To roam or not to roam?

Written on 8/08/2008 08:49:00 AM by poison_ivy

International roaming has been one of the value added services provided by wireless carriers. With International roaming services, you can use your existing sim card to send and receive text messages as well as receive and make calls to other numbers even if you’re in another country.

Not everybody can get the benefits of having International roaming services, first, your mobile phone needs to be supported in other countries, or more specifically, you need to have a Quad Band or Triband phone in order to make sure that your existing mobile phone will work with other networks. Second, your service provider or wireless carrier needs to offer International roaming service. The wireless carriers usually partner with other international Telcos so that you can use their existing network. Since you will be using the network of International Telcos, your local service provider would need to charge you extra since they’re paying for the rent for using the other Telco’s network. This is the reason why SMS charges and call charges are doubled when you opt to have International roaming service.

While roaming services can be convenient for your loved ones, since they don’t have to pay extra for texting or calling you while you’re abroad, it can be burdensome on your part since you’re the one shouldering all the charges. If you and your family will be traveling abroad, I suggest that you don’t opt for roaming services. Instead, when you reach your country of destination, try to buy prepaid phone cards and use the sim card on your mobile phone. This is highly recommended if you’re visiting Asia where most mobile services are cheap and calling card features include free text messages.

So I guess ultimately, it would depend on your country of destination if it would be cheaper for you to use roaming services or just buy a prepaid sim card.

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