nwhitfield
Member
Registered: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK
Posts: 92 |
quote:
Originally posted by mbd26
How can one go back and forth ('tween Europe and USA) making and receiving calls?
It's GSM. It just works. You turn your phone on, it connects to a network, you dial. VisorPhone works on the US 1900MHz frequency and the 900MHz one used in the rest of the world (1800MHz is also used outside the US, but not supported by VisorPhone)
quote:
Must one dial a country code?
Depending where you are; I've explained this in the past, but I'll run through it again....
The + symbol is special in GSM; it allows you to store phone numbers and make calls with the network automatically adapting them to the current location.
Store all your numbers in the Visor in the format +country area number, eg +1 212 555 1212, or +44 20 8880 5901 (the latter is my fax line).
If you store them like this, you can dial them wherever you are. The + and country code will be replaced as necessary by the GSM network. For example, if you're in the US and dial the +44 number, you'll be connected as if you'd dialled 011442088805901. If you're in Europe, where we dial 00 for international, dial the US number and it would appear as if you'd dialled 001212.... And if you were in the UK and dialled the +44 number, it would be the same as dialling 020 8880 5901.
So if you store all your numbers in international format, you don't need to do anything different. GSM handles the magic, and you just dial.
quote:
Does your phone number change? Details please!
No, your number doesn't change. What on earth would be the point of that? Maybe you have really bonkers cell phones in the US ;-)
GSM roaming is completely seamless. People can dial my UK GSM number (+44 7973 ....) and my phone will ring whichever country I'm in, whether it's the US, France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands.
Like I said at the top - it's GSM. It just works!
The only thing to beware of is that you will pay for the international leg of calls you receive while roaming (in Europe, we don't typically pay to receive mobile calls when we're not roaming). Sometimes these charges will be quite high, as can outgoing charges. The networks tend to take the view that they can fleece people who are visiting...
The person staying in Cambridge for 2 weeks could save money by buying a UK SIM from a pay as you go service, and using that - callers will pay more to reach him from the US, but it'll be much cheaper to use within the UK. Just pick up the SIM card from a phone shop, and slot it into VisorPhone.
If you go down this route, in the UK you'll need a SIM from the Cellnet or Vodafone networks, which are the two that operate on the 900MHz frequency that VisorPhone uses. The other UK networks are 1800MHz, so SIMs from them are no use in VisorPhone.
Nigel.
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Visorphone in Europe?
05-25-2002 04:27 PM
gsm in europe--really?
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