Apart from SMS, and email or (eg) Skype at Internet cafes, what's the
alternative? Unless you stay in the same country, buying local SIMs isn't
economical, and international SIMs are iffy.
> Apart from SMS, and email or (eg) Skype at Internet cafes, what's the alternative?
Voip over wifi. Some mobile phones like some of the Nokias
do that very conveniently, you can tell them to default to voip
over wifi for outgoing calls and they will offer the alternative
of a call using the SIM if that isnt available at calling time etc.
> Unless you stay in the same country, buying local SIMs isn't economical,
Thats not true. It really depends on how much you use it in each particular country.
> and international SIMs are iffy.
Not enough to matter. The only real downside is that you may
well need to find a new one for each major trip away etc and
only for the trips that are thru a number of countrys. When one
of those is combined with voip over wifi, it can be quite viable,
particularly for incoming calls over just voip over wifi alone.
> Marts wrote:
> > Here's something that I think most of us are aware of.
> >
> > http://www.theage.com.au/digital-lif...0407-rsbf.html
>
> Apart from SMS, and email or (eg) Skype at Internet cafes, what's the
> alternative? Unless you stay in the same country, buying local SIMs isn't
> economical, and international SIMs are iffy.
Why isn't it economical to buy a SIM in the country that you're visiting? We
certainly found that it is, when in the UK, and in Singapore a few days later.
Just got a pre-paid one with enough credit to last the time being there.
Not sure what the go travelling through Europe is, though. Certainly, in the US
it's a cheaper option that international roaming.
On Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:14:00 +1000, Marts <marts@ymail.com> wrote:
>Why isn't it economical to buy a SIM in the country that you're visiting? We
>certainly found that it is, when in the UK, and in Singapore a few days later.
There's TravelSim which it's possible to purchase through Australia
Post Outlets.
>> Why isn't it economical to buy a SIM in the country that you're visiting?
> We certainly found that it is, when in the UK, and in Singapore a few days later.
> There's TravelSim which it's possible to purchase through Australia Post Outlets.
> I punched in the data to call the US from the US and to call Oz from the US.
> Not much in the way of savings there and in some cases it's more
> expensive to receive calls than if roaming via an Australian carrier.
> I then punched in the data to call US numbers while in the US:
> Rates Information
> The TravelSIM is in: United States of America
> Cost to call United States of America: $3.10 / minute ($2.89 USD)
> Cost to receive calls: $2.68 / minute ($2.50 USD)
> Cost to send SMS: $0.63 / message ($0.59 USD)
> TravelSMS*: $0.38 / message ($0.35 USD)
> Now, THAT is expensive compared to purchasing a pre-paid
> SIM off AT&T when waiting for your connecting flight in LAX.
Europe isnt quite so bad tho and you dont have the multiple countrys problem with
the US, essentially because the US SIMs work fine in Canada and Mexico etc.
Marts <marts@ymail.com> wrote:
> Bob Bain wrote...
>
> > There's TravelSim which it's possible to purchase through Australia
> > Post Outlets.
> >
> > http://www.travelsim.net.au/
>
> Haven't seen that before.
>
> I punched in the data to call the US from the US and to call Oz from the US.
>
> Not much in the way of savings there and in some cases it's more expensive to
> receive calls than if roaming via an Australian carrier.
>
> I then punched in the data to call US numbers while in the US:
>
> Rates Information
>
> The TravelSIM is in: United States of America
>
> Cost to call United States of America: $3.10 / minute ($2.89 USD)
>
> Cost to receive calls: $2.68 / minute ($2.50 USD)
>
> Cost to send SMS: $0.63 / message ($0.59 USD)
>
> TravelSMS*: $0.38 / message ($0.35 USD)
>
> Now, THAT is expensive compared to purchasing a pre-paid SIM off AT&T when
> waiting for your connecting flight in LAX.
You should look at examples from the *civilized* world (as far as
mobile telecom is concerned), that excludes the US.
As Rod mentioned, the EU rates are quite reasonable.
Also see the 'SMS-Call' from comfi, which I mentioned in another
thread: <http://www.turbocall.com/reference/SMSCall>
Bottom line: One-size-fits-all doesn't exist. World-wide roaming is no
exception.
> > Now, THAT is expensive compared to purchasing a pre-paid SIM off AT&T when
> > waiting for your connecting flight in LAX.
>
> You should look at examples from the *civilized* world (as far as
> mobile telecom is concerned), that excludes the US.
That may be so. But if you're in the US, then the comparison is relevant. If in
the UK, and unless you travel to the continent, then using a Voda SIM while
there is a cheaper option.
> As Rod mentioned, the EU rates are quite reasonable.
Marts <marts@ymail.com> wrote:
> Frank Slootweg wrote...
>
> > > Now, THAT is expensive compared to purchasing a pre-paid SIM off AT&T when
> > > waiting for your connecting flight in LAX.
> >
> > You should look at examples from the *civilized* world (as far as
> > mobile telecom is concerned), that excludes the US.
>
> That may be so. But if you're in the US, then the comparison is
> relevant. If in the UK, and unless you travel to the continent, then
> using a Voda SIM while there is a cheaper option.
Yes, when visiting a *single* country - whether the US, the UK or any
other country -, a locally-bought pre-paid SIM is nearly always cheaper.
However also that has its disadvantages, because most of the time you
can not buy such a SIM *before* you're actually in that country (also
most on-line shops require a local shipping address). I.e. you can not
give the phone-number to your relatives, friends, etc., and you have to
go shopping before your first call.
So as I said, one-size-fits-all just doesn't exist.
Marts wrote:
> Moscow Calling wrote...
>
>> Marts wrote:
>>> Here's something that I think most of us are aware of.
>>>
>>> http://www.theage.com.au/digital-lif...0407-rsbf.html
>>
>> Apart from SMS, and email or (eg) Skype at Internet cafes, what's the
>> alternative? Unless you stay in the same country, buying local SIMs
>> isn't economical, and international SIMs are iffy.
>
> Why isn't it economical to buy a SIM in the country that you're
> visiting? We certainly found that it is, when in the UK, and in
> Singapore a few days later.
>
> Just got a pre-paid one with enough credit to last the time being
> there.
>
> Not sure what the go travelling through Europe is, though. Certainly,
> in the US it's a cheaper option that international roaming.
Try a 2-month trip starting from Sydney to Istanbul, through the Ukraine,
Russia, Belorussia, Austria, Italy and France, and back to Sydney.
That's not economical to buy a SIM in each country. The subject was
international roaming, not visiting one country.
> However also that has its disadvantages, because most of the time you
> can not buy such a SIM *before* you're actually in that country (also
The missus just bought an AT&T SIM card off an Ebay seller (cost about $5). She
will be able to activate it online before she travels. That way, when she lands
she'll have an already active service.
Last time this happened Optus ****ed up the international roaming. She was stuck
on a runway when her flight was diverted from JFK due to weather. She had people
waiting for her flight to come in and she couldn't make a call to let them know
what the go was.
>> However also that has its disadvantages, because most of the time
>> you can not buy such a SIM *before* you're actually in that country
> The missus just bought an AT&T SIM card off an Ebay seller (cost
> about $5). She will be able to activate it online before she travels.
> That way, when she lands she'll have an already active service.
He clearly said MOST OF THE TIME.
> Last time this happened Optus ****ed up the international roaming.
> She was stuck on a runway when her flight was diverted from JFK
> due to weather. She had people waiting for her flight to come in
> and she couldn't make a call to let them know what the go was.
If she had international roaming setup on her local SIM, and had checked
that that was working before leaving, she could have used the international
roaming just for that particular very unusual call and used the SIM she
bought when she got there for everything else. That wouldnt have cost
anymore for that convenience and would be handy to have that capability
in case the local SIM didnt work as it should in an emergency too.
International Roaming Too Expensive? 
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