Cheaper O2 mobile calls in France / Europe

[Ecossais]

This may be of interest to you if you have an O2 UK mobile.

O2 have been running a promotion throughout the summer called “My Europe”.  This has made the cost of making calls from most European countries back to UK, receiving calls in European countries and making calls within a European country or to another European country 35 pence per minute.

This offer was due to end at the end of September but will now be available ongoing.

“My Europe” is available on Contract and Pay As You Go mobiles and is free, but you have to opt in to it.  If you don’t opt in to “My Europe” rates, you are charged 99p per minute to receive a call / make a call to a UK landline and £1.49 per minute to a non-O2 mobile (PAYG prices).

The “My Europe” call charge of 35ppm is actually cheaper than making a cross-network call on O2 PAYG within the UK!

In fact you’d pay less when in France to phone an Orange France mobile than you would when in the UK to phone an Orange UK mobile!

If you only use a mobile in France for emergencies, this may be a cost-effective alternative to NRJ (so long as they don’t withdraw the offer) – you’d have to leave a top up card with someone in the UK to put credit on the phone for you, but your O2 phone would roam onto whichever network is the strongest at any time so you would not be limited to good SFR coverage areas.  As with the other UK networks there is no expiry on your credit, but you must make a quick chargeable call every 6 months to keep your number active on the O2 network.

To set up “My Europe” dial 2266 from your O2 mobile, or you can get more info here: http://o2roaming.co.uk/  T&c’s:   http://o2roaming.co.uk/termsPrePay.html

 

 

[Mik from LA]

I use the service at www.oneroam.co.uk

You buy a pay as you go SIM which is posted to you from UK and are charged 27 ppm from France to UK and it costs nothing to receive calls from overseas. Importantly for me the payments do not expire after a few months as I use my mobile very infrequently . Its worth checking out their web site

Mik

[Baz]

Mik, thanks for the information on www.oneroam.co.uk   I have carefully looked at the site and it is very interesting and the lowest prices I have currently seen, with some great features. I will be applying for the card.

Baz

[Ecossais]

I think short calls, especially to mobiles, may be cheaper on O2.

For example, a 1 min 30 sec call from France to a UK mobile (or a French mobile) would be 35p for the first minute (minimum charge) and then 17.5p for the next 30 seconds – total 52.5p.  According to their website, with OneRoam, there is a “call set up” charge of 17p, you are charged in full minutes at 27p per minute and there is a surcharge of 14ppm for calls to mobiles, so that same call would cost 99p.

The big win is that YOU do not pay anything for incoming calls, BUT someone phoning you from the UK has to dial an international mobile number (00 372 + your number) to reach you.

00372 seems to be an Estonian mobile dialling code – if so,  BT’s standard call charge to an Estonian mobile is about 75ppm (it varies according to time of day).  OneRoam do also offer a 0911 dial through number at 30ppm from BT landlines.

So as with most mobile tariffs, OneRoam (or any mobile tariff) will suit some, but not others – it depends on your individual usage.

[Mik from LA]

I totally agree with you. If you make 1.5 minute calls to mobiles in UK then One Roam is not the best. It's horses for courses. I just leave my mobile phone in the car for emergency use only. Most of my friends and family in UK use 18866.com so calls via Estonia are not too expensive. It occurs to me that it would be very useful for people with holiday homes because you do not lose your call credit after a period of time. If I remember correctly, if I did not use my old pay as you go Orange SIM for a period of six months, the number was discontinued as well.

Mik

[jamesg]

Reading about the Estonian number reminds me that you can now get a global sim card with a UK phone number.  

Have a look at www.0044.co.uk for the details.