psychopomp1

Hi
Will be coming over to UAE next week for work (Das Island) and will purchase a pre-paid sim on arrival at DXB. Looking at Etisalat's website, they offer 'Ahlan' prepaid service which has charges of 0.5 aed p/m to local mobiles and also 'Wasel' which costs 0.3 aed p/m. But then there's also Du which offers calls for 0.6 aed p/m. Out of the three which is the best? I won't be making many calls, most of my calls will be incoming from UK but not sure if it costs the same to call Du and Etisalat numbers from UK. Also can you recharge your sim online or does it have to be done via a scratchcard?

Cheers

typical

How long is a piece of shit?

Bluelionesse

If yiu are looking for a cheap way to communicate with your family, then download skype on you (camera free) laptop before you get here. Msn live messenger is also good and is not blocked.

psychopomp1

Sorry i meant which offers the better coverage in built up areas?

As for skype, my laptop has a webcam so won't be taking that to Das Island. Anyway why faff around with Skype when precaller (google it) gives you free phone to phone calls from UK to UAE?

NorthernLad

Both are shit, but Etisalat is marginally less-shitter for coverage. We have people on Du and Etisalat at work, some of the Du phones can't get coverage in our office in Internet City.

Eeyore

Just Googled it. It certainly involves a lot more faff than Skype for calling the UAE from the UK, and it doesn't provide a solution for calling the UK from the UAE (which there's a fairly good chance you'll want to do). Unless the idea is that you text or whatever from the UAE and tell the person in the UK to call you.

psychopomp1

Actually using Precaller is a doddle. As long as your UK landline provider gives you inclusive anytime 0845 calls (which many do) then you can build credit to call anywhere in the world free of charge from any phone in the UK. You can link as many numbers as you want to your landline (eg mobiles) which means you can use your inclusive mobile mins to access the 020 number. Simple procedure:

1) Register your landline no. on precaller
2) Build credit from your landline using 0845 number
3) If necessary link other UK telephone numbers to your account
4) Call 020 3328 1355 from any of you registered numbers and then dial any number in the world starting 00
5) Never pay for an international call again! (even gives you free calls to Thuraya and Inmarsat satellite phones)

All i will do is give a missed call to my missus in the UK from my UAE mobile and she calls me back free of charge and she can talk to me as long as her big mouth will allow her to

Eeyore

It's still a lot more faffy than simply dialling the number on Skype!

It almost sounds a bit too good to be true. If the 0845 phone call that builds your credit is 100% free to you, where does Precaller actually make its money?

psychopomp1

Precaller might sound complicated but believe me its not; once you've registered, just save the 0845 number on your landline handset and also save your most frequently called int'l numbers on your handset eg 02033281355[pause]0097150xxxxxxx

Sure, precaller isn't a charity and they make their money through your telecoms company who offer them x pence p/m so everyone's a winner all round, except your landline provider that is But a word of warning: some providers (eg BT) have a monthly limit of 1000 mins to 0845 calls, go over this and they'll charge you

norsk

just out of interest what exactly is your affiliation with precaller? if there is none, you should contact them as you would be shithot as a pre-sales agent or something..

psychopomp1

No mate, I don't have any affiliation with Precaller. Just trying to help out my fellow expats. There's another similar company called "qxcall" (again google it) but they're a bit more stingy with the credit they give you so I tend to stick with Precaller. Sorry for taking the thread off-topic slightly!