Cell Phones in Great Britain - Mobile in States

Author

Mobile in States

andrew.w

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

If people go to US - can they receive/send calls to/from their
mobiles - can they receive/send texts

ChrisM

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

In message 6ltir3hkt0utc99lvi7n
mmeo3qjobn52of@4ax.com,
andrew.w <me@privacy.net> Proclaimed from the tallest tower:

> If people go to US - can they receive/send calls to/from their
> mobiles - can they receive/send texts

Depends on a couple of things...
First of all, your Service Provider needs to offer a roaming agreement in
the US with the contract or PAYG deal that you have with them. You would
need to contact your SP (Orange, O2 or whoever) to check that.

Secondly, your phone needs to be either Tri-Band or Quad-Band to work over
there.

If both the above are Ok then you should be able to send and receive texts
and make and receive calls whilst in America. Bear in mind though that
making calls and sending texts will be quite a bit more expensive, and you
will also probably have to pay to RECEIVE calls. It should be free to
receive texts though...

HTH.

--
Regards,
Chris.
(Remove Elvis's shoes to email me)

andrew.w

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:11:25 -0000, "ChrisM"
< chris_mayersblue@sue
deyahoo.com> wrote:

>In message 6ltir3hkt0utc99lvi7n
mmeo3qjobn52of@4ax.com,
>andrew.w <me@privacy.net> Proclaimed from the tallest tower:
>
>
>Depends on a couple of things...
>First of all, your Service Provider needs to offer a roaming agreement in
>the US with the contract or PAYG deal that you have with them. You would
>need to contact your SP (Orange, O2 or whoever) to check that.
>
>Secondly, your phone needs to be either Tri-Band or Quad-Band to work over
>there.
>
>If both the above are Ok then you should be able to send and receive texts
>and make and receive calls whilst in America. Bear in mind though that
>making calls and sending texts will be quite a bit more expensive, and you
>will also probably have to pay to RECEIVE calls. It should be free to
>receive texts though...
>
>HTH.

It certainly has - many thanks

S Viemeister

2008-02-18, 7:34 am

andrew.w wrote:
> If people go to US - can they receive/send calls to/from their
> mobiles - can they receive/send texts

Both my O2 and Orange SIMs work in the US, for both voice and texting.
Make sure the phone you use has at least one of the US GSM bands - 850
and 1900.

AlanF

2008-02-18, 10:33 am

andrew.w wrote:

> It certainly has - many thanks

Just watch the cost of calling back home to the UK on your UK mobile
whilst in the States. In 2006 I was charged approximately £1.20 per
minute whilst using my Orange phone there (6310i.

Of course things may have become cheaper ... <gosh was that a flying
picg I just saw?>

May be cheaper investigating a pre paid calling card account.

Regards

Alan

Adrian C

2008-02-18, 3:33 pm

S Viemeister wrote:
> andrew.w wrote:
>
> Both my O2 and Orange SIMs work in the US, for both voice and texting.
> Make sure the phone you use has at least one of the US GSM bands - 850
> and 1900.

And also bring a blanket, matches and firewood - cuz there are a lot of
US places where sending smoke signals would be a better means of
communication than zero bars on GSM. Digital coverage wasn't great when
I was in Navada last year roaming on O2 with an Sony Ericsson K750i.

--
Adrian C

Lobster

2008-02-18, 3:33 pm

AlanF wrote:
> andrew.w wrote:
>
> Just watch the cost of calling back home to the UK on your UK mobile
> whilst in the States. In 2006 I was charged approximately £1.20 per
> minute whilst using my Orange phone there (6310i.
>
> Of course things may have become cheaper ... <gosh was that a flying
> picg I just saw?>

Don't think so... although rates in Europe have fallen quite a bit AFAIK
recently, that's specifically an EU thing so it's a nasty shock if you
go to the US.

> May be cheaper investigating a pre paid calling card account.

Yep - what I did - much better (bought a T-Mobile one off ebay direct
from the US).

David

S Viemeister

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

Adrian C wrote:
>
> And also bring a blanket, matches and firewood - cuz there are a lot of
> US places where sending smoke signals would be a better means of
> communication than zero bars on GSM. Digital coverage wasn't great when
> I was in Navada last year roaming on O2 with an Sony Ericsson K750i.
>

My daughter is currently in Nevada, using an ATT SIM and a phone which
uses BOTH US bands. It has reasonable coverage (except for inside the
flat she's in!). Friends of hers who are using T-Mobile have little or
no coverage. ATT uses both US GSM bands, while, in most areas, T-Mob
uses only one.

Adrian C

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

S Viemeister wrote:
> Adrian C wrote:

> My daughter is currently in Nevada, using an ATT SIM and a phone which
> uses BOTH US bands. It has reasonable coverage (except for inside the
> flat she's in!). Friends of hers who are using T-Mobile have little or
> no coverage. ATT uses both US GSM bands, while, in most areas, T-Mob
> uses only one.

Yes, that makes sense - My GSM triband (hence singular US band) phone
roamed over to T-Mobile... so that's where my problems started ;-)

--
Adrian C

Steve Terry

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

"S Viemeister" <firstname@lastname.oc.ku> wrote in message
news:61uf28F20t31hU1
@mid.individual.net...
> Adrian C wrote:
>
> My daughter is currently in Nevada, using an ATT SIM and a phone which
> uses BOTH US bands. It has reasonable coverage (except for inside the
> flat she's in!). Friends of hers who are using T-Mobile have little or no
> coverage. ATT uses both US GSM bands, while, in most areas,
> T-Mob uses only one.
>
Indeed, if possible get a quadbander, rather than a Tribander with only
1900MHz, the old AMPS service is being replace by a growing 850MHz GSM.

Steve Terry

Dennis Ferguson

2008-02-18, 10:33 pm

On 2008-02-18, Adrian C <email@here.invalid> wrote:
> S Viemeister wrote:
>
> And also bring a blanket, matches and firewood - cuz there are a lot of
> US places where sending smoke signals would be a better means of
> communication than zero bars on GSM. Digital coverage wasn't great when
> I was in Navada last year roaming on O2 with an Sony Ericsson K750i.

If you are traveling anywhere outside of built-up urban areas in the US
you really should have a phone which supports 850 MHz along with 1900.
I'd say this is particularly true if you are roaming with a UK SIM and
have the luxury of selecting any available network, but even when using a
US T-Mobile prepaid SIM, when T-Mobile's own native 1900 MHz coverage
peters out they'll often let you roam (at no additional charge) on rural
850 MHz networks.

Dennis Ferguson

mrcamp

2008-02-19, 3:33 pm

As others mentioned, as long as your provider have roaming agreements
(All the major UK carriers do) with the US carriers, and you have the
appropriate bands on your phone, you will not have any problems
texting, calling or even using data. A triband phone will probably only
pickup tmobile in most. A quad with the 850 band will give you more
better coverage...especially outside of urban areas, and inside
buildings. And you wuill be roaming on AT&T.

If you will be making a lot of calls back to the UK, your best bet is a
prepaid sim. There are plenty and very cheap tmobile sims on ebay. Just
find a seller that will mail it to the UK.

--
mrcamp

Benedict Addis

2008-02-29, 4:33 am

> Just watch the cost of calling back home to the UK on your UK mobile
> whilst in the States. In 2006 I was charged approximately £1.20 per minute
> whilst using my Orange phone there (6310i.
>
> Of course things may have become cheaper ... <gosh was that a flying picg
> I just saw?>
>
> May be cheaper investigating a pre paid calling card account.
>
> Regards
>
> Alan

Just unlock your phone and buy an AT&T SIM card when you get there. It will
be much, much cheaper than roaming, and people can call you cheaply from the
UK too via a calling card.

Benedict.

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