still no international roaming for GoPhone

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

Hi!

I travel a lot around the world and a postpaid package makes no sence.

The cheapest postpaid plan is starting at 39.99.

I qualify for an AT&T Wireles Premier Line which is still 30 a month.

But I never reach 450 minutes when I'm at home, so the GoPhone is the best solution,

but international it works only in Mexico and Canada :-(

For some countries I already have a prepaid SIM Card, but I cannot have a SIM from all countries.

I hope AT&T will work on it to make roaming possible for GoPhones as wel.

For example to use the GoPhone prepaid balance for calls made within the US/Mexico/Canada and for overseas

to run a credit check and let it work as postpaid with CreditCard billing.

ilikewireless · ‎07-10-2011

goldammer wrote:
Hi!

I travel a lot around the world and a postpaid package makes no sence.
The cheapest postpaid plan is starting at 39.99.
I qualify for an AT&T Wireles Premier Line which is still 30 a month.
But I never reach 450 minutes when I'm at home, so the GoPhone is the best solution,
but international it works only in Mexico and Canada :-(

For some countries I already have a prepaid SIM Card, but I cannot have a SIM from all countries.
I hope AT&T will work on it to make roaming possible for GoPhones as wel.

For example to use the GoPhone prepaid balance for calls made within the US/Mexico/Canada and for overseas
to run a credit check and let it work as postpaid with CreditCard billing.

I vote YES.

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

normally it's not a problem.

I understand, that it's technically difficult to maintain the prepaid balance for national and international usage,

but AT&T could introduce a new option for GoPhone users to use the GoPhone within the US/Mexico and Canada as a GoPhone and for all other Roaming countries to bill this calls like postpaid,

so that all calls made in any other country will be billed afterwards as a regular postpaid call.

They could give all customers who want to use the gophone overseas the possibillity to add international roaming

after a credit check to the GoPhone account and could be the first phone provider with this feature and could make a lot of money, because I think I'm not the only globetrotter in the country.

ilikewireless · ‎07-10-2011

True. International roaming has to be postpaid because of the delayed roaming charges from many foreign carriers. It should be possible to provision for postpaid International roaming, assuming a good credit check.

On the other hand, roaming is expensive. I am not sure if people will be happy paying a $700 - $3000 bill, as there are countries that charge nearly $5/minute. Also, customers expect to use smartphone data and data roaming is way more expensive than talk and text.

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

That's true. Roaming is expensive, but you can disable roaming on Smartphones and

AT&T could introduce postpaid roaming option on GoPhone plans which is not automatically

activated, so that every GoPhone User can decide if he want roaming be activated or not.

ilikewireless · ‎07-10-2011

goldammer wrote:
That's true. Roaming is expensive, but you can disable roaming on Smartphones and
AT&T could introduce postpaid roaming option on GoPhone plans which is not automatically
activated, so that every GoPhone User can decide if he want roaming be activated or not.

You are right on the money

stufried · ‎09-18-2005

Take a look at:

http://www.telnamobile.com/

http://www.piranha-mobile.com/

Both have very cheap rates for use inside United States and very aggressive plumbing rates. Telna is a contract plan. Pirahna is pay-as-you-go but has an auto recharge option.

Even if ATT had broad prepaid international roaming, you probably wouldn't like the prices. If T-Mobile is any example, their international roaming rates on prepaid are substantially more expensive than on contract plans. Speaking of T-Mobile, they now have an international data plan for $50 a month which extends your data to 28 different countries.

stufried · ‎09-18-2005

Roaming, not "plumbing." Thank you Siri. My correction is too old to edit. Sorry folks.

ilikewireless · ‎07-10-2011

This may be a drop in the bucket for some?

tammygurl64 · ‎08-14-2012

I'm getting a dual-sim quad band GSM phone and I wish the Go Phone would work in Peru because I keep my phone topped up to keep from giving AT&T free money and I almost never use it so I have almost $200 prepaid. I'm going on holiday/vacation in October to Peru and it would be helpful to be able to spend down my account using that phone while I am there. I have a MetroPCS unlimited everything phone that I use at home and it lets me make international calls from the states for less than 2 cents/minute to international land lines AND I have a FREE Safelink phone for traveling in the US now which was the original purpose of the Go Phone before MetroPCS became available in most places.

I suppose I should leave my GoPhone at home in the states with my daughter and she can use it to call me in Peru since all incoming calls to ALL Peruvian cell numbers are FREE!! It's also like that in other countries as well but AT&T wants to charge higher rates for incoming international calls here in the states. Thankfully, their rates aren't as high as TMobile though. TMobile charges almost $3 to $5/min to to make/receive a call to/from Peru. I think it's a ripoff! They should only be taking away our minutes at the normal rate per minute charge or if you have a plan with anytime minutes, they shouldn't charge anything extra.

Btw, I don't understand what you said about the credit check for the GoPhone prepaid balance. I've asked about converting my prepaid to a different plan and they said they couldn't do it and that was without even running a credit check. I did find Virgin Mobile UK to be the cheapest prepaid SIM while in the UK.

Thank goodness for cheap calling cards and SIM cards. I will be buying a Claro and/or Movistar sim in Peru and buying a calling card to make my calls home from my Peruvian cell number because I've heard it's very expensive to call the US from there on a prepaid cell. I will leave my GoPhone at home with my daughter and text her when I need her to call me so I can spend down that crappy AT&T GoPhone. I wish I had better and more simplistic options!

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

Thanks for the link to http://www.telnamobile.com/

I subscribed yesterday and I will let you know how it works.

the 19 bucks a year is not that much and the rates are very low international.

It works postpaid and I will get a new phonenumber which I could choose.

I can forward my gophonenumber to that telna number before I leave.

The datausage overseas is high at any provider at the moment.

Even if GoPhone would work, but at every smartphone you can deactivate "Dataroaming"

I'm still hoping that AT&T will find a solution to get it running overseas as wel.

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

As AT&T is still not providing international roaming for GoPhone,

I signed up with T-Mobile Pay as you Go which supports roaming in the whole world.

Now my question:

Can I transfer my number from gophone to T-Mobile prepaid without loosing my current account balance?

I have $250 left on my gophone account.

International roaming is very important to me and mexico/canada is not enough.

Could AT&T cashout my account balance before I transfer my number?

adidaskid808 · ‎09-30-2011

Hi,

The answer is very simple, You may transfer your gophone number to T mobile USA,but all your account balance will be lost! This is the same with all prepaid phone plan in the whole world.

Just for your interest,I just lost GBP 186 (UK pounds) (Appx. US$300+) with T mobile UK on my UK prepaid account,because they say I did not make a chargeable call for the last 180 days. They got the right to clear all the money in your account !

T mobile USA prepaid just only support roaming in Canada & Mexico.Just like AT&T Gophone

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

I tested roaming last week with my T-Mobile USA prepaid SIM Card in Germany and it works fine.

I'm not sure when T-Mobile introduced it, but it really works now even outside Mexico and Canada.

look here:

http://wac.04c7.edgecastcdn.net/0004C7/tmo_prepaid/assets/pdf/IntlCallingRates.pdf

I know it works before also only in Mexico and Canada, but I could test it successfully last week in Germany and the Netherlands.

incomming Text is also just 10ct :-)

adidaskid808 · ‎09-30-2011

Great...I'll test it out in a few weeks when I travel to EU

But I still hate what T mobile UK doing to my GBP 186 !!

goldammer · ‎09-22-2009

Thats very bad indeed with your T-Mobile UK issue :-(
I would call them 2-3 times until you have a rep who can understand your situation and maybe they will

credit it back to your account.

I would write them an eMail as well and explain your situation.

adidaskid808 · ‎09-30-2011

Hi Goldammer,

All I can tell you, they got everything to cover their **s,this is the email I got from T mobile UK,I do made a GBP 5 top up on October 2012 at the post office,and I made a few calls too!!

Just a lesson to be learn

Hi adidaskid808,

I cannot see any top up or call from October 2012 that would have caused the account to remain active.

Unfortunately, when the account does go into "suspension" any credit on the account is lost and we are unable to retrieve.

If you wish to take this further and make a complaint, I have included a link that gives you the next steps to take.

Many Thanks

RosannaDel · ‎03-17-2013

Wish I had known about T-mobile working in Europe! I wouldn't have added $150 to my AT&T GoPhone to then find out it DOESN'T work in Europe. I was told by the sales assistant that it would "work abroad" but I've discovered that only means Mexico and Canada.... some of us do travel to other continents though. AT&T needs to consider that and update or they will lose clients.