Mobile phone's abroad

[alan and janet]

Been made aware of this today a sim card for your phone to use abroad with no roaming charges or charges to recieve calls.
www.oneroam.co.uk
Anyone tried one or know of anything similar?
Alan

[Neil Marg]

Alreet ,

Got the bugger working at last , had to do a complete system restore.....in answer to your post they do sim cards in the Isle of Man when we go for the TT , cheap and they work well , they also have the same type of thing in Hong Kong.

Neil.

[Gary]

Hi,

We use a Vodafone sim from Spain, it seems to work ok. You can buy them on Ebay.

[Bernie & Annette]

How much does sim cost ? and are inclusive minutes on network available to use or is there a charge per call,
Bernie & Annette

[Gary]

Hi,

Cannot remember the exact price, it was around £15 I think....search "sim Spain" on Ebay. Here is an extract of the info you get.

The Vodafone Spain SIM card provides you with...
•   TOTALLY FREE incoming calls, NO MATTER WHERE IN THE WORLD THEY ORIGINATE FROM. YOU WILL NEVER BE CHARGED FOR RECEIVING A CALL while you are in Spain!!!
•   Domestic rates as low as 0.12€ per minute (all calls within Spain are considered domestic calls and are charged at the same rates)
•   International calls as low as 0.30€ per minute.
•   FREE voicemail.
•   GPRS and WAP data services.
And, the best news is, since these are prepaid (pay as you go) SIM cards, there are no service fees and you will NEVER get a bill or will you see any surprise charges, EVER!!
Coverage: there is an EXCELLENT clickable (to zoom) coverage map for Vodafone Spain available http://www.vodafone.es/Vodafone/MultiIdioma/MultiIdiomaIngles/0,2626,8958,00.html
Note ON VODAFONE SPAIN CALL CREDIT/SALES TAX POLICY: it is the policy of Vodafone Spain to remove the 16% IVA (VAT/sales tax) from the initial call credit upon activation of the SIM. This means that when you check your call credit balance, the amt. shown will reflect the current total - (minus) the 16% sales tax. Please realize that your true initial credit IS what is advertised when you buy the SIM card and it is nobody's intention to trick you it is just that the sales tax subtraction makes things a bit confusing.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS PRACTICE IS ACTUALLY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. This is because the other GSM carriers (MoviStar and Amena) charge you the 16% VAT as you go along calling (on every second of every call) while Vodafone charges it all from the start. This means that if you speak for 1 minute and 51 seconds with a MoviStar or Amena SIM, you are charged the 16% sales tax on a full 2 minutes as they round up to the nearest minute while for the same conversation with a Vodafone SIM card you pay the 16% sales tax ONLY on the time you spoke (1 minute and 51 seconds) and not on the full 2 minutes, hence saving you money on every call you make.

The document, all nine pages of it... goes into the various call plans etc. If you want the whole thing, email me and I will forward it. Not sure if this is the best option but it works for us.

Gary

[Rob Watchorn]

Hi all,

The best thing to do is buy a 'Pay As You Go' SIM Card.
The operator is irrelevant, in terms of cost as they are much the same all over but stick to Movistar or Vodafone. These two offer the best coverage especially in the more remote areas (more than 10 mins from a significant town) as you wont get a reception at all if you don't.

Any phone shop in Spain offers this SIM for between 10€ and 30€ depending on how many 'FREE' minutes you get with it.

For those who are familiar with the area then you will get plenty of choice and help from the girl who works in the phone shop opposite the 'Pet Shop' in the shopping centre called 'Dos Mares'. (you pass this on the way to San Pedro on the AP7 Jcn 777).

If you don't or cant get there don't worry - the word 'SIM' seems to be understood where ever you go so you should be understood perfectly well.

'Q'

[prospect999]

Hi  alll    a bit  off the wal  this   but I could'nt post it on USEFUL LINKS  so thought this would be the next best place???   LOL

Metro News paer down here in London has advertised this SIM OFFER..

Iv not tried it  so DONT SHOOT THE MESSENGER!!!!

web link is www.gosim.com/metroglobalsim        Apparently you buy this SIM CARD and it saves you money on calls when your abroad.
MAYBE USEFUL..     

Ca Gary or dave please move this to a more suitable place on the site.

thanks  brian

[Dave]

Hi Brian

Your link has been added to the topic Useful links posted on the forum by our members. Which can be found on the General Discussion for Murcia board. The link can then be found under T.V Telephone and Internet Services Heading.

The reason you could not post onto the Useful links topic, is due to the topic being locked, this is to avoid other information being posted into that topic

Thanks for the link.

Dave

[Jastee]

Hi All

Try this website to purchase sim cards for your mobile when abroad
www.lebara-mobile.es/en/ uk company with branches throughout Europe .

                  Jim & Rae

[alan and janet]

Hi, just been reading that unregistered Spanish pay as you go mobiles will be disconnected 1st October thought this may be worth reading www.coastrider.net click on local/national news.
Regards Alan.

[Gary]

Alan,

Thanks for posting this. We have such a phone so are affected by this.

This is the article. As posted in 'The Coastrider'

You could lose your mobile phone number
If you own a pay as you go or prepaid Spanish mobile phone you could lose your mobile number and have to re-register your phone again. In an attempt to prevent terrorists and criminals using anonymous prepaid mobile phones for communication, the Spanish government has issued a decree that any un-registered phones will be disconnected on the 1st of October.
To comply with the new registration law, pay as you go users have to verify their present address through a recent copy of the padron and a copy of their passport. If you presented both those documents at the time of purchasing your prepaid phone as most people will have done, then no further action is required. However a number of mobile phone users may have just bought a SIM card to put into an unlocked handset. Until recently it was not necessary to provide proof of address for prepaid SIM cards. Any phone number that is not correctly registered on the 1st of October will be switched of. It is believed that a grace period will exist before the telephone numbers are recycled. This is likely to effect residents that are currently out of the country and will not be returning until winter.
The move has sparked debate as to the merits of such a scheme. The idea for a register of mobile phones in Ireland was extensively reviewed by officials in the respective department. There were many complex legal, technical, data protection and practical issues to be considered. In theory, a register of mobile phones might seem like a good idea. However, once they looked at the situation in other administrations, considered the ease with which an unregistered foreign or stolen SIM card can be used and having consulted with the Office of the Attorney General and other interested parties, it was concluded that the proposal would be of limited benefit, in that it would not solve the illegal and inappropriate use of prepaid mobile phones and was not practical. One can only assume that similar issues would exist in Spain.

Do you know who it is you have to present the info to, not that we have even acquired a padron yet! Might be easier to buy a new phone locally I suppose?

Gary

[Gary]

Hi,

I have been thinking about this further today.....The Padron that is mentioned is actually an important document as it registers you with the town hall and because the central government allocates funds to local Towns Halls on the basis of the number of residents - we would receive better local services etc. Thats fine, no problem with that, but....

Does anyone know if you have to be a permanent resident to do this? If thats the case, then theres no way we can own a pay as you go phone in the future - thats mad 

Any ideas?

Gary

[Dave]

You don`t have to be a permanent resident to sign on the padron http://www.murcia-golf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=557.0

Isn`t the problem with the mobile phones only if you have bought a SIM card to use in a phone? like of ebay or local market as this will not be registered to anyone?, we purchased a pay as you go mobile phone using our passports from the phone store in Dos Mares.

Dave

[Gary]

Hi Dave,

The article does suggest the problem exists with sim card purchases, its that which I have.

It also says you need to prove your address, which a passport does not do. Can you remember if they used your passport details to fill in some kind of form at the time? Or did you just use it as id when you paid?

I'll be in Dos Mares over the next couple of weeks so I'll find out some more details.

Gary
 

[jraby]

Hi Gary,

I purchased a PAYG Sim for Vodafone Spain a few months back from 0044.co.uk. I have not been to Spain yet to activate it, but I was curious about losing my number after reading this thread on the forum.

I just phoned 0044.co.uk and discussed this with them and they told me the following. They are aware of this change in law in Spain and they are currently waiting for the guidelines to give to there  customers to allow them to keep there numbers. However, they told me that I should be able to go into any Vodafone store in Spain and ask them to register my phone number, providing I have my passport number. The Sims they sell are the same ones you would buy in store at Vodafone Spain anyway.

As of now, any new SIMS brought on there website for Spain requires the purchaser to register there details like address, passport number, Sim card number etc, to avoid this problem going forward.

I am out at our apartment as of tomorrow for 2 weeks, so will go into a Vodafone store and see if they will register my phone number. Will let you know the outcome. I am sure the same would apply to other networks.

Jon.