Originally Posted by
Fredd
After monitoring this thread and some other sources, I took the plunge a few days ago and switched from a basic AT&T plan to a Simple Choice plan and an iPhone 5s, our first time ever with a data plan.
After a day trip to Canada we flew to Bangkok and from there we're going to the Maldives, which is
excluded from the list of cheap countries. I'm trying to figure out two puzzles and am asking for advice.
T-Mobile tells me I have already racked up $4.40 in calling costs. I called a rep to find out what caused that and she can't tell me for "reasons of privacy." I haven't used the phone all that much and I suppose it's possible I've already used 22 minutes between Canada and Bangkok but I doubt it and they haven't been posted yet. My first bill is already posted but these calls occurred after that. How soon will I be able to see the charges?
Second, when I mentioned to the rep we were next flying to the Maldives she strongly advised me not to turn the phone on, even after I told her I had been planning to use hotel Wifi. Why would that incur T-Mobile costs if it's on WiFi?
I would greatly appreciate anybody who can confirm whether she's right or wrong about that.
Thanks in advance.
On the call charges; as soon as bill is ready it will itemize. I believe it is on the cards to get the data before billing sometime later this year. Also DO note; if you receive incoming calls that you REJECT as far as the roaming carrier is concerned they diverted a call back to your voicemail and so a 1 Min charge will occur on phone "rejected calls". Suggest if you want NO incoming calls or screen calls to forward your phone to "Forward all calls" to voicemail; this then does the forward on T-Mobile's US side which means the roaming carrier never gets the interaction to bill for the forward to voicemail on rejected calls. Suggest maybe changing voicemail message to "I'm out of the country; if you need to get hold of me Text/Email me and I will call you back"
Regarding agent response on Maldives: On the turn off phone.. I call BS; turn off data roaming - LTE won't work for roaming anyway now so it will fallback to 2G or 3G. You can then use Hotel WiFi. Agent isn't well informed.
In situations like Maldives, HIGHLY suggest having phone SIM unlocked before going and use a prepay; it's isn't expensive and it's 10USD or do for 1GB of data.
http://prepaid-wireless-internet-acc...ves+-+Dhiraagu Some of his links in that post arw dead; try this for data packages on top of prepaid:
http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/mobile_in...r_prepaid.aspx
HINT if you want messaging to people in the US on the cheap when using another SIM: use Whatsapp BEFORE you remove your T-Mobile SIM and setup that program, you can swap SIM's and Whatsapp still uses the existing app settings (e.g. your US number). The others who want to get hold of you need to use Whatsapp also (if they don't already) but it's data based messaging handy if on a network where you are on a prepaid sim