Cell phone charges

[Ancint Brit]

Over here we have to pay exorbitant roaming charges for mobile/cell use when on holiday from England to mainland Europe Do you, when calling from say, New York to Chicago, have to pay a high rate? Or are you charged at a universal inland rate. I ask this because this rip off pi$$es us off as we are meant to be part of a federal, economic union. :angry:

 

[Ignacio]

Keeping EU politics out of it...PLEASE....then most of the larger U.S. providers offer competitive plans for flat rates of service for calls in the U.S. with no roaming or long distance in the lower 48.

However, go to Canada or Mexico and it's expensive roaming charges.

Their business model tends to make money in the supplementary services like text; bundling with home phone, cable, family; and data. And don't think the U.S. is necessarily cheap. According to this article we're the most expensive of OECD countries and 5 times more expensive than Finland or Sweden.

 

[MEM]

Canadian cell phone charges are horrendous to start with. I have a fairly 'economical' plan with no frills (although I've just recently added voice mail and call display). My bill is normally around $40. My June bill - which included travelling to CFR via the US - was $248!! and that was keeping my phone OFF to avoid roaming charges. :angry: Between the jigs and the reels of adjusting for roaming charges, LD charges, and incorrect charges to start with (ie, in contravention of my phone plan), I was able to "finess" my bill down to $69

At least the Bell call centre employees have delegated authority to make on-the-spot credits with very little hassle.

 

[HotRodZilla]

Most cell companies now have "Nationwide Network" plans or some variant of that to reduce roaming charges. Of course the plan costs more than a standard plan, so it kind of depends on your travel habits as to wether or not the extra money is worth it. Some plans even have some access to Mexico and/or Canada, but those are even more expensive.

I have nationwide roaming on my phone, so I was surprised when I was charged roaming charges at my brother's house, 200 miles away. When I called to ask what was going on, the phone company said the nationwide plan is not "all inclusive" so if my roaming indicator is flashing, I get charged. If it is solid, the area is inculded in my plan. They cleared the charges that time, but I'm betting it won't happen every time. Losers

Also, when I lived near the border, it was not uncommon to be having a conversation here in the US by hitting a Mexican cell-phone tower. Notice usually came in the form of a big assed bill followed by an irate call to the company telling them that we had never left the country and they needed to fix the charges. Never had a problem getting them to do that. It is pretty common.

 

[Ancint Brit]

Thanks for the replies. I have a domestic media package with 'Virgin', phone, TV and broadband. So for an extra £10 per month, about $16, I get 300 minutes and 300 texts. This is cheap and I rarely get anywhere near using it all by month end.

This summer Europe has put pressure on the providers to reduce roaming charges, just after I had my holiday, but I think they would have had to do something in the current economic climate to encourage use of service. How long the service providers keep these prices before bleating poverty is anyone's guess.

 

[bramfrank]

In general Euopeans don't use their cell phones as much as we do here on the left side of the pond - but your bills overall tend to be higher for what you do use - i.e. on a per minute basis the plan is more expensive, but you don't use as many minutes in general.

Also, the rest of the world operates on a 'caller pays' basis, but in North America the cell phone user is charged for all calls, incoming or outgoing - and if 2 cell phones call each other they charge each of them.

In Canada we get banged out big time - unless you have something special going on calling outside the local area IN CANADA costs extra and if you go to the USA you can be charged as much as C$4 (about 2.4 Euros) a minute, though in general is is about half that.

You CAN buy a roaming bundle to get the price down, but unless you use almost exactly te number of minutes you've bought you are SOL. Besides, the per-minute rate is a still very high.

I won't get into the details of *my* domestic plan, but what I do for the US is that I have a US phone with a prepaid 1,000 mnutes that I have to top up with at least $100 once a year (which buys me 1000 US domestic minutes) - I have about 2700 minutes credit right now.

I also have a Canadian VOIP line that costs me $10 a month and includes unlimited North American calling.

So when I travel I forward my Canadian cell phone to my VOIP line and my VOIP line to the US phone - sp incoming calls are all at the prepaid rate (.10 a minute). Calling back to Canada costs $0.30 per minute and generally consists of me telling people to call me back on my Canadian cell number and hanging up - then I pay the incoming rate for the rest of that call.

There's a web site which is the definitive site for North American cellular companies, plans and equipment. It's worth a visit:

https://www.thehowardforums.com

 

[colin]

vodafone was running a no roaming campaign in the UK recently.... were they the only ones? I reckon that's a pretty good deal for people travelling around.... bit of a shame if no other carriers jumped on that.

Kinda doubt it applied to pay-as-you-go SIM cards.... That's what I had, but was only in the UK, so not a big deal.

 

[ponyfool]

My business phone is $85 for unlimited everything, including:

• Talking (Voice)
• Text Messaging
• Video Messaging
• Picture Messaging
• Email
• Web Browsing
• GPS Navigation
• TV
• Radio
• and NFL

This package includes usage anywhere in the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. If I go into Canada, I have to pay $.20/min.

My families personal phones are similar in that they have unlimited data/text but share 1500 talk minutes, and it is $127 for four phones.

 

[Texan]

Boost Mobile has the fastest growing subscriber base in North America. $50 per month nationwide unlimited calls and texts. It's good for the 95% of Americans who never leave our borders.