Roaming - read this BEFORE you travel

[Guest Wizard]

I flew to Germany on Friday morning. I took my SPV and my laptop as I needed to get access to my email while I was away (primarily for business). I previously had a Nokia 6210e and with that I connected to the net fine via IrDA and my laptop.

But now I enter the fun world of Orange SPV and Smartphone. What a bl**dy disaster area.

The first problem was that the phone didn't work in Germany. I fiddled around in the options and changed the network choice to Automatic, so it started working. Why is this necessary when it wasn't on my Nokia?

Next I tried the data features - failure all around. I tried all the combinations of the settings that I could, e.g. via GPRS and WAP. I gave up and called Orange from Germany, I assume at 30p/min+. The guy was useless, in fact worse than useless. Several minutes on hold and he eventually came back and said that roaming data wasn't enabled on my account, but even worse I needed to have had it enabled *before* I left. I mean bl**dy hell, what is the point in telling me that when I've already left the country?

So when I landed back in the UK today I phoned Orange on 150 because data features (email, web etc) weren't working in *this* country either. After much messing about they admitted they hadn't a clue why and suggested I call 156 (the wirefree/data line). I called them and after 15mins the lady told me "gprs is not enabled on your account". I explained that it worked fine before I went away so that was not true. She got more confused and went away for a while longer. I had to finish the conversation at this point because I needed to be off the phone, but it seems she made an alteration to my account and it is now working again.

I have zero confidence that any of the data features will work next time I go abroad and I suggest that if you plan to go abroad you talk to Orange beforehand, but not rely too much on the phone actually working.

To cap it all, whilst in the UK today trying to get it working I had these problems:

- The phone locking up for 20-30 secs for no readily explainable reason

- Displaying the error "cannot execute connmgr.exe" (only Windows would give such a useless error)

- A call coming in and the whole interface locking up making it impossible to answer the call even though the incoming caller's name was displayed and the ringing continued. The only way to stop the phone ringing was to turn it off as no keys had any effect.

- Having found that the phone itself couldn't connect to the net, I tried hooking it up to the laptop and making a data call across the phone network using the modem in the phone. Could I get it to work? Could I buggery. Windows XP noticed the phone, but the two refused to talk to each other. I do not know why and after spending an hour on it I gave up and went to an Internet cafe. Mobile data, my arse. :-)

I am *that* close to taking this damn phone back. If data features don't work reliably abroad, the handset can't reliably answer calls, I can't use it with my laptop, my bill amounts are unpredictable, it crashes randomly and the customer service is this bad, why on earth would I pay for it?

Orange - if you're reading this - my perception of the SPV is that it is an immature piece of technology for which you are providing inadequate customer support and completely failing to efficiently resolve problems.

Wizard

[Guest Kallisti]

Or another point of view:

I went to Ireland after X-Mas, and the two issues were

1) GPRS doesn't work, however, Orange do state that they've only got two GPRS roaming agreements, one in france, and I can't remember the other country.

2) It took about 20 mins to figure out the new networks in Ireland. Once it did however, it cheerfully swapped to the one that had best coverage in any particular area.

I had no other problems with it at all. Text, voice and everything else worked fine.

[Guest elementalist]

I went to Ireland over Xmas too. Didn't have GPRS... the first day...

I was on some network I dont remember at first but when my phone switch to EIRCOM the GPRS worked :) Weird.

I didnt move much from my hotel either *shrug* don't know why the roaming changed.

[Guest Big Ron - No Longer a Mem]

Note that (IIRC) roaming is NOT covered by the SPV promo pack - but will be charged at the new (late December 2002) rate of (again IIRC!) £10 per megabyte.

Also, when abroad, make damned sure that you have DISABLED your answer phone - ideally switch to "Everyphone" and get unanswered calls diverted to your landline. (It's a free service) For why? An unanswered call to your phone when you're overseas attracts an extortionate charge because of billing/routing issues. YOU pay the difference between a UK and Overseas call (why should an unsuspecting caller who thinks you're 5 miles away be saddled with the cost of phoning the USA?!) The call reaches your phone in Paris, NY or where ever... and it's switched off. So the call gets routed BACK to the answering service in the UK at YOUR expense - and that gets billed TWICE; the overseas "partner" charges for the leg of the call back to the UK... and Orange charges for the UK leg. Legs (and arms) are what the unanswered calls could cost you.

[Guest Bazz]

Eh? You sure about that? I can understand the extra charge if you answer but surely if you don't answer then they can't charge you? I would have thought that Orange gives up ringing and diverts the call itself to your answerphone.

Barry

[Guest evenhand]

Answerphone: Yep, Big Ron is spot on. If you don't want to have massive bills for answerphone messages when you get home, turn it off before you go.

I am in Gibraltar at the moment and had to get Orange to send a SIM update to my SPV before I could recieve text messages on the local network here (GibTel)

My Sony Z7, also with me, is using a Spanish network (Movistar) and has worked flawlessly since I landed. Incidentally the SPV won't hold enough signal to also use Movistar.

Matt

[Guest ianintheworld]

I was in Madrid over new year. My SPV was on Movistar network - worked flawlessly. SMS, GPRS, voice mail, email, etc all worked fine.

[Guest jpr]

Spend 3 weeks in South Africa over Christmas and New Year... no problems with network and then used local ISP settings to connect for Data usage. Worked 100% all the time for roaming!! No problems. :D

Saying all this my SPV did crash the 3rd day there :shock: and i had to sign into this forum to get the notes on how to reset the SPV. I used Orange Backup at Heathrow (just before departure) to backup all contacts etc. and used my 128MB SD card for software etc. So after a reset i used the local ISP settings and restored my phone via the Orange Backup/Restore feature. Good feature! Still not sure why my SPV crashed as this has been the only problem i have had appart from some well known and documented bugs. :roll:

[Guest barncourt]

Note that (IIRC) roaming is NOT covered by the SPV promo pack - but will be charged at the new (late December 2002) rate of (again IIRC!) £10 per megabyte.

Also, when abroad, make damned sure that you have DISABLED your answer phone - ideally switch to "Everyphone" and get unanswered calls diverted to your landline. (It's a free service) For why? An unanswered call to your phone when you're overseas attracts an extortionate charge because of billing/routing issues. YOU pay the difference between a UK and Overseas call (why should an unsuspecting caller who thinks you're 5 miles away be saddled with the cost of phoning the USA?!) The call reaches your phone in Paris, NY or where ever... and it's switched off. So the call gets routed BACK to the answering service in the UK at YOUR expense - and that gets billed TWICE; the overseas "partner" charges for the leg of the call back to the UK... and Orange charges for the UK leg. Legs (and arms) are what the unanswered calls could cost you.

Ron. Are you sure this correct? My understanding of GSM is that you are only charged for inbound calls whilst roaming. Providing you divert all inbound calls to ansaphone BEFORE you leave the UK, you will not be charged for a second hop back to the UK when people leave messages. Obviously you still have to make an international call back to UK to collect your messages. Certainly, this is how it worked on the T-Mobile network when I roamed in Greece last year.

I believe the important bit is setting the divert to ansaphone before leaving UK. You cannot set it once you've left, otherwise you will incur call charges as per your original posting.

Perhaps someone can confirm?

[Guest cseilern]

re: roaming charges

afaik (-and i am fairly sure of this), no operator (mobile _or_fixed) charges for calls that do not _connect_ (i.e. when no one talks). If you do not answer no one pays anything (-good old answering machines have a feature called "toll saver" that depends on this). So the ONLY charge you incur when abroad is when you pick up incoming calls whilst roaming and make calls whilst roaming (incl to your voice mailbox). The moment you hit that little green phone key, the charges start.

re: data abroad

have roamed succesfully (voice+data) in both france and switzerland, although not consistently. There is web page on orange.co.uk (-i forget the url) that describes _exactly_ which foreign operators support gprs data roaming. However, I too experience difficulties when returing to the uk (-fixed with a few restarts).

[Guest Saracen]

I'm afraid Big Ron is right. Just got my bill after being abroad for a week. And after every unanswered incoming call, there's a outgoing one to the answerphone number, each costing about £1! Ouch! I don't know what I'm going to do. My bills usually come up to £60-80 which I can't afford anyway. I've been trying to get it down. But this month, a full £120!!! Aaargh! I will be complaining through by writing in, as this was never explained to me. When I called in they said they always read this out as part of their disclaimer, but I never heard this.

[Guest cseilern]

re international roaming charges:

I stand corrected! i spoke to orange and they said that the moment the call gets a) answered while abroad or :D diverted back to the uk while abroad, charges will be incurred. if someone calls you while you are abroad and you do not pick the phone and theyhang up _before_ it diverts, there will be no charges. if on the other hand, someone decides to leave you a nice flowery 20 minute message, you will pay an arm and a leg for it! (UK to abroad AND abroad to UK, despite the fact that the caller will only be making a uk to uk call!)

[Guest Kallisti]

Saracen: I'd advise you to copy your complaint to Oftel, and mention that you are doing so at the top of your letter. This WILL spark off an official line of complaint from oftel to Orange, and if it is in breach (or if nobody can be bothered to decide if it is or not), you will get a much speedier response and resolution. The process usually takes a month or two, with Oftel giving you regular enough updates as to timings etc.

[Guest barncourt]

re international roaming charges:

I stand corrected! i spoke to orange and they said that the moment the call gets a) answered while abroad or :( diverted back to the uk while abroad, charges will be incurred. if someone calls you while you are abroad and you do not pick the phone and theyhang up _before_ it diverts, there will be no charges. if on the other hand, someone decides to leave you a nice flowery 20 minute message, you will pay an arm and a leg for it! (UK to abroad AND abroad to UK, despite the fact that the caller will only be making a uk to uk call!)

If this is the case, this must be specific to Orange.... All the other operators advise you to set divert to ansaphone BEFORE leaving the UK for exactly this reason - i.e. avoid being charged for messages left to you ansaphone.... That way, you are only charged for outbound calls that you make and none inbound since you cannot receive any whilst unconditional divert to voice mail is set. Obviously, on your return to UK you have to remember to cancel the divert. Otherwise you will lead a quiet life! :D

[Guest ajb3000]

Alternatively you can turn your answerphone off, so if you don't answer your phone it will just ring out and you should incur NO charges for unanswered calls. If it's important they'll always ring back.

[Guest Gorskar]

When i went abroad last Summer, I rung up orange to ask about enabling roaming and stuff, and they advised me to have the answerphone switched off, which I agreed to, so they sorted it out from their end.

I'm surprised they didn't say this to you also.

[Guest Mark_192]

Back to the Data roaming...I've tried and failed pretty much everywhere I've been! Holland...doesn't work...India...doesn't work...mind you can only get my RAS box back in the UK, no internet access.