How to use the mobile abroad

When you are preparing a trip abroad there are many important things to keep in mind so as not to bring us surprises. Among all the tips to travel, some of the most important are related to the use of the mobile, since we do not want to remain incommunicado. If you want to know how to use your mobile abroad, in this article we explain everything you need to take into account. Thus, you will only have to dedicate yourself to enjoy your stay abroad.

Check the basics before leaving

Before leaving for a trip, make sure your phone is not defective, or the charger (although you can buy one at your destination). Remember also that, in some countries, the outlet to the power grid is different and you may need an adapter . Check, too, that your bills are up to date with your telephone operator and you will have a normal line.

How to control data consumption

When we need to use the Internet, it is better to always use wifi . In this way we can avoid scares in the bill due to roaming data consumption.

Roaming is the service that allows you to use your mobile phone in a country different from yours. This service has a different rate than usual for the use of calls, sms and data consumption. It is important to know what rate we have contracted with our telephony operator since there are some fees that can be very high. In relation to roaming rates, it should be noted that:

Some companies have eliminated roaming. However, sometimes they do not include all countries or services, so you have to read the fine print well.
As of June 15, 2017 roaming is eliminated in Europe, so if we are going to travel to these countries, we should not worry.

Returning to the initial advice, the exclusive use of Wi-Fi, you only have to deactivate the option "Mobile data", "Data roaming" or, if you prefer, activate the airplane mode .

There is another alternative, in case that for some reason you do not want to disable mobile data, which is to configure the applications that are usually synchronized, showing us the last minute information, such as Gmail, for example. In this way, we will prevent them from connecting continuously to the Internet.

How to make calls abroad

For calls abroad, we must also take into account roaming and our contracted rate. Remember that we also pay to receive calls . However, there are more options to consider:

Buy a SIM card in the country of destination

We can buy a SIM card at our destination if we are going to be enough time to amortize the cost and if the rates are interesting. This may not be practical if we need to receive many calls to our usual number, but if we want to make the calls, it may be a good option. For this, your mobile must be free, although it is the usual now, there are still many mobile phones that can only be used with SIM cards of a certain company.

Make calls with Apps

We can make calls using Apps created for it (using the Wi-Fi connection). If we do not want to complicate ourselves too much, we can use WhatsApp for these calls, because almost everyone has it installed. However, there are more applications for it for both Android and iPhone.

What to do if the mobile phone does not work in the foreigner?

What do we do when it is impossible for us to use the mobile phone abroad because it does not work?

First of all, a lot of calm: the first thing is to check that we have activated roaming .
If we had it activated and it still does not work, we will have to consider that there are some limitations with roaming and it is interesting to have consulted with our company before leaving on a trip. Sometimes, you have to be a minimum of time with the new contract before you can use roaming, but there may be other reasons and we must know the conditions of our contract; it is "small letters" that we do not usually read. For cases like this, we must know the customer service number from abroad of our telephone company.
In case there are no problems with the roaming service itself, we should check the configuration of the phone . The APN of our company must be configured. To navigate abroad you must have configured the corresponding access point in the terminal. Depending on the company, the terminal and the operating system, you will have to take a few steps or others and your company must provide this information.

Some more tips

Depending on what you decide to do, some of these tips may be useful:

Establish a spending limit with your telephone operator before leaving on a trip, just in case.
Disable automatic downloads to avoid unexpected costs. You may not want to download anything but when entering a website this is done automatically.
Use manual settings to prevent the mobile from connecting to a network in another country when you approach the border.

Tips