Travel Internationally With Pay As You Go Plan

I live in the USA and have a Pay As You Go (i.e prepaid) rate plan with
T-Mobile.

I am planning on traveling throughout Europe and was wondering if my
plan allows to make phone calls from there. (Calls to the USA and to
other European countries.)

PS: I know that the phone itself works fine in Europe because it is a
quad band GSM.
--
tb

At 10 Dec 2010 22:52:00 -0600 tb wrote:
> I live in the USA and have a Pay As You Go (i.e prepaid) rate plan with
T-Mobile.
>
> I am planning on traveling throughout Europe and was wondering if my
plan allows to make phone calls from there. (Calls to the USA and to
other European countries.)
>
> PS: I know that the phone itself works fine in Europe because it is a
quad band GSM.

Not AFAIK; T-Mo prepaid only roams in Canada and Mexico.

You can call customer service and get an unlock code (if it's a T-Mo-
branded handset) so you can put local European SIMs in it, which would
probably be cheaper than the $1-2/minute T-Mo charges its contract
customers for calls placed in Europe.

On 12/10/2010 11:59 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:

>
> Not AFAIK; T-Mo prepaid only roams in Canada and Mexico.
>
> You can call customer service and get an unlock code (if it's a T-Mo-
> branded handset) so you can put local European SIMs in it, which would
> probably be cheaper than the $1-2/minute T-Mo charges its contract
> customers for calls placed in Europe.
>

But what about the contacts that I have stored in my phone? Will they
still be available in my cell phone if I swap SIM cards? (I have a
Motorola V195S)

On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:27:06 -0500, tb <nospam@example.com> wrote:

> On 12/10/2010 11:59 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:
>
>>
>> Not AFAIK; T-Mo prepaid only roams in Canada and Mexico.
>>
>> You can call customer service and get an unlock code (if it's a T-Mo-
>> branded handset) so you can put local European SIMs in it, which would
>> probably be cheaper than the $1-2/minute T-Mo charges its contract
>> customers for calls placed in Europe.
>>
>
> But what about the contacts that I have stored in my phone? Will they
> still be available in my cell phone if I swap SIM cards? (I have a
> Motorola V195S)

Contacts stored *in your phone* will still be there, regardless what SIM is in place.
Contacts stored *on your SIM* will, of course, remain on that SIM.
Does your V195S allow copying contacts from SIM storage to phone storage?
If so, you can have the best of both possible worlds :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

At 11 Dec 2010 15:27:06 -0600 tb wrote:
> On 12/10/2010 11:59 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:
>
> >
> > Not AFAIK; T-Mo prepaid only roams in Canada and Mexico.
> >
> > You can call customer service and get an unlock code (if it's a T-Mo-
> > branded handset) so you can put local European SIMs in it, which would
> > probably be cheaper than the $1-2/minute T-Mo charges its contract
> > customers for calls placed in Europe.
> >
>
> But what about the contacts that I have stored in my phone? Will they
> still be available in my cell phone if I swap SIM cards? (I have a
> Motorola V195S)


If they're stored on the phone itself, rather than the SIM card, you'll
still have them. If they're on the SIM you'll need to copy them to the
phone.

Don't forget to edit them into international format, by adding a "+" and
the country code in front (for US numbers it's 1.) So the number (212)
555-1212 should be stored as +1-212-555-1212 or else you can't dial them
from Europe. The +1 will be ignored by T-Mo in the US, so you can leave
the numbers in international format.

On 12/10/2010 8:52 PM, tb wrote:
> I live in the USA and have a Pay As You Go (i.e prepaid) rate plan with
> T-Mobile.
>
> I am planning on traveling throughout Europe and was wondering if my
> plan allows to make phone calls from there. (Calls to the USA and to
> other European countries.)
>
> PS: I know that the phone itself works fine in Europe because it is a
> quad band GSM.

I also have a V195s with T-Mobile prepaid, and I had it unlocked by
T-Mobile so I could use prepaid SIM cards in it.

If you are traveling _throughout_ Europe, you may want to look at one of
the global SIM cards that work in all countries, even though the per
minute cost is higher than single country SIM cards.

One source is <http://www.hi.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Sims>. Compare
the different plans because the rates vary considerably (though even the
highest rates are probably less than what international roaming would
have cost you on T-Mobile postpaid).

Be careful, as many of the prepaid global SIM card companies are
fly-by-night operations. The one I gave above has been around for a long
time.

Also, you might want to get a OneSuite account to use for calling from
pay phones and hotel phones back to the U.S. (and to other countries).
They have international access numbers. This will cut down on the cell
phone costs.

If you get a SIM card in each country, you'll have a different phone
number in each country. You should set up a Google Voice account that
you have forward to each new phone number, so people can reach you
throughout the trip.

I don't know what the free Wi-Fi situation is in Europe, but I'd think
that a quad band smart phone with Wi-Fi and Skype might be a good
investment, i.e. a used iPhone 3G.

On 2010-12-12, SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote:
> On 12/10/2010 8:52 PM, tb wrote:
>> I live in the USA and have a Pay As You Go (i.e prepaid) rate plan with
>> T-Mobile.
>>
>> I am planning on traveling throughout Europe and was wondering if my
>> plan allows to make phone calls from there. (Calls to the USA and to
>> other European countries.)
>>
>> PS: I know that the phone itself works fine in Europe because it is a
>> quad band GSM.
>
> I also have a V195s with T-Mobile prepaid, and I had it unlocked by
> T-Mobile so I could use prepaid SIM cards in it.
>
> If you are traveling _throughout_ Europe, you may want to look at one of
> the global SIM cards that work in all countries, even though the per
> minute cost is higher than single country SIM cards.
>
> One source is <http://www.hi.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Sims>. Compare
> the different plans because the rates vary considerably (though even the
> highest rates are probably less than what international roaming would
> have cost you on T-Mobile postpaid).

I'm not sure these are a particularly good deal for Europe any more since
the EU began regulating roaming rates. Prepaid SIMs from almost any EU
country seem to roam in the others now for about 50 US cents/minute outbound
(to landline or mobile) and about 20 cents/minute inbound, charged in 1
second increments, so if you don't make a lot of long calls it isn't
unreasonable to just buy a SIM from a real carrier in the first country
you get to, add money there and then just keep using it until the balance
is gone. If you want to talk a lot you can also find alternative deals.
For example, Vodafone UK has an alternative plan (Passport) which charges
about $1.15 connection charge and pennies per minute outbound, nothing
inbound, for calls up to an hour. The roaming data rates, at $3/day for
up to 25 MB in a lot of countries, aren't terrible either if you need
that.

I've had the same UK SIM for about 5 years now, it doesn't expire, and
between the fact that the roaming prices aren't bad and I don't spend enough
time in any of the other countries to make it worth building a SIM card
collection, I'm happy just using that one everywhere I go.

Dennis Ferguson

On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:13:45 -0500, Dennis Ferguson <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:

> ...
> I've had the same UK SIM for about 5 years now, it doesn't expire, and
> between the fact that the roaming prices aren't bad and I don't spend enough
> time in any of the other countries to make it worth building a SIM card
> collection, I'm happy just using that one everywhere I go.

Which carrier, if I may ask? And in what program/tariff-plan (marketing lingo needed)?
Prepaid? rechargeable via carrier's website (or only in person in the UK)?

TIA for clarifications, Dennis. And cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

On 2010-12-13, tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:13:45 -0500, Dennis Ferguson <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
>> ...
>> I've had the same UK SIM for about 5 years now, it doesn't expire, and
>> between the fact that the roaming prices aren't bad and I don't spend enough
>> time in any of the other countries to make it worth building a SIM card
>> collection, I'm happy just using that one everywhere I go.
>
> Which carrier, if I may ask? And in what program/tariff-plan (marketing lingo needed)?
> Prepaid? rechargeable via carrier's website (or only in person in the UK)?

The one I use is a prepaid SIM from 3 but the tariff it is on, Flat12, isn't
offered any more and their new prices are just a whole lot crappier. I also
took the trouble to port a Vodafone number to the SIM so that it cost
a few cents less to call from overseas. On the upside, 3 SIMs never expire
as long as you have a balance, and they (still) give you a data allocation
every time you top up which is sufficient for my use, so I've not recently
had to pay for data use at all. If I didn't have this one I think I'd look
either at Vodafone or at the O2 MVNO with the stupid name giffgaff. I
like the operators which sell blocks of minutes on prepaid service, if
you are in the UK for a while it can cost well under 10 US cents/minute
to make calls and with Vodafone Passport you can use minutes from the
same bundle to make calls when roaming if you expect to be making long
calls.

Recharging a payg account when you aren't in the UK can be a problem.
I have a UK bank account for other reasons, so I can top up the
SIM with the debit card. Without this, having a friend buy
a voucher and give you the code seems to be about the only way
available.

For a one-time trip you might not worry about this. Just buy the
SIM and put what you think is enough money into it to last you. If
you run out somewhere, chuck that SIM and buy a new one in the
country you are in. I think EU roaming rates are pretty much the
same everywhere now, and while they aren't terrible even now I'm
pretty sure they've got a couple of more reductions scheduled so
it is quickly getting to the point where it is hardly worth buying
a SIM-per-country at all.

Dennis Ferguson

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:54:31 -0500, Dennis Ferguson <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:

> On 2010-12-13, tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:13:45 -0500, Dennis Ferguson <dcferguson@pacbell.net> wrote:
>>
>>> ...
>>> I've had the same UK SIM for about 5 years now, it doesn't expire, and
>>> between the fact that the roaming prices aren't bad and I don't spend enough
>>> time in any of the other countries to make it worth building a SIM card
>>> collection, I'm happy just using that one everywhere I go.
>>
>> Which carrier, if I may ask? And in what program/tariff-plan (marketing lingo needed)?
>> Prepaid? rechargeable via carrier's website (or only in person in the UK)?
>
> The one I use is a prepaid SIM from 3 but the tariff it is on, Flat12, isn't
> offered any more and their new prices are just a whole lot crappier. I also
> took the trouble to port a Vodafone number to the SIM so that it cost
> a few cents less to call from overseas. On the upside, 3 SIMs never expire
> as long as you have a balance, and they (still) give you a data allocation
> every time you top up which is sufficient for my use, so I've not recently
> had to pay for data use at all. If I didn't have this one I think I'd look
> either at Vodafone or at the O2 MVNO with the stupid name giffgaff. I
> like the operators which sell blocks of minutes on prepaid service, if
> you are in the UK for a while it can cost well under 10 US cents/minute
> to make calls and with Vodafone Passport you can use minutes from the
> same bundle to make calls when roaming if you expect to be making long
> calls.
>
> Recharging a payg account when you aren't in the UK can be a problem.
> I have a UK bank account for other reasons, so I can top up the
> SIM with the debit card. Without this, having a friend buy
> a voucher and give you the code seems to be about the only way
> available.
>
> For a one-time trip you might not worry about this. Just buy the
> SIM and put what you think is enough money into it to last you. If
> you run out somewhere, chuck that SIM and buy a new one in the
> country you are in. I think EU roaming rates are pretty much the
> same everywhere now, and while they aren't terrible even now I'm
> pretty sure they've got a couple of more reductions scheduled so
> it is quickly getting to the point where it is hardly worth buying
> a SIM-per-country at all.
>
> Dennis Ferguson

Thanks for all the fine suggestions, Dennis. Much obliged :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

On 13.12.2010 08:54, Dennis Ferguson wrote:
> [...]
> Recharging a payg account when you aren't in the UK can be a problem.
>[...]

T-Mobile in the UK lets you register a credit card. You can then top-up
by sending a text message and they will charge it to the registered
credit card. However, I am not sure if they will accept a non UK credit
card.

http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-a...=HELPANDADVICE

Klaus

On Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:16:01 -0500, Klaus Schiller <Invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> On 13.12.2010 08:54, Dennis Ferguson wrote:
>> [...]
>> Recharging a payg account when you aren't in the UK can be a problem.
>> [...]
>
> T-Mobile in the UK lets you register a credit card. You can then top-up
> by sending a text message and they will charge it to the registered
> credit card. However, I am not sure if they will accept a non UK credit
> card.
>
> http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/help-a...=HELPANDADVICE
>
> Klaus

Interesting page. On the linked mobile broadband page, I find the following puzzler:

We offer unlimited browsing as part of our mobile broadband but if you
exceed your usage we nay restrict how you use your mobile broadband.

No explanation how it's possible to "exceed" one's "unlimited browsing" "usage",
nor what exactly is meant by the threat (or promise) "we nay restrict ... ."

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Interesting page. On the linked mobile broadband page, I find the
> following puzzler:
>
> We offer unlimited browsing as part of our mobile broadband but
> if you exceed your usage we nay restrict how you use your mobile
> broadband.
>
> No explanation how it's possible to "exceed" one's "unlimited
> browsing" "usage", nor what exactly is meant by the threat (or
> promise) "we nay restrict ... ."

Don't know either but with US ISPs (I know, that's a different thing!)
they reduce your speed if you exceed some unpublished limit.

I think it might be to prevent tethering?

--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

On 2010-12-13, Klaus Schiller <Invalid@Invalid.Invalid> wrote:
> On 13.12.2010 08:54, Dennis Ferguson wrote:
>> [...]
>> Recharging a payg account when you aren't in the UK can be a problem.
>>[...]
>
> T-Mobile in the UK lets you register a credit card. You can then top-up
> by sending a text message and they will charge it to the registered
> credit card. However, I am not sure if they will accept a non UK credit
> card.

The last bit is usually the problem. I haven't tried T-Mobile, but
everywhere I have tried gives you no way to enter a non-UK billing
address for the card.

Dennis Ferguson

I have tried ekit and TIM in europe but I am now using InTouch SmartCards. More convenient and so far the best rate plan.

tb wrote:
> I live in the USA and have a Pay As You Go (i.e prepaid) rate plan with
> T-Mobile.
>
> I am planning on traveling throughout Europe and was wondering if my
> plan allows to make phone calls from there. (Calls to the USA and to
> other European countries.)
>
> PS: I know that the phone itself works fine in Europe because it is a
> quad band GSM.

Voip on your phone?

> I don't know what the free Wi-Fi situation is in Europe, but I'd think
> that a quad band smart phone with Wi-Fi and Skype might be a good
> investment, i.e. a used iPhone 3G.

Yep or a VOIP account.
And in my country, Holland there is atleast
free wifi in macDonalds and they are all around.

You can also use Onesuite on your iPhone via wifi or 3G. I use it on my Droid and works really well.