International travelling - Inbound/outbound phone calls - dual sim/call diverts/skype

msvalhalla

Hey,

My query has several angles, but I think the people in Tech/mobiles threads will have the best input.

I have a business here in Ireland but I am going travelling/working internationally for about a year come next February, mainly Latin America. In relation to my business, I need some advice on a cost effective way to:
(a) receive calls from ROI
(b) make calls back to ROI

it would also be nice to keep it as seamless as possible. i.e. anyone making/receiving a call with me will have to deal with as few numbers as possible.

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As of today my plan is as follows:
Buy a dual sim phone (such as Wiko Stairway).
SIM 1 - current Vodafone Ireland mobile number (will prob upgrade to Business RED 500 minutes which includes international calling)
SIM 2 - local sim from the country I am travelling in

With this setup, for (a) receive calls from ROI:
I can bite the bullet and take the incoming calls to my vodafone number while abroad. I could also ring Vodafone to set up an unconditional forward to SIM 2 everytime I change country, and this way it might be cheaper as the costs should come out of my international minutes on my plan.

for (b) making calls to ROI:
again, take the hit and use my vodafone SIM if I want to give a seamless impression. Alternatively, use my local SIM 2 or use Skype if I have internet access.

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I have just started looking at the following extra services and I thought now would be a good time to ask the audience:

1. Just use Vodafone Business RED and Vodafone World rates (this has manageable world roaming rates and also includes an Irish landline that will divert to your mobile).
2. Making use of unconditional forwarding (i.e. ring vodafone whenever I have a new sim card and get them to setup unconditional forwarding to my new SIM card. Then when someone calls me from Ireland, it gets forward to my new SIM card and the forwarding cost comes out of my international minutes).
3. Using skype or VOIP solutions
4. International SIMS - i.e. Maxroam

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Any comments on (a-b) or 1-4 appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

msvalhalla

Hey,
In response to my own post above, I am now travelling and have had one or two enquiries on how I set up a cost effective yet reliable means of making/receiving calls while travelling internationally. I posted the response below on vodafone.ie and thought it may come in useful for someone here on Boards:


I am currently travelling and I will outline what I found as the cheapest way to continue making/receiving calls for my business. There is a lot of information below so I hope it all makes sense. It took me about 2 months to figure out the most cost effective yet reliable solution for me.

Before that, here is a overview on how I found diverts work:
--> all Irish mobile providers will only set up diverts to either an Irish mobile or Irish landline.
--> There is no exception to this, and in hindsight it is a fair enough rule because:
--> when a divert is setup, there is only a €0.16 charge per divert, there are no minutes taken out of your plan. Therefore:
--> as soon as possible (depending on my contract), I will be swapping my plan to the cheapest possible per month, as I am not making any use of my minutes.

NOTE: You absolutely have to select "All Calls" when setting up the divert in "My Phone --> Phone and Device Settings --> Call Diverts".
As you can imagine, this involved a lot of internet searching and being lucky/persistent enough to find someone in Vodafone that understood my scenario and that knew their job.

RECEIVING CALLS:
--> I bought an Irish Skype landline (a Dublin 01 number). It costs €57 per year.
--> I set up an "All Calls" divert to this 01 number in the "Call Diverts" settings page in my vodafone.ie.
--> Then in Skype I have credit in my Skype account, and I have setup a Call Forward on skype to send the call to whatever mobile I have in the country I am travelling in. For example, I am now in Mexico, I bought a pay-as-you-go mexican sim card, and my Skype is set up to forward the calls to that sim card.
--> So if someone calls my vodafone number, it diverts to a Skype Irish landline number, and Skype then forwards the call onto my Mexican SIM number.
--> The costs are: €0.16 per vodafone divert, €57 per year for the Skype Dublin landline, and whatever Skype charges to call a Mexican mobile (€0.026/min with a €0.066 connection charge).
--> Therefore, for a 30-min received call I am paying around €1.50 for the whole call versus Vodafones €60 (international rate = €2.02/min).

MAKING CALLS:
--> The simplest is connect to a internet point and use Skype to make the call, you can even register you Vodafone number with Skype so as that when you ring someone, your vodafone number shows up on their screen. However I don't use this all the time as I have found the internet quality too troublesome to have important business calls. Here is what I do for a consistent call quality:
--> Using Skype again, I have currently a Mexican Skype-to-Go number set up. Skype-to-Go is free if you have a Skype account, and basically when you ring the Skype-to-Go number you essentially get access to your Skype. SKype-to-Go is only available in certain countries and right now I have a Mexico city landline number that I can ring with my Mexican SIM card to get access to my Skype account.
--> From there I just make whatever call I want to the person in Ireland.
--> The costs are making a call from a Mexican SIM to a Mexico city landline, and the Skype costs of ringing an Irish landline or mobile.
--> For example, a 30-min call to an Irish mobile works out around €2-€2.50 versus €60 for Vodafones rates.

OTHER NOTES:
--> There are cheaper VOIP options out there than Skype, but I chose them for a few reasons:
--> They had Irish landline numbers I could purchase. (So do Goldfish.ie and Blueface if you want to look).
--> They "should" have one of the best services for what you are paying for.
--> They have the Skype-to-Go service which is simple but very effective for me (NOTE: The number of countries that you get a Skype-to-Go number for are limited though).
--> If you go with Skype, then you should set up the Call Forwarding on the Windows desktop software instead of the webpage. While the webpage is very comprehensive for lots of settings and viewing usage, the desktop application lets me specify the number of seconds before it forwards the call to my Mexican SIM (I use 1 second).
--> A minor point, but I still receive important SMS to my 087 number, so I need my phone turned on while I am travelling. Therefore it is essential that I select "All Calls" when setting up the Divert in vodafone.
--> I had a Dual SIM Android for a while but it got damaged. I found it very useful for me to get my SMS delivered to me, while still having the local (Mexican) SIM to make/receive calls through Skype.

Hope it all helps,
Michael