So, my service provider (Telus) now charges .40 for any text message sent from Canada to the US. Grr..
Is there an app that can provide me an alternative to paying this outrageous fee?
finnmacool said:
So, my service provider (Telus) now charges .40 for any text message sent from Canada to the US. Grr..
Is there an app that can provide me an alternative to paying this outrageous fee?
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Specifically a texting app? I would recommend Google Voice since it's free to text the US and Canada, however you have to be based in the US to use it. If you don't mind messenger-type apps, there's Whatsapp and also Facebook Messenger. I personally prefer and use Whatsapp. It's free for a year, and 99 cents a year afterwards. It doesn't use usernames; it authenticates with your phone number and you contact people via phone number (contacts).
Related
How do you send texts internationally? And how would you set up the number? I'm trying to send the text to the Philippines.
I have unlimited text on at&t, would it have additional costs? Thank you.
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yes international texting will cost you money. you just have to find the international number that you would have to dial and text to that number. prob best bet just use chatting programs?
Unlimited texting plans on any carrier are limited to US numbers only!
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ATT offers an international texting plan - 100 messages for 10 bucks a month. Without this plan, it's 25 cents to send and 15 to receive or something very similar to that.
To text internationally, you do +(Countrycode)(phonenumber)
so someone texting the US would do +12035555555 for example. where 1 is the US country code, 203 is area, and then the 7 digit number.
Texting Egypt for example requires a +20 prefix to any 10digit telephone number.
On AT&T going to Ireland then England. Any tricks other than paying att their ridiculous price to have calling/texting while I'm there? Maybe through Google voice? Or does that need data?
Thanks!
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If you're gonna be strictly communicating with people back in the states, then the smart thing is to stay with Google voice via PC. However, if you plan on communicating with people in Europe for an extended period of time, then unlock your phone and go with an EU Virgin Mobile prepaid plan.
I forget how my minutes/texting plan looked like but it was ideal, only 30 Euros per month prepaid, and I was able to pickup service and call all throughout Europe.
Will be contacting with friends and traveling family in europe, and with friends and family back in the states. Last time I went I unlocked my old blackberry and went with a prepaid sim, but I don't feel like it really saved me much money. If people call and text my gvoice number while I'm in Europe, is that free? Do I just have to worry about the local stuff then?
It's two of us that are going so really trying to save where I can.
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my cousin went to portugal last summer and used handcent sms to text all of us back in the states for free, and used his gvoice account to make calls also for free
mjwhirly said:
my cousin went to portugal last summer and used handcent sms to text all of us back in the states for free, and used his gvoice account to make calls also for free
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Handcent needs data I'm sure which costs a lot more. As for calling AT&T wants 99c a minute. Calling put with Google voice still uses minutes I'm almost certain. So how does that work.
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Giffgaff
I'd recommend going with Giffgaff:
h**p://giffgaff.com/goodybags/10pound-facebook-goodybag
For 10 pounds/month you get 250 minutes, unlimited texting, and unlimited data. The APN settings are easily found on their website. All prepaid, no contracts. Runs on the O2 network, which is considered [from what I've read] the best in the UK.
Then I would download WhatsApp! from the market and have all your friends do the same. You give them your new Giffgaff number, and you can message all your friends back home for free using the data connection. You could also use google voice for this purpose.
I wish we had options like this in the US. I had an equally inexpensive provider in Germany. Worked great!
Best plan, "borrow" someone else's phone
Sent from Down The Rabbit Hole, using Tapatalk 2.
That looks epic! Will have to unlock my phone first though. Hope they are legitimate I have no idea how they afford those rates.
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I'm sure they're legit.
If you're worried, Tesco (the grocery store chain) also offers a cheap prepaid SIM with roughly the same benefits, for the same price.
Both services use the O2 network, and I know a couple different people that use Tesco, and say it works great.
h**p://shop.tescomobile.com/sim-only
In all honesty, from having used many prepaid providers in many european countries, once you find a provider that works, you're pretty much just shopping around for who has the best refill options. Giffgaff looks like you can top up with a credit card. Tesco might require you to go buy a top-up card at the store. I'm not entirely sure.
I set it up and everything is fine on my HTC EVO 4G I just had a question about the services. I know I can call and text anyone in the US or Canada totally free however! My question as an American becomes does the Canadian person get the call as local or long distance?
Like if I called the US it'd be free to me and obviously local to the other American, if I called Canada it's still free to me but my problem becomes "what about their bill?"
Here in Europe it's working this way: You would pay the rate for reaching the canadian boarder (so you pay national fees only) and the person you called pays his/her national fees only, too. Now i'm rather unsure how it's working in the USA, but i guess it should be the same :O
price rance
m00k00 said:
Here in Europe it's working this way: You would pay the rate for reaching the canadian boarder (so you pay national fees only) and the person you called pays his/her national fees only, too. Now i'm rather unsure how it's working in the USA, but i guess it should be the same :O
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for US to US calling its completely free landlines cell phones
everything
it should have the same rates as if you had installed the Voice chat plugin (phone add in) on your gmail on PC??
i take it google voice is simply a mobile version of that???
call billing on the receiver never varies based on the origin of the call (unless it's a toll call, but you have to accept that charge ahead of time).
As the person receiving the call, you never have to worry about picking up a ringing phone aside from it using minutes/megabytes/etc. Think about the days before callerID, how could you predict who was calling? That's just not the way phone termination works.
NV-3D said:
for US to US calling its completely free landlines cell phones
everything
it should have the same rates as if you had installed the Voice chat plugin (phone add in) on your gmail on PC??
i take it google voice is simply a mobile version of that???
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thanks a lot helped me for sure
Hello my fellow XDA members!
This is a thread about companies that provide us with the ability to call, text, browse internet and do other stuff on our mobile devices, and go all-out-rage or all-out-love thanks to the level of customer service - the carriers.
Here you can talk about them, discuss the current/past/future data/call plans, share your thoughts on %carrier_name% in %country_name%, compare them between each other. Tell us what, in your opinion, could your carrier improve based upon your personal thoughts or upon other carriers' experience.
If you have ever visited other countries and used the local carrier - tell us how it compares to carriers from your contry, or just ask about prices/plans/etc. about carriers from other countries.
And, if you can, make a top-3/5/7/etc. carriers. You may compile such lists either from the local ones on even include the foreign ones.
So, let's start!
carrier : Mobile one
Country : Singapore
2GB 4G LTE per month. which is too little.
500 free sms.per month. I don't text a lot though, so it really doesn't matter.
free incoming calls. per month. heh, my favourite phrase is "could you call me instead"
I don't remember how much it costs to have outgoing calls though.
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carrier : Vodaphone
Country : India
changed my carrier a while back because of their poor service
their 3g stops working at 12 in noon and started to work again in evening wtf???
Fatal1ty_18_RUS said:
Hello my fellow XDA members!
This is a thread about companies that provide us with the ability to call, text, browse internet and do other stuff on our mobile devices, and go all-out-rage or all-out-love thanks to the level of customer service - the carriers.
Here you can talk about them, discuss the current/past/future data/call plans, share your thoughts on %carrier_name% in %country_name%, compare them between each other. Tell us what, in your opinion, could your carrier improve based upon your personal thoughts or upon other carriers' experience.
If you have ever visited other countries and used the local carrier - tell us how it compares to carriers from your contry, or just ask about prices/plans/etc. about carriers from other countries.
And, if you can, make a top-3/5/7/etc. carriers. You may compile such lists either from the local ones on even include the foreign ones.
So, let's start!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wow, this thread is dead pretty quickly
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Well, let's not let it die then
Carrier: Beeline
Contry: Russia
2GB of 3G per month, free incoming calls from any other Russian carrier
This carrier has pretty much the most suitable costs for calling, texting, browsing and more. What definately differs this one from the other two is that you cal find yourself a plan basically for anything
Are you a granny/grandad? Grab this plan
Do you want to provide your kids with a plan? There you go
Browse internet from your phone/tablet? You have 6 options of 3G internet and 7 options for 4G
Plus Beeline also provides a home internet, the digital TV, AND it has WiFi Hotspots across Moscow, and probably in other cities too
Sadly their 4G coverage is just awful - it works only within Downtown of Moscow, so if I'd need LTE - I'd had to use other carrier's services for that
We have been using T-mobile pay-as-you-go in the US for years. Lowest price we can find if you don't call very often. May not fit everyone's needs but fits ours perfectly. No monthly fees, no contracts, very low cost. The downside is that the cell coverage is not very strong in the suburbs. But we can live with that. YMMV.
Hi,
I have a droid turbo and will be traveling to Europe for two weeks. Verizon's global plans are expensive at 50 cents/sent text. And the allotted 100 sent texts won't come close to covering my needs. Other than using whatsapp or the like, is there a cheap or free way to receive texts using my domestic number while I'm in Europe.
Would I be able to do this by using the Verizon Messaging app?