FAQ's (& tips) when Roaming
Are calls charged per second as per the Orange network?
Will my answer phone work abroad?
What is the problem with conditional diverts?
Is picking up answerphone messages different?
Do incoming SMS cost when you are abroad?
Can you send SMS abroad & how much do they cost?
Is there a cheaper way of sending SMS whilst abroad?
What is the cheapest way of roaming abroad and only getting the most urgent calls?
Will Wildfire work when Roaming?
Roaming is the ability to take your mobile phone abroad and still make and receive calls to your normal mobile number. Your callers need not necessarily know you are abroad even! Remember before you go to check with Orange roaming on 159 that you have roaming enabled. Also the networks you can roam on abroad is dependant on the phone you have. Most networks abroad are 900MHz frequency networks where as the Orange network is 1800MHz. However, a 'Dual Band' phone will allow you to work on both frequencies hence opening up a much wider range of networks abroad. The only exception to this is the USA & Canada. As usual to be completely different they have a 1900MHz network! For this you need either a Triband phone or hire a 1900 GSM phone. Beware though the USA has a mainly analogue network still and 1900 GSM is limited (See the roaming maps for the USA).
When you are abroad your caller pays the normal cost of calling your mobile. YOU pick up the international leg of the incoming call. This is country dependent and is shown in the 'Incoming Call' cost per column. This is charged per second like any normal Orange call.
When you make outgoing calls when you are in a foreign country you pay the cost in the the Outgoing Calls column. Since Orange's new 'simpler' tariffs this cost is fixed whether you are calling a local number or the UK (you can see the percentage increases in the cost of local calls in the table columns.
Are calls charged per second as per the Orange network?
Very few foreign operators charge by the second. The 'Charging Units' column show what units they charge in (often 30 sec or 1 min) and they often have a minimum charge as well. Shown in the 'Minimum Charge' column. This also applies when you are picking up calls from your answerphone as it is classed as any other international call. (i.e. to +447973100123).
Some foreign networks charge a 'setup fee' for making calls (it usually varies from National & International calls as well). This is normally a one of charge on top of any minimum charge added to the cost of the call when it is answered. This can make short calls appear VERY expensive. e.g. Movistar in Spain charge a 27p setup & charge a minimum call charge of 1 minute (54p) so even a 1 sec answered call will cost 27+54 = 81p ! - but then so will any call between 1 sec and 59.9 secs. Calls that are not answered or engaged do not incur this charge.
There are a couple of EXCEPTIONS to this though. Some networks charge for 'failed' calls e.g. engaged or unobtainable (not sure about just ringing). These are mainly in the Far East (e.g. New World PCS, Peoples Telephone Co Ltd, or Telecom CSL in Hong Kong).
However, one advantage of the new Orange 'simplified' tariffs are that you no longer need to worry about these setup fees. The call price is the price you pay now come what may.
As above this is dependent on the network you are roaming on. More and more foreign networks are now passing caller ID. Quite often you get caller ID from local numbers trying to call you and more and more you are getting international ID as well. This could range from 0044208..... for a London number say to 44208 or maybe 044208. Basically there doesn't seem any set format for it at the moment.Now that more networks pass it often it will match up with your phone book (sorry Nokia orientated) to give you the name as if the person calling were in this country!
Will my answer phone work abroad?
Well technically it will work but it is often very confusing for your callers. When a call normally diverts to your answerphone the Orange answerphone gets the Call ID (CLI) of the Orange phone that is being called. Depending on whether the foreign network you are on passes CLI (see above) the Orange answerphone may or may not know which mailbox to access. If no Caller ID is passed then the Voicemail system it asks your caller which mailbox they wish to access. So unless they realise they have to type in your phone number again on their DTMF keypad they won't get your voicemail. However, this is becoming much less common these days.
In addition if you use the conditional diverts (divert on no answer, busy or unreachable) you will pay the cost of the incoming call to the country as well as the cost of the call back to the UK. This could work out £1+ per call attempt which you have no control over! Even if the system won't know which mailbox to access as above.
Therefore I would suggest you call OCS on 150 (or even better 159 during office hours - O. roaming line) before you go abroad & ask them to switch the 'autodivert' to their answerphone off. Often OCS don't understand and try to completely cancel you Answerphone. This is NOT what you want.
When you are abroad and you definitely want to have your answerphone on (i.e. when you know there is no coverage or when you switch it off) you must unconditionally divert ALL your calls to your answerphone. That way the call doesn't leave the UK & you aren't charged for someone leaving a message. The code to divert all calls to your answerphone is and to cancel it
Is picking up answerphone messages different?
YES... As caller ID is not always passed internationally the Orange Voicemail system doesn't always know which mailbox to access. Hence you get 'Please enter the number you wish to leave a message for or if you are calling from abroad and wish to access your mailbox press hash (#).
At that point you key # and enter your number, it then asks for your PIN number.
Now it is at this point you realise that you haven't set your PIN number up before your left home!!! So make sure you go into your answerphone BEFORE you leave the UK and set up a PIN number.
If you don't then you wont be able to access your voicemail whilst you are abroad. Phoning OCS won't help either, as they are unable to do anything about it.
Basically NO. I know of only 3 networks that support Line 2 (also sometimes called ALS - Alternate Line Service). The general way round this is to use Everyphone on your Line 2 to divert to your Line 1. As you are not charged for an Everyphone divert to another Orange number you shouldn't be charged for the L2>L1 and only pay the L1 incoming charge as usual. There have reports though that as soon as you go abroad that 'Everyphone' service stops on your Line 2. However, I have successfully done this in several European countries!
So the best tip I can give is to record an extended absence greeting giving your line 1 number on your Line 2 voicemail. Set the extended absence greeting option of not accepting messages. Then set the Everyphone divert to your Line 1 number. Best to do this before you leave the UK though!
Do incoming SMS cost when you are abroad?
NO.
There have been rumours in the past that some foreign operators (well one actually) charged for incoming SMS but this has since been either been corrected or disproven.
Can you send SMS abroad & how much do they cost?
YES, you can send SMS abroad. Since Orange have simplified their roaming SMS costs needless to say it is now costing us a lot more to send message whilst abroad. Typically popular destinations such as Greece and Spain have gone up by as much as 50%.
Is there a cheaper way of sending SMS whilst abroad?
Yes there is now thanks to VGSMail. This is a wonderful system which allows you to send SMS from around 4p per message. This works equally well in the UK as abroad. Requirements to do this are an account with VGSMail, a phone with GPRS capability, a phone with WAP capability and for killer results a phone that can run Java apps (e.g. Nokia 7250, 6600 etc). Basically if you don't use a lot of data over GPRS then don't buy a bundle but sign up for PAYG data. This is slightly more expensive but worth it as you use so little data. I will try and write a How To in due course. Basically you pay VGSMail 4p for the SMS and Orange less than 1p (even when abroad on 10 quid a MB rate) for the GPRS data. Net result SMS <5p a go - better than Oranges simplified 30p per SMS in Europe! :)
You can't use Everyphone to divert to an international number so you definitely couldn't divert to a local number where you are staying. However, you will still be able to dial +447973100330 and divert your number to a UK number whilst abroad. See also Everyphone Line 2.
What is the cheapest way of roaming abroad and only getting the most urgent calls?
It is generally considered the best cheapest way of roaming and still staying in contact is to divert your line to Orange Messenger They then take a message for you and SMS it to you. Orange charge about 25p for every text message they send. If the person calling decides not to leave a message you don't get charged. So usually unless it's urgent or important people don't leave messages. This is often cheaper than calling your answerphone to pick up messages due to the minimum charges charged by foreign operators.
Will
Wildfire work when Roaming?
YES, You call your Wildfire as usual (an international call) and then you dial/speak as though you were in the UK. As effectively you are. Depending on how quickly you can operate WF and the number of calls you need to make this might be a good way of getting round the 'minimum' call charge as you can hang-up & re-dial via Wildfire and the foreign network only sees the one continuos call to +447973100123 !
However, you must bear in mind that to access Wildfire you will need to input your number & PIN as described above.
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