International roaming (Telstra)

[Tannin]

I am going to Sri Lanka for a couple of weeks shortly. I'm trying to figure out how to manage phones and Internet.

I have a Telstra pre-paid mobile. (Android.) In Australia, I tether my laptop to it for Internet access on the PC.

• PLAN A: Telstra would like me to buy very expensive data packs and use their account. I don't plan to do this for Sri Lanka - too expensive and I hate being ripped off. They give you a ridiculously small data allowance. Scratch Plan A. (Probably.)
  
• PLAN B: Don't bother with the phone and just rely on wi-fi at at least some of the places I stay. I don't much like the notion of doing financial transactions on unsecured wi-fi networks - I'm retired but the old IT man inside my head hates the idea. (I may not need to do any secure transactions while I am away, but I want the ability to do so. In particular, I like to keep one eye on my investments. Ten minutes once a day is all it takes.)
  
• PLAN C: I can buy a tourist's SIM at the Airport, and swap that into my phone for a couple of weeks. This is quite cheap and would work well - BUT I could not use the phone to get messages and I won't know what the number is in advance, so I can't give it (e.g.) to my bank. Better if I am contactable on my normal number for family emergencies (unlikely) and (more likely) to get confirmation SMS messages from bank and stockbroker if I need to (e.g.) withdraw money or sell some shares.
  
• PLAN D: Take my tablet (the extra weight is unimportant) and put the tourist's SIM in it. Tether the laptop to the tablet for Internet. Keep the phone on the existing Telstra SIM, just for SMS and (if needed) calls from Australia. Can I use a tablet for phone calls in case of need? (Dumb question, I know.) This would make me contactable on my normal number - mainly I'm thinking SMS, but also give me cheap local Internet via tethering the laptop, or just using the tablet.
  
• PLAN E Same as (D), but swap the SIM cards around such that the tablet has the Telstra SIM. (I also have a horrid little second Android phone I could take instead of the tablet.)

If I do Plan D or E, is there a way to roam only for SMS (and just possibly an incoming voice call), with no Internet access and no stupid Android updates killing my data allowance?

I welcome any experience and advice members may have. Thanks in advance.

[ameerat42]

You need a Plan F, but E is the closest.

No to your calls Q with the tablet. The local SIM sounds the way, using the horrid little Android as a hotspot.
In addition, put WhatsApp onto your main phone and communicate sparingly with that, NOTING to keep any
Data on that switched OFF most of the time AND, go and un-check on that phone "Download only over WiFi".
If you don't do the last one, you'll soak up the data on the hotspot while your phone happily updates Apps.

Plan G: Go completely incommunicado

[Tannin]

Thanks AM. Just to be clear, are you saying that a tablet cannot be used for phone calls? (Assuming that it has an ordinary phone sim in it, of course, not a data-only tablet sim.)

I had to look up Whatsapp to find out what it was. Good for chatting by the sound of it, but useless for secure SMS messaging. At least, I can't imagine Westpac or NAB sending security code messages through it.

Assuming I do as you suggest (apart from Whatsapp) how do I get SMS messages on the main phone while overseas? Wouldn't I have to take a global roaming package?

Err ... The last time I went overseas, the only form of portable telephone was this one ...



... and the TV show was still in production.

[Bianca]

Wah! I lost my response to maintenance....so here I go again:

So, my suggestion is to get a dual-SIM phone next time you upgrade your phone, but in the meantime, for this trip:

Install a VPN app on your phone. This provides security in the form of two-way encryption for you on unsecured WiFi eg in your hotels/cafes/restaurants etc. I currently use Windscribe, but have been happy with Tunnelbear in the past. Tunnelbear has a free data allowance, which for a few minutes of banking and brokerage app use a day is probably plenty.

For phone calls, I use Google Talk/Voice to make phone calls. Calls to the US are free, Aus is around 1c for landlines and Sri Lanka is 14c for landlines and mobile. You buy $10 credit and it lasts for years. (NB all prices are in US Dollars). If you don't want to go Google, I've also used Skype in the same way, though have no idea of rates there now.

Receiving phone calls to your mobile number would cost a fortune, so make sure people know you're overseas and to send you an SMS or email and you'll contact or call them back.

Make sure you turn on roaming with Telstra just before you leave, so that your banks and brokers can send you SMS as necessary.

As to Android app updates: Go into your Play Store settings and turn off auto-update and make sure you have App download preference set to 'only over WiFi'. I have these settings set this way permanently, even when I'm at home, so that I can control what apps update and when.

Should you decide to go the local SIM route, install Google's Datally app. It blocks unnecessary mobile data usage. I use that at home as well, since I only have 1GB of data...

Datally app also has a WiFi map for free WiFi around you.

If you think you might need Google Maps while you're in Sri Lanka, you can download maps for offline access within Google Maps. Do that just before you leave because they only last about 30 days. Note that you can't download offline maps for all countries - some sort of licensing issue apparently (eg Japan doesn't allow download, where Aus and most of Europe and elsewhere does).

I've done a lot of travel (though not to Sri Lanka), the last trip to Europe being my first with a dual-SIM phone. I've travelled with local SIM and without. It's all possible, especially with all the free WiFi around these days!

If you've got any more questions, feel free to ask here or PM me.

[jim]

This is going to sound a bit simple-minded after the rather complex solutions Tony and Am have been discussing (disclaimer: I'm not sure I entirely understood all that stuff) but this is what we did when we holidayed overseas:
(1) Enable roaming. With Vodafone this allowed us to use the phone overseas when needed without totally breaking the bank.
(2) Buy a prepaid SIM on arrival, making sure it has plenty of data included. This is by far the cheapest solution in Thailand, and probably in Sri Lanka too. Use the phone as a mobile hotspot of course.
(3) Swap in the Aussie SIM from time to time to see if anybody has called or left a message.

Obviously this won't do if you anticipate an emergency, and it's a waste of time and energy if you're going to have to use the Australian phone number every day, but it worked out ok for us.

[Hawthy]

I must be sloppy with my money. I use the Telstra $10 per day roaming pack for my phone and use wi-fi (or my phone's personal hotspot) on my iPad at the places that I stay. Telstra allows unlimited calls and texts but only 200mb of data per day. That is enough for me to check my emails etc. I don't spend a lot of time on the internet when I am on an overseas holiday. I am not on any social media so I don't feel obliged to upload photos of me in exotic locations every evening to make family and friends jealous. Traveling with a laptop is just a pain in the behind so I leave it at home when I can.

[Tannin]

Traveling with a laptop is just a pain in the behind so I leave it at home when I can.

But ... isn't photography the whole purpose of the trip in the first place? How can you do photography when you haven't got anything to upload the pictures onto?

[Geoff79]

It’s become quite apparent to me (after Hispid’s recent thread) I probably travel a bit different to you guys, and it all depends on your particular circumstances, but I see no issue whatsoever with plan B.

One of the things I love most about holidays is getting away from phones and TVs and internet and everything like that. I love the time away as much as the break.

I just use the free wifi to keep in touch with mum and dad via email and everything else can wait... especially if it’s just a few weeks.

But like I said, to each their own. This suits me, but may not be for everyone. I was 100% certain that some of these remote islands on the Philippines would have no wifi, but was proved very wrong every single time. Seems it doesn’t matter how remote you get these days, there’s wifi somewhere.

Enjoy the trip. My brother and his mates did a trip around Sri Lanka a couple of years ago and it left me very keen to check it out one day.

[Hawthy]

But ... isn't photography the whole purpose of the trip in the first place? How can you do photography when you haven't got anything to upload the pictures onto?

I upload them to this site (or Flickr) when when I get home. Laptops are heavy and you have to drag them out at every security area of every airport.

[ameerat42]

Hmm! Some more good advice above, and no doubt some info overload

Tony, the following is not prescriptive, just something to look over.

Re Tablets: now that you ask, I thought (but I could be wrong) that to make calls over a mobile
network a device needed an IMEI number in its hardware. Do #06# on your keypad to find
this. I don't know if a tablet has one, and (I thought) hence the data-only SIMs for these.

Re WhatsApp: It's fully free, and they tout it as having end-to-end (pretty fancy) encryption.
So for free messaging, voice and video calls, the fabled 50 million Frenchmen (and millions of
others worldwide) can't be too far wrong. Note: it uses your +61.... Aus phone number for
ID and calls. Tell your friends/family to call you using that.

Re: dual-sim phones: great idea, but expensive as heck in Aus. This one cost me $200 from India.
It's a Chinese brand (like many others), but seems to work well.

Re Global Roaming: activate it on your AUs SIM phone but use it rarely, like only for receiving really
important calls. You pay the local mobile providers to BOTH make and receive calls/SMS, shown as a
BIG BILL when you get back. I think the $10/day job is a rip-off.

Re WiFi ON/OFF: for one phone only, have it ON. For two phones...

Phone with Aus SIM and roaming, set as follows:
"Mobile Data" - OFF;
"Auto Updates" - OFF;
"WiFi" - OFF until you need it, AND
"Only allow updates only over WiFi" - OFF.
Log this phone in to your Local SIM phone's hotspot. If you don't have the last two
options OFF, this phone will quietly update APPs when it senses your local-SIM data
phone network. You can receive Whatsapp calls through this phone when it's logged on
to the other phone's WiFi.

Local SIM with data phone:
"Mobile Data" - ON, and set up the hotspot for your other phone to use;
"Auto Updates" - OFF;
"Only allow updates only over WiFi" - OFF;
"WiFi" - OFF until you are at a local, trusted one, perhaps at your abode.

This setup (though a bit cumbersome) will let you wander about fairly freely from surreptitious
data drainage while you still have local data available.

Finally, you can guess that video calls over Whatsapp with use up lots more data than voice
calls and text messages.

Really finally, s for a long post.

[Tannin]

I can go a few days without uploading pictures to a computer, but after that I start pushing the limits of my flash card space. In any case, I'm not comfortable having more than a day or two worth of hard-earned pictures unsafe. Nothing electronic - repeat nothing - can be considered safe when you only have a single copy.

When travelling, I upload the flash cards every night, and make a backup to an external hard drive. The next night, I backup to a different external drive. I never format the flash cards ready to start again until I have completed the backup. As a result, I have never lost a picture.

Mind you, I seldom go to airports. Last time I visited one was ... er ... might have been 1998. Dreadful places. And by all reports, much, much worse since all this idiotic "security" paranoia. Sadly, while my car is pretty good at creek crossings, the Indian Ocean might be a little too deep for it. And booking a whole international supertanker to meet me somewhere south of Indonesia just for 60 litres of unleaded ... well ... it would get expensive. Still, I only have to endure two airports. You can save a couple of hundred dollars over the cost of the direct flight by booking with a motely assortment of bottom-of-the-drawer carriers offering an experience akin to that of a crowded cattle truck and a route thousands of kilometres longer ... but why would you? SriLankan flies direct Melbourne - Colombo every day, and it really doesn't cost much more than the likes of Tiger.

At this stage, I'm thinking that I'll go with a version of Plan E - put my Telstra SIM into the horrible little Android thing (it's a Samsung Galaxy J1 Mini, and would be perfectly fine for a midget with hands 50mm across) and put a travel sim into the good phone.

Many very interesting contributions above. I have read them all with interest.

- - - Updated - - -

Wow, AM, there is a lot of detail to get my mind around there. I think my brain just exploded.

[ameerat42]

While at present it may seem muddy, it will clarify to a yellow-brown translucency
after a bit of time.

[Tannin]

Just for interest, here is a very bad deal.

Woolworths Global Roaming.

• SIM costs $29, includes $10 credit.
• Incoming call: 93c a minute.
• Local call (inside Sri Lanka) $1.17 a minute
• Call Australia: $1.17 a minute
• Get a text: free
• Send a text: 53c.
• Data: $11.18 per MB (!) That's MB, not GB!

So, for your $29, you can get texts, make 3 local calls, call Australia for 5 minutes, and send two texts, and that's assuming no data use whatever.

Blimey, Telstra is a whole lot cheaper than that - and when you are dearer than Telstra, you have real problems.

- - - Updated - - -

Compare with the Dialog plan. (Dialog is one of the two major SL Telcos.)

SIM: free - they give you one as you go through customs.
Recharge: LKR 1,299 - about $11. It includes 4GB data, plus an extra 5GB for use between midnight and 8AM, plus about $5 international; call and SMS credit and $2 localcall and SMS credit. Calls to Australia cost 22 LKR per second, which is about $1 a minute. Not sure what you pay for local calls or SMS, not much I expect.

[Tannin]

Wah! I lost my response to maintenance....so here I go again:

So, my suggestion is to get a dual-SIM phone next time you upgrade your phone, but in the meantime, for this trip:

Install a VPN app on your phone. This provides security in the form of two-way encryption for you on unsecured WiFi eg in your hotels/cafes/restaurants etc. I currently use Windscribe, but have been happy with Tunnelbear in the past. Tunnelbear has a free data allowance, which for a few minutes of banking and brokerage app use a day is probably plenty.

For phone calls, I use Google Talk/Voice to make phone calls. Calls to the US are free, Aus is around 1c for landlines and Sri Lanka is 14c for landlines and mobile. You buy $10 credit and it lasts for years. (NB all prices are in US Dollars). If you don't want to go Google, I've also used Skype in the same way, though have no idea of rates there now.

Receiving phone calls to your mobile number would cost a fortune, so make sure people know you're overseas and to send you an SMS or email and you'll contact or call them back.

Make sure you turn on roaming with Telstra just before you leave, so that your banks and brokers can send you SMS as necessary.

As to Android app updates: Go into your Play Store settings and turn off auto-update and make sure you have App download preference set to 'only over WiFi'. I have these settings set this way permanently, even when I'm at home, so that I can control what apps update and when.

Should you decide to go the local SIM route, install Google's Datally app. It blocks unnecessary mobile data usage. I use that at home as well, since I only have 1GB of data...

Datally app also has a WiFi map for free WiFi around you.

If you think you might need Google Maps while you're in Sri Lanka, you can download maps for offline access within Google Maps. Do that just before you leave because they only last about 30 days. Note that you can't download offline maps for all countries - some sort of licensing issue apparently (eg Japan doesn't allow download, where Aus and most of Europe and elsewhere does).

I've done a lot of travel (though not to Sri Lanka), the last trip to Europe being my first with a dual-SIM phone. I've travelled with local SIM and without. It's all possible, especially with all the free WiFi around these days!

If you've got any more questions, feel free to ask here or PM me.

A wonderful response, Bianca. Quite a bit of it is overkill for my simple needs, but I can see this being a really handy thread for others to refer to.


Now the funny bit .....

I had decided to put my Telstra SIM into the horrible little Samsung Mini, and buy a local SIM for my good phone. Or possibly use the tablet instead of the horrible thing. So far so good.

I spent two hours today fishing out that horrible little Samsung Mini and looking stuff up and installing endless updates, and so on. Turns out that you CAN use a tablet as a phone, but only some models. A lot don't have the required hardware. Mine doesn't. It also turns out that both the tablet and the horrible little Samsung Mini use Micro SIMs - why, why, why do they have to keep changing bloody SIM formats, it's worse than USB "standards", each of which lasts ten minutes before there is another one - while my nice new Huawai J7 uses nano SIMs. So you can't swap the SIMs over and use the nice phone - the one with the lovely big screen and the 9-day battery life - for the local carrier and the horrible little phone for Telstra (i.e., just for reading texts from Oz, nothing else) and swap them back on return to Oz.


But it turns out - much to my delight - that the Huawei Y7 has dual SIM slots. I didn't even know what that was for until today. I bought the Y7 purely because it has the best battery life of any smart phone on the market - even better than my old dumb phone! - and because I liked the screen, and because it was cheap. Turns out that it has dual slots, and a useful system for managing them. This means that I can

• Leave the Telstra SIM in, but block it from using mobile data. Can still get Australian SMS messages, but zero mega-expensive Telstra data roaming.
• Stick the Dialog SIM in the second slot, use the 9GB of data I get for $12. Maps, local calls, hotspot for my laptop. All sorted.
• Have the benefit of the beautiful big screen and buttons big enough for grown-up fingers
• Have the benefit of the outstanding battery life. (I usually charge it once a week, but it goes for longer than that, about 9 or 10 days with my typical (fairly modest) usage, maybe half that if I'm using it as a hot spot.)

If this sounds like a plug for Huawei, so be it. People say "but what if the Chinese government is snooping?"

I say "So what? Google already snoops on everywhere you go and everything you do, as does Facebook, as does Apple, as does Twitter, as does Microsoft, why should the Chinese be the only ones to miss out on my data? Besides, they are the only one of the whole damn lot who won't sell the data to the highest bidder or use it to target advertising at me."

Anyway, many thanks to all, and especially to AM and Bianca.

[ameerat42]

That's a good and unexpected turn, T. But, to receive SMS from Oz you still need to have global roaming enabled.

On micro-SIMS: Go and get a new one for free from Telstra (It should should be because they are from Optus.)
Punch out the size you need but keep the remaining templates. It usually takes a phone call and an hour or so to
make the the new SIM active for your phone number. BUT make sure you don't lose your contacts and other SIM
info. Xfer or copy these to your HW phone (from old SIM) then put in new SIM and activate, then copy back onto
the new SIM.

Note: there's also a nano-SIM New SIM packages come as 3-way sizes. But again, keep the remaining bits.
Lastly, you may be in further luck: If your present SIM is recent, it may already be in 3-sizes, so punch out
the one you need.

[Bianca]

Now the funny bit .....
...
But it turns out - much to my delight - that the Huawei Y7 has dual SIM slots. I didn't even know what that was for until today. I bought the Y7 purely because it has the best battery life of any smart phone on the market - even better than my old dumb phone! - and because I liked the screen, and because it was cheap. Turns out that it has dual slots, and a useful system for managing them. This means that I can

• Leave the Telstra SIM in, but block it from using mobile data. Can still get Australian SMS messages, but zero mega-expensive Telstra data roaming.
• Stick the Dialog SIM in the second slot, use the 9GB of data I get for $12. Maps, local calls, hotspot for my laptop. All sorted.
• Have the benefit of the beautiful big screen and buttons big enough for grown-up fingers
• Have the benefit of the outstanding battery life. (I usually charge it once a week, but it goes for longer than that, about 9 or 10 days with my typical (fairly modest) usage, maybe half that if I'm using it as a hot spot.)

If this sounds like a plug for Huawei, so be it. People say "but what if the Chinese government is snooping?"

I say "So what? Google already snoops on everywhere you go and everything you do, as does Facebook, as does Apple, as does Twitter, as does Microsoft, why should the Chinese be the only ones to miss out on my data? Besides, they are the only one of the whole damn lot who won't sell the data to the highest bidder or use it to target advertising at me."

You're very welcome. I've gained this knowledge over many trips overseas, the last 8 years' worth with my Android phone.

I'm glad you discovered the dual SIM capabilities of your Huawei Y7. Best of both worlds!! You'll still need to turn on global roaming to receive your Telstra SMS overseas - but I think you already know that.

That battery life is amazing!! Mine lasts the day, generally.

As to "made in China" and snooping - what these days is not made in China? And you're right about your data being used by the organisations you mentioned. And many more. I think the only way to avoid it completely is to never go online, with any device. But that's a discussion for a different thread!!

Have a great time on your trip and I look forward to seeing your photos!

[Bianca]

Another thing - if you use your phone as a hotspot for your computer - don't let its updates gobble up your data! There's a program to restrict that on PCs - not sure about Mac.

And if you intend to use unsecured WiFi at your accommodation or a cafe, VPN software is your friend. You can buy unlimited access by the month.

[Glenda]

Some interesting info in this thread which I must revisit before our next OS trip, particularly the VPN software Bianca mentions. I've only used free wifi for update emails to family though would never use it for banking. We did have the experience of our credit card not working in Vietnam, luckily at the end of our trip and it worked fine during our stopover in Singapore after. However, that did prompt me to get an enduring power of attorney done on our return.

I do have my phone on roaming but Gordon puts a local sim in his. Roaming can be problematic as you tend to forget how many people have your mobile number. I was woken during the night in Egypt with a call from the nursing home where my late mother was a resident - not an emergency and I felt really guilty when I explained where I was. A few years later I received a call from our local council advising they had received a complaint about our dog barking. I quickly explained where we were and that I would contact our son to sort out the problem. He then wanted to have a nice long chat about where we were, how we found it etc. then phoned me again a couple of weeks later to ask about the trip. Grrr - our rates money at work. As Am said you also pay to receive these calls while OS.

Have an amazing trip Tony and looking forward to seeing your photos when you return.

[ameerat42]

Ahh, WhatsApp! - It's nothing to sneeze at

[Bianca]

Ahh, WhatsApp! - It's nothing to sneeze at

True. But you need your friends and family to install and use it too, which might not be an easy feat! I have people scattered across WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Hangouts, as well as SMS for the 'old school'... And of course the banks etc.