Toggle Mobile

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by tux

Is there anywhere a list of carriers on which Toggle roam on (at least in the countries in which they provide local numbers)?

No, and since they use an IMSI from Vodafone Netherlands for roaming outside toggle countries they probably don't know themselves either. But I guess in the US toggle should roam on AT&T as I've found several sources on the web that say that Vodafone prepaid SIMs from other countries roam on AT&T and Vodafone actually operates a global roaming hub (afaik located in the Netherlands) I assume that roaming network availability is the same for all Vodafone subsidiaries.

And... do you know if it is possible to port an existing number to Toggle?

Yes, you can import an exisitng number but only a British one.

[tivoboy]

So, I GOT A TEXT with the number now. It connected to I THINK tmobile for a SECOND. It is odd, because where I am I have very good ATT coverage (that's my domestic carrier) but the toggle sim just won't connect to the ATT that is here, and I KNOW that the tmobile coverage is poor and comes and goes with the wind.

that said, I've been able to add value to the card, and will test in town tomorrow and confirm balance et al. (I have now turned off data so I don't pay while in the USA at the moment, although they may not have data but in the text I got it said boom your data will cost 4.70l per mb...ouch

Does anyone know if I can sign up for UK data plans, so using the *141*7500# to sign up for a UK plan, but sign up while I'm in the USA? or does one have to do that only in the UK?

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by tivoboy

So, I GOT A TEXT with the number now. It connected to I THINK tmobile for a SECOND. It is odd, because where I am I have very good ATT coverage (that's my domestic carrier) but the toggle sim just won't connect to the ATT that is here, and I KNOW that the tmobile coverage is poor and comes and goes with the wind.

Either roaming on AT&T is blocked for toggle SIM cards or they do roaming steering to force your phone to TMo despite the worse signal strength. If the latter is the case you should be able to force your phone onto AT&T by performing a manual network search and selecting AT&T. If this fails repeat the search and selection process four times. If is still fails after the fourth attempt, you definitely can't roam on AT&T.

that said, I've been able to add value to the card, and will test in town tomorrow and confirm balance et al. (I have now turned off data so I don't pay while in the USA at the moment, although they may not have data but in the text I got it said boom your data will cost 4.70l per mb...ouch

As long as you haven't changed your iPhone's default settings it won't establish an Internet connection while it's on a roaming network anyway.

Does anyone know if I can sign up for UK data plans, so using the *141*7500# to sign up for a UK plan, but sign up while I'm in the USA? or does one have to do that only in the UK?

If USSD (those codes containing * and #) works out of the US, you will be able to activate a data bundle. You can find out if USSD works by dialing *131# which should display your current balance. If it fails USSD probably doesn't work on the selected roaming network. In that case you could try registering on another network and try it again.

[ronwi]

I am in the US - and the Toggle SIM will only roam on Tmobile, not AT&T. And yes, I have tried selecting AT&T multiple times in a row to overcome steering.

Lycamobile US uses Tmobile only as well, so I suspect they have some special deal with Tmobile. The fact that they have free incoming calls in the US without a US IMSI (I think they are the only mobile operator that does this) suggests a highly negotiated deal with Tmobile.

I have also activated a number of these SIMs in the US (I only kept 2 the rest were for friends.). I have found that it will refuse to register on any network when first taken out of the package and put in the phone. This is because at first it is in UK mode, and it seems to take some time to go into roaming mode. In fact, for the last one I activated I became impatient and went to the STK SIM menu and manually selected roaming. I then changed it back to Automatic later when I had more time.

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Either roaming on AT&T is blocked for toggle SIM cards or they do roaming steering to force your phone to TMo despite the worse signal strength. If the latter is the case you should be able to force your phone onto AT&T by performing a manual network search and selecting AT&T. If this fails repeat the search and selection process four times. If is still fails after the fourth attempt, you definitely can't roam on AT&T.

As long as you haven't changed your iPhone's default settings it won't establish an Internet connection while it's on a roaming network anyway.

If USSD (those codes containing * and #) works out of the US, you will be able to activate a data bundle. You can find out if USSD works by dialing *131# which should display your current balance. If it fails USSD probably doesn't work on the selected roaming network. In that case you could try registering on another network and try it again.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by ronwi

Lycamobile US uses Tmobile only as well, so I suspect they have some special deal with Tmobile. The fact that they have free incoming calls in the US without a US IMSI (I think they are the only mobile operator that does this) suggests a highly negotiated deal with Tmobile.

That's interesting because according to p.2 of this document Dutch Vodafone customers are charged higher rates when roaming on AT&T than on other US networks. Hence you should assume that Vodafone NL's wholesale purchase price for airtime on AT&T is higher and so other roaming networks should be preferred. But there are many possible reasons why toggle does not roam on T-Mobile - one of them could be lacking support of the required CAMEL phase that enables realtime billing, a basic requirement for prepaid tariffs.
Anyway, I expect toggle to start assigning American IMSIs from Lycamobile sooner or later and then customers will be locked to T-Mobile.

[tux]

I think that Toggle uses Vodafone Global Gateway only for global roaming, not for local numbers & tariffs :S

[tivoboy]

thanks IQ, I'll give it a try

[VladS]

Is there a way to remove expired local IMSIs from the Toggle STK menu?

I find it quite difficult to remember which local countries are still active without having to check the online account before each hop to a Toggle country.

[inquisitor]

Won't they be deleted automatically? I think my Swiss IMSI had disappeared before I renewed it last week. Also I didn't pay attention whether the current IMSI is actually a new one or if I was re-assigned the previous expired one.

In any case I guess deleting an IMSI manually is not that easy as you will need to hack the STK application on the SIM card, which probably cannot be downloaded from the SIM card so it can't be reverse-engineered making such undertaking even more complicated. Perhaps you would need to inject a faked OTA update to delete an IMSI which is also quite challenging, as I expect such to come encrypted.

[inquisitor]

Please disregard my last post. Obviously I have misread ronwi's post and assumed that his toggle SIM did roam on AT&T but not on T-Mobile. Actually, the opposite is the case. So the higher roaming prices for Dutch Vodafone customers on AT&T absolutely make sense.