Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with roaming

Roaming across the same network in different countries

devnull — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:02:26 -0800

Why does it cost extra to roam in another countries when I am using the same operator in all of the countries? If I am, say, a T-Mobile customer in England, and I visit Germany and use my T-Mobile phone there, on a T-Mobile network, why does it cost so much more?

Also, why do international calls cost more? Isn't everything routed over the internet these days?

(btw, am looking for more than "because they *can*" answers!)

Phonefilter: help me choose a new smartphone that's not a iPhone for email and roaming?

wingless_angel — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:24:36 -0800

Phonefilter: Help me choose a new smartphone with QWERTY keyboard. Primarily for email, some browsing, calendars. Constraints: in the UK, contract may be a problem, need to use overseas a lot, I rarely use the phone part, don't want an iPhone. I have decided I am in need of a new phone, my Nokia E65 is just not cutting it when I need to have access to email and a bit of internet et cetera when on the road. I travel a lot and sometimes getting Internet access is a pain, but I have found that in many places I can still use WAP on my phone to get email which is fantastic.

I live in the UK but travel to the US, Europe, Asia etc a lot for work. I have not lived here long so I am not sure if I qualify to get a phone on contract. I am using my old phone on O2 pay and go right now. I need a plan or provider that offers reasonably priced roaming data in the months that I know I'm travelling.

I have a Mac so I need to be able to sync with that, possibly over wifi/bluetooth? My Nokia was always crap for that. Bonus points if I can tether and use the phone as a modem at a pinch. Wifi would be cool too, though I have the iPod touch for that.

I work for a small NGO so we don't have a great infrastructure (or any tech support really), we are still on Exchange 2001 but I would love a phone that could integrate my Exchange mail and my Gmail and give me push email.

I have an iPod touch which I love, but I find typing on it a real pain so I don't want an iPhone. I send text more than I use a phone to make calls. I would prefer a proper QWERTY keyboard.

Roaming in Europe?

trokair — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:38:46 -0800

[CellPhoneFilter] How does international roaming work in Europe? I know that here in the States, if I travel overseas to the EU I am considered "internationally roaming" and end up paying larger fees for voice and data usage than I would at home. In Europe, where you have to travel a much shorter distance to move from country to country, are the same rules in effect? Do the carriers have networks that spread to different countries? (i.e. if I am on Carrier A in France and Carrier A has a presence in Spain, am I roaming if my home MCC is set to France and I am in Spain?)

Sorry if this is a loaded question!

iPhone activation for n00bs

lukemeister — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:07:58 -0800

Can I get an iPhone 3G S set up on Friday? I've never had an iPhone before. I pre-ordered one at the Apple site, but haven't received any confirmation from Apple or AT&T. I'm planning to go to the Apple store first thing on Friday morning, but I'm going to London Friday evening, and I'm concerned that AT&T won't be able to process all the activations that day. Extra credit for suggestions on how to use an iPhone (my existing phone is so dumb that ...), and how not to spend thousands of dollars in roaming charges while I'm in the UK for a week. Many thanks!

$30,000 per gig? Really?

rokusan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:58:12 -0800

iPhone user from Canada roaming in Big Apple.... how? I have a friend visiting NYC from Canada with her iPhone. Her carrier is "Rogers" (?) and she is afraid to use it at all because of possible very high data charges. I understand this but it seems silly to waste so many features when traveling (like Maps) that are especially valuable when traveling.... more than when at home, right?

She's here for two months and from the sound of the data roaming fees -- $30 (sic) per megabyte (sic) -- she's right: it's effectively unusable.

I could lend her my ATT SIM card but I use my phone too much to be without it that long. I showed her how to preload-cache maps, and made her some static ones to help, but man... GPS would sure be nice.

What are her options to avoid huge fees? Is there a two month one-time purchase possible, either from her Canadian carrier or from AT&T or Verizon down here?

I can jailbreak it for her if necessary (never done that but I can figure it out) as long as its reversible.

Can I call a toll-free number from my international cell phone without incurring charges?

smersh — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:38:57 -0800

My international cell phone provider (Airtel in India) insists that I can get uncharged toll-free calls while roaming in the US and Canada. It sounds too good to be true. Can you shed some light on this for me? I'm a Canadian citizen with a green card to the US who's been living in India for a while. I've let go of my American and Canadian numbers because I couldn't justify spending $80/month for no reason. So, every time I come back home (US/Canada), I resort to prepaid Rogers and AT&T SIM cards.

This time, however, when I spoke to Airtel (my Indian provider), they told me I could call toll-free numbers free of charge, even when I'm roaming internationally. That means I can use a calling card while I'm here and pay just 4 cents a minute instead of paying upwards of $100 for prepaid SIM refills.

Now, I called Airtel a second time to double-check, and they said they don't charge, but the carrier I'm roaming on might!! Obviously something they should've told me the first time I asked.

If there's anyone who has any experience with this, can you illuminate me? Am I going to get charged while using my Indian SIM on an American/Canadian network to call an 800 number? I'd love to be able to not recharge my pre-paid cards, but I'd rather not get a $1000 cell phone bill.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Help me txt and call around Europe without breaking the bank.

atmosphere — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:11:26 -0800

Best Europe wide roaming prepaid sim card? I am travelling through Europe for an extended period of time and am looking for a prepaid sim card that has decent roaming around Western Europe. I will only be staying in one country for a few weeks max at a time, so buying one for each country I visit isn't very practical, especially because I am travelling on a budget. I'd like mainly to be able to txt other European phones and call European landlines.

I recently purchased an Orange prepaid sim card in France where they told me it would work fine all over Europe, and they told me the fees which I now forget, but which were not bad. However, when I went to Spain, I could no longer call from my phone. I could txt / sms to France, but I could not call to mobiles or landlines in Spain or France. I was fortunate enough to return to France, where at an Orange store I was told they do not offer any roaming services, and that this is why I could not call. It doesn't feel like this is correct, but I don't really know where to go from here. The Orange website is hard to navigate when translated through google.

I am totally willing to buy another sim card, or fix whatever the issue is with my current one, either way thanks for the suggestions and advice hivemind.

sad accesspoint drama.

beerbajay — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 08:52:08 -0800

Netgear access point weirdness. Wireless roaming. OMG, why does the AP do this and as a result cause my internets connection to connect/disconnect frequently? INTERNETS <-- modem <-- (Netgear WGR614v7 router w/ wifi) <-- (both Netgear WPN802v2 access points)

Trying to get wireless roaming working, but one of the APs doesn't even play nice in a single room. As shown in the graph, there is hella strong signal in the room until suddenly and inexplicably it drops off hard until the power is lower than that of the other AP/router which are in another room behind a heavy wall. Windows disconnects, sometimes picking up one of the other signals, sometimes not.

Router is on channel 1, APs on 7 and 11. I'm in an apartment building so there's a number of other wireless networks on channel 1, 6, and 11.

Is My Phone Company Trying to Crimp my Style?

foxy_hedgehog — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:50:09 -0800

Is my cell phone company lying about unlocking and SIM-carding while abroad? I'm going to be in Europe for three months. Since I didn't want to rack up a bloated bill of roaming charges, I thought I'd unlock my phone (a Blackberry Pearl) and pop in a new SIM card with minutes from a European provider.

However, my cell phone provider (AT and T) told me that if I suspend my plan during this period (for which they will charge me $10/month) the minute I put in a new SIM card and try to make a call or send an SMS, AT and T will know that I am using my phone and will immediately switch me back to my usual plan- and charge me for it- even if I am not using their bandwidth and not using my plan's minutes.

If I unlock the phone and put in a new SIM card, how would AT and T know that I am using the phone? Are they lying in order to make me feel obligated to stick to my plan and pay roaming charges?

If I just need to suck it up and rent a phone while in Europe, that's fine. I just want to make sure AT and T isn't trying to pull a fast one.

What's it like to have a short range traveling job?

gnomeloaf — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:46:56 -0800

What's it like to have a short range traveling job? A friend of mine is currently in the running for a job as roaming tech support. The job is 90% travel around a 150 mile radius in the Northeast, but would return him home pretty much every day. The job pays more, and there are some perks he thinks are nice (reimbursement for most day to day stuff, mileage, laptop, Blackberry, general feeling of "I have a neat job"). He thinks he'd like the job, but wants to know about potential pitfalls that he might be overlooking.

Since I know of no one personally who is in this particular employment setup, I turn to you, O Hive Mind, to share any relevant experiences and useful advice.

Roaming Profiles on Windows XP what to do?

bleucube — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:00:03 -0800

Looking for a secure Windows XP Roaming Profile alternative. What do you suggest? Need to stop using roaming profiles in my agency. Data is getting spread about and there is a high chance of laptops and public machines (due to change in physical security) getting stolen. I don't want a workstation getting stolen that has the VP and HR director's documents on it.

There is a lot to the story, but rather keep it short. Please don't tell me that I should change physical security or anything of that sort. There's a lot that *should* be done, but fighting the power is for another day.

Thanks!

Is a Blackberry 8800 on T-Mobile my best choice for a data-heavy cell plan starting in spring 2007?

allterrainbrain — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:47:22 -0800

My (non-existent) ideal device is a Treo -- with wifi, GSM/GPRS, and either EDGE or HSDPA -- on a service plan that includes flat-rate unlimited data, flat-rate international data roaming, and a small amount of voice usage inside the U.S. (say 100 mins/month). So, in the real world, is a Blackberry 8800 on T-Mobile my best choice for a plan starting in spring 2007? I want to use wifi, cellular-data, and cellular-voice, in that order of usage/importance. (Cellular-voice calls would only happen when there's no wifi available for VoIP.) I've been tethering my Sprint phones as laptop modems for six years -- ever since the first-generation data network where you were lucky to get 10k or 12k down -- so I'm looking forward to having EDGE-or-better speed on my next device.

Cost of the PLAN is the biggest factor for me. T-Mobile is cheaper & more flexible than Cingular for data (more below). Sprint and Verizon are out, since they're CDMA and I want GSM/GPRS for international voice & data roaming (esp. in remote areas that currently have GPRS and aren't likely to have any other data coverage for years).

Cost of the DEVICE is less important (since investing in a device that works with T-Mobile will save me money overall vs. any other carrier's data plan). I already own a basic PDA-only Palm device, and I've accepted that I'll need to keep carrying that along with the new data/phone device (since my biggest musts, Palm OS and GSM+GPRS+wifi connectivity, seem to be mutually exclusive for now [I need Palm OS itself, not just an OS that can sync with my Palm data]).

---- Here's what I want in a PLAN:
• flat-rate data plan, covering both unlimited data on the device and unlimited tethering (such as T-Mobile's $30/mo Blackberry plan for non-corporate users)
• EITHER a very cheap add-on for voice calls (like $10/mo for 100 mins/mo [not available at T-Mobile]) OR the ability, if you're on a data plan, to make voice calls billed per minute (as in T-Mobile's $0.20/min voice calls with data-only plans)
• flat-rate international data roaming with no annual commitment (such as T-Mobile's $20/mo international add-on, which you start & stop anytime [billed at $0.66/day] and which doesn't officially include free web access, tethering, or anything other than "email" [I've found many dozens of anecdotal reports to the contrary, but those experiences are apparently due to communication gaps between T-Moblie and its partners which I have to assume will be closed sometime soon]).

---- Here's what I want in a DEVICE:
• available from T-Mobile by June 2007
• non-Windows OS
• quad-band
• QWERTY keyboard
• uses GSM and GPRS and any EDGE-or-faster data standard
• has wifi (WPA-compatible) and will run at least one VoIP client (preferably many clients)
• can be unlocked and used with a new SIM card (for any travels where cheap-voice is more important than cheap-data)
• ringtones can be user-supplied mp3s (it's fine if that requires third-party software and/or lots of fiddling)
• no unsolveable incompatibilities with Mac OS (again, third-party & fiddling are fine).

Am I right that T-Mobile is my best provider and a Blackberry 8800 is my best device (assuming it turns out to have most of the features that are now being leaked -- most importantly wifi)? Am I missing any better ideas? (There are lots of mefi threads with info on older Blackberries/etc., but none specific to my situation.) Thanks for any reactions!

Prepaid Mobile Phone roaming through the UK, France and Belgium recommendations...

snarkle — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 05:57:43 -0800

Prepaid Mobile Phone roaming through the UK, France and Belgium recommendations... Heading to the UK (England, Scotland), France and Belgium in August and my girlfriend and I want to get prepaid mobile phone sim cards for the month that we're there.

Is there a mobile phone provider that will work in all of those 3 countries that will also provide an affordable roaming service on prepaid? Mainly I'll be using text messaging.. but it'd be nice to not have to pay a fortune to use the service.

Is there a way to find out coverage maps? Mainly I'm concerned about Belgium as we'll be out of the major cities..

How hard is it to get a prepaid sim card and how much does it cost to start one up?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

Are there any pay-as-you go dialup internet access companies with no monthly fee?

dflemingdotorg — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 11:55:46 -0800

Are there any pay-as-you go dialup internet access companies with no monthly fee? Preferrably with a POP in Charlottetown, PE, Canada, but one for roaming would be fine.