Re: Europe and Mobile Phones

B Vaughan <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006 16:24:41 +0100, this_address_is_for_spam@xxxxxxxxx
(David Horne, _the_ chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy) wrote:

B Vaughan <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Thu, 6 Apr 2006 12:02:06 +0100, "Larthuza"
<ThisIsNotMyAddress@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Alan S" <nothere@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qu7932t5aqsrl1jt4l3abtboto2aho74bt@xxxxxxxxxx

<< Is there a card that would work in all of the countries we
visit, or must we buy a different one for each country, or
are there some which cover at least a group of countries?>>


Coming soon - but not just yet!

Article from "The Scotsman" last week


Wed 29 Mar 2006
EU outlaws rip-off mobile phone charges for using networks abroad

Italy's Tim mobile service already has a program, called Tim Globe,
that greatly reduces roaming costs. You have to sign up for it, and it
costs 3 euros a month, even when you're at home, but its roaming rates
could save you the cost of subscription if you travel a lot. Roaming
in Europe costs 1 euro for the connection and 19 cents a minute. In
the US, the connection charge is 2 euros, but the per-minute cost is
still 19 cents a minute. Incoming calls are 9 cents a minute.

Have you read all the terms? For outgoing-

"Nota 2. Fino a 5 minuti a chiamata. Dopo il quinto minuto vengono
applicate le normali tariffe previste per le telefonate fatte
dall'estero senza l'opzione TIM Globe. "

No, I hadn't noticed that. So you can't ammortize that high connection
charge over a 20-minute call, can you.

Indeed.

A five minute call to Italy
from the US would be 2.95 euros, or 59 cents a minute, including the
connection charge. From a European country to Italy, it would be 39
cents a minute.

It's still a lot better to use something like united mobile, who in
Europe have a 25 cent set up charge then 39 cents to landlines, 59 to
mobiles.

Maybe they've changed it since I signed up in November. Tim is famous
for stuff like that.

I imagine all of our calls using the cell phone tend to be short
anyway, as I use another service when I had a phone at hand. I do know
that my total costs for a recent trip to the US were much more
reasonable than when I had used the normal roaming in the past.

Even united mobile isn't very reasonable in the US. Frankly, when I'm
there, I mostly use calling cards from payphones. When people call me on
my phone, I offer to call them back! :)

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org
.

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