mobile phone(s) abroad?

[mdrifter]

The first mate needs regular communication with family - text is not enough!
We may be in France for 6 months...so, what is the most economic way to go?
Buy a mobile in UK and a simcard in France for pay as you go? Buy both in France and get to grips with the technical details in French... Suggestions, please.

And if we continue southwards...another in Spain, etc..?

Apologies if this has already been covered - missed it!

 

[Mr Cassandra]

This should be a good thread ,it has cost me fortune in call charges ,if i use my british phone in Greece, even local, they charge me to Britain then back to Greece , if someone in britain call from Bt they still charge me for incoming calls ,wish I knew the answer, and I am about to find out Bob t

Bob T

 

[Guest]

Have hear that you can get a contract with a local net using most GSM phones and therefore pay local charges for you calls - Sorry don't know how to do it though! Still leaves the calls to mum, though dosn't a sat phone bill the caller? could be worth the unit cost if she chatters as long as mine! - Will watch with interest for those of you who are already doing it.

Roly, Voya Con Dios, Glasson, Lancaster

 

[JMM]

Suggest you check out a very informative article on this subject, PBO 416, Aug 2001, p. 99 by Colin Jones. This should give you some useful ideas.

JMM.

Jon M.

 

[colin_jones]

Your best bet is probably a Mobicarte - a sort of pay as you go. but a bit better. You need a sim card from a recognised mobfone shop, or good electrical shop. It costs about £20 to set up, but gives a bit of air time. If you are impatient, carphone Warehouse now sells overseas sim cards. Bought here, but registered when you get to France. You can give your boat and entry port as a registration address. Check that your mobfone is compatible with the network. It should be. You will then pay between 20p - 60p a minute,depending on network etc

Another way is to have ( from La Poste) a card allowing you to nominate a specific country and get good rates froma public telephone. This is cheaper than a mobfone. I think that there is some info abt this in the current PBO

Above is a quick answer. There is a bit more to tell. When you get specific, mail me if you need any more help, or would like me to give you a French language crib sheet of tech terms involved in purchase.

 

[LORDNELSON]

The problem about using a call box is that you can find yourself wandering around a strange foreign port in the evening looking for one - and it is at such times that all the locals have decided to dissapear! It has happend to me in Holland in two or three places. However we always carry a local card because it is usually cheaper than using our mobile and useful for local calls too

 

[mdrifter]

Much food for thought in replies so far. Yes, we had/have a vodaphone deal for umpteen free text messages per month and free voice in evenings and weekends; could text for free from France but were hit for 25p for every incoming text! Soon mounted up, + odd local call exorbitant - and that was in addition to monthly charge of c.£13 - advertised in RYA mag and seized upon by first mate. I favour the postcard method of communication...Sat phone is out unless proven cost effective...Will try to get hold of PBO article - surely more info yet to come, please...

 

[bryantee]

rtboss sent you a pm.re greece

 

[LadyInBed]

Re: Mobicarte

I assume your phone has to be deregulated to use this option?

 

[colin_jones]

Re: Mobicarte

I am not sure what you man by deregulated. If you mean that you need to ask your service provider to lift your call bar ie grant you a 'roaming ticket', I think not. You are not being billed by them. You have a new sim card which simply slots into your mobfone and gives you a French (Spanish etc) telephone number. The rate per min is then much less because your calls do not pass via UK and you do not pay the expensive off-shore half of any incoming calls. That alone will surprise you when you count how many people who used to ring you "for a bit of a chat" then seem to go awol.

If you plan to use email etc, be sure that your ISP has local access numbers in your target country and - surprisingly - check that your PC will actually talk with your fone and network. not all do!!

If you want to keep your number for a second year, you have to make a call within 6 months. I gave my fone to a mate going on a booze cruise and he even rang his own french fone with it and got me a text message (FOC) telling me how much credit I have in ready for next season --- which will be 5 months in S Brittany.

Anybody else going that way?

 

[billskip]

Hi Bob..In Greece I bought the cheapest pagomofo from OTE....must keep in credit..min £5pa..can receive if no credit for 1yr...only pay outgoing..trouble is you get greek fonenumber..but is that a problem?..all People I know buy a mofo and get sims for the country their in..ok so you think its going to get complicated..not realy..its amazing how time flys..thought I would only be in Greece one season..been 6yrs now.Get a pagomofo How are you+fam?

Bill

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Sorry. mdrifter if it seems that i have Hi jacked your thread. Have had very good information, thank go to Bryantee .Bill I am going to Aigena 9 th Feb to do some jobs taking one of the girls to help, I have to put reefing lines to the cockpit clean the hull with Oxalic acid preper for Anti fouling might even do one coat ?and leave till nerer puting her back in to do the other .Lots of information given on this board will be put into practice. Unless I/bodyguard daughter, get stuck in a taverner,
see you soon Bob t

Bob T

 

[david_bagshaw]

As most suggest the cheapest is to buy a pre pay sim & put in your own hand set. Their real benefit is for incoming calls.

unfortunately the pre pay in NL, nor Dk in 2000, doesent allow data connections so I still have to dial england for data. dont know about france

I agree roaming costs are outrageous relitave to the real cost incurred to the 2 systems.

I have also found E fax www.efax.com to be usefull as faxes can be sent to you for collection at your convenience, V useful for contact for those of your pals without a computer, but with a fax mc.


Did you say you were on voda as they do an a roaming tarrif that is an extra 2.50 per month that reducec the costs to about 60 p per min local or back to england.


Wait for oftel to get their teeth into them all.......... oh yeh



David
www.yachtman.co.uk

 

[LadyInBed]

Re: Deregulated

I will explain what I mean by example. I got a new PAYG phone and tried the sim card in it from my old phone (different network). The new phone would not accept the sim card. I asked in a shop what had to be done to allow sim cards from other ‘providers’ to be used and they told me that the phone needed to be ‘deregulated’ (I'm fairly sure that was the term that was used).

 

[Guest]

Re: Deregulated

The air time suppliers now stick a little bit of code in every handset they supply that interigates a sim when inserted into it.
So it goes:
Hello are you BT sim
No I'm an orange sim
Well bugger off I'm not talking to you.
You can have your phone unlocked for around £30 a time, or you can buy the cables and app and do it yourself and for all your mates.

The Nokia bundle of data cables is £35 the software is free
Motorola is more expensive with their re flashing solution coming in at £90 ish.

I remember the hype around having sim cards in phones when they were first launched. About being able to use your mates handsets but on your account blah, blah.
It's just another way of ripping us all off

Tim Eades
http://www.btinternet.com/~tim.eades/

 

[colin_jones]

Re: Deregulated

Tim E hits thenail on the head. Last Summer, we met a number of people who had gone for the cheapest option mobfone, inavariably a PAYG model and contract, only to find that its innards were only compatible with a particular network in a particular country .. usually UK, but we met a Dane with a similar problem. Economically, it makes sense to the manufacturer, but it baffles the purchaser.

Even sadder was the number of crews itching to play email from abroad, but finding that their PC would not talk to the mobfone.

There was no problem with a 'goodish' phone accepting a new simcard in France. Both the Nokia 5210 and 6210 worked fine. The French simcard also worked well in the Nokia Phonecard 2, which just slots into the PCMIA slot.

This year, I hope to put a second Fr simcard into this device, (which I use every day for work) to save having to switch the sim from the normal mobfone. At abt £20 including some airtime, it is not a bad bargain if you spend more than a couple of weeks out of the country

 

[PeterGibbs]

Re: mobile phone(s) - why?

However you configure your mobile and fiddle with the sim card, you have a problem - it costs, plenty, especially in the hands of a lady!

Until prices come down from high orbit, I modestly suggest a simple solution - don't use the mobile. Buy a card and phone home from a box. In France you will find the authorities have sited the number of the box high on the info board facing you: pass this number and have home call you back on a cheapie UK overseas service at 3p per minute.

Ah blessed relief!

No other country I know of in Europe is so considerate as to allow return calls to public boxes! Long may it remain so in France! So keep it to yourself!

PWG

 

[mdrifter]

If anybody reads this:

Latest info I've managed to get suggests that you get your mobile "unlocked" so that it can use any sim card from any network. Apparently this "unlocking" or "de-regulation" is barred by one's contract but can be done by a.n.other on your behalf - might cost from £10 - £35! You can also purchase a replacement back for your mobile which allows two sim cards to be insertes and used alternately every time you switch on, or something like that. Otherwise you are locked into your "orange", "bt", or whatever network and have to pay their charges. So when you hop over to France you then buy a "French sim card" pay-as-you-go. Any other updates out there, please...?

 

[ranjana]

The first mate needs regular communication with family - text is not enough!
We may be in France for 6 months...so, what is the most economic way to go?
Buy a mobile in UK and a simcard in France for pay as you go? Buy both in France and get to grips with the technical details in French... Suggestions, please.

And if we continue southwards...another in Spain, etc..?

Apologies if this has already been covered - missed it!

Get a mobile that is is compatible with the frequency of the networks in the France.A tri-band or quad-band GSM phone, it will work with any wireless provider in almost any country .Purchase a good sim card with international call package or data package in France.With the data package you can Use smartphone calling apps like Skype,Line etc to avoid normal mobile calling charge.To use a local sim card you may need to unlock your mobile ,it is not a big issue to get it unlocked, you may be able to do it by finding the relevant software in the internet or by an online provider like OnlineGSMUnlock.com .

 

[ranjana]

i will help you