Mobile Phone question

[kazd]

Our phones are dual band and can't be used in the US. But is there anything to stop us purchasing pay as you go sim cards in the US and using them in our phones. Or is it just as cheap to buy pay as you go starter packs over there (which include the phones). Also do you think you get a better reception with the phones or the walkie talkies.

Thought the advantage of phones is if I go shopping and DH stays with the kids at the pool etc. We are having one week in Disney and one in Naples.

We are also looking in to the cost of puchasing Walkie Talkies- At the moment the Motorola ones seem to be the market leaders.

If we went the Pay as you go sim card route, would we need to get our phones unlocked and how would you know if they needed to be unlocked. Would putting a friends orange sim card in my phone be a test (I am with vodafone)

 

[GO2209]

Transferring a different sim into your handset will not help, as it is the phone itself that restricts you to dual band.

You could rent a tri-band vodafone handset, but this likely to be more expensive than buying a couple of payg handsets in the USA. Looks like a trip to Walmart is your best bet!

 

[kazd]

Hi G0229

Would you recommend purchasing mobile pay as you go over walkie talkies. Had found t-mobile pay as you go starter kits for about $50, don't know if this includes any prepaid mins.

 

[GO2209]

Personally, I haven't needed walkie talkies. The occassional text message on my mobile (triband) has sufficed.

I know people that swear by the motorola walkie talkies. I have also heard people complain that with so many w-t in use that in can be very confusing.

 

[Celestine]

We bought w-t & found them great. The triband phone we purchased specifically for the US was about £1-20/minute , so the w-t paid for themselves quite quickly, not to mention the novelty factor for DD!

 

[kazd]

Celestine,

Which one's did you get. We are looking at the Radio Shack ones, 22 channels and 38 subchannels plus vibra alert. Personally I liked the look of the Motorola one's but DH reckons you are just paying for the name. (I have to defer to him as in his youth he trained as a Radio Telecommunications Engineer.

Kazd

 

[daipp]

On a similar matter, I've just bought a tri-band phone primarily to use in the USA. My question is, will people in the UK just have to ring my number to get me and will my phone then ring in USA or am I missing something?

 

[kazd]

That is a very good question. Do they have to ring 00 to get out of the uk, then 1 for the us and then your number or do they just ring your number as they would if you were in the uk. I think thats what you are asking isn't it. Unfortunately I do not know the answer, however, I have rung US mobiles and have called 00 1 then the cell phone number.

Can anyone else enlighten us.

 

[kazd]

I think possibly I have already answered the question. They will need to dial 00 to get a line out of the UK, then they will need to dial 1 to get a line into the US and then it will be your mobile. Not sure though whether they will need to drop the initial 0 of your number ie mine is 07887 so would probably be 00 1 7887 etc

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
If you take your UK phone to the USA people in the UK just dial your number as normal. The person receiving the call (i e you) pays for the international charge and the person making the call pays the normal UK rate to a mobile.If you take a Tri-Band with you it's a good idea to store your numbers in the International format so if for example you wanted ring a number in the UK with a code 01522 you would store as +441522 then you just dial it straight from your phone memory whatever country you are in.

Mick.

 

[martina857]

If you take a tri band phone to the US then anyone who calls JUST your normal number (no US country code) will make your phone ring in the US, if you answer it you then will pay £1 - £2 per minute depending on your service provider. People will also be able to text you normally and texting is relatively cheap.

The best thing to do when you go is divert all your calls to voicemail and be alerted with a text message, you can then decide whether to return the call or not, but it will also cost a fair bit about £1.50 I think (not exact you need to check) just to listen to your messages, so I normally leave a messge saying "don't leave a message, text me". )

 

[daipp]

Thank you very much - your replies more than answers my query.

David

 

[Celestine]

When I got my phone, my provider advised me to turn off voicemail whilst I was in the US in order to keep my bill down, as my phone was for social use, not business.

 

[Celestine]

Kazd, I'll let you know later today - I need to climb into the loft to check! I do know we bought them from Walmart & they were recommended by some employee there who DH seemed to think knew his onions!

 

[Celestine]

OK, we purchased an audiovox GMRS122-2CH. Bill at WAlmart was $31-22(about £20) (can't remember if we bought anything else). They have 22 channels and 38 subchannels. Although you are supposed to use a licence, channels 1-8 are FRS (license free), and when we enquired about a licence were told not to worry! Hope this of help

 

[kazd]

Hi Celestine,

Thanks for the info, we have been advised to purchase ones with a vibrate alert, cos sometimes you can't hear for the noise. Do you know if yours have this facility.

Thanks
Kazd

 

[Celestine]

I don't think it does, owever ours were in the mobile phone slots on our rucksacks, so effectively by our ears. I can understand that logic, but we never had a problem, but were weren't there at high season, and the only time we would have struggled was during the parade, but we were always together then.

 

[mickg7dyd]

Hi,
We bought a pair of Cobra walkie talkies from Best Buy. They have upto 5 mile range and were on offer for $12 the pair. They work really well too.

Mick.

 

[patdavies]

Anybody ringing your mobile simply udses the usual number and pays the usual charges. This is the function of 'roaming'. Your account is charged for the international call from UK to US. These rates tend to be high (£1/min or so) as you are also, in part, payong a PAYG access charge. (you don't have a US contract).

For you to call home, yoiu will need to replace the 0 in the UK number with +44. However, you don't need to store 2 copies of every number. All mine are stored with +44; when you use the mobile in UK, the system aurtomaticaly strips off the +44 and uses 0 instead.