On 2006-10-03,
nospamplease@nospam.ntlworld.com <nospamplease@nospam.ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I went to the US recently and my PAYG mobile did not work properly:
>
> Incoming and outgoing texts worked fine.
> Incoming phone calls worked fine, I could answer them.
> I could not make outgoing phone calls or ring the credit top up
> number. I got "the service is not allowed messages".
> I could not get into voice mail to pick up messages that people were
> leaving.
> I could find out the credit balance by dialling *#1345#.
> I had over £30 credit balance on the phone.
>
> Both T-Mobile and Cingular which were the only networks available were
> the same.
>
> Rang up Vodafone who whilst helpful could only suggest that the local
> networks would not accept PAYG mobiles for some reason. Sounds
> unlikely.
I think the problem is that standard GSM roaming arrangements are
done on a credit basis, i.e. the roaming network sends records of
you calls you initiate to your home operator after the calls have been
completed. You get billed after the fact. This obviously doesn't work
for PAYG since there is no mechanism to bill you if you run out of pre-paid
account balance, but your home operator won't find out your usage has
exceeded your account balance until after you've done so. Supporting
PAYG roaming hence requires a different (and more complex) technical
arrangement to be established, and this is done on a case-by-case basis.
Apparently Vodafone doesn't yet have this kind of relationship with a US
operator, which doesn't surprise me since US carriers have only recently
started providing support for prepaid roaming anywhere and Canada and Mexico
would be their first priorities.
Note that what works and what doesn't depends on what Vodafone can
bill you for in real time. Incoming calls and texts to your phone work
since they are routed through the UK where Vodafone can drop them if your
balance drops to zero. *#1345# works because it is an uncharged service.
Why outgoing texts work I know not, but all other outgoing calls are
prohibited because Vodafone has no way to prevent you from going past
your balance.
> Rang up Cingular from another phone. They seemed to be unaware that
> foreigners could use non Cingular phones on their network so I gave up
> after never even making contact with a sentient life form.
The first line Cingular customer service knows nothing about foreign
anything, if you are a Cingular customer with roaming problems they
transfer you to someone else. You could try phoning the someone else,
i.e. International Customer Care, directly at
1 916 843 4685
and they might even know about this, but they'll probably just tell you
that pre-paid roaming doesn't work.
Dennis Ferguson
Vodafone PAYG in USA 
Linear Mode
