Toggle Mobile

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by linknet

My question is how do I know whether it has selected the local UK number or if it is actually roaming and going to create excessive call charges?

Make a short test call. If they charge too much call Toggle and complain and figure out the issue. Get them to refund any overage. This solves the issue sooner rather than later.

[dg7feq]

our toggle card is currently in ireland and works like a charm. Also good to know: calls to any of the assigned numbers works very well with Finrea VoIP accounts (in our case voipjumper.com for 3 us-cent/min to the german toggle number)...

[inquisitor]

@linknet
The roaming indicator will never disappear from your display unless you do not have a Dutch IMSI/local number and you are in the Netherlands using the Roaming IMSI.

The reason for this is the following:
Each network on this planet has at least one unique ID consisting of a mobile country code (MCC) and mobile network code (MNC). E.g. in the UK O2 use 234-10 and 234-11 for their network.
Also each SIM card holds a data field called Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) where the MCC/MNC of the issuing operator is stored.

What your phone does is simply comparing the MCC/MNC of the current network with that one stored in the HPLMN field in your SIM card. If both numbers match then the phone assumes that you are on your home network, while if they mismatch it displays the roaming icon.

Now if you use the British IMSI the HPLMN field will be set to 234-26, the MCC/MNC-tuple of lycamobile, the company behind toggle. As an "full MVNO" lycamobile do operate their own core network but do not have a radio access network. Instead they let their customers use the O2 network in the UK, which identifies as 234-10 or 234-11. Since the HPLMN field of the British IMSI and the MCC/MNC of the O2 network mismatch, your phone will even show the roaming icon while you are in the UK.

If you use the Roaming IMSI which actually comes from Vodafone Netherlands the HPLMN field will be set to Vodafone NL's MCC/MNC (204-04) and your phone will consequently consider any other network than Vodafone NL as roaming network. Hence the Netherlands are the only country where your phone would not "roam" in a technical sense. This would change as soon as you activated a Dutch IMSI/local number for your SIM card because then you would still use the Dutch Vodafone network but the Dutch IMSI would change the HPLMN to 204-09 (lycamobile Netherlands) so again there would be a mismatch of HPLMN and the current network's MCC/MNC-tuple.

I have seen some Android phones that obviously know which networks all the MVNOs use for domestic coverage and hence suppress the roaming indication in the SIM card's home country, but especially older and cheaper phones like your Samsung do not offer such advanced network detection. Therefore you will often see SIM cards from so-called full MVNOs who use their own MCC/MNC-tuples to be "roaming" on their native networks.

EDIT: Just discovered here that 3GPP standards now allow for a Equivalent HPLMN list on SIM cards which can specify more than one network as home network. The question remains if toggle makes use of this feature and which phones extract and use this information from the SIM Card.

After all this lengthy explanation I have a simple answer for you: While you are in the UK you must be using the British IMSI because the Roaming IMSI is blocked for roaming on British networks.
Btw toggle appear to also block roaming for other countries as soon as you obtain a local IMSI/local number.

[linknet]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

@linknet
While you are in the UK you must be using the British IMSI because the Roaming IMSI is blocked for roaming on British networks.
Btw toggle appear to also block roaming for other countries as soon as you obtain a local IMSI/local number.

Thanks for taking the trouble to provide a detailed explanation, now that I understand the reason for the roaming icon being displayed I can just ignore it.

On your other point about the Roaming IMSI being blocked, do I understand that to mean that if you have an IMSI/local number for the country which you are in, and you are connected to a local network, then roaming is automatically blocked, or in other words, you are automatically charged the local rates and cannot be charged roaming rates since this facility is blocked.

[inquisitor]

Yes. At least that's what has been observed for Germany, where I cannot register with the Roaming IMSI on any network anymore since I've activated a German IMSI. Earlier I was able to register with the Roaming IMSI on 3 out of the 4 German networks (all except for E-Plus). And for the UK roaming with the Roaming IMSI is blocked out of the box as toggle SIMs obviously come with a British IMSI pre-activated.
I assume that they do the same for the other toggle countries. Maybe someone can confirm or confute this for other countries.

[Stu]

Any indication whether Toggle will eventually include the U.S. now that Lyca is up and running there?

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Stu

Any indication whether Toggle will eventually include the U.S. now that Lyca is up and running there?

would be a good question to raise to their support...

[tux]

I read on their Twitter that they will soon launch data bundles for all the 12 countries they are in. Don't know if it'll be a "unique" bundle or if we have to activate a bundle for each country we visit.

[inquisitor]

Yesterday they have also impliedly confirmed rumours by retweeting a link to this article, according to which toggle will very soon offer American local numbers (and hopefully IMSIs, too) as well as data bundles for all toggle countries.
I wonder if data bundles will be valid internationally or just for a single country as the British ones currently.

[ronwi]

Originally Posted by Stu

Any indication whether Toggle will eventually include the U.S. now that Lyca is up and running there?

As I think I have mentioned elsewhere, if they have US numbers, they will have to change their system a bit.

I doubt they will allow free incoming calls for the US numbers, given that in the US it is called party pays, not calling party pays.