Use outside of North America

[Mr-Bump]

I am going to be in England for ten days starting next week, and I have a few questions.

From what I can tell, I won't be able to send it to I've texts, but will I get any there were sent while I was away when I return to my home province?

Also will calls still be able to go to voicemail, or will it appear my phone service is disconnected?

I don't mind not using my phone, since I will have a SIM there, but it'd be nice to not completely miss the calls/texts.

[srlawren]

@Mr-Bump sorry for the late reply.  Sometimes Fongo takes some experimentation to get right.  There are a bunch of settings that control how much bandwidth it uses, what type of echo cancellation, etc.  

I played around for several minutes a month or two ago and took a scrolling screenshot of all my settings.  Here's the relvant section, containing the settings that worked well for me, for your reference:

Now of course, your mileage can and probably will vary.  For my phone, it seemed the echo canceller, ironically, had the worst effect. It caused it to frequently clip sections of my voice while playing them back to me.  Anything longer than a syllable or two would trigger it.  I seemed to have to turn OFF the echo canceller *and* turn ON the alternate call stream to get the cleanest results in my tests.  

Try different combinations and use the Make a Test Call option at the bottom of the settings window to try it out.  Then rinse and repeat as necessary until you get something usable.  

[Mr-Bump]

I figured out the issue with Fongo. Apparently it takes 24hrs to activate; however, I currently sound like I'm calling from inside a cave, so that's less than ideal.

@Someone_here I will give TextNow a go when I get back home. Thanks for the tip.

[Someone_here]

I use Textnow, it works well for incoming and outgoing calls, and texts are free... You may want to try it instead?

[Mr-Bump]

Not sure why, but Fongo is not working for any device I test it with. I even signed up to a different number to see if that was the issue and nothing. 

I went through all their trouble shooting and still calls are going right to voicemail. Flight leaves in an hour so really want this to work. Any thoughts?

[srlawren]

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@Mr-Bump wrote:

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I am assuming call forwarding to a UK number would be long distance? 

@Mr-Bump it would be, if it were possible.  With PM, you cannot forward your number to a phone number based outside of Canada, regardless of your plan or LD min add-ons.

That said, @smp99's breakdown of the workaround is prefect.  That's what I do when I go ot the US for a short trip--I buy a couple of days of Roam Mobility service at $5 a day and then use forward-to-fongo plus hangouts for outbound, rather than buying a US roaming add-on combination that features all the services.  This would work equally well internationally, except that you wouldn't get your PM text messages until you return home and fire up your PM SIM.

[smp99]

Yes one of the often overlooked included features in PM for calling is CallFwd. If you set up Fongo or another local VOIP number you call fwd to that number before you leave, and calls will go through to your new number, even with the PM-SIM out of the phone. Do this before you leave Canada! Voice mail in this case would be on VOIP service, not PM.

Google hangouts works well for outbound calls free to Canada/USA. You can spoof your phone into using your orig PM number as caller display for others to see when you call them. This is a feature, not a hack.

If you have an iPhone, iMessage should work for texts with other iPhone users with your British SIM data. 

[Mr-Bump]

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@kav2001c wrote:

@wetcoaster & @Mr-Bump

You actually can get instant access to voice mail on a different phone using the call forward feature

No need to dial *

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I am assuming call forwarding to a UK number would be long distance? 

I suppose I could just get a data plan there and forward all my calls to a Skype number. 

[Mr-Bump]

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@jayjay wrote:

not sure how pm works but as a telus spin off,one would think if you were abroad and swapped your sim back in,you'd get your texts as incoming are free.??

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@jayjay wrote:

not sure how pm works but as a telus spin off,one would think if you were abroad and swapped your sim back in,you'd get your texts as incoming are free.??

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From what I have read, PM doesn't work outside of Canada and the US; despite being a Telus subsidiary.

[jayjay]

not sure how pm works but as a telus spin off,one would think if you were abroad and swapped your sim back in,you'd get your texts as incoming are free.??

[kav2001c]

@wetcoaster & @Mr-Bump

You actually can get instant access to voice mail on a different phone using the call forward feature

No need to dial *

[Michael77]

Good information from the community. 🙂

[wetcoaster]

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@Mr-Bump wrote:

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@kav2001c wrote:

@NDesai I would need to check but I am pretty sure 7 days was limit if voicemail is not listened to and save first

So 10 days out of country he loses messages....

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@NDesai wrote:

What Shawn mentioned above is correct at least with texting. I have tested with texts but i assume calls would go to voicemail, and it would tell give you notifications all at once when you return. 

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Good point @kav2001c! But from what@Someone_here was saying I can call my number to listen to them? I'll have to test this tonight and see if I can check with Skype. 

I love how the community here is so helpful. This is a question I wouldn't have bothered calling customer support with (not worth the 10-20mins on hold) but got a bunch of replies right away. Thanks everyone!

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The way it works for me: Dial your phone number, if the phone is off or the SIM card not in a phone the call will go straight to voicemail. Press * (star) and enter your voicemail PIN to access your voice mail box. (I'm not sure if (*) is provider specific or depending on the phone you call from, if memory serves right, with another provider, a couple of years back it was pound (#)...)

[Mr-Bump]

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@kav2001c wrote:

@NDesai I would need to check but I am pretty sure 7 days was limit if voicemail is not listened to and save first

So 10 days out of country he loses messages....

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@NDesai wrote:

What Shawn mentioned above is correct at least with texting. I have tested with texts but i assume calls would go to voicemail, and it would tell give you notifications all at once when you return. 

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Good point @kav2001c! But from what@Someone_here was saying I can call my number to listen to them? I'll have to test this tonight and see if I can check with Skype. 

I love how the community here is so helpful. This is a question I wouldn't have bothered calling customer support with (not worth the 10-20mins on hold) but got a bunch of replies right away. Thanks everyone!

[kav2001c]

@NDesai I would need to check but I am pretty sure 7 days was limit if voicemail is not listened to and save first

So 10 days out of country he loses messages....

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@NDesai wrote:

What Shawn mentioned above is correct at least with texting. I have tested with texts but i assume calls would go to voicemail, and it would tell give you notifications all at once when you return. 

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[Someone_here]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

Yes any calls would go to voicemail as long as your SIM is still active under a current plan.

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FYI, from what I remember, if your plan is suspended/expired, but not deactivated (ie, in the 90 days following the day your plan stopped working if your not renewing), voicemail will work and you can take your voice messages from another phone by calling yourself. However in that suspended/expired state, text messages won't be received at all, even if you renew your plan later.

@Mr-Bump, when I go to the US without any add-on (and with my account being active), I do get the missed text messages when I come back in Canada.

[NDesai]

What Shawn mentioned above is correct at least with texting. I have tested with texts but i assume calls would go to voicemail, and it would tell give you notifications all at once when you return. 

[ShawnC13 · Accepted solution]

@Mr-Bump, I am not sure about  but I would think once you returned to Canada and have service all of your texts that were sent would then all come in and you would receive.  Yes any calls would go to voicemail as long as your SIM is still active under a current plan. 

Test it out and turn your phone off have someone call you and send a text then turn it back on.  you will get your answer.