o2 My Europe Extra - Interesting Possibility

[meir]

I agree with Andy . Betamax have now landline access numbers with Voipcheap.com or Voipdiscount.com Actually there are a quite a few countries you can call for free. I would also say that you can buy airtime for O2 card off the Ebay with discount of 30 or more percent, which makes this set-up even cheaper.

[ticex]

Hey Andy, well I should have known you'd be one step ahead of me! The idea of the WePay sim had never crossed my mind...even better than free when there is 3p/min leftover from calls! Excellent!

Well, I also am surprised this combination hasn't drawn more interest before. The major advantage of this setup is reliability for at the least receiving calls. Because it's done directly with o2 the reliability issues, that callkey or even UM can occasionally suffer from (in my experience), should be eliminated. There have been a few times, especially in Poland, I've sat there wondering why nobody had called me all day. After investigation I found that my Callkey number seemed like it was ringing to the caller but wasn't ringing at my end. Other times with UM I've found it just didn't ring through at all and of course with me being based in the UK having a UK number makes UM lose to Callkey at least for me.

For outgoing, I've used returncall a bit when I'm back in the UK and it did seem pretty reliable and the caller ID being passed is a great advantage. However, Finarea cheapo calling to UK mobiles can on a small number of occasions be unreliable (>5% I'd say too) so for those occasions that returncall, voipcheap and whatever brand Finarea invent tomorrow fail the backup could be many other options: just as an example Voipfone web or SMS callback are expensive (14p/min) but I've found super reliable for UK mobiles. Even direct dialling on the o2 for the 25p/min isn't too bad for the rare occasion Finarea lets you down.

I checked out the German one the other day actually too but the limit of 100 incoming minutes vs. the o2 UK with 1000 mins kills it for me. Also, having a UK number allows the expansive amount of callback services and for me personally goes with my home country. I'd assume this package is rolled out to all countries o2 (Telefonica Spain isn't it now?) operates in so these might be worth checking out too.

Meir: Excellent idea for the topups from ebay! I hadn't thought of that one! When I get back to the UK next week I'll search some out and load up one of the free o2 sims sitting around in my house.

Now if only I could fine something to replace the Wind Mega No Limit for my now rather high data bills!!! Maybe o2 would like to launch unlimited European data

[andy]

Originally Posted by ticex

Hey Andy, well I should have known you'd be one step ahead of me! The idea of the WePay sim had never crossed my mind...even better than free when there is 3p/min leftover from calls! Excellent!

It isn't all bonus, as the earned WePay credit is only applied up to equal the value of the next cash top-up, but still, when the next RC premium text is charged you can say its effective cost is halved. Thus £10 sent to 3 then on to RC is worth 1000 minutes to landlines or 222 to mobiles.

A potential drawback of using RC with O2 when roaming is that I've occasionally had call charges for trigger numbers from a couple of countries' networks (Slovakia and Lithuania). My O2 bill a couple of years ago showed a 2 second call with per minute billing.

So don't go overboard in a new country without checking after the first couple of calls. If it does, I'm figuring a way to use a second callback service to send the caller ID to it, but then, if JustVoip is used for forwarding to a UK or IoM SIM, that might just as well be used instead

[meir]

O2 in Czech Republic has My Europe offer for postpaids only valid for limited number countries, but 120 minutes a day limit. But they promised to come up with something new before summer holidays.

[meir]

I have a few questions related to the ReturnCall? Is it possible to top up RC account from overseas( I have never tried this one)? May I top up more than fiver? Let say to send them two or more top up messages, so my balance will be 10 pounds or more?

[petkow]

Originally Posted by meir

I have a few questions related to the ReturnCall? Is it possible to top up RC account from overseas( I have never tried this one)? May I top up more than fiver? Let say to send them two or more top up messages, so my balance will be 10 pounds or more?

A good question. A while ago the question was asked if shortcode SMS works whilst roaming. I have never tried it, but I can't see why it would not work. I am away next week, so I will try it and report back to here. In any case, with short code SMS you always pay the normal network charge of an SMS to start off with, and I assume which if roaming you also pay this, but it is just a bit higher. That is independant of their 'return' SMS service. You are really then paying for the SMS recieved, and how are they to now where you are.

In terms of double topup, I can't see this being a problem (works on all their other services), but bear in mind ReturnCall autmatically send you a £5 top up SMS when your credit goes to near 0 anyhow:

"(*Once you run out of returncall credit, you will automatically receive a 5 pound recharge. To unsubscribe from this service please text RETURN OFF to short number 81223)"