Save On Your Cellular Calls While Abroad
Submitted by juergen on 14 July, 2007 - 07:41
You very likely have no idea how much you will be charged when abroad and abroad.
When you leave the country your Cellular enters the "home area" of the destination country and your carrier pays an international transit fee for this call to the destination carrier. For this service you will be charged an extra fee additional to your long distance rate. Some carriers charge up to $2 roaming fee to route the call.
Let's say your friend calls you, using her Cellular, when you are on business trip in Europe.
Who pays for what?
You have to pay for roaming fees and the long distance rate when you call from Europe or within one of the European countries. You also have to pay for roaming when you get a call from the USA.
Obviously, your friend has to pay the long distance rate for calling you.
But the roaming fee to reach you in Europe will be billed to you.
The roaming fees are always billed in full minute increments. So if you only call a few seconds, the billing is rounded up the next full minute.
Whenever you make a Cellular call, you are billed for the airtime you used , including incoming and toll free calls. Calling a 800 number only eliminates the long distance fee .
In some cases, when you are roaming into another carrier's network coverage area, you are billed an access fee. These fees can be charged for each network access to daily fee. These fees can be as much as $9.95 for network access in which you are roaming.
You don't have to forget taxes on your mobile phone bill you have to pay at home.
How to avoid roaming fees?
Buy a SIM card for your Cellular abroad to avoid huge roaming fees. You pay much less with a SIM if someone calls you.
What kind of Cellulars are supported?
All GSM Cellulars with no SIM lock are supported. Take a Tri or Quad band phone. CDMA phones will not work.
How to know if my phone is already unlocked or not?
Borrow a SIM from someone who has a different carrier carrier and see if it works in your Cellular or not. If it works, the Cellular is already unlocked. If it doesn't, the Cellular is locked.
How to purchase additional airtime?
Additional airtime can be purchased almost everywhere at gas station, lottery shops, shops, ATM, newsstands.
Can I also use my UMTS Cellular or UMTS laptop card?
You can activate the UMTS option to surf on the Internet. . Furthermore, you also can use additional VOIP software like Skype and call worldwide for free.
Where to get a prepaid calling card?
A good decision is to buy a pre-paid Cellular card at the location you are going to. You also can find Cellular cards on Ebay or Squidoo.com.
With a SIM card for your Cellular you save tons of money when calling home while abroad. You also can use the SIM card to make Internet telephony calls to contact your friends or your family at home and even save much more.
Jim Price
SIM cards for you Cellular
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