Advantage of int'l SIMs versus other solutions?

snidely · 22-01-2009, 23:31

You are in the U.S.? If so, and you are a T-Mobile customer, you can use one of their UMA capable phones to connect to a wi-fi connection anywhere in the world. The minutes used would come out of your minute bucket (or you can pay $10/mo. for unlimited minutes while connected by UMA/wifi.
They obviously don't advertise the fact you can use their phones w. UMA capability this way - but they even provide support if you are overseas.
Obviously this isn't as good as having a phone connection anywhere you have cell signal - but "free" calling can't be beaten. We have used it everywhere from the Dubai airport to hotels, coffee shops and apts. from UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Israel, etc.

...mike

adam917 · 24-01-2009, 01:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by snidely

You are in the U.S.? If so, and you are a T-Mobile customer, you can use one of their UMA capable phones to connect to a wi-fi connection anywhere in the world. The minutes used would come out of your minute bucket (or you can pay $10/mo. for unlimited minutes while connected by UMA/wifi.
They obviously don't advertise the fact you can use their phones w. UMA capability this way - but they even provide support if you are overseas.
Obviously this isn't as good as having a phone connection anywhere you have cell signal - but "free" calling can't be beaten. We have used it everywhere from the Dubai airport to hotels, coffee shops and apts. from UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Israel, etc.

...mike

As a matter of fact I am, and have a BlackBerry Curve 8320 which is compatible and I could see using that when abroad... I asked my question more as a hypothetical as opposed to something I will be doing anytime soon. Heck I'm not sure when I'll be travelling outside the US & chances are, by that time things will likely have changed even more once again.

monkeyboy · 09-02-2009, 04:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by snidely

You are in the U.S.? If so, and you are a T-Mobile customer, you can use one of their UMA capable phones to connect to a wi-fi connection anywhere in the world. The minutes used would come out of your minute bucket (or you can pay $10/mo. for unlimited minutes while connected by UMA/wifi.

Don't need to be a Tmo customer if you have access to Wifi/Internet with decent bandwidth (say at least 200kbs), as there are many VOIP choices out there. The biggie of course is Skype and it is brilliant. It will run on any WinMo phone with Wifi (as well as a laptop), and they now have a Java client (supposedly works on many other phones).Its very cheap (unlimited to US for $3/mo or $10 for 500 minutes). So yeah, if you have Wifi/Internet, no need for any of these expensive int'l sims...

	(#1)
snidely (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 451 Join Date: 09 May 2005 Location: Berkeley, California and Miami Country:	22-01-2009, 23:31 You are in the U.S.? If so, and you are a T-Mobile customer, you can use one of their UMA capable phones to connect to a wi-fi connection anywhere in the world. The minutes used would come out of your minute bucket (or you can pay $10/mo. for unlimited minutes while connected by UMA/wifi. They obviously don't advertise the fact you can use their phones w. UMA capability this way - but they even provide support if you are overseas. Obviously this isn't as good as having a phone connection anywhere you have cell signal - but "free" calling can't be beaten. We have used it everywhere from the Dubai airport to hotels, coffee shops and apts. from UK, Spain, Costa Rica, Israel, etc. ...mike Make use of T-M's UMA/wifi free calling from any place in the world with access to wifi. I use an LG G6, wife an S7) A/o Oct 20, 2013 no need for intl prepaid as T-Mobile U.S. includes voice roaming at 20¢/min (in and out)., unlimited text (in and out), and unlimited data in 140+ countries. My Plan -[6 lines] U.S. T-Mobile unlimited minutes (incoming and outgoing), unlimited text, fast data on each line. that $145/mo. total! . (In U.S. no surcharge for calling a cell.) If a line exceeds 2G of data in a month, pay $10 more for that line. [That only happens a couple times/year.