View Full Version : Mobile Phones
spanchal
19-03-2003, 12:11
Hello,
I am visiting Florida next Monday and hoping to use my triband mobile phone whist out there. I was wondering if there is pay as you talk system out there where I can purchase SIM card and top up as necessary. If I use my UK network to roam, it may get a little expensive and I do not want to receive my normal calls whilst I am out there.
Sam
Hi Sam,
I can't help you about purchasing a SIM out there, but I can confirm roaming with a tri-band is expensive. I'm with Orange and it costs me £1.10 per min when I'm in the US, even when recieving calls. :( I hope you get a positive response to your posting as it would help me too.
Jeff
Spanchal,
We are going out Saturday, and we too (my wife and I) are taking our triband moby on Orange with us, what we have done this week is send EVERYONE in both our phonebooks a txt message stating that we are on holiday in the US until the 6th April and calling our moby will cost them money as well as us, and only to call in a dire emergency, this worked fine last time we went away. As you say the roaming profile from moby operators is expensive but just for peace of mind we are taking it with us (my wifes Nan is not very well and she would like to know - not that we would necessarily do anything about coming home etc.)
Have a good time - I can't wait..........
caroline
19-03-2003, 14:10
We took our cellnet mobiles with us last October, and found it really useful and not THAT expensive, we had some international reduced rate "thing" added to our tariffs - I made probably around 2 or 3 calls a day for the 2 weeks we were away, and my bill was only about £30 more than normal. Definitely worth it for the convenience.
We have an IDT account, for normal phone calls.
We have 3 phones between us that our triband and we always take them with us. Despite the teenagers phoning us at the drop of the hat (I want to show you this skirt mum!) our combined bills were only £20.
We have to have the ability to be contactable for our business - although I have to say it seems quicker for them to contact me by e-mail as when they leave messages they often take 4 or 5 days to come through!
CB - why don't you be a good boy and tootle off to college and do some real work?
steph_goodrum
19-03-2003, 16:33
We have an answerphone in the villa so anybody can leave us a message in an emergency so it will never be more than 12 hours before we get back and also a tracfone pay as you go, in case we break down when we are out. We asked about sim cards about 5 years ago and they said all their models were sim free or not compatible.
We can't use our mobile phones abroad, so have been considering walkie talkies as a way of keeping in touch when we separate at the parks, or shopping malls.
Any advice on using and buying these, and whether they work?
Thanks
Rebecca
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
19-03-2003, 17:28
We used some walkie talkies we bought from Wal-Mart last time we were in Florida and found them indispensable, especially in the parks.
They had lots of channels to choose from and we did not find the channels very congensted. Well worth looking into if you ask me :).
They sound ideal. Were they rechargable? Any idea how much they are? I assume they are cheaper than here!!
Rebecca
floridadreamvilla.co.uk
19-03-2003, 17:51
They just took 4 AA batteries each but you can get rechargeable ones - prices start from around $15.99 each if I recall correctly.
Money well spent!
Thanks - I'll take a look when we arrive.
Rebecca
Precious
19-03-2003, 19:11
The only decent pay as you go phone that I have found would be with Virgin but I gon't know how it all works using a UK phone.
We bought the walkie talkies when we were there. $10 each for ones with a 2 mile radius from walmart. Very useful for things like Belz factory unit and when we went to different films at the cinema and wanted to meet up afterwards etc. Quite amusing though listening to other peoples conversations! My husband insisted on giving me a 'callsign' which is not repeatable here. Most embarassing when he kept saying 'Is ....... there?'
It was OK until his one dropped off his belt into a stream and got saturated.So we need to buy a new one next time.
We got those last time too, the $9.99 ones, and they're really useful for tracking down errant husbands who wander off in large superstores! ;)
We lent one to Julie Carty when we went out in a convoy and were nearly crying with laughter until she and Terry got the hang of it properly! :D
It's a shame we can't use them in the UK as we have a large house and have trouble locating people at mealtimes!
neilandkay
20-03-2003, 08:55
Cellphones (mobile phones) in the US don't have SIM cards. You can buy pay as you go phones from Virgin and from 7-11 stores. There are also a number of cell-phone stores, but it has been so long since I was in one, I don't know if they offer pay as you go phones.
When I was looking to replace my cellphone, we looked at 2 different PAYG ones but found them too expensive for my needs. They were approx $70 upwards (plus tax) for the phone. I can't remember if that included any minutes or not. Top up cards were reasonable priced. (an addendum, just noticed that you can get Virgin mobiles from $59.99 including $10 worth of minutes)
I don't know if this would be a good option for someone who visits the USA once a year on holiday. Walkie Talkies are the way to go to keet in touch with family in the theme parks. They are cheap and easy to find as people have already mentioned. They obviously don't allow family back home to contact you, nor are they good if you have a larger group and want split into groups and do separate things in different areas of Kissimmee/Orlando.
If you want relatives to be able to leave you a message at the villa, you could get an answerphone they are only $20 for a basic system. It is so cheap that you could almost throw it away when you had finished with it.
Just some other thoughts
--Kay
floridahol
26-03-2003, 01:46
Walkie Talkies are getting more and more popular in the parks. First noticed people using them about 4 or 5 years ago and thought what a rediculous idea(!) but we used them when we we're in florida last month and thought they were a HUGE help! (theres 6 in our family...)
If anyones interested in buying some in the UK and taking them over like we did - we got ours from Argos in a sale, they were reduced to £40ish. Included 3 walkie talkies with a 3km radius. However they take 4 AA batteries each and go through them pretty quickly.[:0]
Problem is, the US and UK use different frequencies and I know using the US ones in the UK can interfere with emergency services transmissions. Don't know about the other way though.
Also, they're much cheaper in Florida at $9.99 from Wal-Mart (around £20 for three)!
floridahol
26-03-2003, 02:33
Our UK ones worked fine in the US, if anything its an advantage because it works on different frequencies so less chance of interferance.
Sorry, I didn't make myself very clear. I was thinking more along the lines of this http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2665#20494 and http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.html