Posted by ebenbolter
Sorry for slightly off topic but hey, i'm bring my SE with me!
I'm travelling from this October for 12 months all around the world and am getting no joy in searching for any sort of mobile tariff solution that is affordably usable around the world.
Currently I'm with Orange UK contract but thats already up, and at present im looking to go Orange pay and go as receiving texts is free. HOWEVER, phoning home (england) or even receiving calls from home is ridiculously impossible. Another option is to get a pay and go for each country, or use Skype as much as possible OR use one of those travel sims such as this: http://www.sim4travel.com/ but so far its unclear whats going to be the best solution.
I'd be very appreciative if anyone has any previous experience and/or advice on this.
Oh and just to gloat a bit, this is the route:
london - dehli - tokyo - seoul - hong kong - bangkok (laous, vietnam, cambodia, malaysia) Singapore - Bali - Darwin - Alice Springs - Cairns - Sydney - Christchurch - Auckland - Hawaii - LA - San Fran - Vancouver - Las Vegas - Mexico - Miami - Toronto - Niagra Falls - New York - Boston - Madrid - London!
Posted by Minstrel_Man
You can afford to spend 12 months travelling the world to those destinations yet your worried about the cost of a few phone calls? madness!
depending on how long your in each destination from it might work out cheaper buying a sim from the country you are in rather than international roaming through network.
Posted by ebenbolter
hehe, you'd be suprised how cheap the ticket was actually (called the one world explorer) BUT yeah, we bought the ticket and only have a little bit of cash to last us 12 months so we're trying to avoid 'Phone Mum or Eat dinner for a week' type scenarios...!
Posted by xan K
instead of 12 months, why don't you say 1 year instead?...
Posted by Minstrel_Man
The answer is to phone mum and ask her to DHL you a weeks supply of pot noodles!
Posted by jack77777
your going to vancouver! , you gotta post some pics when you get back , or email me: jross91@hotmail.co.uk plz....
Posted by ebenbolter
Post you some pics? Ummm, huh? Of what? There sure are some random Esato replies going on here... hehehe
Posted by SonySandy
txt only! It will still cost you, but it won't cost you the same as a phone call.
Orange my have an international roaming option, which will reduce high costs, but it won't make them as cheap as sending from hoe.
Posted by JuneBob
I'm doing the same, hence why I got a K800. I'm going to use sim4travel as it's free to receive calls in most countries, and relatively cheap to make local calls.
Obviously I'll be trying to make as few calls as possible, but it could be useful in tricky situations...
The main reason I got it is because it's a camera, ipod, radio in one, and I can create HTML pages with useful info on each country I plan to visit, so that I can leave my lonely planets behind... must keep that backpack as light as possible!
Posted by ebenbolter
The only trouble with Sim4Travel is it doesn't seem to work at all in some countries such as Japan, so i guess i would have to sort something different there...
Oh and isn't the K800 only Triband? Strange if it is as i'd be needing Quad for my trip which the cheaper, smaller and of course older w810i seems to offer!
[ This Message was edited by: ebenbolter on 2006-07-10 18:06 ]
Posted by bugsiiy
@ebenbolter you made me curious,how much was the ticket?
Posted by ebenbolter
Not surprising and happy to help!
Have a read: http://www.oneworld.com/home.cfm
you can get a one world ticket from most travel agents in most countries, i got mine with STA travel and for everything listed it was £1800.
The cool thing though is the ticket is based on continents, ours being Europe - Asia - Australaisa - North America (including hawaii, canada, some of central america such as Mexico) So for the price you get a number of flights anywhere in that continent, even if they backtrack AND you can change your itinerary as you go for next to nothing.
Hehe i should go work as a travel agent. Oooorrrr Not.
Posted by awave
| Quote: |
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i take it this is your gap year or something? - i wanna know too =D its not all to far till i'm that old
-|- awave
Posted by ebenbolter
Just finished Uni so doing it whilst i can... no need for the real world JUST yet
Posted by max_k800i
Yeah I have a rant about going abroad with my phone. I'm with vodafone at the mo, I know I should switch but they keep givin me better deals every year when I try to switch lol.
Last year I just got my K750i and I was going to South Africa like I do most years. The only thing is that I can't use a South African SIM in my phone because of Voda locking
Is this legal? I'm sure that if a company prevents you from using another service is violates EU competition laws?? Anyway I went to South Africa with my phone and I was charged 125p for every call I received from home, bastards! If i used my South African SIM i wouldn't pay anythin for receivin calls or texts. Even tho making calls back home would be more expensive, but when abroad I think most people tend not to ring home anyway.
Also I think now that EU has taken hold, should all calls in the EU be the same price? I bet Americans don't have to pay 4 times their normal call rate to ring someone in the next state!
[ This Message was edited by: max_k800i on 2006-07-11 02:38 ]
Posted by madzanta
I would say that a Qtek 9090 might suit your needs pretty well. Quadband phone that uses Pocket PC and has built in WLAN (802.11b). The OS and that the phone has a built in wlan makes you able to install Skype and call for free (or a small charge depending on where you calling to) from anywhere in the world where you can find a hotspot. And except from that you can use the wifi for surfing, updating blog, uploading photos and such. Not a cheap phone (about 850 USD I think) but a multi purpose one.
[ This Message was edited by: madzanta on 2006-07-11 05:52 ]
Posted by ebenbolter
Wicked man thanks, looks good. I considered the Nokia N series phones with similar functionality, but looks like the N80 needs to be charged everyday so not very practical...
Posted by JuneBob
In response to the quad band / tri band point, there aren't many countries that are GSM 850 MHz only, and I won't be visiting them, so fortunately I can get away with a tri band phone.
Posted by ebenbolter
So nobody has any other ideas on the best tariff to go with UK operator wise?
Posted by ebenbolter
Saw today that in the UK network calls from abroad are being SLASHED, anyone know when this will take place?
Posted by carkitter
New Zealand has only 1 GSM Network, VodafoneNZ
It would probably pay for you to get a Vodafone sim to roam with in Asia / Australia / NZ.
PM me if you would like info on what to see and do in NZ especially Auckland and North Island.
BBC Article
_________________
J ustan oth erinan esig nature thatd oe sntm akesen se. - HA!
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2006-07-12 17:23 ]