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Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to

Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to leave the USA or make a phone call to anybody in another country. An example: I flew to the 'states this weekend. Once on the ground, I topped up my American (T-Mobile) sim with a month's worth of credit. (There was no way to do this from abroad since their sims don't work there at all, and their website has a ridiculous country redirect even from your account page). At the airport, on the way home, I sent a text to my wife letting her know I was on the way. It failed. I tried again to various permutations of the French number, with absolutely no success. Googling around, it seems that you can't do that with t-mobile. You can't even get them to turn it on, since their "international" packages only work with their contract services. Not just roaming, but even placing a phone call to another country is impossible with pre-paid t-mobile. Sure enough, landing in Paris, the phone was dead dead dead. No "welcome to France" message. No extortionate international roaming charges. Just no ability to make calls at all. I had to pop my UK sim back in just to be able to use the phone again. I'm looking forward to the first company (in any country) that truly gets all this. They'll get my business, as well as pretty much all the business from anybody who travels at all.

corin_ 13y ago
Vodafone (UK) are awesome within Europe - when I am abroad I pay £2.50/day to use my normal price plan abroad (so I still get unlimited minutes/texts, and 6GB data, for no cost other than that daily fee). For calling European numbers they aren't quite as good, but for £5/month the prices drop from £1/min to between 5p and 20p/min depending on the type of number I'm calling. Outside Europe they're still awful though, something like £1.50/min to call to America/Asia from UK, and same for both placing and receiving calls when in those continents. Last time I was in America I picked up a cheap phone at a supermarket that gave me 1c/min phonecalls to anywhere in the US or even abroad - including calling UK mobile phones. That saved me a lot of money.
- rs 13y ago
  Think the trick to overseas is to get a local pre-paid SIM card, and use that number locally. As pre-paid SIM cards are getting more pervasive around the world, normally this works out as the cheapest option. Naturally, there are some countries where purchasing a pre-paid SIM is near impossible, or costly enough that sticking to roaming with your current provider works out cheaper.
  - corin_ 13y ago
    Agreed, that's essentially what I was doing in the US, I just got it with a cheap phone too so I could keep my normal blackberry up and running with my UK number. But stuff like the Vodafone deal within Europe are awesome, as it saves the hassle of needing either two phones or sim swapping.
    - Spearchucker 13y ago
      I do the same. Cheap phone for local calls, and my normal phone for calls to/from home. What frustrates me is that even though dual-SIM phones have been around for years, no Western service provider will sell them, so none of the more popular smart phones support it.
- batuhanicoz 13y ago
  Vodafone Turkey is also really good. I can use my plan in any country that either have Vodafone or a company they have an agreement with. And also I can call everyone from Europe with my plans as well. Unlimited land-line calls to nearly every country.
- bnastic 13y ago
  Three got a little bit better - no roaming charges whatsoever in a number of European countries (i.e. no data cap on my plan). It was really handy to not have to worry about loading google maps and local websites while out and about in Italy this summer. Hopefully the list of countries will keep increasing.
  - selectstar 13y ago
    Strange, my partners Three contract had a £5.00 per day charge in mainland Europe but with no data cap after that.
    - Osmium 13y ago
      Three actually recently announced a similar thing to this, whereby you take your contract with you to any country that Three operates in, i.e. Australia, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Hong Kong and the Republic of Ireland. Other European countries and you still have to pay their standard European roaming charge... http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/30/feel-at-home-3/ http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/30/feel-at-home-3/
- deskpro 13y ago
  Check out EE roaming; it's competitive with Vodafone (one of the reasons I moved to them). £5/month for unlimited roaming minutes/texts in EU, US and others. Data is reasonable value @ £25/GB and lasts a month. Importantly includes places like the US, Australia, Russia, China, India etc ....
  - corin_ 13y ago
    Hah, just signed a new 2 year contract with Vodafone, but will keep in mind for the future, thanks :)
mason55 13y ago
> Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to leave the USA or make a phone call to anybody in another country. Your case is a little different but in general it's a huge stream of free revenue for the carriers. Very few people pick their plan based on international roaming. People don't roam internationally very often. Those that do are likely on a business plan and much less sensitive to price. No one has any idea what it costs so they can use very opaque pricing schemes. As the article says, AT&T and VZW are making 90% margin on their international business which you'd think would make it ripe for competition. But since almost no one purchases their plans based on the international roaming fees there hasn't been much going on.

corin_ 13y ago

Vodafone (UK) are awesome within Europe - when I am abroad I pay £2.50/day to use my normal price plan abroad (so I still get unlimited minutes/texts, and 6GB data, for no cost other than that daily fee). For calling European numbers they aren't quite as good, but for £5/month the prices drop from £1/min to between 5p and 20p/min depending on the type of number I'm calling. Outside Europe they're still awful though, something like £1.50/min to call to America/Asia from UK, and same for both placing and receiving calls when in those continents. Last time I was in America I picked up a cheap phone at a supermarket that gave me 1c/min phonecalls to anywhere in the US or even abroad - including calling UK mobile phones. That saved me a lot of money.

rs 13y ago
Think the trick to overseas is to get a local pre-paid SIM card, and use that number locally. As pre-paid SIM cards are getting more pervasive around the world, normally this works out as the cheapest option. Naturally, there are some countries where purchasing a pre-paid SIM is near impossible, or costly enough that sticking to roaming with your current provider works out cheaper.
- corin_ 13y ago
  Agreed, that's essentially what I was doing in the US, I just got it with a cheap phone too so I could keep my normal blackberry up and running with my UK number. But stuff like the Vodafone deal within Europe are awesome, as it saves the hassle of needing either two phones or sim swapping.
  - Spearchucker 13y ago
    I do the same. Cheap phone for local calls, and my normal phone for calls to/from home. What frustrates me is that even though dual-SIM phones have been around for years, no Western service provider will sell them, so none of the more popular smart phones support it.
batuhanicoz 13y ago
Vodafone Turkey is also really good. I can use my plan in any country that either have Vodafone or a company they have an agreement with. And also I can call everyone from Europe with my plans as well. Unlimited land-line calls to nearly every country.
bnastic 13y ago
Three got a little bit better - no roaming charges whatsoever in a number of European countries (i.e. no data cap on my plan). It was really handy to not have to worry about loading google maps and local websites while out and about in Italy this summer. Hopefully the list of countries will keep increasing.
- selectstar 13y ago
  Strange, my partners Three contract had a £5.00 per day charge in mainland Europe but with no data cap after that.
  - Osmium 13y ago
    Three actually recently announced a similar thing to this, whereby you take your contract with you to any country that Three operates in, i.e. Australia, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Hong Kong and the Republic of Ireland. Other European countries and you still have to pay their standard European roaming charge... http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/30/feel-at-home-3/ http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/30/feel-at-home-3/
deskpro 13y ago
Check out EE roaming; it's competitive with Vodafone (one of the reasons I moved to them). £5/month for unlimited roaming minutes/texts in EU, US and others. Data is reasonable value @ £25/GB and lasts a month. Importantly includes places like the US, Australia, Russia, China, India etc ....
- corin_ 13y ago
  Hah, just signed a new 2 year contract with Vodafone, but will keep in mind for the future, thanks :)

mason55 13y ago

> Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to leave the USA or make a phone call to anybody in another country. Your case is a little different but in general it's a huge stream of free revenue for the carriers. Very few people pick their plan based on international roaming. People don't roam internationally very often. Those that do are likely on a business plan and much less sensitive to price. No one has any idea what it costs so they can use very opaque pricing schemes. As the article says, AT&T and VZW are making 90% margin on their international business which you'd think would make it ripe for competition. But since almost no one purchases their plans based on the international roaming fees there hasn't been much going on.