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[earl]

Hi all,
Anyone have info about international calling w/ cingular? I'm curious because I just got back from visiting my sister in South America. Before I went I looked into buying a local prepaid SIM card (I have a smt5600, unlocked) but didn't do it because my sister told me that cell service in Peru is outrageously expensive. When I arrived, I powered on my phone and it immediately connected to the network and even gave me the new voicemail alert. I was tempted to just go ahead and use my phone, cost be damned, but I chickened out. So every time I got a new voicemail, I had to go down to the corner pay phone and use a calling card to get my messages (about $10 US for an hour or so of talk time). I felt kind of stupid standing at a payphone holding my cellular in my hand to look up whatever number I needed to call. Anyway, I'm just kind of curious if I would have ended up with a 4 figure phone bill.
E

[smeg36]

If you look at the Cingular International Roaming page, Peru is listed as $3.49/minute. So it probably would have cost an arm and a leg.

[earl]

Wow, thanks. It looks like I may even be billed for the incoming calls that I didn't answer because they were routed to voicemail.

[The Undude]

When I was in France a few weeks ago, my little SMT 5600 was super. And because Cingular has arrangements with so many carriers, I was getting better reception than the locals, as my phone would go to the strongest signal regardless of carrier, whereas locals seems to be stuck with their paid carrier.

When I returned to the USA however, my phone bill was really big!

[GrYph0n]

International works great everywhere I have been. I have subscribed to the international discount rate while I am deployed. It is like $5.99 a month for a little bit off of the normal international rates. For example, when I was in Dubai recently normal rates would have been $2.69 per minute, but with the discount it was only $2.29. The rates vary from place to place as does the discount. I try to keep my calls from my Cingular SIM limited. In my next stop I plan on just getting a local SIM and using an interntaional phone card (local access number) to make all my calls back to the states, just as I did when I was in Singapore (It is a lot cheaper that way).