Roaming is a popular service of modern mobile operators. People who travel a lot should definitely be familiar with all its features.
What does roaming mean?
Roaming is a service that involves the ability to use a mobile phone abroad without changing the SIM card and mobile operator. Thus, while a person is on the territory of another country, he uses the services of local operators, with whom the roaming agreement of his operator was signed in advance.If your phone supports automatic roaming, you will not need to contact your operator for help. Your number will be automatically registered in a special guest network. As a rule, the phone itself chooses the operator whose coverage is better. However, in manual mode, you choose any available signal yourself.
There are several main types of roaming: national, intranet and international. International roaming allows you to stay connected in any country. National provides communication within your country, but in those cities where your operator does not work. Intranet roaming implies communication in the network of one operator in different regions of your country.
How to make cheaper calls from abroad?
The cost of roaming is increasing several times every year, so the question of cheap calls from abroad has always been relevant. Each operator has its own tariffs, so it is he who determines the cost.If you want to call cheaper, you need to familiarize yourself with all the tariffs offered by your operator in advance. Modern operators operating in several countries unite all their subscribers. In this case, you are offered to switch to another tariff.
Perhaps another operator in your country offers more favorable rates for roaming. In this case, it makes sense to change not only the tariff, but also the operator itself.
How to save on international calls?
A good way to save money is to completely abandon international calls in favor of text messages... The fact is that SMS is much cheaper in roaming, so you don't have to spend too much money. However, sometimes short messages cannot replace a call. As a rule, operators may have special offers for roaming services, where for a certain monthly fee you will be provided with a certain number of minutes at a discount or free of charge.Mobile operators, as a rule, charge a call for a minute. However, there are offers for which you buy a certain or unlimited number of minutes for the period of your stay in another country. In this case, you should know exactly how much time you plan to spend abroad.
So, roaming is the basis of all interethnic communication. Of course, sometimes it is more profitable to just change the operator, but in most cases roaming is the most advantageous offer.
The editors of the site advise before the trip to familiarize themselves with the tariffs of their operator and replenish the balance of their phone.
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On any business trip or travel outside the home country, you still want to keep in touch with family and friends. Sure, cellular makes this process simple and fast, but the prices of operators for this type of communication remain sky-high. However, you can always find those options that suit both the price and the quality of the services provided.
What is roaming
By itself, roaming is provided by the operator, which ensures the transfer of traffic to mobile devices even if they work abroad, that is, not in the coverage area of the "home" operator. Simply put, you don't need to change your SIM card when traveling abroad. Telephone number retains the ability to make calls, send and receive SMS messages and transfer data through Mobile Internet... The service provider will not be your "native" operator, but a company that operates in the country where you are going. That is why various promotions, special rates and conditions for using the number do not work abroad.
Companies provide three types of roaming:
- Roaming within the network... This service is provided within one country, but in different regions. In this case, only the network of one operator is used.
- Roaming national... In a large country, there may be regions where your carrier does not provide services, but you can use a different one.
- Roaming international... This is the main type of roaming used for communication from abroad.
This service makes it possible to stay in touch with loved ones no matter where you are.
How this service works
In order for an operator to provide a roaming service, it must enter into agreements with other operators that operate in those regions and countries where the operator itself is not represented. On the this moment this service is provided by almost all communication service providers, as it is beneficial to both contracting parties.
Service performance may vary slightly depending on how the network operates. However, in general, the roaming process can be conditionally divided into five stages.
- Initial is the attempt to connect to the original SIM card network.
- Second, the device performs a thorough check to see if it can connect to other networks. In the list of seen networks, those with the strongest signal at the moment will be displayed first.
- Third, the device checks if it is possible to connect to your chosen network.
- Fourth - the guest network is connected to the home network of the SIM card and the necessary technical information is obtained.
- Fifth, if everything goes well, then the device starts its work in the guest network.
The cost of such a service
For the territory of Russia, a characteristic feature is the high cost of roaming. In European countries, a huge number of operators' cooperation agreements are concluded, which greatly reduces the price of this service. The EU Parliament has officially set the legal maximum price per minute of calls. However, the countries are constantly discussing the possible absolute cancellation of payment for services outside the tariff. In Russia, the situation is absolutely the opposite. It is also complicated by the fragmentation of the country and operators, which forces the user to additionally pay for communication services even with the neighboring region.
The service is quite expensive due to the fact that the operator is forced to pay for the transfer of data from its own network to someone else's. Additionally, the tariffs of the operator who receives the call are also paid. It turns out that the user pays not only for outgoing calls, but also for incoming calls.
An operator who offers his services for outgoing calls and sets their price. Usually this price is exactly the same as the cost of international calls and communications. The home operator pays for incoming calls, which could reduce their cost, but corporations rarely work for the benefit of their users. The Internet in roaming is very expensive, so it is highly recommended to turn it off and use Wi-Fi networks for data transfer.
Tariffs for the service from the "big three"
The "Big Three" is traditionally called the three largest companies providing communication services - Beeline, Megafon and MTS. Let's make a short comparison of the cost of calls to Russia.
"MTS"
In the territory Russian Federation the cost of communication services may differ depending on what tariff is connected to the user and in which city he is located. On average, in Russia, users pay about 8.9 rubles for incoming and outgoing calls. Sending one SMS message costs about 3.95 rubles on average. All incoming calls are usually free of charge. Abroad, the tariffs are completely different:
- USA - 200 rubles per minute for incoming and outgoing calls and 19 rubles for sending a message.
- Belarus - 85 rubles per minute of an incoming or outgoing call and 19 rubles for sending a message.
- China - 115 rubles per minute of conversation (both incoming and outgoing) and 19 rubles for sending one message.
Beeline
On the territory of Russia, the cost of one minute of an incoming and outgoing call ranges from 2.5 rubles to 9.95 rubles. The price of sending an SMS is the same as that of the previous operator - 3.95 rubles.
Abroad, Beeline offers other tariffs:
- USA - 69 rubles per minute of incoming call and 129 rubles per minute of outgoing call. An SMS message will cost 19 rubles.
- Belarus - 49 rubles for an incoming call and 129 rubles for an outgoing call (per minute) and 19 rubles for sending a message.
- China - 69 rubles per minute for incoming calls and 129 rubles for outgoing calls. SMS costs 19 rubles.
"Megaphone"
Domestically, the operator offers calls at 9 rubles per minute and 3.9 rubles per SMS.
Roaming tariffs:
- USA - 79 rubles for incoming and outgoing calls, 19 rubles for sending a message.
- Belarus - 49 rubles per minute of conversation (both incoming and outgoing) and 19 rubles for a text message.
- China - 79 rubles per minute for incoming and outgoing, 19 rubles for one message.
Naturally nice rooms each operator are more expensive and with such service.
Alternative options
In the event that you are not satisfied with the cost or quality of services provided by the Big Three, you can always use alternative communication options.
First option. IP telephony - that is, calls over the Internet. This is a fairly widespread and affordable service that allows you to talk to a person who is in any country for free. The connection is made via Wi-Fi networks, however, the quality of the call can be affected by the quality of the Internet connection.
Second option. Paid Apps that make it possible to bypass roaming. Typically, these applications have fairly low communication rates, so purchasing an application can quickly pay off if you travel frequently at your own expense and pay for the communication costs yourself.
The third option. Travel sim card. Such a SIM card is quite expensive, but it enables cheap and high-quality communication with loved ones from abroad. This option is ideal for those who travel a lot.
Services from "YourSvyaz"
Subscribers of TvoyaSvyaz are completely free from comparing options. For our subscribers, the transition to communication in another country occurs absolutely automatically. You do not need to purchase a SIM card, install applications. The subscription fee automatically includes the payment of one hundred minutes of international roaming. You can also buy beautiful number or buy a number mobile phone that is right for your company. We care about our customers, so the system works on the principle of resetting an outgoing call and makes a call to the calling subscriber, after which it connects the users. In the tariff plan, you can familiarize yourself with the tariffs, which are presented in the form of a convenient table.
Many OS smartphones automatically update data, which can lead to Internet roaming. This is a rather expensive service, so we suspend the provision of Internet services for users who are abroad by default. In order to preserve the possibility of using the service, it is better to have a second SIM card with the ability to access the Internet at hand. It is most convenient to choose a phone with two SIM card slots in our online store. We also recommend purchasing a local operator's card already at the airport. However, be careful not to get fooled by tariff offers with inexpensive internet Abroad. At the moment, there is simply no such service on the market. In case of a trip, be sure to think in advance about where to buy a phone number.
mobile connection on trips - always a little "pig in a poke". In tariff plans cellular operators it is difficult to figure it out, to calculate the costs is long. Therefore, the debt for communication services often comes as a surprise to the traveler.
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If calls are important
We have selected the most advantageous offers from the Big Four operators and have written explanations for each item.
Megaphone
Megafon offers several advantageous options at once. If you are traveling to the USA, Canada, Cuba, Tunisia or Mexico, select the "Worldwide" option. The subscription fee is 59 rubles for 40 incoming minutes per day. This means that the price of an incoming minute is about 1.5 rubles - cheap. If you exceed the tariff, the price of an incoming minute will be 89 rubles.
It is advantageous to take the "Around the World" option to the countries of Europe, the CIS and Turkey - all incoming and outgoing calls will cost 13 rubles each. per minute and 11 rubles per SMS. If traveling to Thailand, UAE, Israel, Vietnam, Australia, Japan or Indonesia, the fares will be more expensive.
How to save on outgoing calls? Call the subscriber service 0500 and dial desired number- it's free. The system will drop the call, contact the interlocutor and call back itself.
If you often travel for work, it is convenient to connect the Vokrug Sveta tariff to your second SIM card.
You can check everything again and choose an economical roaming option on the Megafon website, indicating the host country.
Option "Zero without borders" - for those who travel for a short time and talk a little.
Incoming calls are free, but the call must be no longer than 10 minutes. You can receive calls for no more than 200 minutes per month. If both conditions are violated, you will need to pay 25 rubles per minute. For the first minute of outgoing calls, pay 85 rubles, but from the second to the sixth - 25 rubles. per minute. Further - again 85 rubles.
The Free Travel option is suitable for those who are going to call home frequently. For 190 rubles. per day give 60 minutes for incoming and outgoing. If you exceed, pay 10 rubles. in a minute.
Both options will not work if roaming is not enabled. Before driving, call 0890 and ask the operator to check.
If you want to send SMS at a lower price, you can activate “50 SMS in Europe” services for 250 rubles. or "50 SMS on trips around the world" for 500 rubles.
Tele2, "Conversations Without Borders"
For those who are on vacation only answering the most important calls, this is the best option. The subscription fee is 5 rubles per day, and 5 rubles per minute of an incoming call.
To activate the service, dial * 143 * 1 # on your phone. Disable - * 143 * 0 #.
Beeline, "The most profitable roaming"
"Beeline" automatically debits 200 rubles from you as soon as you accept incoming call in roaming, and provides a package of 20 minutes. The "trick" is that these are both incoming and outgoing minutes. An SMS to Russia costs 10 rubles. If you go online, a 40 MB package is automatically connected. for 200 rubles.
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If the internet is important
A safe bet is Wi-fi in a hotel or cafe. But if you constantly move around the city, it is inconvenient to use it. Better to buy a tourist or local SIM.
You will be advised about good local rates at the reception of the hotel or hostel where you are staying. Do not ignore the salons of communication: go to several, ask for prices and choose a suitable tariff.
An interesting life hack for traveling to Europe is the Prepaid Sim Card. Many operators have such SIM cards, and they are often sold directly at the airport or in large stores. For registration they may ask for a passport.
The Prepaid Sim Card's internet tariffs are fabulous: from € 5 per gigabyte. For example, mobile operator Cosmote in Greece sells 5 gigabytes for 30 euros. The SIM card is valid for 30 days.
The most profitable tourist SIM card at the moment is Dreamsim. Everything is simple here: buy it in Russia before leaving, put it on your smartphone and go on a trip.
Funds are debited for the traffic that you use up. Prices are per megabyte, but differ from country to country. For example, in England or Thailand, a gigabyte costs 10 euros, and in Germany and France - 25.
Cheap calls over the Internet
If you have constant inexpensive internet and a smartphone, you can call Russia almost at home rates. How?
We put a SIM card with an inexpensive internet connection and install a suitable application. MegaFon has this eMotion: with it, incoming calls to a Russian number are free, and outgoing calls cost a maximum of 1.5 rubles per minute.
It is beneficial for MTS subscribers to install MTS Connect. For outgoing minutes, minutes from your package are debited, and incoming minutes are free. It is necessary that the phone has an MTS SIM card, otherwise the application will not work.
Tele2 offers Wi-Fi calling service. You also install the application and talk if you have Internet access according to your tariff plan.
There is no application for Beeline subscribers yet. But you can install, for example, AvoApp - it is available for both Android and iOS. In the application, save your Russian number using call forwarding and you will be able to receive calls in roaming at the price of local calls. For outgoing calls - about 5 cents per minute.
If you don't want to buy a SIM card for the Internet, just connect to any free Wi-Fi - everything will work the same.
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Have a good travel!
Questions and answers
How to activate roaming while traveling in Russia and the world?
To travel within Russia, intranet roaming is activated automatically, you just need to go to another city in Russia.
To travel around the world, you need to activate the services "international and national roaming" and "international access"
With these services you can:
- receive any incoming calls and make any outgoing calls;
- send and receive SMS;
- transmit and receive data via the Internet (you must have the Mobile Internet service).
You can connect both services in MTS salons or through the Virtual Manager.
How are communication services charged when traveling around the world?
How are calls charged?
Tariffication in roaming is carried out per minute, rounded up to whole minutes, starting from the first second. For example, if your call was 1 minute 10 seconds, then it will automatically be rounded up to 2 minutes. No connection fee is charged.
In most countries, roaming services are billed online. In some countries, billing may be delayed, as information from foreign operators arrives with a delay.
How is the Internet charged?
Internet in roaming via APN wap.mts.ru, internet.mts.ru is charged online in all countries for most subscribers, for a number of tariff plans- in a mode close to real time. Internet via APN mms.mts.ru, im.mts.ru is charged in close to real time for all subscribers. Internet via other APNs is charged with a delay, depending on the receipt of information from the roaming partner, which may result in a negative balance or exceeding the established limit.
Check out the tariffs for communication services.
What are special types of roaming?
You can freely communicate by mobile phone while traveling by ferry, airplane or ocean liner, thanks to MTS roaming agreements with operators that provide GSM communications on ships and aircraft.
How to activate the international communication service?
In order to make calls from Russia to other countries, you need the International Access service. The service is free of charge.
You can activate the service through the Virtual Manager or in the MTS showrooms.
How are calls to other countries charged?
Calls to other countries are charged per minute, rounded up to whole minutes. Calls less than 3 seconds long are free of charge.
Check out the tariffs for international communication services.
How to choose an operator when traveling around the world?
Upon arrival in another country, your phone will register with the network of an available operator automatically.
In addition to automatic registration, you can select the desired operator in roaming yourself, to do this, follow these steps:
- in the "Settings" section of your mobile phone, go to the "Network (operator) selection" menu;
- from the list of available networks displayed on the phone, find the name of the operator you want to select and press "OK". For example, in Ukraine, if you manually select the operator UMC (MTS Ukraine), the phone may display the following names: MTS UKR, UMC UA, UKR 01.
If registration is successful, the name or code of the guest network in which the phone is registered will appear on the display of your mobile phone. If you have difficulties with both manual and automatic registration We recommend that you turn your phone on and off. You can find additional information on manual network selection in the instructions for your mobile phone.
How to disable international roaming in the border regions of Russia?
If in the settings of your telephone set the mode of automatic network selection is set and you have a roaming service activated; on the territory of the border regions of Russia, registration in the networks of MTS roaming partners is possible. In this case, the name of the foreign operator is displayed on the phone screen, and the calls made will be calculated at roaming rates. Due to the peculiarities of the propagation of radio waves and the terrain, when traveling in the border regions of Russia, it is recommended to manually select the MTS network in the phone settings. Information about the settings is placed in the instructions of your phone, the user of the phone is responsible for its settings.
What you need to know before you travel
Questions that may arise during the trip
How to call from Russia to other countries
How to choose an operator or network
If you travel a lot, the communication costs can be pretty decent. Today I want to tell you how we save on calls, while always staying in touch.
Of course, instead of SMS, you can use WhatsApp, and talk on Skype, but this is not always convenient or even possible. For skype you need good internet, and also in Skype you need to somehow call people (suddenly they are not online), also, if there is no Internet, through Skype, do not call a bank, insurance or other offices. To use roaming, in my opinion, is also not an option, well, except in extreme cases - the amounts there can be fabulous. Especially if you accidentally forget to turn off data transfer on your smartphone, updates will start downloading - you won't even notice how the balance goes into negative territory, and you won't be able to call anywhere.
2. What you need to use
Firstly, you will need a smartphone based or iOs to install the application itself. The app is free, you only pay for calls.
Secondly, check and, if necessary, top up the balance (for example, we immediately had 5 € on our account). It's easy to do this right through the app. We paid by credit card.
Thirdly, it is desirable that the Internet be connected to the local SIM card (which you buy while traveling). It is desirable because in new version applications, calls can be made without the Internet, via regular mobile communication (although this is not yet available for all countries), as well as simply via Wi-Fi, i.e. without a SIM card at all.
That's all, as you can see, nothing special is required, you can immediately install and start using it.
3. How Roamer works
You can make calls both through a roamer and through a regular calling application. If you call through a regular standard application, then the cost of the call is calculated according to the tariff connected to the installed SIM card. This is the most profitable way to call local numbers. For example, when we often had to call local Thai numbers. With a Thai sim card, it took a penny.
And if you need to call to another country, then you just need to use a roamer. Just launch the application, dial the number (or select a contact - all contacts from address book there are available), and the call goes through the roamer.
The main application window looks like this:
A panel with tools slides out on the left, you can see the balance, top up it, activate the local SIM number:
For example, tariffs for calls from to Russia:
The roamer has several schemes for calls:
1) Via the Internet... In this case, after dialing the number, the roamer sends the subscriber's number to its server via the Internet, after which the server first dials up to you, and then a call is made from the server to the subscriber.
And there is 2 options:
- you have a local SIM card with an internet connected - the internet is used only to initiate a call, the conversation is already going on via regular mobile networks,
- You don't have a SIM card, but you have Wi-Fi. Here the connection can be worse, depending on the quality of the Internet. The entire call goes through the Internet only. In this case, the cost of calls is lower. By the way, even if you have a SIM card, you can choose to make the call go through Wi-Fi.
2) Through the mobile network. In this case, after dialing the number, the roamer offers to call through the local roamer number. Therefore, not in all countries this method is available - not everywhere else there are local roamer numbers (but already in many countries, the list of countries with full support is available on the official website here). The standard application for calls is automatically launched, the roamer number is dialed, and the subscriber's number is transmitted. After that, from the roamer, just as in the case of calls via the Internet, a call is made to you and the called subscriber.
In practice, you need to get used to the fact that after dialing the number you need to wait for the incoming call, answer it, and then wait for the subscriber to answer. By the way, after you have answered the incoming call from the roamer, the waiting time until the subscriber picks up the phone is counted as the talk time, and the money is already debited. And for the subscriber, the incoming call looks like a regular one, the number is determined by the one that you have indicated as home, as if you are calling not from the other end of the world, but from home.
4. Our experience of using
We found out about Roamer shortly before leaving and decided to immediately try how it works. Then it was still available old version applications, when installed, the account already had about 5 €, so you could test it for free. Before leaving, you had to "park" your phone number. This is done right before departure, because after that all calls to our number were forwarded to the roamer. That is, you could only receive SMS on the old SIM card. And the roamer worked only when a local SIM card was connected with a working Internet. Now they have made it much more convenient, it is not necessary to buy a local SIM card, you can call via Wi-Fi.
But then, after arriving in Thailand, I received a free SIM card, put some money on it, connected the Internet. Then I registered the number of the Thai SIM card in the roamer, and that's it - incoming calls to the Moscow number began to be forwarded to the Thai SIM card. If I needed to call Russia, then I called through a roamer - the cost of a minute of conversation is only 4 euro cents. If I needed to make a local call, I just called the local SIM card. At the same time, my Moscow SIM card is in separate phone, sms come there. When moving to a new country, if we come for more than a week, then we buy a local SIM card, again register the local phone in the roamer and use cheap rates for calls. Everything works fine, the connection is good (depending on the place, of course).
A mega handy thing when you need to resolve some issues with Russia, if you are in another country. When Vova had to talk very, very much with the insurance company, just then, in a few days of active communication (literally hanging on the phone), we spent 5 €, which were on the account, that is, in general, it turned out that we communicated for free. Then they deposited $ 13 into the account (the minimum amount for which you can replenish the account), in 6 months only $ 10 was spent, in my opinion, this is just amazing savings! Of course, you also need to add the cost of local sim cards with minimal internet. But in the new roamer, for example, you can call without a SIM card at all, via Wi-Fi, so it turns out even cheaper.
Initially, I installed a roamer so that I would keep my Moscow number, so that I would not have to send new numbers to anyone (they still change periodically due to moving), I did not even expect that the cost of calls would be almost the same as in Russia, no huge roaming prices. We are generally satisfied with the application, I don’t even know how you can still use roaming if there is such a great alternative.