Advice for calling US Mobile Phone?

If you have a postpaid plan, which is what's considered normal in the US, GSM handsets roam just fine. I've used mine all over the US as well in Canada and Argentina. Cingular tells me that if I put the SIM in my 900/1800 phone it'll work in Europe, but their roaming rates are so high there's no point. Most prepaid plans are from resellers who make their own deals with the underlying carriers, and some arrange for roaming and some don't.

That said, I agree with everyone else who says that if your goal is to talk with someone who's in Maryland, you should forget about mobile phones. Find out if the place she's staying has a phone and if so, just call her on it using one of the cheap UK calling services. If not, should should get a prepaid US calling card that charges 2 cents/min to call the UK and call you from a pay phone. Google for "calling cards" and you'll find zillions of them, most that you can buy over the net and are delivered virtually, just an access phone number and a PIN.

Last month, my usual UK SP (Orange) suffered a temporary outage, and I switched to my Cingular/ATT SIM card - it worked just fine. It's useful as an emergency backup, but as you say, far too expensive.

People in Europe are going to argue with people in North America til the cows come home, but the fact remains that the North Americans are

*not* going to switch to a caller pays mobile system. That's it. Get used to it. It's been tried and it failed in North America. If you want to argue that caller pays is the greatest fine. Just don't expect us here in North America to agree with you. Arguments are really a *WASTE OF TIME!*

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Of course they can. It's generally called roaming when you're using another network to complete your calls. These days many plans include roaming on other networks so that's not even an issue.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yes, but if you have your phone not on a contract, how long will it work for, and also you would have to ignore all incoming calls so not as to get charged, as you phone is really only for emergencies, how do you know whether an incoming call is an emergency or not, and to whether to answer the call and then end up getting charged for a useless call.

No thank you very much.

The cheapest way is for her to call your landline from a landline in the U.S., using a calling card. Rates to the U.K. are very cheap, around 2 cents per minute. To call a UK mobile phone is more, around 15-17 cents per minute. Long calls to a mobile phone in the U.S. are going to cost you a lot, since incoming calls are not free.

In terms of which prepaid phone to get, it depends on where she is going to be, how much she is going to talk on it, and at what time. The best choice is probably Beyond Wireless, which is as low as 10 cents per minute, has excellent coverage, and will use any old Nokia or Motorola TDMA phone that was previously used on AT&T Wireless TDMA (they will also sell you a phone).

7-11 convenience stores sell a GSM phone and charge 20 cents per minute, but GSM coverage in the U.S. isn't so great.

Verizon InPulse is normally not a great plan, since they have a $1 fee for every day you use your phone. But the per minute cost is only 10¢, and they offer free night calling, 9:01 pm - 5:59 am, local time (but not free weekend calling). So this may actually work out for you, given the time difference. None of the other prepaid service offer free off-peak.

See

for comparisons on prepaid wireless.

So presumably you've paid for incoming calls. Are you crazy?

-- Andy

Ironically, Cingular and T-Mobile, who actually own networks, do not allow roaming on pre-paid. But resellers of GSM prepaid all allow roaming, at high per minute rates.

GSM is not the best choice for U.S. prepaid. The best choice is TDMA/AMPS, the second best choice is CDMA/AMPS. This holds true even though you may need to buy a phone.

See

If she gets one of the prepaid TDMA plans, such as from Beyond Wireless, he can send her a free text message indicating the number where she should call him. There is no minimum, and no activation fee on their plan; she could get by for the whole summer without actually buying any time. She just needs to find an old AT&T TDMA phone, but these are a dime a dozen now, on craigslist.org.

That's fine, but it's just not going to happen. Part of it is the different culture of telephone charging. Europeans have always expected to pay for all calls. Americans and Canadians for the most part have not. The reality is that the systems are what they are and are unlikely to change.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

{{{{{Welcome}}}}} wrote: ....

In the US the phone will "work" for 911 until the battery fails.

If one has no plan, one has no number, and therefor there are no incoming calls at all! Pretty convenient!

There are NO incoming calls. See above.

There are no charges.

You would look a gift horse in the mouth?

No roaming? Does everyone use public transportation too?-)

I think that 'no roaming' means that the market is not expanding fast enough to motivate interconnection of systems. Or the technologies are too incompatible.

Can y'all stop cross-posting to the Voice-over-IP group? Thanks.

Hey, I've been arguing *in favour* of the US system..! I'd like to see it at least available as an alternative.

Ivor

Ah, there is the difference he might not have understood. Here in the UK the main network operators do not allow roaming on one another's systems.

Ivor

Well then, as long as any phone works anywhere in GB, there's no problem, is there?

Subscriber pays is an option on Orange in the UK. You can get a geographical number for your mobile and pay for the incoming calls. I think those calls then come out of your same bucket of minutes. It is not a commonly used option, but I know a locksmith in the UK who subscribes to it. We basically works out of his van and decided that he would lose too much business if he listed a mobile number.

I've benefited from caller pays and can see the attraction. I'm a Yank who j is a very frequent visitor to the UK. I love have a UK SIM that I just plop in my phone and go. The caller pay models make it attactive to make these SIMs available. Caller pays makes emergency phones much easier. Buy a Virgin SIM, slide an extra tenner on it and you're in business. Similarly, my best friend who lives in London but has a number of foreign guests, keeps a visitor's SIM. Like a borrowed car, just bring it back full. The European model is definitely more convenient, but the American model has a great deal to be said about it financially.

The problem in my mind with caller pays is that it switches around the economic model. The caller is in a very difficult position to negotiate for a cheap termination rate with the mobile provider in exchange for guaranteeing the use of a largish block of minutes, e.g. I cannot call Voda and say that I plan on spending a thousand minutes a month calling Voda customers, what is the best rate you'll give me. As a result, the cost of terminating calls to mobiles is significantly higher than it should be. If the price of calling a mobile was only a few cents higher than calling a landline, caller pays would be great.

This problem is amplified if you have foreign callers. For example, it costs me two US cents a minute to call a German landline, but twenty-eight US cents a minute to call a German mobile. The differential is too high. With caller-pays, the end consumer loses their voice.

In the US, several carriers have free incoming plans. Even though calling numbers is not surcharged, most people I know who subscribe to them, change them for buckets with more incoming/outgoing minutes. The exception is people in certain trades (plummers, taxis, locksmiths, etc).

In closing, I think what I'm saying (as I think out loud) is that the US plans favor the high volume users. The European seem like a better deal for the moderate users. Carriers on both sides of the pond rob us blind on international roaming. Thank god for Riiing.

Stu

No, it means the networks all have national coverage.

Dave

On TDMA (IS-136) phones that's very possible as well. You just have to program the phone for 123-456-7890 and it will go to the "American Roaming Network" any time you attempt to make a chargeable call. If American Roaming Network places a call for you it's $2.99 to set up the call and $1.99 per minute. If you absolutely have to make a call you can. It's one way. No one can call you. For emergencies it will fill the bill. In fact there's a concern called "Emergency Cell Phones" which basically jus instructs you on how to program your phone to use the American Roaming Network. On Nokia phones it's quite a simple matter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I just love people who think that their way of doing things is always the best. Europeans like it that way. Don't go to Europe and you won't have to deal with it. Likewise if Europeans don't like the way we do things here too bad. Get used to it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -