new roamer seeking advice please!

petkow · 02-11-2010, 14:38

Peter. Forget about getting a special roaming SIM (like truphone etc.) as the rates for these for countries like India and Nepal are pathetic, and probably not very different from what Vodafone are charging you in normal roaming.

There is only one feasible economic solution:
1. Get yourself a UK DID in an area code of your choice (there are hundreds of suppliers). Make sure it allows your call to be forwarded to a SIP address. (e.g. I have one from Voiptalk that does this). You can either give your customers this number, or have your normal Vodafone number forward to this.
2. Get yourself an account with a Voip provider that has cheap calls to mobiles in india and Nepal. e.g. Voipgain does it at arround a penny a minute
3. When you get to India/Nepal or wherever get yourself a local prepaid SIM. (actually no longer as easy as it once was, but still possible provided you show ID and a local address)
4. Divert calls from your DID provider to the Voipgain SIP address (or one that gives cheap calls to India). You can do this in the settings of managing your incoming number. Also, in the Voipgain control panel, divert all incoming voice calls to the number of your prepaid SIM in India.
5. If you do not have a SIM in India, you can divert your number to a hotel, landline etc, or worst comes to worst, divert it back to your UK vodafone number. With Voipgain this only costs 3c/min, but Vodafone will obviously charge you incoming charges if receiving a call while roaming.

Sorry this is all probably a bit confusing (no time to explain properly), but I hope you get my drift. I have done the above on around 5 trips to India with no problems. I can receive calls made to a UK landline number (or my o2 mobile) in India for under a penny a minute.

petkow · 02-11-2010, 15:49

Also... don't buy the links spammed by Lola4479.

petkow · 02-11-2010, 17:47

Actually, Truphones rates for India and Nepal at 18p/min don't sound too bad at all. It would be worth checking to see if which networks in these countries their partner network has roaming agreements with and whether that rate is really applicable to all the networks that the card can roam on.

meir · 02-11-2010, 21:26

Try to set up account with localphone.com With Direct Dial you dont have to even purchase incoming number, if you know your callers nos. Otherwise you pay little for direct DID. Nepal calls are 15c/minute. India 1.5c/minute, China even less.

Truphone · 03-11-2010, 10:50

Hi PeterGene

If you do decide to try out our services, please let us know how you get on, and feel free to PM us on here. India is one of the countries we are looking at to get even better rates for 2011.

Happy travels!

	(#1)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	02-11-2010, 14:38 Peter. Forget about getting a special roaming SIM (like truphone etc.) as the rates for these for countries like India and Nepal are pathetic, and probably not very different from what Vodafone are charging you in normal roaming. There is only one feasible economic solution: 1. Get yourself a UK DID in an area code of your choice (there are hundreds of suppliers). Make sure it allows your call to be forwarded to a SIP address. (e.g. I have one from Voiptalk that does this). You can either give your customers this number, or have your normal Vodafone number forward to this. 2. Get yourself an account with a Voip provider that has cheap calls to mobiles in india and Nepal. e.g. Voipgain does it at arround a penny a minute 3. When you get to India/Nepal or wherever get yourself a local prepaid SIM. (actually no longer as easy as it once was, but still possible provided you show ID and a local address) 4. Divert calls from your DID provider to the Voipgain SIP address (or one that gives cheap calls to India). You can do this in the settings of managing your incoming number. Also, in the Voipgain control panel, divert all incoming voice calls to the number of your prepaid SIM in India. 5. If you do not have a SIM in India, you can divert your number to a hotel, landline etc, or worst comes to worst, divert it back to your UK vodafone number. With Voipgain this only costs 3c/min, but Vodafone will obviously charge you incoming charges if receiving a call while roaming. Sorry this is all probably a bit confusing (no time to explain properly), but I hope you get my drift. I have done the above on around 5 trips to India with no problems. I can receive calls made to a UK landline number (or my o2 mobile) in India for under a penny a minute. Last edited by petkow; 02-11-2010 at 15:30..

	(#2)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	02-11-2010, 15:49 Also... don't buy the links spammed by Lola4479.

	(#3)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	02-11-2010, 17:47 Actually, Truphones rates for India and Nepal at 18p/min don't sound too bad at all. It would be worth checking to see if which networks in these countries their partner network has roaming agreements with and whether that rate is really applicable to all the networks that the card can roam on.

	(#4)
meir (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 269 Join Date: 21 Feb 2006 Location: It's long story Country:	02-11-2010, 21:26 Try to set up account with localphone.com With Direct Dial you dont have to even purchase incoming number, if you know your callers nos. Otherwise you pay little for direct DID. Nepal calls are 15c/minute. India 1.5c/minute, China even less.

	(#5)
Truphone (Offline) DEALER Newbie Posts: 9 Join Date: 14 Apr 2010 Country:	03-11-2010, 10:50 Hi PeterGene If you do decide to try out our services, please let us know how you get on, and feel free to PM us on here. India is one of the countries we are looking at to get even better rates for 2011. Happy travels!