Mobile Phones

[maria & rossi]

We are going to wdw staying at the cbr in October with our 2 children. We are also taking my parents with us and feel they will not be able to handle full days in the parks so we were thinking of hiring or buying 2 mobile phones so they can arrange to meet up with us once we're in the parks. Has anyone done this before or have any good ideas? We've had friends who bought walkie talkies from walmart but these didn't work very well. Many thanks, maria

 

[edie w]

I can only tell you what doesn't work!

My DH and I both have tri-band phones which we used successfully in the US to make and receive texts and calls to the UK. Bizarrely, we couldn't ring or text each other. We are on different networks, but I still don't know what went wrong.

 

[daipp]

Does have anyone have any information about purchasing a Virgin Pay-as-you-go phone in Florida and whether they can be used to 'phone the UK and also whether the UK can 'phone you?

 

[mf1973]

Try AT&T Wireless ; they have a prepaid “Go Phone” service. This link shows web exclusive, but you can buy them in the stores as well.
http://www.attwireless.com/personal/gophone/index.jhtml

With the exchange rate y’all receive, the phones they have seem fairly inexpensive.

Florida Stores…..there are a bunch of them in Orlando and the surrounding areas:
http://www.attwireless.com/global/content/storelocator/storelocator_detail.jhtml?state=FL

You can also try Tmobile or Cingular.
www.tmobile.com
www.cingular.com

I think that they sell prepaid SIM cards that you may put into your phone if your phone is compatible with the North American GSM frequency. Your phone must be unlocked as well. In the states, telecom carriers lock the phones so they are only compatible with their own network, however many users have them unlocked so they can swap SIM cards and change users.

From personal experience, I have found GSM service to be excellent around WDW and Orlando area.

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Originally posted by daipp
Does have anyone have any information about purchasing a Virgin Pay-as-you-go phone in Florida and whether they can be used to 'phone the UK and also whether the UK can 'phone you?

Yup I have one of these and you can do both but you have to ring the Virgin pay as you go hotline in order for them to give you international access.

The one thing I will say about these phones is that they do not accept British home address credit cards and as you have top up by $20 every 90 days I buy top up cards and ring them from home in order to top them up as once in the UK you can't use the phone. I decided to get one of these because I am usually in WDW with a large group of American friends and this is cheaper for them to call me on this mobile rather than on my UK number.

Also you are charged 25cents per minute for the first 10 minutes of each day and then 10cents a minute for the rest of the day - this is if you call someone or they call you.

But I thought the phones were cute so I had to get one

For more details go here



I have my UK triband phone on the O2 network and I had no problem at all calling other UK mobiles of others also in Orlando. I tended to be on the AT&T network but if my phone went roaming I went onto T-mobile network then I couldn't text anyone. I found out that I could fix my network to AT&T and that sorted that problem out.

 

[Enright78]

My contract triband is on Vodafone (as is DH and DD) and we have never had problems calling each other in the US?
Apart from tne bills that is! We tend to use texts as thay are cheaper!

 

[Muppet]

It would work. Me and Nic often go seperate ways (me shopping!) and we have never had any problem in calling one another.

 

[calvinjtodd]

Hi all
just had my december mobile bill for the use in Florida, im on vodafone contract, I used it through t-mobile, only network it would pick up. I have paid for sending messages 12p and for receiving them 35p each !!!!! I also rang home and got the answer phone 8 & 11 seconds @ £1.49 a call no per second billing while roaming, sure someone else will have had cheaper experience.
My bill also showed ten incoming calls none of which i received as call divert is automatically set when i am away, by vodafone not by me.
You also pay the international part of the call charge when someone rings you from the uk, i havent found internal US calls to be that cheap either. I enquired about US SIM cards in December, t-mobile was $50 and expired in 90 days, just like they used to do here.

Buy good quality radios if any at all they usually have a range of 2 miles, but 8 out of every 10 people in the parks appear to have a radio and their is only so many channels to choose from.

Calvin & Anne

 

[matty624]

We bought Motorola 'Trac phones' from Walmart. I think they were $60 each, including some free call time. We bought a $18 top-up card for each as well. In total I think we each had 90 minutes available. We were there a month last August and each left with 45 minutes remaining. Unfortunately the time disappears after 3 months, but next year we'll only have to buy 2 more top-up cards at $18 to stay in touch with each other. Far cheaper than using tri-bands like we always use to. (IMHO)
Hope this helps.
Ian

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Originally posted by matty624
..... Far cheaper than using tri-bands like we always use to. (IMHO)
Hope this helps.
Ian

LOL Ian I'd probably agree with you after receiving my last O2 bill from 5th December to 29th December was £150.00 (I was in WDW for all that time) but I was calling and receiving calls from the UK every day for a minimum of 5 mins !! plus texts and Stateside calls as well, so I guess it wasn't that bad!

Are you able to tell us what the call rate per minute is on the Trac-phone?

Also can you make calls back home to the UK on them?

And do you keep the same number if you don't top up within the 3 month period?

Thanks ever so

 

[matty624]

I'll try and answer, no guarantees though!
1 - Not sure what the call rate was. I'm pretty sure the $18 card was for 60 minutes though, which works out if my calcualtion is correct as 3cents a minute. Factor in the free minutes with the phone (i.e. 30) and the cost of the phone ($60) and it cost us 86cents per minute. Next year of course will be cheaper as we've got the phones. By the way, they're not the super small phones we're used to in the UK, rather more like the models we had 5+ years ago! i.e. brick like!
2 -Never rang the UK, we took my tri-band with us for that, only to discover those kind people at O2 hadn't carried out my request to activate roaming, and it wouldn't work. Instead we used a credit card and paid through normal phones. I would strongly recommend that you don't do that, I had a £100+ bill on my visa when we got home!
3 -Pretty sure you lose the number after 3 months, unless you've topped up.
Hope this helps,
Ian

 

[yourwelcome]

I have a triband with Vodafone and used it last year when i was away for my 40th in Miami with the lads , golfing.

I made a quick call to my wife in the uk every day and a couple of quick calls to my parents which turned out to be long calls in the end after they had asked how mickey was and how the weather was and did Dunkin Donuts still do 24 for the price of 12!!!!!!!!!!

The bill was about £100.00 for the week.

I must admit that the phone cards they sell in wal-mart represent the best value for ringing back home. The last one I bought cost $15 but lasted the whole 2 weeks.

I suppose I am a Convenience freak. ( or just lazy)

enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[daipp]

Thanks for your reply and the link Sam. It was exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Astrid]

Wow - Reading this thread it's amazing to see how different all the networks are and the difference in pricing.

I'm with O2 and have a triband, my first problem was the fact that in their wisdom O2 had decided to turn off my roaming when I went in December which caused endless problems!! However, I finally got this sorted - one tip, make sure you have the helpline number of your Network supplier with you in case there are any problems!!

My bill for the month (which included the two weeks I was away) was £110, which I didn't think was too bad. I send a lot of texts anyway and used my phone a lot whilst abroad. It cost me 25p to send each text but didn't have to pay for receiving them. The killer is of course that you have to pay for receiving calls - ouch! But it was so convenient to be able to keep in touch all the time. As others have said, I too had no problem contacting other UK mobile phones who were out in WDW the same time as me.

As Sam says, AT&T were more reliable that T-Mobile and so I too set my network to theirs which I was in the States.

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Originally posted by Astrid
Wow - Reading this thread it's amazing to see how different all the networks are and the difference in pricing.

It cost me 25p to send each text but didn't have to pay for receiving them.

LOL and she really sent a lot of texts - she's text mad.

It does seem that O2 has a fair price - I'm pretty sure I got per second billing as well because all the calls were of a different value.


Matty - thanks for the info it does sound to me that I'm personally better off with the Virgin Mobile. I don't want to lose my number so if I'm not in the States for more than 90 days (which LOL some people here will say is rare) I have spare top up cards that I can use to top up by $20 over the net oh and I get a cute phone to boot What can I tell you I'm a girly where a cute phone matters to me. Also on the Virgin phone you can make International Calls - hope that helps others as well.

Glad I could help daipp

 

[Astrid]

Hang my head in shame at being a text maniac!!

It was ok till Friday when I got in a terrible tiz (probably due to drinking a bottle of wine!) and was texting my best mate instead of a guy I was meeting up with and vice versa - I had two very confused people!!

Sam - Yep, don't think you'll have any prob with the 90 day cut off the amount of times you are in the States!!!

I take our walkie talkies whenever we go to the Parks but as has been said, the range is not brilliant and you do get to hear a lot of other peoples conversations!! However, I find them very useful for keeping in touch with my son (who's 11) if he goes to the loo on his own or my daughter and I go on a ride without him. I bought ours at Wal-Mart and they were a reasonable price.

I had considered buying a Trac-fone or even a Pay-As-You-Go mobile in the US however, having read this very interesting thread I think it is more cost effective for me to stay with my tri-band.

Thanks everyone for the good info.

Astrid