Use of Mobile phone.

Anders

You better check with Cingular to be sure but this is what I would expect:
If you divert all calls to voice mail I would not expect you to be charged.
If your phone is off when you are in India. I would not expect you to be charged.
If your phone is on (with your Cingular sim) when you are in India and you don't answer the call you will probably have to pay for the call to India AND another call from India to your voice mail in the US!
Either way you will have to pay for an international call when you want to listen to your messages.

shere

For best coverage (esp. in rural areas and off the beaten track) BSNL Cell One pre paid is your best option. I am not sure if the SIM cards are now easier to get hold of as before due to shortages there was a black market. Roaming charges are not too much.

I phoned a friend from Haryana a few months ago from the UK. He told me he was in Punjab and to hang up as he was being charged roaming. He called me back as he reckoned it was cheaper than paying the roaming. I checked later and the roaming charge was only about RS1.00 per minute for my call. He ended up paying RS8.20 per minute for his call back to me.

smida02

chosenone, your cingular phome won't even boot up in India. I have taken mine with me many times. Also if you had an AT&T account you may be forced to go with Hutch. The AT&T phones are not true tri band phones and are missing the band that AirTel uses. They do work fine with Hutch though once you have had them unlocked. BTW, Hutch works fine for me (in AP).

Anders

A Cingular GSM phone should work without problem in India but you may have to call them to enable international roaming, it's not always enabled by default.
A Cingular TDMA phone will not work in India.

pezworld

If your phone was unlocked once it should remain unlocked, I believe. I unlocked my phone in India, using the code T-Mobile gave me, then used it with two different Indian SIM cards (Hutch, then Airtel). When I got home, I simply re-inserted my T-Mobile card and everything was fine. And since T-Mobile had no way of knowing I was in India, I don't think incoming voice mails while I was there would have made any difference.

It is MUCH more cost effective to buy an Indian SIM card while you're there than to roam with your current provider. The roaming within India (say, if you're in Kerala but using a card you bought in Rajasthan) isn't horribly expensive.

crvlvr

Cingular works on 850Mhz and 1900Mhz in the US. The frequencies in India (and the rest of the world )are 800Mhz and 1600MHz. So your cingular phone should be compatible with atleast one of those frequencies. International roaming rates are astronimcal. Its well worht paying $20 and getting your phone unlocked so that it will accept other SIM cards.

pezworld

True -- but call Cingular first as they may unlock for free. T-Mobile unlocked mine for free, because I'd been a customer for a while.

Anders

The frequencies in India and most of the world is 900 and 1800. International roaming rates are indeed very high, not recommended if you pay the bills.

soulfood

True. I have a Cingular phone bought in US. On getting it unlocked, I was told it'll work only with Idea Cellular and not Airtel or Hutch.

ruthie808

hi doofus,
im a mobile phone addict and i took 2 phones with me to SL and India, one with my irish sim and one with no sim but its completely unlocked to all networks so thats y i took it with me, in case my irish sim wouldnt work. My irish sim card worked but only to receive calls and texts. i could not text or ring from it.
when i got to india i didnt buy a sim card until i got to goa and i bought one for 100 rupees. there was no need to bring photos as the guy in the shop had a camera and charged me something like 70 rupees for 4 photos of which he took 1. (so thats handy i got 3 passport photos for other causes!) anyway i worked perfectly and texting abroad was like 5 rupees or something texting local was about a rupee.
as i had already been in madurai my irish sim had picked up BPL network, and when i got to goa the same network came up so i hooked up with was BPL mobile
But i didnt know about the roaming if u leave one state as the next week wen i wen to bangalore my phone didnt work! aagh!
anyway after discussing this more with other travellers i think airtel is the best network to go with in india.
enjoy your trip and goa is a beautiful spot, try and travel around goa cos ther is so much to see, i went to a different beach/area every day, v. easy to get around

divadino

Oh this is such a useful thread - although I'm still a little confused! I wonder if any of you clever technical people can clarify this one for me....

I have an Orange SPV C500 - don't know if it's locked or not. Firstly can I use it in India (I think it's tri-band) with an Indian SIM and do I need to get it unlocked before I leave UK?

Slightly more confusing is that I've just requested my PAC code and by this Wednesday I will have given it to 3 and will have a new phone. Obviously it takes 7-10 days for it to port over to the new network and new handset etc. I leave for India next Monday, so effectively I will be probably still with Orange when I leave and whilst I'm away it will port to 3. However I have no intention of taking my new 3 phone and service to India. But I'm thinking that I could use my old Orange SPV handset in India and a local SIM. A few queries though:

1) In the days whilst the Orange network is porting to 3, I wanted to leave a message on my Orange voicemail saying I was away and not to leave any messages on this line (and then I was going to get my sister to put a similar message on my 3 phone once it was activated). If I've told Orange (as suggested in this thread) to switch off my answering machine, I can't do that can I?

2) Assuming I have to get my phone unlocked (do I?) do I do it over here or over in India?

3) I'm travelling from Mumbai to Kolkota across quite rural areas including going into the hills in Orissa. Which is the best network to cover me across it all and with pre-paid?

4) Am I still better just using the pre-paid service to just receive the odd text or phone call from UK and make the odd phone call and text back to UK, but for local or inter-state calls or longer calls home to use one of the fixed line booths - from a cost perspective? I'm going for a month and want to spend as little as possible.

thanks

Dinah

__________________
Dynamite Dinah writes on her amazing love affair with India in a 6 week travelogue
http://www.travelpod.com/members/dynamite_dinah

Anders

You can use your Orange phone in India without any problem.
1. Leave a message on your voice mail and set it to divert *all* calls to your voice mail and you should not have any problem, it only gets expensive when you set it to divert on no answer/unreachable and so on.
2. Borrow a sim from a friend that does not have orange and try it in your phone, if it works there is no need to have it unlocked, if you get a strange error message you will need to have it unlocked. If you need to have it unlocked it is probably a good idea to do that before you leave since it is an Orange branded phone.
4. If you are only going to use your phone occasionally anyway, why not leave it at home?

shere

For details of how to unlock your Orange SPV C500 try the following site :

http://www.spv-developers.com/forum/...read.php?t=552

divadino

Thanks guys

I'm taking the phone because I'm travelling alone and want my family to be able to reach me by text or calling if they need me (especially as I'm going to be in some remote areas) or if there's an emergency with work that needs me to get to a computer for example.

Dinah

doofus

I have an orange handset. I have used it abroad but had to get it unlocked. Definitely you will need to unlock it.