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passpato
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« on: October 02, 2007, 01:27:21 PM » |
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Does anyone know the best way to call England from Thailand? My girlfriend has a onetocall mobile in Bangkok. are there any cheap prefix services to call a uk landline? Any help appreciated ....Thanks
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petkow
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« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2007, 02:12:04 PM » |
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You can of course call Thai mobiles from here via VoIP for very cheap or even free as far as I remember. Otherwise does she have access to a PC and VoIP? That will be cheapest. I know no other way of her making cheap international calls directly on her SIM, but I am sure there will be calling cards etc.
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andy
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« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2007, 02:50:15 PM » |
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are there any cheap prefix services to call a uk landline?
Yes - from their own website http://www.happy.co.th/en/service/international_idd/index.php14 or 11 pence a minute using 007 or 008 before the 44.... It might be worth trying 009 for 8p, even without UK listed. That's the same as local rates. It would be possible to set up with a callback firm, but at those rates I wouldn't bother. She could make a quick call and then you call back more cheaply as petkow suggested
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A1ia5
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« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2007, 04:13:21 AM » |
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The 009 service is the cheapest (6 baht per min I think) of the prefixes that can be used from a thai phone. It is a VOIP service that is allowed by the Telecom Office of Thailand (TOT). As has been suggested, she could give you a quick call on this then you call her back using a discount provider from the UK.
Alternatively, she could send you an sms from her hand phone to yours in the UK. International SMS are usually 5 baht.
Also, if she has access to broadband she would use one of the Finarea services - I think that VOIPDiscount is the best as you can call Thai mobiles out of the free allowance and UK landlines are free too - so you could both share the account ! I say this only if she has access to broadband very cheaply - dont use an internet cafe service. I once got told to shut up in an internet cafe in Bangkok as I was talking about making free calls everywhere using VOIP and the cafe were charging other people 15 baht+ a minute...
A way to make SMSing cheaper, is to get your girlfriend to get a postpay sim from DTAC and pay for international roaming - they currently have a package called zero where you pay only 99baht +tax a month. She then sends the sim card to you. With this you get a thai mobile number and can receive sms's free in most places. When she sends an sms it is for a local charge - usually 1 baht. Plus you can pay for this through their web service and get 50 free sms's a month to send to other dtac or happy (which is the prepay DTAC service) numbers.
Also you could of course get a Virgin payg sim, activate it and divert all calls to voicemail, then send her that. She would need to have a second phone to put it in. With this you can send her sms's, possibly out of your inclusive allowance as you are sending them to a UK no. Virgin have roaming in Thailand and it works well. If you get a virgin payg sim with top-up via direct debit, then roaming is increased substantially in South East Asia.
You'll find that quite a few thais will call for a couple of rings then hangup. This means they want you to call them back. This works in the UK too and the caller id will come through - so you'll know she wants you to call and it is instant - whereas sending an sms isnt always.
FYI, One2Call is the prepay service of AIS - the company formerly owned by Taksin Shinawatra - the former Thai Primeminister - who now owns Manchester City and wont be going back to Thailand anytime soon...
Edit - just reread some of the other posts - yes there are some calling cards, but there rates to UK (esp mobiles) are not so cheap. If she calls directly, I beleive it is something like 50-60baht a min !
For other discussion on this have look at ThaiVisa.com/forum
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mobaholic
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« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2007, 11:52:43 AM » |
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Also you could of course get a Virgin payg sim, activate it and divert all calls to voicemail, then send her that. She would need to have a second phone to put it in. With this you can send her sms's, possibly out of your inclusive allowance as you are sending them to a UK no. Virgin have roaming in Thailand and it works well. If you get a virgin payg sim with top-up via direct debit, then roaming is increased substantially in South East Asia.r discussion on this have look at ThaiVisa.com/forum
Your answers are very informative A1ia5, as usual, but I am just curious about the divert all calls to voicemail bit.  How would that help to receive free SMS ? I can't think that it would affect it one way or another. Am I missing something here ?
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petkow
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« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2007, 12:52:52 PM » |
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Some very interesting points brought up there. Using a Virgin or other PAYG SIM (with UK number) whilst abroad for 'SMS-only' reception is a good idea of utilising the free texts on contracts here to send messages abroad. This is making use of the fact that whilst roaming you are never charged for incoming SMS (though there are rare exceptions!)
However, I don't really agree with the other aspect. The idea of switching the PAYG SIM abroad onto all calls onto answerphone is presumably to avoid the accidental incoming call pickup! (and that would be charged!). However, in most cases it is worth noting that you still get charged for incoming time when the call is terminated even onto your answering machine whilst roaming. Roaming is defined as the time the foreign network thinks you are there. i.e. if you have switched the phone on there. It is only 'undone' when you re-register onto your home network. This is done by just switching the phone on back here in the UK!
I had a silly situation once, where I was in flying from one country to the other but had a transit inbetween. I had momentarily switched my phone on to check if I had any text messages. It registered but then unfortunately my battery died. My SIM remained temporarily registered on the foreign network in the transit country. When I got back to the UK, the chap who was going to pick me up kept trying to call me (to tell me he was running late). The call kept going to my answer phone for which I was charged hefty incoming rates everytime (even though I was in the UK) as the last network it registered with still thought I was over there! (As I said it would until I re-register here).
That's why I generally advise people who are roaming to get their answer phones deactivated completely. If not, remember to switch your phone on as soon as possible when you get back to your home network!
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mobaholic
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« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2007, 02:14:45 PM » |
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Thanks for your story from personal experience petkow: you have actually made my point for me very well.  I believe that the advice to divert to voicemail is quite useless:  what is needed is a call to Customer Services to have the voicemail feature turned off ! 
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A1ia5
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« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2007, 03:53:23 AM » |
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All - my recommendation is based on actual experience - and on the advice of a Virgin CS person over 2 years ago. I did as advised and it worked a treat. I would know that someone had voice called me and would get the voicemail icon on whatever phone the SIM was in. Then i could use whatever servive to call a uk mobile and get through to my voicemail access enter the pin and voila - access to my voicemail.
I was in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia for over 14 months, and my £10 original top up to the birgin PAYG is only 15p down from doing a test call..
Trick is to divert all calls (voice, data, fax) to voice mail **before** leaving the UK.
However, I do agree with other comments. With my Thai contract phone, despite diverting all calls to voicemail before leaving Thailand,i was advised I would be charged 1 min for any calls diverted to voicemail. This was true. However, as I havent been there for a while, my voicemail expired. Still I receive sms notifications of calls made and that tells me who called me so I have a number to call back if I wish. Also the free sms reception works a treat.
I dont know why virgin is different - i just know that what I described certainly worked between 7/05 to 9/06.
HTH
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petkow
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« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2007, 01:58:22 PM » |
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In that case, that really is an EXCELLENT tip. I do like virgin!
The reason for it is probably that as all calls are being diverted it is all done on their switch here without it needing to try and pass the call forwards to the roaming network. After all the network here will only ever charge you if the roaming network has charged them. If all calls get diverted (as you say before leaving), then the foreign network is not even involved.
I wonder too if this is unique to virgin?
Brilliant!! This is probably common knowledge amonst serious roamers but I was not aware of this at all. Thanks A1ia5!
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easybetman
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« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2007, 06:36:09 PM » |
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Hello...
OK... I will give you a technical explanation of all these myth.
Basically, as long as you are on unconditional divert AND voicemail notification via SMS (and not incoming call voice alert like those on vodafone), even if you set it when you are abroad (via USSD, may not work in some countries and hence it is always better to do so when you are in home country) .
This is the reason why.
If a phone is abroad and unconditional divert is not set, then the home network will look up its database to see where the call is. The database may say, Thailand AIS and temporary roaming number of 66xxxxxxx. So, the network fwd the call to the temporary number (full rate international call here!). If the call is answered, normal charging rates apply.
If the call is diverted by you press the reject button/not answered/the phone does not respond to network signal, then this is a call back from Thailand to UK, and yes, you get charged! In petkow case, when the phone switched off due to no battery, the network does not know the phone is off and it falls into the phone failed to respond case (yes, the network would have tried to reach the phone via the foreign temporary number first. And guess what...you are charged !!)
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dinwal
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« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2010, 05:17:08 AM » |
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You can ask her to use mediaringtalk. It allows totally free calls to UK Landlines. Use the link in my signature to read details of mrt.
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petkow
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« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2010, 12:42:21 PM » |
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Dinwal, I do hope a moderator finally gets around to deleting your spam for mediaring!
Spam, OT and completely out of date. In future at least check the date of the thread. This one is well over 2 years old!!
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