Will my phone work?

Censorsh!t

I'm going to South Africa in November and I am wondering if my phone will work?

I asked in Meteor and he said it wouldn't basically because it was a "cheap" phone and wouldn't have quad band.

It's a Nokia C1-01, a pretty basic phone, but I would have thought that it should work anyway, even if I just buy a sim card over there rather than using roaming.

Anybody know?

SpaceTime

You don't need a Quad-band phone for South Africa, it uses European standard GSM 2G and UMTS 3G on the same frequencies as we do!

GSM 900 MHz and 1800MHz
and UMTS 3G on 2100MHz

Just make sure Meteor has a roaming agreement with at least one of the networks there.
And whatever you do, do not use data! The roaming rates are crazy and you'd be far better off buying a local SIM for that.

Also (and this is important) disable your voicemail before you go.
Dial #004# which will remove all conditional diverts.
Otherwise, you're charged a roaming rate for every call that's sent to voicemail.

...

The only thing you'll need is a plug adaptor.
South Africa mostly uses the big old-style round pin UK type plugs that we no longer use here.
You'll get an adaptor in SA more easily than here. A continental adaptor will not work there. The plugs/sockets are totally different to Europe.

Atlantic Dawn

They seem to use the same system we use here http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html

Gatica

I don't think voicemail is sent to servers in SA, it's still hosted at your network here I'd imagine. It just means you wouldn't want to listen to your voicemail or you'll be charged hefty roaming.

SpaceTime

Nope, what happens is that the conditional diverts on your phone send the call back to the voicemail service you're using in Ireland and you're charged at international roaming rates for each diverted call.

So, definitely disable it.

coylemj

SpaceTime wrote: »

Also (and this is important) disable your voicemail before you go.
Dial #004# which will remove all conditional diverts.
Otherwise, you're charged a roaming rate for every call that's sent to voicemail.

You're only charged roaming if the call gets sent to South Africa and you do or do not answer it. If you divert all calls to voicemail then you will not be charged regardless of where you are. As long as the OP diverts all calls to voicemail, there will be no charge. If by 'conditional diverts' you're referring to the facility to divert to voice after no answer or you're out of range then you're correct but the solution is to simply divert all calls to voicemail.

OP, setup your voicemail number on your phone, it's normally set to '171' but you need to personalise it for your mailbox number. Set it to '+3538x51234567' - note that you put a '5' between the network code (08x) and your seven digit number.

Then just before you get on the plane, divert all calls to voicemail. That way all calls will go straight to voicemail. You can elect to check your voicemail when you choose or just ignore them but you will only be charged for retriving them, not each time someone leaves a message.

Tell your friends that you will be bouncing all calls to voice and to send you text messages instead of calling you.

SpaceTime

I've done that in the past and been charged.

If your phone is switched off, and you've an unconditional divert *21* setup, then you will not be charged.
However, if your phone is roaming on a foreign network, weirdly enough the call actually gets diverted by the foreign network not by the home network, even for unconditional diverts and you do get charged.

So, if you're keeping your phone off all the time and only checking texts occasionally, it's fine, but if you're planning on leaving your phone switched on all the time, you'll be charged for calls hitting the number and being bounced to voicemail.

The best setup is to simply switch the voicemail off fully and cancel all diverts. That way if someone rings you you'll register a missed call, but you will not be charged for any diverting to voicemail if it rings out.

coylemj

SpaceTime wrote: »

I've done that in the past and been charged.

If your phone is switched off, and you've an unconditional divert *21* setup, then you will not be charged.
However, if your phone is roaming on a foreign network, weirdly enough the call actually gets diverted by the foreign network not by the home network, even for unconditional diverts and you do get charged.

If you go into your phone menu and divert all calls to voicemail, you will not be charged for missed calls or new voicemail, that's how it's suposed to work and I have never been charged in the way you described. The instant someone calls you, your home network will send them straight to voicemail, that will happen if you're in the country or roaming and whether your phone is switched on or off so there is no search looking to see where you are and you pay nothing.

Typing in GSM codes in the way you describe is to risk that you won't get the function you intend, the phone menus are much easier to use and you don't have to remember any of the codes.

What exactly is the effect of typing in '*21*', where are your calls diverted to?

dingding

I got charged by Three for calls that weren't answered and went to voice mail. The call was charged for the full duration of the message.

So if you don't want to incur charges then switch of the voice mail.

coylemj

dingding wrote: »

I got charged by Three for calls that weren't answered and went to voice mail. The call was charged for the full duration of the message.

So if you don't want to incur charges then switch of the voice mail.

You may not be properly clued into this discussion when you talk about 'calls that weren't answered and went to voice mail'.

To repeat: divert all your calls to voicemail when you go roaming and you won't have to pay for missed calls.

If you had done so, instead of your calls 'going unanswered', they would have gone straight to voicemail in which case you would have incurred no charges.

SpaceTime

coylemj wrote: »

If you go into your phone menu and divert all calls to voicemail, you will not be charged for missed calls or new voicemail, that's how it's suposed to work and I have never been charged in the way you described. The instant someone calls you, your home network will send them straight to voicemail, that will happen if you're in the country or roaming and whether your phone is switched on or off so there is no search looking to see where you are and you pay nothing.

Typing in GSM codes in the way you describe is to risk that you won't get the function you intend, the phone menus are much easier to use and you don't have to remember any of the codes.

What exactly is the effect of typing in '*21*', where are your calls diverted to?

OK off you go and get charged then!

I was charged while abroad with an unconditional divert set up.

Im not making this up to prove a point or annoy you!

The networks are as clear as mud about how their call forwarding while roaming is charged. Most people don't even know that their being charged at all.

The gsm codes and menus achieve exactly the same thing and the network will give you a confirmation message when the service is active.

Your best approach is to just completely disable all diverts with #004# (or using your phone menu)

Then at least you'll see missed calls!