Yes, but there are now a number of phones which are both CDMA 800/1900 and GSM 900/1800 (some even have HSDPA 2100mhz). Also, this distinction should disappear with LTE.

MATHA531, you are assuming that the quote is written in English - in fact it is written in Marketingese. After reading terms & condtitons I understand that:
- You don't pay for answered calls in selected countries
- You pay 5/15p to various countries but only when calling from UK
- You pay your "home price" (=20p) when calling UK from selected countries.

And that's it. If I'm mistaken - correct me.

And now one question I couldn't find answer for - do you must top up the account to activate a free SIM card? Let's say I want to order 2 free SIMs - I can call between them for 20p from whole Europe. Do I must buy 2x5 GBP top ups for that or can I top up only one of them and use the other one only as 'receiver'?

Clear explanation of the "vodafone UK Passport"
 

A clear explanation of the "vodafone UK Passport" and the "summer roaming promotion" is available here:

Vodafone Passport ? mobile phone calls when roaming abroad

Since I consider purchasing a British Vodafone SIM as temporary replacement for UM+, I'd like to know if it needs to be activated in the UK or can I activate it also by registering on a foreign network?

The last time I got a Voda UK PAYG SIM I first used it from within the UK so can't directly answer your question based on experience.

However, I can't see why you can't activate from elsewhere. I never actually had to activate it! I just put the SIM in and switched on the phone. The phone was ready for incoming calls straight away. Of course there was no outgoing credit though. However, you will have to activate Vodafone passport which you can do even from overseas by calling the free customer services number. Most people activate this from when they are overseas in any case. As you know, topping up can be done overseas anyhow.

*** Vodafone Roaming Warning ***
 

A warning from the Vodafone Roaming Terms for the older AnyNet and Anytime sims:

"Vodafone cannot guarantee access to or coverage within any foreign country. If you are unable to receive access to a Vodafone Preferred Network, you may obtain access to another foreign network operator in that country. If so, you will be charged accordingly."

Source: UK - About Vodafone UK - Legal Information - Terms and conditions - Pay as you go price plans

Be careful to register onto the correct network!

Thank you, petkow.

I'm asking because of my experience with a French Orange SIM, which I bought on eBay last summer. When it arrived here in Germany, it registered immediately on German networks, but the SIM wasn't activated properly. The phone number was unreachable and SMS didn't arrive, too. Also outgoing calls, texts and USSD-commands failed, allthough there was an initial credit on the SIM.
After I arrived in France and registered on the Orange network for the first time, everything was fine and also back in Germany I could use all services, that failed before.
Other operators like MTel in Bulgaria require an activation call from within their network in order a phone number to be assigned to one's SIM.
However that question needs a definitve answer, so I just ordered a British Vodafone SIM on eBay.co.uk and will let you know, if it works without ever having been registered on it's home network.

Actually, as long as you stay in Europe, a British Vodafone SIM is the best deal you can get, if you find a way to trigger callbacks for cheap. Does anyone have experience in setting up your own SMS gateway?

Hope it works! UK SIMs always have a number preassigned in any case, so not like the Bulgarian problem you described. I have a few Vodafone UK SIM packs sitting around here somewhere, so perhaps I should test one here in Spain. I will try do so as soon as I can. Not sure where my big box of SIM's got too.

I agree. I have been using a UK SIM (but from o2) for all my calling when travelling in Europe for the last few years, and am happiest with the stability of a big mainstream network that like Vodafone also gets me 0c/min incoming in practically every European country. For callback, I use Betamax with their Java client. (Though GPRS data is a bit cheaper on o2UK than VodaUK). For callback, I use their dialnow.com brand which works out them charging me 7c/min for the incoming leg to the UK mobile number but other brands of theirs are a bit cheaper at around 5c/min. (check voipzoom.com and smartvoip.com). That coupled with the destination cost often works out cheaper than using a local SIM for calling a local number. I never pay more than a few pence for the data part.

Hello to all. It´s my first post in the forum. I have a question, I´m looking for it in the web vodafone uk but i don´t saw it. What is the cost of activation of vodafone international on pay as you go. I read the terms and conditions but didn´t say of cost. Can you help my?. Thank you very much.

P.S. Sorry for my "write" english. It´s very bad. I hope that you understand me.

El servicio Vodafone UK internacional es gratis
 

Aqui dice que el servicio vodafone UK international es gratis:

International Calling - Vodafone

" Getting Vodafone International is easy. Already with Vodafone? Call 36888 or text INTERNATIONAL to 2345 - free."

Pero para activar el servicio, no se si puedes llamar al numero 36888, o mandar un sms al numero 2345, desde Espania gratis.

Ok, the Vodafone International tariff is new, and has a lot more countries than the original list of just a few




Ok, now I'm back at home, and not browsing for rather limited periods on a mobile in wi-fi coverage, I looked at the Vodafone website

The terms and conditions are unambiguous:

UK - About Vodafone UK - Legal Information - Terms and conditions - Vodafone Passport


So I think that is very clear - there will not be 5 pence a minute calls from Europe direct to USA or any other country

Just being a little cynical here, but I wonder if offers such as Vodafone's are in part intended to obscure the fact that all the UK operators (except the relatively minor player 3) have now raised their baseline prepaid national call rate to 20p/min, with the first minute always paid in full. (By comparison, two years ago, T-Mobile cost 12p to all networks, and Virgin and others had offers in which call costs to landlines and the same network cost 5p/min.)

Correct me if I am wrong, but is is currently cheaper on Vodafone (while in the UK) to call a US landline than it is to call a UK landline?

Absolutely true...5p/minute to USA (and most other destinations outside the UK)...

True, but UK calls can be made more cheaply

There are add-on bundles which last 30 days, called Freedom Packs, of 100 minutes for £10, 200 minutes for £15, 300 for £20, load of text messages with each.

The Freedom Packs can also be used while roaming, for UK-bound calls. So for calling other countries cheaply, it would be worth setting up some kind of callthrough account with a UK access number.

Still confused
 

Hello, I will be traveling through EU and UK next months.

I want to be able to receive free incoming calls while in UK and EU. I also need to be able to call USA when needed.

My understanding is that all I need to get is Pay As You Go SIM, text INTERNATIONAL to 2345, then Text PASSPORT to 2345.

So, my question is as follows:

Will result be that I will have free incoming calls from anywhere as long as I am in the EU countries?

Will my outgoing calls to US cost 5p per minute?

How much would be the calls made to US and UK be if using my phone while in Germany?

Appreciate your help

The promotion as was announced was supposed to run from 01 June to 31 August...at this point there has been no annoucement as to whether it will be extended. I suspect not as there have been no annoucements but what I think and what actually happens are two different things.

If it is not extended, with vodafone passport you will be able to receive calls within Germany dialed to the Vodafone number but will pay a flat fee of 75p per call...depending on your calling patterns that might or might not be a good deal...you might be better off, for example, with O2's my Europe bolt on which costs a flat 10 quid per month or pay by the call with O2 or T Mobile or Orange at 19p/minute to receive calls.

On Vodafone UK, I believe the price to call the USA and most other places would be 38p/minute but don't hold me to that either.

Of course, the promotion might have been so successful that they would not want to get rid of it (but as I said, don't hold your breath).

I should have been more clear.

I will be in Europe throughout this month.

I will return before the end of promotion so my question was what happens while promotion is still in place.

Thanks.

Calls to the UK and within the country you're in are the normal price, i.e., 20p/min.

Calls to other countries seem to be 38p/min (which is still cheaper than a lot of prepaids).

Yes, you will have free incoming calls, as if you were in the UK.

Vodafone has a friend's and family plan. For I think it is five quid a month, you get unlimited calling to three or five UK numbers (it was ambiguous and I think there is a step here, e.g. 3 for 5 or 5 for ??). I make Asterisks UK portal one of those numbers, will it complain when I dial four digit extensions?

Reverse phone lookup
 

Can anybody suggest me some paid solutions to the reverse phone lookup. I have tried some free ones but their database is so small that I could hardly define any numbers there.

I have also found a list resources on reverse phone lookup here:

reverse_phone_lookup's Bookmarks on Delicious

Can anyone shed a light on them?

Welcome to the forum

As this is a separate subject, I've copied your post and used it to start a new thread about this

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/off-...-new-post.html

I haven't checked again recently, but I believe that to begin with Family was for Vodafone numbers only.

Take a look at Vodafone Family (4 people):

Pay As You Go Extras - Vodafone

Wow, Vodafone just recorded 8 percent more prepaid customers. Perhaps they'll extend these deals to other markets? Vodafone sees prepay boost after scrapping roaming charges - Mobile Today

There's another new thing all prepaid customers should sign up for, the Bonus Bank. Here's the press release:

LONDON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- From 29th July, Vodafone UK pay as you go customers will be rewarded for their loyalty with Vodafone Bonus Bank.

Every time a customer tops up, we'll give 10% back. For example for every GBP10 top up we'll put an extra pound in to their Vodafone Bonus Bank account to save and spend at a later date.

After three months and as long as they have saved a minimum of GBP5, customers can spend their Vodafone Bonus Bank savings. How is up to them. Customers can spend their Vodafone Bonus Bank savings on TopUps or put them towards that new phone they have been promising themselves - whichever they prefer.

It's easy to register, simply text the word "BonusBank" to 2345. Alternatively call 2345 or visit vodafone.co.uk/bonusbank for further details.

Let's see if Vodafone will prolong that roaming promotion, which I consider rather unlikely. Like with United Mobile I have excessively exploited the free incoming calls since June. Only today I talked for an hour to my girlfriend, who is currently in Switzerland. If there wasn't her (and the constraint to call her), United Mobile would surely not have filed for bankruptcy.

Thank you for the tip about Bonus Bank, Motel75! According to Vodafone's website you actually should send "BONUS BANK" with a space between both words.

You spoke for an hour...I assume your girlfriend called you....somebody had to pay something....and in this case, what vodafone has done is not exactly revolutionary for under the tariff as they existed before 01 June and presumably will exit after 31 August, you would have paid 75p....not exactly an immense loss of revenue. (presumably if they don't extend the promotion, they won't be dropping passport service, right?)

No, I called her through poivy.com for € 0.07/min from which approximately GBP 0.05/min were passed to Vodafone. I don't know what operators charge each other for roaming subscribers, but I don't believe Vodafone earns anything from those GBP 0.05 when forwarding calls to foreign networks, at least to those not belonging to the corporation.

Btw, does anyone have an rough idea what operators charge each other for roaming?

But, maybe I'm just dense, what does this have to do with no roaming fees on Vodafone UK...this would only affect who was receiving the call, So if your girlfriend was on vodafone UK and taking advantage of the summer promotion, even under the terms of the original Vodafone Passport the total charge to the receiving party would only be 75p....or did you use a callback service to make the call but even then, the fee under the rules for vodafone passport would be 75p so I'm just wondering just how much did the summer promotion cost vodafone in this case.....

Inquisitor, what is the best rate you have to call a Swiss Mobile?

Have you checked betamax price comparison ?

During the summer promotion Vodafone UK PAYG customers are not charged a single penny for receiving calls in whole Europe, Australia and New Zealand. So my girlfriend, who is roaming with my Vodafone UK PAYG SIM in Switzerland doesn't pay anything for receiving calls. Only the calling party pays, in that case me. So the total income of Vodafone when I call her now is ~ GBP 0.05/min and I hardly believe these 5 pence will cover the rates, which the foreign network operator charges to Vodafone. Just for comparsion: German operators usually charge € 0.69/min for incoming calls in Switzerland, sure that rate includes a giant margin, but I'm sure Swiss operators will receive more than € 0.06/min from those € 0.69/min.
And of course whenever my girlfriend or I need to place outgoing calls, we use callback through Betmax' Java midlet (http://gsm.voipbuster.com).

...but inquisitor, you missed my point. Even without the summer promotion, the most your girl friend would have paid under Vodafone Passport is 75p....hardly an earth shaking amount...now if you want to tell me all these 75p add up eventually, I'll buy that. But how many people spoke for an hour under this promotion?

My point is that the promotion didn't cost Vodafone all that much, in this case a grand total of 75p.....

When it comes to long calls you are right - 75p won't offset the absent incoming charges. However the average duration of mobile calls ranges between 40-90s, so those 75p with Passport would cover the roaming costs for an average call.
Within the EU those 75p will even increase the income from incoming calls, given the fact average calls don't exceed 2 minutes.

So my point is, that Passport's business model relies on a charge for incoming calls. Maybe Vodafone just has this summer promotion to decoy customers and when they are in the trap, they'll start charging those 75p again.

Or perhaps they will start adding conditions. For example on ATT's corporate iPhone International plan (5 gigs of iPhone data for most countries for $69), you have to spend at least one day a month in the U.S.

With the EU rates on incoming, you're right that the 75p model for incoming won't work. Most calls will be cheaper without passport. This model has increased their business, but they really don't want the folks who frequent this forum as customers. Moreover, the UK has more ex pats than any nationality other than India. The number of Brits moving elsewhere and staying on Vodafone will be high.

What I see them doing is either requiring a percentage of the calls to be made in the UK or some other proxy to insure that they get some domestic business for this promo. They couldn't do this this summer because many people took these free SIMs as they were about to jump on a plane some place. My best friend sent me two that someone Voda employee was just handing out at a street corner.

They have a hit on their hands and I think they will tweak it, not abolish it. I'm just afraid that the non-UK members of this forum will get tweaked out of business.

It might be worth it to Voda to overtake O2 to become the #1 provider in the UK. They had 2 million fewer users than O2, but were weak in prepaid.

The competition is so fierce in the UK that they're all handing out free sim cards....I passed by a T Mobile store just this past June and an employee was outside handing out free sim cards.....when I got on the train from Victoria to Heathrow and later on when I returned to London via Eurostar, there were people handing out free lebara sim cards although they required a 5 quid top up...O2 has it prominently mentioned on its web site they will post free sim cards.....I just wonder if they're ever going to be able to go back and charge for them...

Meanwhile we're now into August and there's been no annoucement one way or another what vodafone will be doing.

To top it all off, Ms. Redding, the eu minister in charge of telecommunications, has made it quite clear that her ultimate goal is no roaming charges to receive calls anywhere in the eu. It is obvious that day is coming.

Is this free-incoming action available on all vodafone cards?
I mean, if I buy one on ebay, will I (as a non UK resident) be able to use it, top it up, ... ?

Thanks
Yves

Yes, to all British Vodafone prepaid SIMs ("pay as you go" or "PAYG") after you have activated the Passport option by texting "PASSPORT" to 2345. On that ocassion you should also text "BONUS BANK" to 2345 and you'll get 10% bonus for every topup.

Yes, that works, however topping up is not that convenient, as Vodafone accepts only British credit cards on their website. I found this online shop where they sell Vodafone topup vouchers below nominal value, but I first had to ask if they accept me, since they are actually closed to new customers. If you refer to this forum, they may accept you.

But keep in mind, that Vodafone's Passport promotion will end on August, 31st!