international roaming with telstra

[parsonstrish]

i'm going o/seas in five weeks. I found last year trying to find my b&b's difficult without my friends' mobile. So I bought a mobile with Telstra as carier for just this purpose. I've seen a previous post with sim cards with cheap rates, but deleted it. :cry: I bought a phone that winks and blinks and haven't a clue how to use it other than call and receive. All I want is to cut down cost of using int'l roaming. I need it mainly for England and Ireland. thanks, trish

 

[robertz]

Hi Trish
Couple of issues to consider here, before you leave AUS.
1) Some phones are carrier blocked. Meaning when you get to UK, you wont be able to use a non-telstra SIM. (Don't take there word for this. Find a friend with alternative carrier and check)

2) Int Roaming has to be turned on before you leave, to save many hassles when OS. Also, remember to get the phone configured to allow you to get your messages while OS. (Or turn it off, to save some $$$, per minute rate to retrieve is the same as calling AUS)

International Roaming is very, very expensive. Even local to local when your in the UK. I'm with Optus and last time I was there, I was paid $2.50 for a 1 min call.
Calls back to AUS will cost you about $4.50 for 1min 30 sec.

Also remember if you have your phone on Int Roam, then you pay for all incoming calls as well. (Me about $1.60 / min)

With SMS, you pay to send the SMS back to AUS (0.70c) then you pay for the outgoing SMS as well.

The best way to go is getting a local SIM, like you suggested. I'm sure you could walk into any mobile phone shop and buy a sim, with some prepaid minutes. And top it up as required, so your Aussie friends can call you any time. Phoning UK to AUS with prepaid is also expensive, so better using a land line for this.

Hope all this helps

Robert

 

[Guest]

best way to deal with aussie mobiles overseas is to change your voicemail to something like... "hi im overseas, leave a detailed message or email me at blah blah"

with telstra, you send a SMS to the voicemail number and it calls you back at LOCAL AUSTRALIAN RATES (5/cent/min ??).

text messages are next cheapest option, but as it has been pointed out, avoid making calls to ANY PHONE!

have fun!

 

[bigjobs]

after having a mobile service with optus, telstra and vodafone here is australia i have found that Vodafone offers the best international roaming service.

i have heard they are one of the biggest mobile phone service providers in the world. where ever i am in north america or europe i just switch my phone on and connect with out a challenge. my phone will ususally display who is calling also.

i think it;s the best one so far.

 

[oz_mark]

Well, just got back from Singapore with quite a few calls back and forward, so I guess I can look forward to a rather significan bill

 

[Guest]

after having a mobile service with optus, telstra and vodafone here is australia i have found that Vodafone offers the best international roaming service.

i have heard they are one of the biggest mobile phone service providers in the world. where ever i am in north america or europe i just switch my phone on and connect with out a challenge. my phone will ususally display who is calling also.

i think it;s the best one so far.

be weary of vodaphone:

vodaphone have no USA voice partners.
you cannot use intl roaming on their capped plans AT ALL.

 

[JohnK]

be weary of vodaphone:

vodaphone have no USA voice partners.
you cannot use intl roaming on their capped plans AT ALL.

I think you are right for USA and capped plans.

I use vodafone on a $29/month plan with $40 free calls and text included. When I am roaming overseas any phone calls and sms messages can also be included as part of the free calls if I have not used up my $40.

I have not been to US and Europe but calls seem to be cheap from SE Asia back to AUS, don't remember the exact cost but, are less than $2/min + connection fee and calls received from AUS are charged at ~$1.50/min. SMS is $0.75/sms.

Overall not bad pricing for overseas calls considering some carriers/plans in AUS have call rates mobile to mobile/land line at around $1/min + connection fee, some are even higher from what people tell me.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Tip: If you decide to roam check out the pricing before you go so you know which provider to choose (in places where there is a choice). The differences in rates that I've seen in some countries has been amazing.

Now if only I'd remember to check the auto-select function picked the right one each time :roll:

 

[markis10]

I brought a prepaid SIM in HK from Orange, switched to phone to divert to voicemail before leaving Australia and just called people back.

 

[Maca44]

As mentioned in other posts I believe also that the best method is to purchase a pre-paid SIM card when you arrive at your destination. However, prior to leaving Australia be sure to ascertain what number you contact from your destination (eg Telstra/Optus etc) so that when you purchase your pre-paid SIM and receive your new mobile number you can put a voice message on your original number advising callers of your new number overseas, including country codes etc.

SMS is also very convenient and you can insert your original SIM card into your mobile every couple of days to receive messages.

It is my understanding that if you activate global roaming your caller pays for the call to your mobile in Australia and you pay the international leg of the call from Australia to UK/Ireland etc, which can be very costly to you. You might want to warn callers in your voice message that if they call your new pre-paid mobile listing that they will be responsible for 'all' costs of the call, not you, but they should be aware of this when they see the international and area codes etc.

Although I do the above with my mobile when o/s there are others who contribute considerable info to this forum who travel extensively and may be better qualified to comment on this topic. Consider all options and go to the website of your telco provider to see the costs etc of roaming.

 

[icarus]

I used Telstra global roaming on my last trip to the US and absolutely loathed it. It was unreliable and seems to link you up with a different carrier in every city, you seem to need to use country codes when I wouldn't expect to and although I did not make a huge number of calls I am looking forward to a seriously horrendous bill - from estimates, possibly $1000 or so. Eep.

The time before that, I strolled up to a kiosk at a San Francisco Muni station and forked over $45 US for a T-mobile pre-paid sim card that gave me 10 hours worth of calls.

Of course, that meant I had a different number and my office couldn't reach me until I notified them. Which is why I agreed to use global roaming this time - except I'm still the one who pays for it.

Wow - $1000 for the privilege of being able to have my office interrupt me when I'm on holiday. CHOOSE THE SIM CARD!!!! CHOOSE THE SIM CARD!!!!