universal cell phone

[AN-2]

One main problem with T-mobile: you get charged for any calls coming to your cell when overseas even if you don't answer the call !!!
If you forward the calls from the cell to a US number, or a voice mail box,
but you opened the phone once when overseas,
all the calls will go to that country and even if your phone is off it will go back to the US, to the voice
mail box or the other number you asked to send it to.
You will be charged for that call international roaming !!!

I had that problem and had to speak to T-mobile for a few months until they gave me the money back.
I use other ways for that now, including sim cards from many countries and an unlock GSM phones,
internet numbers like GIZMO, and so on.

One good thing about T-Mobile is that they have customer care number in the US 505 area code which
is FREE from ovearseas, but not free in the USA. (use the 611 or 800 numbers).

I use that to call the tech help dest of T-mobile and forward the calls to a new number or the voice mail box any day I need it when ovearseas.
I also use grandcentral.com to send the calls to other numbers, even to my email account as wav voice message file.

when you forward calls from your T-Mobile number make sure you use the conditional or unconditional call forwarding correctly. They use special 500 minutes for the conditional and your regular minutes
to the other one.

 

[Kikuchiyo]

Small print on the T-mobile web site says they'll provide the unlock code for your phone after 90 days of service. I have a coworker who made the unlocking of his phone a condition of the sale. And they did it for him right away.

 

[Fedora]

My vote goes to Mobal.
If you already have an unlocked GSM phone, the sim costs just 10 bucks.

No Plan or monthly charges. If you don't use it for 2 months, you don't pay a dime. Calls get charged to my business credit card.

Itemized call receipts. My company needs this for their reimbursement procedures. I just print it out and send it to the company.

Incoming calls while overseas are free.

I use Skype for my personal calls.

I tried various countrys' pay as you go plans. No itemized call list, very expensive, and always needing to buy more time.

My phone has worked everywhere except Equador, but they may have a contract there by now.

 

[JohnnyP]

....

Well i'm a few weeks into my T-Mobile usage.

Having problems. I asked the dealer guy back in Atlanta many times again and again, "Do I or you, have to do anything to this phone to make it work overseas"..."Or does the roaming just automatically work when I get to whatever country your coverage meets"...(my phone is quad band, GSM, etc)

No go.

So now im fighting with "online tech support" to try and get the Intl. feature activated on this phone.

I can't just dial the code, because I can't connect to the network!.

We'll see.

 

[turpentyine]

Thanks,
I think I am going the route of buying an unlocked gsm phone off of ebay and then getting the sim chips for the country's I am in. I will look into the roaming sim chip. I think that would be good for family to leave me messages and the call back on skype later

You can just unlock your current phone. I called cingular and they actually gave me the unlock code. If your network wont do that try browsing the net there is plenty of sites out there that have unlock codes for phones.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Well i'm a few weeks into my T-Mobile usage.

Having problems. I asked the dealer guy back in Atlanta many times again and again, "Do I or you, have to do anything to this phone to make it work overseas"..."Or does the roaming just automatically work when I get to whatever country your coverage meets"...(my phone is quad band, GSM, etc)

No go.

So now im fighting with "online tech support" to try and get the Intl. feature activated on this phone.

I can't just dial the code, because I can't connect to the network!.

We'll see.

If you haven't solved the problem, PM me. I've used T-Mo many times overseas. It's pretty easy and the in store reps have no clue how to do it.

 

[JohnnyP]

.........

I actually had a really quick response from tech support.

Went online, sent an email through the website that I figured had a snowballs chance in hell of actually getting to a qualified human.

But less than 12 hours later, got an email saying that they had altered my account and that it should be able to roam and make calls overseas.

Sure enough it worked that same day. I was very surprised.

Now I can roam for the low low rate of only $3-$5 per minute!!

But the guy selling me the phone in the T-Mobile store sounded good (as he should, he's a saleman), and after a while youve gotta just take their word for it that it will work as advertised, because you've gotta trust them at some point no matter how suspicious I am.

Ill eventually get this phone unlocked and go with the local sim/minutes route I think.

 

[FlyFastLiveSlow]

Glad you got the issue resolved.

 

[FirstMate]

I recently got a phone/sim card here in Saudi Arabia on the Al Jawal network. 100 Riyals, roughly 25 dollars, gets me about an hour or so worth of calls I think. Obviously it runs down quicker if I call the States.

However, does anyone have any idea if when I call home (to a US cell) if the cell is going to get charged an INTL rate or some ridiculous fee?

 

[tyuwerty]

I recently got a phone/sim card here in Saudi Arabia on the Al Jawal network. 100 Riyals, roughly 25 dollars, gets me about an hour or so worth of calls I think. Obviously it runs down quicker if I call the States.

However, does anyone have any idea if when I call home (to a US cell) if the cell is going to get charged an INTL rate or some ridiculous fee?

The rate to the USA is about 2.5 - 2.75 SR per minute.

No the person you are calling gets charged as if it were a regular call.