Information on using your Mobile Phone abroad

Using a Mobile in another country - It is now easy to use your Mobile Phone in a lot of countries abroad due to the worldwide adoption of GSM digital phones. Imagine not having to worry about paying expensive Hotel phone bills or being uncontactable in the case of an emergency at home.

The first thing you will need to do if you have never used your Mobile Phone or your Sim card abroad before is to contact your Service or Network provider and ask them to remove the International Call Bar. You should be able to find the phone number to contact them on you Phone bill.

At the same time it will be worth letting them know where you are planning to travel to as they will advise you if there are any problems with using your phone there.

Making Calls
All numbers you call from your mobile must be prefixed with the international code of the country you are calling. You service provider will be able to advise you of exactly how to do this.

Usage of Mobile Phones on Planes
You must always ensure that your Mobile Phone is switched off before entering an aircraft and is not switched back on until you have alighted the Plane and are back in the Airport Terminal. This is due to the risk of the signal from your phone affecting the instrumentation of the Plane. It is therefore in your best interest to abide by this rule.

Call Charges
The first thing to note is that you WILL be charged for calls you receive when you are abroad. This is because you pick up the international "leg" of any calls. This may seen unreasonable, but callers may not know you are overseas or not be prepared to pay an international call charge. If you want to avoid being charged in this way, you can set your phone to divert to voicemail and retrieve messages later. The coverage, services and charges offered are those of the foreign network.

Using Mobile Phones in the United States
The USA uses a slightly different GSM frequency for standard Mobile Phone calls than most other countries so you will need to have a tri-band phone such as the Sony Ericsson P900 or the Nokia 7250. Tri band phones are quite common nowadays to check the manual that came with your phone to see if it has this feature. When using a Tri-band phone in America, it will automatically switch to the correct frequency to allow you to recieve signals.

Using a Mobile Phone in remote areas
In vastly remote areas such as the middle of the Amazon Jungle (not hiking in the Lake District!!!) it may not be possible to recieve a GSM signal to your Mobile Phone. Satellite Phones can be used in such situations but they are currently quite expensive and may not worth purchasing unless you are a regular explorer of forgotten lands.

Mobile Phone Insurance
If your Mobile Phone is insured then you should check the terms of your insurance to see whether it is covered should it be lost or stolen abroad.

Lost or Stolen Mobile Phone
Make a note of the number to call (not on your phone) should your phone become lost or stolen to ensure that you can inform your network provider straight away to enable them to disable the phone to limit the chance of unauthorised calls being made.

Using Mobiles abroad (or not) - Taking your phone abroad is the most convenient way to keep in touch to home although care must be taken to understand how call charges to and from your phone will differ from normal use. It is wise always to speak to your network provider a number of days prior to leaving the country to ascertain whether your phone can be used at your destination and to give them enough time to remove any call barring security from your Mobile Phone. Using text messages to communicate will keep the costs down and if you arrive at your destination and find that your Mobile Phone does not make or recieve calls then its back to the Payphones and Postcards...

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