Roaming with T-Mobile Flext plan

Scary_

A little tip for anyone on a T-mobile Flext plan who is travelling abroad.

Phone calls and SMS texts from abroad aren't included in the monthly Flext allowance, but MMS (AKA picture messages) are. So before you go away check that your famjily/friends can recieve MMS messages (some may need it set up) and send only MMS messges. They can reply using either MMS or SMS, they're both free to recieve.

It's also a good tip to use in the UK - an SMS costs 10p but has a maximum of 160 characters. An MMS costs 20p but can contain more data. So if you want to send more than 320 characters.... send it via MMS

alnsv1000s

Its good advice you have given and totally correct.

lawbunny

Whilst this info is completely correct, I do feel I should point out to people one of the dangers about doing this.

MMS do not work in every country, or every network (whereas you can use sms pretty much anywhere): always check before you go if the network in the country you are travelling to supports mms, as if it does not, you will still get charged (allowance deducted) for sending the mms but your recipient will not actually recieve it.

Sid_Harper

Yup. Every few months this tip gets posted. Very useful...

Additionally, you may get charged to receive MMS messages with pictures, etc. abroad as data, since people will often reply to your MMS messages with MMSs unless you have made it clear to them to send you SMSs only which are always free to receive.

What fun eh?!

Another top-tip is if you have access to the web (not on the phone itself!), use my T-mobile to send normal text messages while you are abroad as those should come out of your allowance (since they do not involve a foreign network).

I recently took up with T-mobile the cost of roaming - I thought it was absurd that while, say, in Hong Kong, if I call a HK number, I have to pay the zone-5 roaming rate... and I was told that this is what the foreign networks charge T-mobile. I think this is nonsense... any opinions? Prior to the zoning system every country had different rates to call from the UK, call to the UK, and to call locally. Now it's one rate for calls you make based on the zone you are in... ridiculous!

Doublespresso

just to add that I was recently in Spain and used Web n Walk for data and got stung a massive £7.50/mb apparently data roaming is always £7.50/mb regardless of the plan and even in EU
BTW my bill came to more than £60 just for light use

Sid_Harper

Yes that's right about the data roaming... and it's very easy to rack up the megabytes especially if you're viewing normal web pages (versus ones specifically designed for mobiles); web pages have become so complex these days I am shocked at the byte-meter on my phone when I open pages (500k is not unusual for a webpage these days) and wonder how on earth Vodafone (I think) can say 120Mb a month on a data plan is plenty... that's 250 pages a month, and if you're going back and forth on a website it quickly adds up.

If your phone supports it, install the Opera Mini browser - this compresses/reformats the data on Opera's server before sending the page over to your phone - and best of all it's free...

Also, switch off any automatic email checking (on my Nokia you can tell it to automatically do this on the home network only) and set your client to download headers only so you choose which emails are fully downloaded... I think it's also less data intensive to access email via POP than it is using a web interface.

I just purchased my E51 to lower my data charges generally - it has wireless built in, like the N95, and free hotspots (legit ones!) are on the increase. Also many fancy hotels have free WIFI in their lobbies...