Call forwarding options for USA mobile
 

Hi,

I have T-Mobile service for my US Cell phone. I am currently in India and was wondering if there is any way that I can (free or minimal charge) get call forwarding on my cell phone.

I want it such that if someone calls me in USA the call gets forwarded to my mobile in India and I dont have to pay excessive charges.

With my current setup I am paying a lot of money for roaming charges in case I get an incoming call.

Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks,
RJ

You can forward your call to any numbere you'd like. If it's a toll number (int'l) you'd have to pay charges. Otherwise it's minutes.

Any GSM network (like T-Mobile):
Forward All Calls
- Activate *21*[Phone Number]#
- Cancel & De-register ##21#
- Cancel & Retain #21#
- Status *#21#
- Re-establish *21#

You will then have to figure out where to forward to. I'd suggest looking at VOIP options. Not sure if you can do it via Skype In/out, but I bet there are some others which allow cheap call xfer.

You could forward your calls to a SkypeIn number ($14 for 3 months) and then forward that number to the Indian cell phone. SkypeOut rates to India are $0.17 a minute, which is probably cheaper than T-Mobile's rates.

Might want to give www.privatephone.com a try

discussed some HERE

They could call your US voicemail number it alerts you and you could call them back

I think something like this might be the best option. After all, there is no way to have someone dial a US number and then have it ring in India with no one paying anything for the international call. Skype is probably as cheap as it gets.

Last I heard Skype did not allow this (yet). Did this change?

Allow what - forwarding to an international number?

T-mobile no longer allows forwarding to non-10 digit numbers. I ran into this problem a few weeks ago. The idea of forwarding through skype is good. There are many other services that provide this type of service. kall8.com, ureach.com, if you travel to several countries, consider getting a simairways.com sim card. It works with free incoming in many countries, and it is based out of UK, so it isn't a huge cost to forward through there. Of course remember it is not possible to forward directly because tmobile limits it. They say it's due to a system upgrade but I wonder if it's to prevent bypassing their roaming?

If Skype didn't allow it, you could always get a US-based VOIP number and implement the same setup. Although it would cost more, it might still be cheaper than paying roaming rates.

I am not sure which US-based VOIP provider has the best rates for US->India, and allows international forwarding, but whichever one it is, that would be the one to go with.

Ive been using a service at www.telcan.net (NOT .com!) for a few years to do this. I have an 800 number there, and forward my TMo line to it. I then set Telcan to forward to my prepaid SIM. The caller pays whatever they would to call my TMo number, I use TMo minutes and the actual call to wherever is billed at the Telcan rates which are often way cheaper than roaming. Other services are available. There have been a lot of threads on this by the way. Skype is an interesting option also. But as mentioned, you cannot do it without an intermediate provider. TMo took that away a few years ago.

Wow. Telcan's rate to India-Mobile is 21.25 cents per minute on the toll free number. That's pretty good!

Note that in some countries they charge more for calling a mobile number than a landline, but yes, they are pretty reasonable cost wise. In some places like China and Japan they can save you a lot. I also use there callback service as well. I call a number, let it ring once and then hang up. It then calls me and I answer and dial the number I want to call. If I have free incoming calls I just pay the telcan rate for where I am and where I am calling, the cell phone isnt charged.

Forwarding a SkypeIn call to any number.

I'm curious, so I'm resurrecting this old thread:

My question is, do I need to have the SIM in the phone for forwarding to go through? For example:

US SIM ==> VoIP # ==> India SIM

Does that mean I need two cell phones, or can I just use one phone, set up forwarding on my US SIM, then take that out and replace with the India SIM?

No, you do not have to have the sim in the phone for the forwarding to work. You can also forward/unforward from anywhere there is GSM coverage. Not neccesarily the home country of the sim you are forward.

So like you mentioned, you can forward your US sim, take it out, and put your other sim in it and you are on your way. You can also put your US sim in your phone while in India, and then unforward/forward (as long as the sim registers on a network) as you choose.