Autonomy

do they both work assuming you have credit?

Seem to remember it's a lottery around the world - some places you can call but not sms and visa versa and other combinations....

anyway - are making and receicing calls and sms possible on wasel in the USA

Fairydust

I think as long as you have a tri or quad band phone

Eeyore

We looked into this when we went to the USA back in November, and IIRC you still had to set up roaming by paying Etisalat some colossal deposit... plus the call costs were ludicrous.

So we took our UK mobile instead. It worked perfectly, the calls were less than half the price they would have been with Etisalat, and we had the option to top up our credit online (which I don't think you can do with Wasel when you're abroad - they tell you to top up with as much as you think you'll need before you travel).

Autonomy

i think the deposit thing has been dropped. It's just for people to get hold of me - will have the laptop and skype will be the choice of communications in the land of the free (voip).

thanks though.

Blue Cat

Gareth knows he and Zan were in New York in November last year and I am sure they took their phones but had problems sending SMS but not receiving. There is a list of the etisalat website but I can't seem to find it!

Madam Medusa

I can never send SMSs or make calls when I'm abroad, but always seem to be able to receive them. Really pees me off when you then get a million messages from Etisalat telling you how you can now make and recieve calls...

MM, xx

Autonomy

exactly my point - why the hell can i not send a bloody simple sms... grrrrr....

sometimes calling is possible but you have to use some strange black magic code thing....

Madam Medusa

ahh...well sadly I don't have the code

MM, xx

W10

Was in NYC in Jan.

Can't send SMS but can receive.

Couldn't call either but could receive calls.

There is a roaming list on the etisalat website - but its pretty useless and what is on there is rarely the case anyway.

Autonomy

Itcostsalot really are shit...

Eeyore

No, we had no problems... we used our UK (T-Mobile) phone

Eeyore

That's pretty much standard for all Wasel customers when you're outside the UAE. And before we went to the USA I was sure I'd read that the roaming deposit had been dropped, but when I checked it out at Etisalat they said that I still had to pay it.

Meow

Don't know about Wasel cards, but not supposed to be a problem with ordinary (pay as you go?) mobile service. Still have to pay Dhs 2,000 for roaming though.

(I have just paid this so I can be contacted by UAE clients when in UK. Phone worked fine when switched back on after flight)

Confucius

Are you using my phone????

Madam Medusa

woops...did I forget to give it back ?

That'll explain why I've been getting some really, really weird phonecalls though...

MM, xx