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[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.

[wolfbln]

I don't know how Lyca treats incoming roaming. But I'm suspicious, when they'd skipped it and are not loosing one word about it And here is a good hint hidden in the ongoing "no roaming costs when travelling to Poland" promotion of Lycamobile UK, see: http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/en/no-ro...avel-to-poland

Quote: No roaming costs when travelling to Poland..... Lycamobile customers now retain their existing tariffs when visiting Poland, eliminating roaming costs and saving you money. All calls back to UK will be charged at our standard local rates, whilst calls to a Polish SIM card will be fixed at our fantastic, standard international rates. Take the stress and the expense out of travelling, with Lycamobile. Here they clearly say, which roaming charges they mean and I can't help the feeling their other promotion is very similar....

Some telcos are clearly doing tricks with "roaming charges" right now and Lyca is probably one of them. They take a very narrow definition of roaming like this: Roaming charges are surcharges to the domestic rate when you are abroad. Well, one can subscribe to this.

And here is the trick: They make a distinction between international and roaming rates. According to this: Call rates for calling abroad are of course not domestic rates, but international ones, which are charged substantially higher. So the high rates calling e.g. from Germany to Spain or within Spain on roaming when you use a German SIM card are in fact no "roaming rates" but your regular international call rates. And these very rates are not inflated by roaming surcharges (they are high anyway).

According to this strange logic: All roaming surcharges apply only between the home and the roaming country, because all other rates are in the international category like IDD calls. The problem in this thinking is, that there are essentially no "domestic" or "international" countries anymore, when roaming charges are really going to be slashed one day.

[gaztelugatxe]

Hello,

I've got a Dutch Toogle number and I tried to activate a local number. It shows Italy as a new country but when chosing Italy it doesn´t allow to get the local number (error: Country alias is invalid).

May be they will implement it for the future.

Regards,

[ChrisNeedsToKnow]

Originally Posted by gaztelugatxe

...I've got a Dutch Toogle number and I tried to activate a local number. It shows Italy as a new country but when chosing Italy it doesn´t allow to get the local number (error: Country alias is invalid)...

Same with UK-Toggle cards: The menu for local numbers now lists Austria, Belgium and Romania. At least Belgium can't be chosen; the other ones I don´t want to try (I have only one number left to be assigned, and I'm hoping for that to be a Belgian one).

[bourbonkiller]

This is already good news. I've been waiting desperately for a Austrian number and tried to register one just a moment ago. It gives an error saying: Country alias is invalid

Will try in some days again...