Mobile Phone & Irish Border

MariborKev

Apologies if this is in the wrong section, mods please move it if necessary.

I live in Northern Ireland and a few miles from the border with the Republic.

I spend a good deal of time in the Republic and therefore am constantly hit with roaming costs. Indeed even at times when I am at home my phone can move onto a roaming network

I currently have two phones, a Motorola V545 and V3 both on Orange, acquired via Cashback deals with OneStopPhoneShop.

However I am trying to cut my bills with regards the roaming costs and was wondering if the assembled users of this forum have any ideas.

Most of my roaming calls are made when I am in the ROI to Northern Ireland or UK numbers

The Simplyfone idea appears to be dead in the water as my contracts with Orange don't expiry for at least 6 months. Are there any other providers like this which Orange allow inclusive minutes to be used with, or indeed providers with discount rates which I could utilise when in the ROI.

The other option is to purchase a SIM for the ROI network. However neither of the phones I currently have can handle dual sims so this would mean swapping sims etc which is a bit awkward.

Anyone any ideas?

gizmoleeds

I saw this on Watchdog once - unfortunately there is very little you can do as phone signals just don't recognise artificial borders.

I suggest the ROI sim idea would be the best option, although you could see if there is a "choose network" option in your phone's menu - it could be that your phone is simply going to the best signal which will accept it, and so is defaulting to a strong Irish signal even though a (weaker) Orange signal is still receivable.

seaniboy

Three.ie charge 0.49c to roam between Northern & ROI


Voice call :
to other countries€1.49c
per minute49c
per minute
Voice call :
to Ireland/other same-band countries*49c
per minute49c
per minute
Text messages35cFree
Video calls€1.50c
per minute€1.50c
per minute


*Countries that feature in this band are: Guernsey, Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey, United Kingdom

DesG

I find that if I am around the border area, manually selecting my uk network so that it doesn't roam normally gives me pretty good coverage.

Obviously if you are in areas with no uk coverage, you won't make or receive any calls, but I can put up with that

You mentioned the simplyfone thing, that won't work even if you get an o2 contract, as when you have roamed onto the Southern networks, the call to simplyfone will be classed as an international mobile call, and cost you as such.

I did once see a southern mobile contract that could roam in the north with no incoming call roaming charges, but I can't remember now, maybe searching the Northern Ireland board could drag up my old post.

Cheers, Des.

gizmoleeds

o2 have an Ireland bolt-on:

http://www.o2.co.uk/personal/abroad/irelandbolton/0,,100,00.html

In the literature from my free o2 sim which arived this morning it says you get "our standard UK rates when you're in the Republic of Ireland" but the link says go to:

http://www.o2.co.uk/productsservices/boltons/online

Which doesn't mention it.

If they could give you standard rates in ROI though then this would be a very good deal (although the bolt on may cost you).