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Author Best mobile solution for the world traveller?
ebenbolter
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Joined: Jun 30, 2004
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Posted: 2006-07-10 14:57
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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!


Minstrel_Man
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Posted: 2006-07-10 15:14
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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.
ebenbolter
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Posted: 2006-07-10 15:17
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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...!
xan K
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Joined: Jun 15, 2006
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Posted: 2006-07-10 15:21
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instead of 12 months, why don't you say 1 year instead?...
Minstrel_Man
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Posted: 2006-07-10 15:29
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The answer is to phone mum and ask her to DHL you a weeks supply of pot noodles!
jack77777
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Joined: Apr 11, 2006
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Posted: 2006-07-10 15:59
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your going to vancouver! , you gotta post some pics when you get back , or email me: jross91@hotmail.co.uk plz....
15% online - Sony Ericsson - "4 lyf"
ebenbolter
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Posted: 2006-07-10 16:13
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Post you some pics? Ummm, huh? Of what? There sure are some random Esato replies going on here... hehehe
SonySandy
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Posted: 2006-07-10 16:46
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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.
JuneBob
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Joined: Jul 10, 2006
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Posted: 2006-07-10 17:36
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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!
ebenbolter
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Posted: 2006-07-10 19:02
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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 ]
bugsiiy
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Posted: 2006-07-10 20:03
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@ebenbolter you made me curious,how much was the ticket?
W800i...V3...N93(YES I HAVE IT)
ebenbolter
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Posted: 2006-07-10 20:20
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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.
awave
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Posted: 2006-07-10 20:20
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Quote:

On 2006-07-10 20:03:02, bugsiiy wrote:
@ebenbolter you made me curious,how much was the ticket?




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
ebenbolter
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Posted: 2006-07-11 01:34
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Just finished Uni so doing it whilst i can... no need for the real world JUST yet
max_k800i
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Joined: Jul 07, 2006
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Posted: 2006-07-11 03:37
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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 ]
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