Hands0n
16th May 2010, 03:02 PM
Over the past few years the EU Commissioners have put the mobile network operators under some pressure to reduce their roaming tariffs.
In response, under the cartel that is the GSMA, the operators have made every excuse under the sun to avoid doing so. They steadfastly insist that roaming should be a privilege with an accompanying premium charge for doing so. Thus ignoring the basic marketing principle of "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" which would encourage significantly more travellers to make use of roaming when abroad rather than leave their mobiles at home or switched off and therefore not earning the mobile network operators any money at all.
And so it came to pass that the EU Commissioners were forced into regulating the mobile network operators into capping their roaming charges. Again, the GSMA cartel protested and in the most recent data roaming tariff debacle they said that they would respond by charging more elsewhere. That is now coming into being with uplifts in roaming tariffs where EU regulation does not apply, also with some localised tweaks such as Vodafone's recent intentions to do away with their "Unlimited" FUP, replacing it with a 500MB cap above which charges will automatically apply.
Data roaming is likely to continue to be a problem for the forseeable future as there is little or no alternative yet. However, voice and text roaming does not need to be as expensive as using the mobile network operators themselves. There are several strategies available to the punter (that is you and I).
How to know what charges to expect
There are a number of comparison sites out on the web. One of those that I have found to be reasonably accurate and easy to use is Onecompare who can be found here --> http://www.onecompare.com/international-roaming/
Using this comparison site it is easy to find out the costs of:
Calls to the UK
Receiving calls from the UK
Calling within the country
Text message cost
So for example, I am travelling to Egypt this year and can see that calls to the UK could cost me anything from £0.28p to £1.80 per minute depending on what means I choose to use my mobile phone. For I will most definitely be taking my mobile phone with me.
Using that same site I can see that receiving calls in Egypt from the UK may cost me from £0.00 to £1.65 per minute.
To give you some idea of the potential cost savings I have used a roaming SIM checker for my Egypt holiday based on the following premise
Holiday Maker Average Usage
50 mins of outbound calls to the UK
25 mins of Inbound calls
35Text messages
Using a Global SIM my cost for a week, based on the above profile is:
Inbound : Free
Outbound : £ 14
Text Message : £ 6.3
Num Prefix: +372
Estonia
Total : £ 20.12
All of the UK mobile operators (MNO or MVNO) were more expensive. Again, using the above profile that same week's usage profile with Tesco Mobile would cost
Inbound : £ 37.25
Outbound : £ 74.5
Text Message : £ 52.15
Num Prefix: +447
UK Mobile
Total : £ 162.41
The next cheapest was O2 Total : £ 139.85
Clearly there is a lot of money at stake here...
Strategies to keep costs minimal
There are, as with anything, a number of ways to minimise the roaming costs when using your mobile abroad. Which you choose will depend upon a number of personal factors. The laziest and most expensive way is to take your existing mobile number abroad with you.
By no means an exhaustive list, the available strategies to limit roaming costs include;
Not making or taking any calls or text messages when travelling (i.e. leave your phone at home)
Significantly curtailing answering/making calls
Limiting yourself to exchanging as few text messages as possible
Using a SIM from a UK operator that is cheapest for the destination you are going to
Purchasing a SIM local to the country of travel when you get there
Purchasing a "global SIM" before departure
Purchase local Calling Cards to use landlines while you're there
Disconnecting yourself from "the grid" completely when travelling
There are no doubt many other means at your disposal, but the above may be considered mainstream.
Global SIMs
For the purposes of this opening post I want to briefly discuss Global SIMs. These are regular GSM SIMs that may be installed in any SP-unlocked or SIM-free handset. They will not work in any handset that is locked to any mobile network operator.
There are several Global SIM providers in existence now. These typically exploit Lithuanian, Estonian or Isle of Man abilities to route mobile calls to and from the foreign location as cheaply as possible.
In practical use, the method of making calls is different for the mobile traveller where you dial the number you want to contact and then get a call-back from the Global SIM company. To be called UK nationals have to dial a gateway in the particular country where the gateway is located (i.e. Estonia) that then routes the call to the mobile.
Calls to Lithuania and Estonia can be expensive - but there are ways of mitigating this even, keeping the cost down for those left behind who will be wanting to call you. Again, it is a different method but the cost savings are too big to ignore.
What is the catch?
Well, generally there isn't one, but there are a few things to consider or at least look out for. It is not all about the cheapness of call cost, look into what else that Global SIM involves.
Credit Expiry - Some cards expire the credit after a period of non use. Others, such as GoSIM, the credit never expires
SIM Expiry - Some cards expire the number rendering the SIM useless after a period of non-use. Others, such as GoSIM, never expire
Call Set-up fee - Some cards charge a call set-up fee of a few pence per call, some do not. The actual cost per minute charge does nto offset this set-up fee.
Daily Access Charge or Monthly Fee - Shop around, only a few cards charge these fees
Again, not an exhaustive list, but some of the things that you should watch out for.
My own plans for Egypt are
With quite a bit of research and all things [above] considered I finally came down on the side of GoSIM. This article is not an advertisement for GoSIM, it is just that was what worked for me. I strongly suggest that you use the referenced resources and find out what works for you, it may be very different.
So, I have ordered a pair of SIMs from GoSIM (see http://www.gosim.com/?roamingsims )on the "Managers Special" discount of £15 for two, they are usually £10 each. Additionally I have purchased £20 credit to be divided equally across each SIM, one for me and one for the Mrs.
GoSIM uses an Estonian gateway and so UK callers to my GoSIM number will be hit for the call cost to Estonia. Fortunately there are ways to mitigate that cost and so for people in the UK to call me I will suggest that they use Briing.com (see http://www.briing.com/ ) to call - that will save them a huge amount, typically it will cost £0.20p per minute using Briing.com to call my GoSIM number.
Handy References (please add any others you find in further posts below, I will bring those up into this list here)
OneCompare.com - http://www.onecompare.com/
RoamingAdvisor.com - http://www.roamingsims.com/
Briing.com - http://www.briing.com/
In response, under the cartel that is the GSMA, the operators have made every excuse under the sun to avoid doing so. They steadfastly insist that roaming should be a privilege with an accompanying premium charge for doing so. Thus ignoring the basic marketing principle of "stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap" which would encourage significantly more travellers to make use of roaming when abroad rather than leave their mobiles at home or switched off and therefore not earning the mobile network operators any money at all.
And so it came to pass that the EU Commissioners were forced into regulating the mobile network operators into capping their roaming charges. Again, the GSMA cartel protested and in the most recent data roaming tariff debacle they said that they would respond by charging more elsewhere. That is now coming into being with uplifts in roaming tariffs where EU regulation does not apply, also with some localised tweaks such as Vodafone's recent intentions to do away with their "Unlimited" FUP, replacing it with a 500MB cap above which charges will automatically apply.
Data roaming is likely to continue to be a problem for the forseeable future as there is little or no alternative yet. However, voice and text roaming does not need to be as expensive as using the mobile network operators themselves. There are several strategies available to the punter (that is you and I).
How to know what charges to expect
There are a number of comparison sites out on the web. One of those that I have found to be reasonably accurate and easy to use is Onecompare who can be found here --> http://www.onecompare.com/international-roaming/
Using this comparison site it is easy to find out the costs of:
Calls to the UK
Receiving calls from the UK
Calling within the country
Text message cost
So for example, I am travelling to Egypt this year and can see that calls to the UK could cost me anything from £0.28p to £1.80 per minute depending on what means I choose to use my mobile phone. For I will most definitely be taking my mobile phone with me.
Using that same site I can see that receiving calls in Egypt from the UK may cost me from £0.00 to £1.65 per minute.
To give you some idea of the potential cost savings I have used a roaming SIM checker for my Egypt holiday based on the following premise
Holiday Maker Average Usage
50 mins of outbound calls to the UK
25 mins of Inbound calls
35Text messages
Using a Global SIM my cost for a week, based on the above profile is:
Inbound : Free
Outbound : £ 14
Text Message : £ 6.3
Num Prefix: +372
Estonia
Total : £ 20.12
All of the UK mobile operators (MNO or MVNO) were more expensive. Again, using the above profile that same week's usage profile with Tesco Mobile would cost
Inbound : £ 37.25
Outbound : £ 74.5
Text Message : £ 52.15
Num Prefix: +447
UK Mobile
Total : £ 162.41
The next cheapest was O2 Total : £ 139.85
Clearly there is a lot of money at stake here...
Strategies to keep costs minimal
There are, as with anything, a number of ways to minimise the roaming costs when using your mobile abroad. Which you choose will depend upon a number of personal factors. The laziest and most expensive way is to take your existing mobile number abroad with you.
By no means an exhaustive list, the available strategies to limit roaming costs include;
Not making or taking any calls or text messages when travelling (i.e. leave your phone at home)
Significantly curtailing answering/making calls
Limiting yourself to exchanging as few text messages as possible
Using a SIM from a UK operator that is cheapest for the destination you are going to
Purchasing a SIM local to the country of travel when you get there
Purchasing a "global SIM" before departure
Purchase local Calling Cards to use landlines while you're there
Disconnecting yourself from "the grid" completely when travelling
There are no doubt many other means at your disposal, but the above may be considered mainstream.
Global SIMs
For the purposes of this opening post I want to briefly discuss Global SIMs. These are regular GSM SIMs that may be installed in any SP-unlocked or SIM-free handset. They will not work in any handset that is locked to any mobile network operator.
There are several Global SIM providers in existence now. These typically exploit Lithuanian, Estonian or Isle of Man abilities to route mobile calls to and from the foreign location as cheaply as possible.
In practical use, the method of making calls is different for the mobile traveller where you dial the number you want to contact and then get a call-back from the Global SIM company. To be called UK nationals have to dial a gateway in the particular country where the gateway is located (i.e. Estonia) that then routes the call to the mobile.
Calls to Lithuania and Estonia can be expensive - but there are ways of mitigating this even, keeping the cost down for those left behind who will be wanting to call you. Again, it is a different method but the cost savings are too big to ignore.
What is the catch?
Well, generally there isn't one, but there are a few things to consider or at least look out for. It is not all about the cheapness of call cost, look into what else that Global SIM involves.
Credit Expiry - Some cards expire the credit after a period of non use. Others, such as GoSIM, the credit never expires
SIM Expiry - Some cards expire the number rendering the SIM useless after a period of non-use. Others, such as GoSIM, never expire
Call Set-up fee - Some cards charge a call set-up fee of a few pence per call, some do not. The actual cost per minute charge does nto offset this set-up fee.
Daily Access Charge or Monthly Fee - Shop around, only a few cards charge these fees
Again, not an exhaustive list, but some of the things that you should watch out for.
My own plans for Egypt are
With quite a bit of research and all things [above] considered I finally came down on the side of GoSIM. This article is not an advertisement for GoSIM, it is just that was what worked for me. I strongly suggest that you use the referenced resources and find out what works for you, it may be very different.
So, I have ordered a pair of SIMs from GoSIM (see http://www.gosim.com/?roamingsims )on the "Managers Special" discount of £15 for two, they are usually £10 each. Additionally I have purchased £20 credit to be divided equally across each SIM, one for me and one for the Mrs.
GoSIM uses an Estonian gateway and so UK callers to my GoSIM number will be hit for the call cost to Estonia. Fortunately there are ways to mitigate that cost and so for people in the UK to call me I will suggest that they use Briing.com (see http://www.briing.com/ ) to call - that will save them a huge amount, typically it will cost £0.20p per minute using Briing.com to call my GoSIM number.
Handy References (please add any others you find in further posts below, I will bring those up into this list here)
OneCompare.com - http://www.onecompare.com/
RoamingAdvisor.com - http://www.roamingsims.com/
Briing.com - http://www.briing.com/