Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Mobile Technology to Cut Down Roaming Charges during Tour

By  at 06:25  , , , ,  

At various online forums, people from all part of the UK, keep asking how to their smartphones in the USA or anywhere else. The main reason behind the query of using USA SIM card for UK phone is roaming fees, charged by mobile carriers in the home country. In Europe, there are no roaming fees, but in the United States of America there is no such facility. Thus, people travelling there, either on business, higher studies or for any other reason, from the UK keep posting such questions on the forums mentioned above.

Types of mobile companies:

Before continuing this discussion further, here is a little information on the types of mobile carriers that exist. There are two types of mobile service providers:
  • Mobile Network Operators or MNOs and
  • Mobile Virtual Network Operator or MVNO
MNOs own and operate the entire network infrastructure, while the MVNOs purchase cellular phone service at wholesale price and then resell it to third-parties, making profit in the process. Now, before landing in America with your own handset, search online to get a list of mobile network operators in the USA.
  • Roaming partners in cellular business: When you use your own mobile handset while travelling a foreign nation, your phone comes under roaming. The mobile service provider from your home country charges a roaming fee on you, which is called roaming charges. This roaming charge is real hefty and causes a severe burn in your pocket. To avoid this excess payment, many people prefer using pay as you go SIM card in the USA. Every cellular service company has roaming partners everywhere in the world. An example can help you better understand the overall circumstance. A customer who uses Rogers Wireless in Canada, will automatically roam over the AT&T network service while travelling the United States. This is because, Rogers and AT&T are roaming partners across the two nations.
  • Types of mobile technology: There are basically two types of mobile technology that exist today. These are:
  • GSM or SIM card-based handsets and
  • CDMA
As consumers, all you need to know and remember is with a CDMA handset, you have no option but to pay the roaming fees. Whereas, with a GSM handset, you can replace the SIM card to a local network service provider or a dedicated travel carrier to save money on roaming. However, before that you have to unlock your handset for inserting AT&T or any other SIM card or for that matter any other GSM SIM that you are using.
  • GSM locking: A GSM handset is usually locked, when a consumer buys it from a carrier. This is because, the carrier company provides it at a subsidised cost and wants to keep the consumer tied to its service. Unlocking a GSM handset is nothing but removing the software lock so that it can be used on any carrier. The two different procedures to unlock the software barrier are the:
  • Carrier or manufacturer unlock and
  • Jailbreak or hack unlock
Before choosing the Right Pay As You Go SIM Card for USA, you have to unlock your device.  The first one is a paid service, while the second one is used to unlock the Operating System installed in the device by bypassing its security system.