Ever consider getting a special international Sim card so that calling the UK from abroad doesn't involve selling a kidney?
I've just spent the best part of two days trying to figure out; what type of phone I need, who provides the best deal and who is a reliable company... There aren't many/any comparison sites for international Sim cards so it does involve some internet digging.
The type of phone I need is an unlocked GSM quad band (850,900,1800,1900MHz), which luckily I have with my Motorola U9, although I need to get it unlocked. The different bands allow you to use the phone in nearly every country in the world as they will use one of the four frequencies (except Japan which is on 3G, 2100MHz). Yes, i have become quite the phone expert!
I created a spreadsheet with the different countries that i will be travelling to in rows and then added columns with: receive call, outbound call (land line), send text. This then enabled me to add the different rates per country for each provider - a little homemade comparison sheet - bingo!
Because I am going to India I was hard pushed to find a company that charged less than £1.50 to receive a call and less than £2.00 to make a call... a 5 minute call home would end up costing a nights accommodation at that rate (although perhaps everyone at home would be happier as I'd run out of money and be back in no time)!
Two companies stood out for me, they didn't offer any free inbound calls, but I'm not going to Europe (which is the destination for 90% of the free calls offered by other companies) so by paying a lower rate in each country it works out cheaper overall.
Max-Roam and Global Roaming Inc. were the two companies - Global Roaming being the cheapest and subsequently the one I have gone with - fingers crossed because after lots of research I went with a relatively new product and took a gamble!
More to come in 5-7 working days (that's how long it takes to ship the Sim card) and I will then also go online and unlock my phone...
I've just spent the best part of two days trying to figure out; what type of phone I need, who provides the best deal and who is a reliable company... There aren't many/any comparison sites for international Sim cards so it does involve some internet digging.
The type of phone I need is an unlocked GSM quad band (850,900,1800,1900MHz), which luckily I have with my Motorola U9, although I need to get it unlocked. The different bands allow you to use the phone in nearly every country in the world as they will use one of the four frequencies (except Japan which is on 3G, 2100MHz). Yes, i have become quite the phone expert!
I created a spreadsheet with the different countries that i will be travelling to in rows and then added columns with: receive call, outbound call (land line), send text. This then enabled me to add the different rates per country for each provider - a little homemade comparison sheet - bingo!
Because I am going to India I was hard pushed to find a company that charged less than £1.50 to receive a call and less than £2.00 to make a call... a 5 minute call home would end up costing a nights accommodation at that rate (although perhaps everyone at home would be happier as I'd run out of money and be back in no time)!
Two companies stood out for me, they didn't offer any free inbound calls, but I'm not going to Europe (which is the destination for 90% of the free calls offered by other companies) so by paying a lower rate in each country it works out cheaper overall.
Max-Roam and Global Roaming Inc. were the two companies - Global Roaming being the cheapest and subsequently the one I have gone with - fingers crossed because after lots of research I went with a relatively new product and took a gamble!
More to come in 5-7 working days (that's how long it takes to ship the Sim card) and I will then also go online and unlock my phone...
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