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Topic Review (Newest First)

  • 05-30-2007, 04:53 PM
    Interpage Network Services Inc.
    Recently, Paul Hovnanian P.E., <[email protected]>, wrote:

    > I'm going to Europe this summer. Usually, if I spend most of my time in
    > one country, I buy a prepaid SIM there and just put up with roaming
    > charges upwards of 1.00 Euro/min. This time, I'm going to be spending a
    > few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    > Austria, Belgium and London.
    >
    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?


    Although perhaps a bit too far into the future for your visit, the EU has
    finally enacted rulemaking to standardize and lower intra-European roaming,
    so this may have some effect on roaming rates should you opt to obtain a
    local SIM for Germany and/or The Netherlands. You may want to contact a
    given carrier in either of those countries to see if any rate reduction will
    be implemented and if so on which plans which may make roaming to Austria,
    Belgium, and the UK more affordable.

    This brings up a question: As most if not all European SIMs (and non-GSM
    mobile service if there is any left!) are "Caller Pays" (and hence free to
    the mobile subscriber), what happens, for example, if you obtain a SIM in
    Germany, and travel west to France and you receive a call? The caller still
    pays the premium/mobile rate, but does the mobile subscriber also pay in
    such cases for incoming roaming calls?

    Basically, do European carriers agree that to increase the use of mobile
    phones and their actual use while roaming they will not bill each other for
    servicing incoming calls to European roamers (or pool such calls), or do
    they see roaming as solely an immediate "revenue proposition" and soak the
    roamer for as much as they can (much like the US 5 to 10 years ago [and it's
    still done in some cases, although the actual subscriber may not notice if
    the carrier eats it]).

    -Doug

    [email protected] (remove the first three letters of the alphabet to
    mail
    me)

    Interpage(TM) Network Services Inc. / http://www.interpage.net



  • 05-27-2007, 11:53 AM
    SMS
    jdoe wrote:
    > We went last summer taking our V3 Razr with. I had Cingular give me the
    > world traveler plan and everything went flawlessly. You will also be amazed
    > how much better serivce is in Europe than here btw


    I haven't found the European and Asian coverage all that much better
    than Verizon in the U.S., but yes, European and Asian GSM service is
    much better than U.S. GSM service.

    In rural areas of Asia, you often lose coverage on GSM, and there is no
    AMPS to back you up, you just have no service.
  • 05-27-2007, 10:30 AM
    jdoe
    We went last summer taking our V3 Razr with. I had Cingular give me the
    world traveler plan and everything went flawlessly. You will also be amazed
    how much better serivce is in Europe than here btw
    "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <[email protected]> wrote in message
    news:[email protected]...
    > I'm going to Europe this summer. Usually, if I spend most of my time in
    > one country, I buy a prepaid SIM there and just put up with roaming
    > charges upwards of 1.00 Euro/min. This time, I'm going to be spending a
    > few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    > Austria, Belgium and London.
    >
    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?
    >
    > --
    > Paul Hovnanian mailto:[email protected]
    > ------------------------------------------------------------------
    > Leap and the net will appear.



  • 05-17-2007, 12:30 PM
    SMS
    Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

    <snip>

    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?


    Take a look at "http://www.hiusa.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Services"

    Global Premium
    --------------
    -Per minute rates from 99¢/minute
    -No connection fee
    -Free incoming in France, Italy, Spain, and UK
    -45 minutes of surcharge free incoming calls from the U.S. via an
    toll-free U.S. access number (39¢ per minute after that)
    -UK Phone number
    -$9 (includes $20 in credit)

    Passport Plus Service
    ---------------------
    -Per minute rates from 29¢/minute
    -Per-call connection fee of 25¢
    -No free incoming calls
    -Toll free U.S. access number, with a 39¢ per minute charge
    -UK phone number
    -$49 (includes $10 in credit)

    Passport Premium Service
    ------------------------
    -Per minute rates from 49¢/minute
    -Per-call connection fee of 25¢
    -Free incoming calls in 50 countries
    -Toll free U.S. access number, with a 39¢ per minute charge
    -UK phone number
    -$39 (includes $10 in credit)

    It all depends on how much you expect to use the phone as to which plan
    is most cost-effective. Personally, I'd try to minimize mobile phone
    use, using something like OneSuite to call back to the U.S. when
    possible, so I'd go with the Global Premium. YMMV.

    This place really gouges you on shipping, and there doesn't appear to be
    a way to order multiple cards per order. I'd order a bunch of Global
    Premium cards just for the 45 minutes of surcharge free incoming calls,
    but they don't let you do that (you'd have a new phone number for each
    card).
  • 05-17-2007, 11:35 AM
    Dennis Ferguson
    On 2007-05-17, Paul Hovnanian P.E. <[email protected]> wrote:
    > I'm going to Europe this summer. Usually, if I spend most of my time in
    > one country, I buy a prepaid SIM there and just put up with roaming
    > charges upwards of 1.00 Euro/min. This time, I'm going to be spending a
    > few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    > Austria, Belgium and London.
    >
    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?


    I have occasionally seen plans in European countries where you can
    roam on sister networks in other countries at no additional charge
    (H3G in the UK offers this for the (few) other countries where they
    operate, including Austria and Italy), but none of the UK operators
    with sister networks in the Netherlands or Germany offer this and I have
    no idea whether different options are available in those countries.

    The decline of the dollar against European currencies has made the
    $0.99/minute offered by T-Mobile, or Cingular if you pay them a
    monthly fee, look fairly competitive compared to European roaming
    rates. If I'm not going to be in a country long enough to justify
    a local SIM I generally use the US SIM for roaming.

    Dennis Ferguson
  • 05-16-2007, 10:23 PM
    Todd H.
    "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <[email protected]> writes:

    > I'm going to Europe this summer. Usually, if I spend most of my time in
    > one country, I buy a prepaid SIM there and just put up with roaming
    > charges upwards of 1.00 Euro/min. This time, I'm going to be spending a
    > few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    > Austria, Belgium and London.
    >
    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?


    The only international plan I was offered by Cingular for my recent
    trip to Germany/Austria was about $5/month and it dropped the roaming
    rate from like $1.49/min to 99c/min. This was without changing to
    another sim or anything. It's at least better than 1euro/min I
    guess.

    I'm curious what others will offer as a solution. There must be a
    good way to do this.

    --
    Todd H.
    http://toddh.net/
  • 05-16-2007, 10:16 PM
    Todd Allcock
    At 16 May 2007 17:43:55 -0700 Paul Hovnanian P.E. wrote:

    > I'm going to be spending a
    > few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    > Austria, Belgium and London.
    >
    > Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    > or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    > reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?


    I will defer any suggestions to those with experience traveling to those
    countries, but would suggest you check out prepaidgsm.net- it covers
    virtually all of the prepaid services in the world, including the
    "international SIMs" that work in all countries.


  • 05-16-2007, 06:43 PM
    Paul Hovnanian P.E.
    I'm going to Europe this summer. Usually, if I spend most of my time in
    one country, I buy a prepaid SIM there and just put up with roaming
    charges upwards of 1.00 Euro/min. This time, I'm going to be spending a
    few weeks in both The Netherlands and Germany with a few days in
    Austria, Belgium and London.

    Seeing as how most of my calling will be done in either The Netherlands
    or Germany, are there any plans that cover both countries? Or have
    reasonable roaming rates in one or the other?

    --
    Paul Hovnanian mailto:[email protected]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    Leap and the net will appear.

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