in CY? Let's hope that they are PAYG as they don't need to be paying for something they can't use economically.
The EE roaming rates are on the EE website ... somewhere.

I would guess that they will be getting CY mobile phones? CYTA/Voda is best in my experience - top up with €10 and you are good to go for 365 days (credit permitting)! Calls are reasonable and texts are all priced at 1c worldwide.
They don't really need to keep their UK mob as the main phones as they will need to call local numbers which would be expensive.

We have an account with https://www.localphone.com/ (I'm sure I could get a referral credit if I knew how!!! )
You can then assign a UK number to each of their CY mobiles, to call them with your inclusive minutes and just pay the extra 3ppm (?) to localphone for the privilege!

I also guess that they will be having broadband where they are, so can use all sorts of internet based phoning methods.
We use WhatsApp which seems to work well.

All the above is based on current figures - I believe that roaming charges are being abolished in the EU sometime, but we may not even be in the EU by then!!!

Epistle over

System

from other posts they are service personnel posted to RAF Akrotiri.

I would suggest that the best option is for the family member to speak to the service personnel when they get there to find out the cheapest/best option.

If they are going as a singlie then landline will be out as, unless things have changed, you can't get a landline installed in your room.

If married then not a lot can be done about landline/broadband until they get their MQ but as I said, the people already there are the best ones to give advice.

diamonds

EE roaming plans on 24 month contracts give EU calls out your allowances of mins/texts from mainland Europe. Incoming calls are free. Data is bought by bundle as needed roaming.

So if the family member is not on a 4G Xtra plan including roaming they need to be.

When this is done, you can call each other out your usual EE plan allowances.


Get them to call EE for a change to a 4GExtra plan with roaming.


http://explore.ee.co.uk/4gee-extra-plans-roaming-benefits

J_B

!!!!!! wrote: »

from other posts they are service personnel posted to RAF Akrotiri.

Hmm, I know nothing about the 'bubble' that surrounds these folks.

diamonds wrote: »

When this is done, you can call each other out your usual EE plan allowances.

But, what if they need to call local numbers?

diamonds

J_B wrote: »

Hmm, I know nothing about the 'bubble' that surrounds these folks.



But, what if they need to call local numbers?

Get a local sim, dual sim Windows Phone currently under £30 at Argos for local contacts to contact you. Calling any EU country when outside the UK with 4G Extra plans comes out your allowance.

System

Timalay wrote: »

How about Skype on your mobiles.

Timalay, although I have a smart phone, still in the box because I couldn't get on with it, I only have a very small data allowance on my sim only package, so I have never used the net via phone in case I run over.

JB, whoops overlooked that, yes she is military and we will be in uk. Ref LL, I will be asking them tonight if it is their intention to have a LL. Theirs are not PAYG but when she was deployed to Middle East, had her contract put on hold and had a sim out there, I'd forgotten that, so will need to ask her/their intentions. I will be copying your post to them. As for whatsapp, isn't that for iphone? he has one and somehow made it available on hers, ee. They will be here over Christmas, so we will have to talk then. Now I'll read the other posts, thanks.

Yes !!!!!!,you are right. There will be the family (3) and she although the deployment was only made know on Friday, she has been in touch with many out there that she knows and is collating info as we speak.

Diamonds, thanks.

Going to copy all of this and forward, thanks.

J_B

islandman wrote: »

Timalay, although I have a smart phone, still in the box because I couldn't get on with it, I only have a very small data allowance on my sim only package, so I have never used the net via phone in case I run over.

I guess that you have wi-fi at home?
You can turn data off on any smart phone and just use your home wi-fi (when in range)

islandman wrote: »

As for whatsapp, isn't that for iphone?

Nope - normal people are allowed to use it too

You can have it on your smartphone (69p to buy IIRC) and then use it with wi-fi to phone and message (especially good for photo messages as it's included)

System

Progress made last night. My son- in- law read your posts, listened to my concerns and said they would definitely be having a landline installed. This means we will have easy access. There would be a charge for them to phone here, unsure if that is a connection or per min, but we established that whenever they ring, we will phone straight back.

Either that or they would message,Skype or whatever, to tell me it's ok for us to ring. As for my reluctance to use my smart phone, it seems there are two options. I either use it full time and ask my provider to increase my data allowance, currently 100 MB but don't know what that would equate to in daily usage, or, continue with old mobile for everyday use, but have a data only sim for the smart phone, and get just Skype and messenger and whatsapp on it just to use with them. I appreciate that's two phones to carry, but with heart spray ( GTN) glasses, bus pass etc, what's one more thing? .

They will cancel their mobile contract and pay any penalty clause, and because both are unlocked, will get a CYTA PAYG SIM out there.

Does this sound as if it is covered now? Thanks for feedback.

PS. I've been having a think about one aspect of this. If I buy a sim data only for the smart phone, I'm wondering about the phone number? will I have to have a new one or carry my existing one over, somehow?. It has occurred to me that could there be clashes when I was being messaged,skyped or whatsapped with the installations on my ipad or laptop?.

J_B

islandman wrote: »

As for my reluctance to use my smart phone, it seems there are two options. I either use it full time and ask my provider to increase my data allowance, currently 100 MB

Option 3 = turn off data on the phone and use it on wifi, this can be done in settings quite easily on a 'minute by minute' basis if you really want to.
I guess you could get an on-screen app to do this perhaps?
Remember they can text you from CYTA PAYG for 1c
If you had that Localphone* a/c I mentioned above you could call them back from your mobile using your inclusive minutes for 3ppm (?)
* Once set up, it works like a PAYG phone, you load it with credit and it uses it up as you go, no time limits (I don't think!)