Use of Cingular phone overseas

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Rick - 30 Mar 2008 04:55 GMT

We have the Cingular national family plan, with four phones and a common
pool of 1000 minutes per month. Within the US, we have no long distance or
roaming charges, and we have the normal Cingular features like free mobile
to mobile, unlimited night and weekend and the carryover of unused minutes.

One of us will be traveling to Spain (Barcelona) for three weeks, and we
would like to know if Cingular has any special "deals" or programs to help
us minimize charges from that phone while in Spain. Would I be correct in
assuming that the normal free mobile-to-mobile and free night and weekend
would not apply? What would typical charges be for calls made to or from
that phone while it is in Spain?

Reply to this Message

Kevin Weaver - 30 Mar 2008 06:11 GMT

> We have the Cingular national family plan, with four phones and a common
> pool of 1000 minutes per month. Within the US, we have no long distance
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> would not apply? What would typical charges be for calls made to or from
> that phone while it is in Spain?

611 will tell you.

Reply to this Message

Dennis Ferguson - 30 Mar 2008 07:33 GMT

> We have the Cingular national family plan, with four phones and a common
> pool of 1000 minutes per month. Within the US, we have no long distance or
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> would not apply? What would typical charges be for calls made to or from
> that phone while it is in Spain?

It will cost $1.29 per minute with your current plan, or $0.99
per minute if you add AT&T World Traveller to the account (about
$4/month extra, I think), for both incoming and outgoing calls.
The roaming phone will be charged this no matter who calls and when
they call.

For three weeks this isn't a good deal. The person travelling
could talk a whole lot longer for the same amount of money by
getting their phone unlocked (AT&T will provide the code for
this if you call) and buying a prepaid Spanish SIM either when
they get there or before they leave from (say) here (for a
bit of an upcharge):

http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=LSIM-ES03

If you want a fairly reasonably priced way to call the Spanish number
from the US, as well as maybe making overseas calls from Spain, you might
look at Rebtel at

http://www.rebtel.com

though there are lots of other was to do this.

Dennis Ferguson

Reply to this Message

Bert Hyman - 31 Mar 2008 14:36 GMT

> For three weeks this isn't a good deal. The person travelling
> could talk a whole lot longer for the same amount of money by
> getting their phone unlocked (AT&T will provide the code for
> this if you call)

Just make sure your phone will operate on the 900 & 1800 MHz bands
used in Spain, as opposed to the 850 & 1900 MHz bands used in the US.

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_es.shtml

> and buying a prepaid Spanish SIM either when they get there or
> before they leave from (say) here (for a bit of an upcharge):
>
> http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=LSIM-ES03

If procedures in Spain are like those in other countries, buying a
pre-paid SIM in the US is no longer a sensible option, since many
European countries require personal registration and activation of
pre-paid accounts, leaving your premium-priced SIM useless until you
can find a way to get it turned on once you arrive.

I found out the hard way last year. I bought a pre-paid Netcom
(Norway) SIM through Telestial, but when I got to Norway, all I got on
my phone was a text message requiring me to register it. Since I
wasn't a Norwegian citizen and not in the database, I couldn't
register over the air, but had to find a Netcom retail outlet
(fortunately, there was one near my hotel) and present my passport in
order to get the account activated.

If I'd known that, I could have saved money and aggravation by waiting
'til I got there to buy the SIM.

Signature

Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

Reply to this Message

Dennis Ferguson - 31 Mar 2008 21:03 GMT

> dcferguson@pacbell.net (Dennis Ferguson) wrote in
>> and buying a prepaid Spanish SIM either when they get there or
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> pre-paid accounts, leaving your premium-priced SIM useless until you
> can find a way to get it turned on once you arrive.

This is a good point. I wasn't asked for ID when I bought the European
SIMs I have (UK and Germany), but I've had them for a while. For the Asian
SIMs I've bought more recently, however, I've had to provide ID to get them
turned on, so this might be a trend.

Dennis Ferguson

Reply to this Message