Carrier with the most International GSM roaming, Carrier with the best GSM rats, Quite surprising

"eMeL" <[email protected]> wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> This is load of bull!
> Nextel's international roaming rates are rape and pillage! (I'm a long-time Nextel
> subscriber who actually travels abroad with their phone very frequently forced by my
> employer...)

Yes, I made a big mistake there, you are indeed
correct about everything, including the wrong URL
for the rate chart. Sorry. Even experts make mistakes
now and then. And no, I am not getting paid by
anyone to do this.

I've updated all my sites and I've added an
international rate chart comparison for the six
carriers, you can see it directly at:

"http://nordicgroup.us/cellcomp/intlrate.htm"

This table covers a couple of hundred countries, and
yes I know there are some duplicates where one
country has more than one name.

Again, sorry for the incorrect statements about
Nextel.

Steve
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.socalcell.com
Southern California Area Cellular Carrier Comparison
[email protected]
--------------------------------------------------


[posted via phonescoop.com - free web access to the alt.cellular groups]

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› See More: Carrier with the most International GSM roaming, Carrier with the best GSM rats, Quite surprising

"eMeL" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Donald Newcomb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Last time I checked on prepaids in Egypt,
> > they cost over US$100 to activate. Clearly not the solution for a
one-week
> > visit.
> >
>
> Get a callback number. This way you can make inexpensive calls from
abroad and other
> people can reach you dialing just one (US) number regardless of your
location. I
> travel quite a bit and have a collection of local prepaids yet I have just
one local
> number in the US. You can change the callback number via web, phone call,
etc.
> Simple and convenient even when moving around a lot.

Well, yeah. That and a Yac number too. But that does not change the fact
that I'd think long and hard before I'd plop down a non-refundable ~$100
"connection fee" for a prepaid account in Elbonia. It's just a matter of
dollars and cents. You have to anticipate some level of usage to warrant
buying a prepaid. In some countries that just takes one or two calls, but in
other countries it takes a lot of calls to offset the intitial buy-in cost.
South Korea is another country with steep "connection fees". There it is
better to rent a prepaid phone (CDMA) and add air-time as needed.

> > It's been good to have an easyRoam just for those times when I found
myself
> > in a situation where nothing else worked. I mourn it's passing.
>
> EasyRoam was expensive, but convenient. There is always a way. If - for a
variety of
> reasons - I cannot buy a local prepaid, I simply use callback to a
stationary phone
> (say, 54 cents to Egypt from the US but only 9 cents a minute for example
to
> pain - cheaper than any prepaid call...)

pain? Spain? Yes, but that assumes you have access to a landline. I'd like
to find a callback service that let's me send a SMS to request a callback
*to* a particular number. All the callback services I know of let you
trigger a callback to your preconfigured number, but not to trigger a
callback to any given number. Callbacks to local prepaids are only a little
more expensive than calls to landlines. My Japanese prepaid is 100Y/min to
the US but my callback service only charges about 32c between the US and a
Japanese wireless phone (Yes, I know I can probably find a cheaper callback
service but I almost never spend more than $5/month on callback services.)

The easyRoam has been mostly as a last resort for people to contact me. I
think I've only ever placed a couple of calls uing it. For that much money I
can wait until I find a landline. The exceptions are when I'm trapped some
place where I can't get to a landline (e.g. on a ship).

> Funny thing - there is a story in the today's (8/5) NY Times about
cellular int'l
> roaming in which the president of Telestial states that he travels with
local
> prepaids...

What do expect? He sells them. He doesn't have to pay Telestial's premium
for the SIMs.

--

Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
Remove 'NOT' from address to reply

"Donald Newcomb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> South Korea is another country with steep "connection fees". There it is
> better to rent a prepaid phone (CDMA) and add air-time as needed.

I go to Korea a lot. The prepaid phone rentals are very cheap, and the rates
back to the U.S. from those phones are incredibly low.

I had a difficult time fathoming out all the info on ATT's website, but it
implied their roaming charge in France was $1.29/minute (regardless of where
the call was coming from or going to). So I called customer service and
they also said, in no uncertain terms, that is was just $1.29/minute. The
truth will be known shortly, when the bill comes in!

For what it's worth, coverage was exceptional. I've got an SE68 and it
worked wonderfully. Even like the alarm clock feature works nicely,
allowing me to not worry about bringing a separate alarm clock (it works
even when the phone is turned off).

So far, I'm one very happy camper with ATTWS GSM and an SE68. We'll see
about that bill though!

--Mike--
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com

"Steven Scharf" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I was answering an e-mail from someone this morning regarding
> international roaming. I had to do some research into GSM
> roaming coverage and rates.
>
> Quite surprising results. Nextel actually had the best deal
> for use of the phone within other countries, at 75 cents per
> minute, though not the best rates for making or receiving calls
> from the U.S.. T-Mobile usually had the best long distance rates
> in the "common" countries. Verizon had the best coverage,
> covering many countries I'd never ever heard of, while
> Sprint and Nextel were limited to more common countries.
> AT&T had the 2nd best coverage, followed by T-Mobile and
> Cingular which were about equal.
>
> BTW, For Cingular, pay no attention to:
> "http://www.cingular.com/estore/roaming_west_rates"
> this site is not accurate and the rates are much lower
> than what is listed there.
>
> I thought that it was rather ironic that a CDMA carrier had
> the most extensive international GSM roaming coverage. Of
> course you need a GSM handset to use with the SIM card that
> Verizon sells to you, which is an extra expense of at least
> $80.
>
> Steve

"Steven M. Scharf" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I go to Korea a lot. The prepaid phone rentals are very cheap, and the rates
> back to the U.S. from those phones are incredibly low.

Exactly. South Korea is one country where I advise renting a phone
locally, rather than any sort of roaming or purchase of a prepaid. You
can rent a prepaid phone for between $1.00 and $3.00 per day. You then
add as much or little prepaid airtime as you need. Last time I checked
into buying a prepaid wireless phone, there was no problem, but there
was a non-refundable set-up fee of more than $50, which skewed the
decision back to renting. If you are talking to a Korean mobile phone
rental company that is going to charge you $1.00/min for calls; Run
Away!

Also, I got a prepaid international calling card that was just 9c/min
to call the US.

Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net