Mobile Phones abroad

[boatmike]

I know this subject has been aired before but my old mobile phone has just died so I have to spend money on a new one.
Do I go for a monthly contract or pay as you go?
It seems to me that monthly contracts give you so many free calls but only if you are in the UK. From May through to November I will be in France, Italy, Greece so free UK calls are a waste of money and pay as you go is probably better. On the other hand PAYG phones are locked to Vodafone or whatever and unless you get them unlocked can't use a foreign SIM card.
I don't envisage constant calls to the UK but SWMBO has a mother that requires a couple of calls a week and I would like to check that all is well at home as my kids will be monitoring mail and looking after the house, so some calls will be necessary. Text messaging will do for some of course and we will use internet cafes en-route too but some voicemail will be inevitable.
So heres the question. Do I get

1. Another vodafone PAYG and just pay though my UK swipecard that I can leave the card with my kids to top up as required as I do now?
2. Buy a phone that is unlocked and buy SIM cards for France, Italy, Greece etc as required (does this work the same as UK PAYG then)?
3. Get a contract phone of some sort with cheaper call charges (if there is such a thing)?

What is the general thinking out there as I remember last time I posted on the subject of e-mail some people ended up with horrific bills through getting it wrong.....

 

[Talbot]

I have a Nokia 6310i This is a tri-band phone with bluetooth. I have used it very successfully in France, Singapore, Australia, and USA. I have a contract and pay direct through the bank. The contract includes 300 free evening/weekend to UK landline, and I use this to connect my laptop to the web when away in UK (minimising pictures). I have had same phone and contract since Dec 2001, and phone is still good for four days before re-charge. - works for me, but ultimately it will be a balance between cost of use versus convenience, and amount of use will have a big impact on this.

 

[wagenaar]

I have a spanish Vodaphone mobile phone with a contract. I can use this phone in other countries. They charge me the normal rate for that particular country plus a surcharge of appr. 10 % for "extra administration". This is called "roaming". A problem arises if someone wants to call you. In that case they charge the caller the normal charges for your phone, but you have to pay the charges to transfer the call from your normal place (for you that would be the UK) to your actual position, France, Italy, Greece. If they call you with a UK-phone from the ship next to you, they pay to call you as if you where in the UK and then you pay to reroute the call from the UK to you in Greece or where ever you are. In my opinion it is possible to have a UK contract phone when being abroad, but try to prevent being called. YOU are the one to make the calls. In my experience the mobile phone companies do not "free" telephones within a year from buying it and are reluctant to do it even then.

 

[Steve Clayton]

Under no circumstances whatsoever go for a UK Vodafone (or any other UK supplier) and then use it abroad - if Vodafone it will cost you an arm and a leg! (and a bit more!).

As an example a Vodafone text from abroad to the UK will cost a MINIMUM of 60pence + VAT.

IMHO your option 2 is the better if you must make calls. Look for the service that also has international calls at a cheap rate eg in Spain then use Amena.

If possible then use a laptop/wifi, then load up Skype and call other Skype users for absolutely nothing and landline phones for a few pennies a minute.

Cheers,

Steve
www.seraph-apartments.com

 

[Koeketiene]

Onetel

I have a monthly contract with Onetel. (£19.99 p/m) In the UK this includes 70 free anytime mins + 70 free texts.

However, Onetel really comes into it's own when you use it abroad. I use my mobile abroad on a regular basis. In Belgium and France I pay no more than 3p/min.

All details (including roaming charges) on their website: www.onetel.com

 

[dart]

Re: Onetel

>However, Onetel really comes into it's own when you use it abroad. I use my mobile abroad on a regular basis. In Belgium and France I pay no more than 3p/min.

The onetel site says 60p a minute (europe back to UK) ?????

 

[dart]

>The contract includes 300 free evening/weekend to UK landline, and I use this to connect my laptop to the web when away in UK

Sounds good! Who is this with?

 

[boatmike]

But who do you have the contract with and what sort of charges do you have?

 

[boatmike]

Re: Onetel

Dont understand. As dart says the roaming charge to call the UK or to make calls within country appears to be 60/80p

 

[boatmike]

Er: Vodafone text from Greece to UK is 35p. And that's using Pay as you talk.
Where do you get your 60p from?

 

[Steve Clayton]

Hi Mike,

re Vodafone text calls from Spain to the UK on a monthly contract service :

these are routed through to a call collection point. Regardless of the phone number you text the message to it shows on a Vodafone bill as a call to 00447785016005; this clocks through (in mid 2004) at 29.8p. In addition to this then the call collection point routes the call to the number you've texted. Vodafone then adds a further 10.2p. On top of this (not down to Vodafone but UK tax) then add 17.5% VAT.


Text calls, so I believe, have recently gone up - hence 60p +VAT; (and at the same time Vodafone have stopped their "happy hour" calls to the UK at 40p a minute).

Might be through a different routing centre for Greece with lower charges???

BTW: Spanish Amena PAYG sim card is 25€'s which includes 17€'s of calls. Supplement this with the Amena International call card (comes in blocks of 5€'s) and you're calling the States, UK , etc for about 6 cents (4p a minute).

 

[Anonymous]

I have just used a free online unlocking service for Nokias at http://www.nokiafx.net/unlock.htm which unlocked my Nokia 6310i no problem but wouldn't unlock our 7110e phones. There are loads of free unlock sites available - just Google - there is no need to pay unless your phone requires a cable connection to unlock it.

 

[MedMan]

Have a look at 'Communication in European Waters' on my website - link below. I have recently updated it to include WiFi and GPRS.

 

[boatmike]

Food for thought there Steve. Thanks. I will look into it

 

[boatmike]

Yes thanks again David. I have seen your excellent website before and note the updates. My question though was aimed at specific questions. Which network is cheapest and PAYG or contract? As you say this weeks bargain can be tomorrows rip-off and it is very difficult to analyse the costs just looking at the websites as they often indicate a cost that leaves out essential components. Frankly it looks like a deliberate conspiracy to deceive and could well be so!
It's evident from some of the replies that not everybody knows what they are paying and previous posts have told horror stories of massive bills lying on the mat when returning home from 6 months away!
At the moment PAYG seems favourite as we intend to use mainly text and call home only when necessary. You can also track the cost as you go so no surprises! We have been on Vodafone up to now and have not found a lot wrong with it when in France, and my plan was to unlock the phone on one of the many sites that provide this service so that we can use local SIM cards wherever we are if we settle in one country for a while. This, coupled with internet cafe web based e-mail will do all we want I think. Comments?

 

[MedMan]

I would go along with that as a scheme. It is certainly worth getting your phone unlocked so you have got the option of using foreign SIM cards. Alternatives include begging an un-locked handset from a friend or relative in this country who has recently up-graded or buying a second-hand handset. In either case, if the handset was being used on a Vodafone or O2 monthly contract, the chances are it is unlocked.

Don't forget using a pay-phone for calling home. That's the only way we ever do it. Pay-phones are ubiquitous and almost always cheaper than using a mobile, particularly in countries with a de-regulated comms industry where you can buy third-party phone cards.

Many people rely totally on Internet Cafés for their email with great success. Coupled with Text Messaging for <24h contact it provides all that they want. You don't have to confine yourself to a webmail account as many ISPs now provide web access to POP boxes and with those that don't you can use Mail2Web.

 

[boatmike]

Thanks.

 

[charles_reed]

Have a look at David Teall's survey on the CA Medsec site.

That gives a good factual survey culled from a number of actual users and their findings.

Having suffered going back to a most unsatisfactory tariff contract with a UK supplier, I have no hesitation in recommending going down the PAYG route and getting people to phone you rather then phoning them.
If they use one of the non-BT (galling for a BT shareholder) telecommunications firms, thier costs can be less than 10p/min.

As a guide, UK and Germany share the most expensive tariffs with France not far behind. Portugal is easily the cheapest I've come across with Italy and Spain somewhere in between.

 

[charles_reed]

To MedMan

Sorry David to use your name in vain; I do think the Excel spreadsheet you did on mobile phone prices was a superb survey.

Excellent overview on website but how about Centrino wireless networking and SSB SailMail. The latter is very feasible using Pactor III, which can now approach speeds of 14.5K baud.

I have to confess that I still find it cheapest (but the margin is shrinking) to use local Internet cafe's rather than a local ISP.
That, of course, may be because I can enjoy ISDN2 for free (except for line-charge) when I'm home, making all ISP's expensive.
I use a 1Gb, USB storage pen to download and upload e-mail etc and then take it back and do the necessary on the laptop on the boat.
The real snag is the number of atechnical friends who are still using obsolescent equipment, technology or ISPs and and gag at anything over 150Kb. As a 10 page monthly newsletter usually comes to about 2Mb in pdf, I'm frequently not popular.
If I do have to send data (very rare) I use Bluetooth connection which though it's far slower than WiFi is more than fast enough for the 9600 baud rate of 2.5GPRS. I've a cheap PCMCIA Bluetooth card slots into the laptop.

Faced with a 3rd day in Naples, my old Nokia 6310i died and I got a replacement from BTShop for £199.99 of an unlocked 6820. This has a QWERTY keyboard and result is that I've almost given up using voice calls within family, SMS texts being much more convenient especially in hospitals.

Locking phones, by airtime providers, has been condemned by the EC and a directive is either in preparation or already out for member counries to produce banning legislation. In any case the street price for unlocking is down to £10 and many people have the software for doing it.

My daughter, unlike yours', always forgets to re-charge her mobile, so the arrival of a text from her is rather like a 2nd Coming.

The trouble is that things are changing so fast, anything that's arrived in print (rather like Pilots) is likely to be obsolescent.

 

[trouville]

Re: To MedMan

which pay as you go card should i get for Denmark sweeden and Finnland?
I just realised imgoing to the land of nokia,but i have a sony erricson i need a new phone which one?