Call forwarding whilst roaming

[petkow]

Just a quick stupid question that I think I know the answer to but am not 100% certain.

I am in Spain at the moment and about to head off to the middle East from here. I am currently roaming here on my UK o2 mobile with MyEurope Extra and free incoming etc. Now if I setup up a divert of voice calls from my UK mobile to a UK DID but do so whilst I am here in Spain then am I right in saying that I will get billed by o2 for every incoming diverted call as a call from Spain to UK?

Do I physically have to be in UK to setup the trigger so that I will get billed UK to UK? That would obviously be hugely preferential to me as it would come from my inclusive minutes or be very cheap!

Is there any way to trick the network to think I am back on home network. Probably unlikely, but just thought I would ask. Apologies if this has been asked before.

[Ties Brants]

As far as I understood it some years ago:

If you do a direct (unconditional) divert to an other number you will always be billed as if you were in your home country. This because the network doesn't even have to know where you are and it doesn't have to send the call there.

When you do a conditional divert the call will first go to the roaming network and only when you don't answer/ are busy/etc it will go to the number you specified. But then the call has been on the roaming network so you pay roaming fees.
But if you switch your phone of your phone should notify the network and the roaming network should notify your home network that your phone is off. Then also, the network does not have to send the call to the roaming network, because it already knows your phone is off. So you should be billed as if you were home.

That is what I red somewhere a long time ago. So not sure if it is (still) true.
But to me it sounds logical.

I don't think the location/network where you set up the divert makes any difference. It is more about the way the call has to travel.

[Stu]

I often change my call diversion from abroad and have never been hit with roaming fees for it.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by Ties Brants

But if you switch your phone of your phone should notify the network and the roaming network should notify your home network that your phone is off. Then also, the network does not have to send the call to the roaming network, because it already knows your phone is off. So you should be billed as if you were home.

The problem is that greedy carriers lie and don't inform your home network when you turn your phone off, switch roamed networks or go out of service. They want your call to be forwarded to their network so they can make free money by forwarding it back to your network. This is why you should never trust conditional diverts while roaming.

[petkow]

Thanks for all the responses and sorry I am only getting back to this thread now. In the end I didn't actually trigger the forward as I didn't have as much net access as I had hoped. Good to know for next time though. I would never have thought that setting up the trigger would work whilst roaming as if I were at home. I am still not 100% sure though!

The initial doubt came about as even though I have a plan where I do not pay for incoming calls whilst roaming in Europe, I do pay for unanswered calls that forward to my voicemail By the above explanations this should be free as well shouldn't it? I mean my voicemail box is in the UK and has a standard UK number. So for example whilst I am here in Spain, and have an INCOMING voicemail, I get charged for is an OUTGOING call from Spain to UK. However shouldn't it just be charged as UK to UK? The irony is that if I actually pick up the call before it diverts to voicemail, I pay nothing!

[inquisitor]

As soon as you register to a foreign network, the HLR (home location register) of your home provider will be updated by the information, that you are registered on that certain foreign network. When somebody calls you now, you operator looks up the HLR, realizes that you're abroad and forwards the call to the corresponding network, which is the first leg, where costs emerge.
After the call has been handed over to the foreign network the VLR of that foreign network (visitors location register) will be looked up for where exactly in the network you are located. If you can be found, your phone will ring. If you can't be found (because your phone is switched off or outside coverage) and if you have set up a conditional forwarding, the foreign network will forward the call to the destination number of your forwarding, which would be your UK-based mailbox. So for that forwarding back to the UK, the second leg, costs do emerge again. So a conditional forwarding will be billed like an incoming roaming call + a call from the foreign network to the forwarding's destination number. You pay for both legs.
Of course it would be smarter, if the HLR would first request at the VLR if you're available at all, but afaik your home operator can't find out if you're actually available and so will always forward calls to the foreign network. At least that was the case back in the 90s when I still used mailboxes. Maybe today there's another technical solution like a remote VLR-lookup or maybe operators just stopped this stupid billing, allthough it actually uses capacity. At least United Mobile do not charge for conditional diversions to the mailbox.
However if you set up an unconditional forwarding, this will be stored in the HLR and calls will directly be diverted by your home network without that circuit via the roaming network and so no extra costs will apply.

[petkow]

Thank you very much for that excellent explanation Inquisitor! The situation with the mailbox has confused me for a while. I do have my mailbox switched off 90% of the time for this very reason!

So in a nutshell, unconditional forwarding whilst roaming cuts out the visiting network whereas conditional forwarding doesn't!

[Motel75]

The 2007 changes to EU roaming fees also prohibited operators charging for unanswered phones diverting back to the mailbox, at least within the EU. Previously, this could get expensive.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by Motel75

The 2007 changes to EU roaming fees also prohibited operators charging for unanswered phones diverting back to the mailbox, at least within the EU. Previously, this could get expensive.

Does it? I need to fling this at o2 then! As mentioned I still get charged for that! Have you got a link?