Using mobile phone abroad for a year

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pramsay13
pramsay13 Posts: 1,964 Forumite
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in Mobiles
Hoping for some bright ideas.
I am going to be living in Africa for 1 year but I'm hoping to still be contactable by phone call or text messages even if only when I'm on broadband.
I'm with O2 and was hoping to use TuGo but they have stopped it.
I see that Three do an equivalent service but it says can only be used in the UK.

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  • Jon_01
    Jon_01 Posts: 5,872 Forumite
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    No network will supply you with a service outside the UK for a year. Roaming on UK contacts and PAYG is for visits, not for long stay.
    After between 2 to 3 months you'll get cut off.

    Best you can do is get a local sim and use Whatsapp or something similar.
  • System
    System Posts: 178,102 Community Admin
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    edited 18 April 2018 at 3:28PM
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    Jon_01 wrote: »
    No network will supply you with a service outside the UK for a year. Roaming on UK contacts and PAYG is for visits, not for long stay.
    After between 2 to 3 months you'll get cut off.

    Best you can do is get a local sim and use Whatsapp or something similar.

    Freedompop's Android app works over wifi and will give you a UK (Three) mobile number.
  • d123
    d123 Posts: 8,628 Forumite
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    Heng_Leng wrote: »
    Freedompop's Android app works over wifi and will give you a UK (Three) mobile number.

    There is an iOS app as well.
    ====
  • eDicky
    eDicky Posts: 6,588 Forumite
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    Jon_01 wrote: »
    No network will supply you with a service outside the UK for a year. Roaming on UK contacts and PAYG is for visits, not for long stay.
    After between 2 to 3 months you'll get cut off.
    Untrue, no network will cut your service as long as the bill is being paid or PAYG hasn't expired because of lack of activity. Only services such as Three's 'Feel at Home' is restricted to periods beyond which normal roaming charges begin.

    My solution outside Europe is to use a dual (or tri) SIM phone with UK SIM in one slot and local SIM in the other. Receiving text messages on the UK SIM is always free. Instead of answering calls I reject them and call back using the other SIM or by Viber, WhatsApp, Skype etc, using data on the local SIM or WiFi. No roaming charges ever appear on my bill.
    Evolution, not revolution
  • ballyblack
    ballyblack Posts: 5,069 Forumite
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    edited 18 April 2018 at 7:37PM
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    Also Tesco Mobile fair use policy for its Home from Home;


    Usage shall be limited to periodic travelling and to usage that follows reasonable consumer holiday and travel patterns. It is available for customers who are normally resident in the UK. We will monitor your HFH Usage and location over a rolling 4 month period. Where you are found to be in one our HFH destinations and HFH Usage exceeds 2 months during this monitoring period (in comparison to being in the UK or elsewhere), you will have exceeded our fair usage policy. You will be informed that you have exceeded the fair usage policy by text message and from the receipt of this message, you will have two weeks to reduce your HFH Usage


    .
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