Eeyore

I'm sure I read a while ago that Etisalat now allows Wasel users to use their phones abroad without having to pay that extortionate roaming deposit first. Supposedly the downside is that you just have to add a lot of credit to your account to cover yourself because roaming charges are high and you can't top up from abroad. Does anyone know if this is actually true?

EDIT - turns out it depends on the country you're visiting. So in our case, no

NorthernLad

My wifes worked fine in UK for about 5 minutes, then credit ran out.

I thought you could top up via Etisalat web page, not tried it though (either from here or from abroad).

Rumble Tumble

The year before last i could txt etc from home (UK) but this year when i returned i had problems getting it to work, it was a real pain in the butt!

uk4uae

www.e4me.ae, register the phone number on there and then you can top it up whilst you are away but it will cost you a fortune !!

You could always ask a local to get you a line in their name and then it is free (roaming service facility)

Eeyore

We've discovered that we can use our UK prepay mobile instead. Plus, roaming with a UK mobile is much cheaper than roaming with an Etisalat mobile...

littlejimmy

Just learned that hard way after 4 days in Doha. I ended up buying a local SIM card for 150 Riyals (which gave you 100 Riyals credit as well!) after being charged by Etisalat for receiving calls, not just making them!

uk4uae

Wasel dont have to pay the deposit of 5k but you have to have enough credit to host the call from here to the country that you are living in - it works out really expensive, like somebody said before it is better to get a pre paid where you are going and just leave Al Mersal message with the number on it so people can call you if they want without you incurring a huge cost.

littlejimmy

How does one do that Al Mersal thingy?

uk4uae

Dial 125 to register and follow the voice prompts

After a short while you will receive a sms to say that you voice mail is active.

Dial 123 to set up your mailbox again following the voice prompts.

After that is complete go into call settings on your phone and into call divert, The big E does not allow divert all calls so you activate the divert on busy, if not reachable, if not available. Then it is done.

Hope this help

Happiness

Doesn't it go through the vodafone network in the UK?

littlejimmy

Thanks for that. have managed to register, but now it won't let me do the 123 thing. It keeps saying it can't connect me. RUBBISH!

uk4uae

Thats strange, have you received an sms to say that your voicemail is active ?

I take it that you are in Dubai when you are doing this ?

littlejimmy

Managed to get through but it said my mailbox wasn't activated. I have to register again! ****ing useless!

And HSBC! **** me, what a bunch of cretins. I was on hold this morning for about 10 minutes and had to listen to a sequence of adverts every 5 seconds that made me want to scream.

I bet my BP is through the roof!