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[gaztelugatxe]

Originally Posted by MBK

Yes, it's free.

Merci MBK

[peterdoo]

BTW, the Toggle pricelist now shows 19p/MB for EU/EEA countries. They were ignoring the EU caps for long time charging 67 p/MB, however now finally they seem to comply.

In Switzerland (not covered by the EU regulation) without using a local number they still charge 67 p/MB.

[inquisitor]

For the records: toggle through its Dutch Vodafone IMSI ("Roaming") roams on AeroMobie (901-14) and outbound SMS are charged with 63p. Given that Lufthansa bars voice calls I couldn't test such. Despite the onboard cell's limitation to GPRS and the resulting modest throughput the fear of instantly burning my remaining credit prevented me from testing data.

posted from FL390

[peterdoo]

Seems like Lycamobile is now offering better roaming packs with Lycamobile than on Toggle. At least in Germany and Spain they seem to offer bundles that can be used in own country as well as in 16 other countries where Lycamobile is active (incl. US and Australia). In Spain a pack with 400 minutes, 400 SMS and 2 GB data apparently usable in all 17 countries and valid 30 days is 40 or 20 euros. Toggle offers for about the same price (the higher one of the two) only 1 GB with no minutes and no texts. However from the description on their web page I was not able to understand, what exactly these bundles include.

While Toggle bundles only work in 13 Toggle countries (I assume the identity for that country has to be present on the SIM), Lycamobile offers 17 countries.

Lyca Germany (in German):
http://www.lycamobile.de/de/keine-roaming-gebuhren

Lyca Spain (in Spanish):
http://www.lycamobile.es/es/viaja-sin-roaming

Lyca commented in a forum that their roaming offers 4G access in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland even though the SIM is not enabled for 4G in it's home country. I have not yet seen any user confirmation whether this is true.

[inquisitor]

Interesting, though except for the "Sparspaket XS" for all the other packets it says "Deutschland" in brackets behind the data volume which suggests the data volume is only valid within Germany. On the other hand it wouldn't make much sense to offer roaming packets with domestic data allowance.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

On the other hand it wouldn't make much sense to offer roaming packets with domestic data allowance.

Why not? On the assumption that Lycamobile pays a similar wholesale price for data to each of its suppliers, the retail price should be the same for usage across all countries in which Lycamobile offers a retail service. There is no reason why the wholesale price should be affected by the country in which the user's SIM card is issued.

[inquisitor]

You missed my point. My understanding of these roaming packs is that they include voice minutes and SMS for usage abroad and data only for use within Germany - at least that is how I understand "Deutschland" (= Germany) in brackets behind the listed data volumes.

Regardless of this misunderstanding you should not assume that Lycamobile gets the same wholesale pricing for their customers' usage in their home countries like for a foreign customer roaming in any other country because in the latter case Lycamobile - in he absence of own biliteral roaming agreements - would buy the roaming service through their MNO partner who probably won't sell roaming airtime at the same price like the domestic MVNO agreement provides. It would be different if Lycamobile would use multi-IMSI SIM cards just as toggle does, but afaik Lycamobile does not do so.

[peterdoo]

As the FAQ on their page mentions that one has to wait a SMS confirmation after arriving to roaming country, maybe they really send new identity of the local Lyca to the SIM.

[wolfbln]

These are regular national packages of Lycamobile which give voice and text in the roaming countries for the domestic package rate of Lycamobile. This is obviously only a sponsored limited offer connected to the movie release of the DreamWorks production HOME.

It clearly does not apply for data as said in the Q&A of Lyca UK:
Can I use my data allowance in the 17 countries? If not how will I be charged?
You unfortunately will not be able to use your existing data allowance, instead you will need to buy a relevant data add-on in order to use your mobile data. Otherwise any data usage will be charged from your Pay As You Go balance at a rate of 9p/MB in EU ‘HOME’ destinations or 9p/MB in Australia.

Customers are allowed to use their existing minutes & SMS plan allowance in any of the 17 Lycamobile countries without any additional charge. Any data usage when travelling to any of these 17 countries would require the purchase of a data add-on, otherwise you will be charged from your Pay As You Go balance at a rate of 9p/MB in EU ‘HOME’ destinations or 9p/MB in Australia.
http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/roaming-sim-card

This Q&A clearly states that the package data volume is not applicable to roaming destinations. The same Q&A states however, that package volume can be used without surcharge for voice and text in the roaming countries, so it can still be a good deal for voice and text similar to Three UK's offer "Feel like home".

Two questions remain for me:
- what about incoming roaming fees for voice?
- is the roaming rate (= domestic package rate) only applicable for calls/texts to your home country (like Three's "feel at home") or does it apply for domestic calls/texts within the roaming country too and even for all calls/texts within the 17 country zone (like Ortel Germany's "Cross" option)???
The statement of Lycamobile gives a lot of room for interpretation.....

[peterdoo]

When I was first looking at the mentioned pages the brackets with the country name were not present. They seem to have added those just recently. Now it is like that at least on Lyca's UK, German, Spanish and Austrian pages. The remark is present for data as well as for voice and texts. They seem to be modifying roaming pages quite often. Yesterday on the German one there were some prices in Indian Rupee currency

Now I am really confused. Is anything at all of those usable in roaming? Or what is "UK minutes" and "UK texts" supposed to tell us? Maybe they want to tell us that calls/texts in the bundles are to home country only. If data and/or incoming calls is not included, I think they should not be using the wording "No Roaming charges". This would clearly be a misleading ad.