o2 My Europe Extra - Interesting Possibility

[andy]

I have been told that short-code sms work across borders, but found that one sent from German Vodafone to top up a German Voipcheap account did not work, just charging me the price of an ordinary roaming message.

Talking of which, sms callback from Voipcheap is another option, which I did use several times last week. (I haven't subscribed my O2 to RC yet, only 3.)

About petkow's queries, I think that the RC 5p 0870 rate must be a mistake, but then I never expected the 2p rate for landlines to last either. Most Finarea/Betamax brands don't like 07744/07755, including RC (rings with no answer); in fact 18185 is the only one I know. You might use a choice of forwarded numbers as the second keg though.

[renfro]

Further to my earlier post, it the 25p per call does not apply to incoming calls when the MyEurope extra bolt on is applied - the itemisation has appeared on my online bill and all incoming calls have been billed as 0.00 - this is good news!

Whats more, text messages sent whilst roaming appear on my bill as included in my line rental, and havent been billed 25p as specified in the terms of the bolt on. Will need to keep an eye on this on my next trip.

[andy]

Originally Posted by renfro

Whats more, text messages sent whilst roaming appear on my bill as included in my line rental, and havent been billed 25p as specified in the terms of the bolt on. Will need to keep an eye on this on my next trip.

sorry if this is a bit off-topic for non-UK readers

O2 UK contract still uses inclusive text messages when abroad, coming off the allowance at the rate of 4 for 1. It also appears a bit oddly on another part of the bill, in the roaming section as a 4 second free call, sometimes to the destination number, sometimes the O2 message centre.

These costless messages make Voipcheap sms callback another attractive option as a backup for RC, 2 x 8c + vat to/from UK mobiles, and temptingly a bit easier to set up the call

If you go over your allowance, you will be charged roaming sms rates, so if this is likely, look into mobile Java clients that send via wap/grps - and so far, my 100k monthly data allowance has still been used while roaming, eg when setting up Voxalot or Voipbuster callback (under 2k per trigger or sms)


I've wondered from time to time if the inclusive text bolt-on on O2 Pay&Go would also work in the same 4 for 1 way when roaming, but never tried or read about it. It seems a bit less likely but might be worth a shot for someone with the opportunity to try, or perhaps someone here knows ...

[petkow]

Originally Posted by andy

O2 UK contract still uses inclusive text messages when abroad, coming off the allowance at the rate of 4 for 1. It also appears a bit oddly on another part of the bill, in the roaming section as a 4 second free call, sometimes to the destination number, sometimes the O2 message centre. ...

Andy, do you know if this is only for texts back to the UK or for any destination? (or does it include only the country you are roaming in?)

[andy]

It might be worth just one try, or maybe asking, but I'd guess that it's only for UK-bound messages.

[MATHA531]

I just looked closely at the my Europe terms and conditions...

I think I'm reading it right but apparently the free reception of calls while in the countries involved will only occur if the call originates within the eu. Damn (or am I misreading it?)

[ticex]

Well, I finally got this all setup. One thing to point out for the few of you that will do this: if you're going to port a mobile number over to o2 prepaid then make sure this is done before you activate myeuropeextra as you lose it when the number port occurs and it takes almost a week for o2 to sort it out!

Anyway, now I'm operational I've tested most aspects of this setup on the following networks/countries and it works perfectly - calls to the returncall trigger number are not charged as well:

Belgium: Proximus (returncall topup shortcode works too!) - Base works fine as well but Mobistar has occasional caller ID & authorisation issues
Germany: T-mobile, o2
Netherlands: KPN Mobile

(I'm particularly glad the phone works fine on another network apart from o2 in Germany as I find their coverage to be terrible in some places!)

Caller ID works perfectly and calls received from anywhere (NOT just the EU) are not charged for. SMS is charged at the 25p rate but I've been using SMSbug on my other data phone for any SMS I send. The one thing I've learnt using o2 is they don't support delivery reports on SMS in the standard way which is a small disadvantage to me making the web method even better The other small disadvantage is o2 prepaid doesn't support call waiting so especially when using this in combo with returncall it's best to completely turn off the voicemail in my opinion. Now this week I'm going to see if the inclusive GPRS browsing allowance of 5MB (I think this is included for the 1st month) also works abroad.

For the topups I've bought 2x £20 topups from sellers on ebay for £14 each as per a suggestion before. I paid via Paypal and had the voucher codes within a couple of hours. I was then able to call the standard topup number (for free) and apply the £20 credit immediately. To further reduce the costs I'm going to signup for a thing called o2 rewards which I think gives 10% extra credit for free in 3 months time

Finally, for outgoing calls, as per a previous suggestion I've also tried using voipcheap's geographical UK callthru number in conjunction with returncall to make calls to places returncall charges more than the 2p/min UK rate for. I've also tried setting up the Caller ID as a callthru number on my pbxes setup then by calling my UK voip number I get a dialtone and can once again access any of my other voip providers for the same 2p/min. This also works and if I have a particularly long call to make I will do this but for most of the time the returncall rate is perfectly acceptable. As mentioned before there is also the possibility of using SMS trigger callbacks for any moments returncall isn't playing ball but as it seems to work fine (for the moment) I've yet to test this.

Overall I'm very pleased with this new setup! It's much better than using the IoM sim or UM as I've done in the past and for me the best bit is it seems to be super reliable. Hopefully it will stay this way!

PS: For anybody with a UK address you can get o2 sims for free at the moment via the following link:

http://freesimo2.o2.co.uk/

EDIT: GPRS usage is not inclusive and is actually super expensive!

[andy]

If they would only set up another credit method in parallel, it would be possible to use this with IoM numbers as well, though it needs a way to send RC the caller ID

Another destination to call via RC might be a UK DID pointed at a JustVoip or Voipcheap account that is also forwarded, though with some choices of destination this can mean some unanswered calls become chargeable if there is a further call forward ...

[petkow]

Originally Posted by ticex

... for the same 2p/min. (

Returncall seemed to have now upped UK geo. calls by 50% from 2p/min to 3p/min! (although the website does not state this!) Can anyone else confirm this?

In the last few days I have been using the above mentioned combo extensively throughout Europe. (Germany, France and Spain). Initially I was worried that if roaming on another network (other than on one that is associated with o2), I would be charged for incoming so I kept doing a manual search for o2 whilst I was in Germany. As Ticex rightly mentions, o2 coverage there is inferior to T-Mobile. I lucklily discovered a few days later that it makes no difference, as incoming calls are free on either.

The only think I was annoyed with is the delay between recieving the topup message and the funds being applied to my RC account. I got into an annoying situation where I was cut off in a call due to lack of funds. I then topped up via short code SMS (which I too can confirm work well anywhere). After this I had to wait for several minutes until the funds appeared. I then make the call again, only to find I get a further auto-topup message. This resulted in a double topup.

[petkow]

Second stealthy price increase in a little more than a week! I just heard that calls to UK geographic lines are now 4p/min with Returncall. (Again no mention on the website).