How do I roam?

Before you can use your phone on another network (roaming) you must call Orange on 150 and get them to enable the facility on your phone. This comes in 2 parts: the ability to roam and the ability to make international calls.

You must call 150 to have roaming activated on your account, and this may require a deposit. If you are a relatively new subscriber you should setup bill payment by Direct Debit before requesting roaming, this will improve your chances of having the facility without paying a deposit. Deposits can be paid by credit or debit card. Roaming is now available for Just Talk pre-pay customers, call 450 instead.

Once you have roaming activated on your SIM card you can roam on any network which Orange have an active roaming agreement with using the appropriate equipment.

Most phone will automatically select the correct network which you can use, on others you may need to select the network manually (usually in a menu called "Network Selection")

How do I roam on GSM900 or GSM1900 networks?

There are 2 ways of doing this:

buy or rent a GSM 900 phone (or GSM1900 phone for North America)

buy or upgrade to one of the new dualband or triband handsets

By using your Orange SIM card in a standard GSM 900 or GSM1900 handset or a new multi-band handset, Orange users will be able to roam in many more countries across the World. You can hire GSM900 dualband phones and GSM1900 phones without SIM cards from Cellhire, click for details.

Anything I need to know?

There are many features available on Orange in the UK which may not be available abroad, e.g.: Caller i.d., Line Two, conditional diverts and answerphone operates differently. It is essential that before travelling abroad with your phone or SIM that you carefully read Orange's detailed instructions. These will be sent to you after roaming has been activated on your phone.

Making Calls:

By storing all your phone numbers in international format, you do not need to learn specific country access codes and no matter where you are in the World, including the UK you can still make calls with a few key presses from your phonebook.

e.g. 0870 733 2580 would be stored as +44 870 733 2580

The + symbol replaces the country access code, for example when calling abroad from the UK this is 00.

+ can be entered by pressing * twice on Nokia phones, or holding down 0 on others, including Motorola.

Answerphone & Orange Messenger:

It is important that you only have access to listen to your answerphone messages. When you are in the Orange service area in the UK, Caller i.d. verifies your number, but if you are calling from a fixed line phone or from an Orange phone abroad, your answerphone will require you to enter your answerphone PIN number to prevent unauthorised access.

You can only set up your answerphone PIN number from your Orange phone whilst you are in the UK, so please do this before you leave:

dial 123 from your Orange phone

select 3, "Change your Personal Options", from the recorded prompts, and follow the instructions. Your PIN number should be between 4 and 10 digits.

Listening to messages when abroad:

dial +44 7973 100 123

Wait and then enter your mobile number, followed by the hash button: #

You will hear your greeting, at this point press the star button: *

Then enter your PIN number, followed by the hash button: #

You will then be in your own answerphone mailbox

You can program this sequence in your phone as follows: +44973100973pMOBILENUMBER#p*PINCODE#

Refer to phone's user guide to enter pause characters (p)

When in the UK most people will have answerphone or Orange messenger setup to take calls when you:

are out of coverage or the phone is off

do not answer the phone

are busy with 2 calls

In these 3 situations "conditional diverts" tell your phone where to redirect the call to. Unfortunately it is not always possible to use these types of diverts to pass calls to the Orange answerphone or messenger when roaming, if it does work it will be very expensive as the call makes 2 international journeys before reaching your answerphone! If you are switching off your phone and want answerphone to take your calls you can do this by setting up an unconditional divert to answerphone or messenger. (This is also known as Do Not Disturb.) As soon as this divert is active your phone will not ring and all calls will go straight to answerphone or messenger. If you wish to take calls again remember to cancel this divert. It is also important to remember that calls back to the UK to retrieve answerphone messages are charged at the international rate from the country you are in back to the UK. A good alternative to using Orange answerphone abroad is the Orange Messenger service, an Orange operator can take your calls and relay message via text message to your handset. Every time a message is passed you will be charged 25p+VAT. Because of the high cost of calling back to the UK to listen to answerphone messages it will in many cases be easier and cheaper to use the "do not disturb" divert to messenger. Alternatively for a more professional and personalised service Orange Assistant can take your calls and relay messages to you by text message, with your personalised greeting. Although the service is quite expensive many calls back to Orange Answerphone in the UK could cost a great deal more! Orange Assistant provides you with a dedicated number which you can divert your calls to unconditionally or conditionally. Note that when using a conditional divert when roaming you will pay the incoming call charge to the country you are in and then an international charge back to the UK.

When setting up unconditional (Do not disturb) diverts enter the following numbers when prompted by your handset:

Orange Answerphone : +44 7973 100 123

Extra info if you are SIM roaming with a GSM900 or GSM1900 handset:

Orange answerphone works by alerting your phone to any waiting messages by displaying a tape spool or envelope or your handsets display. This feature will operate normally on any GSM1800 network, but unfortunately nearly all GSM900 & 1900 handsets and networks do not support this feature and when you receive what would normally be a tape spool you will instead receive a blank text message. Once you have cleared all your messages another blank text message will be sent to your handset.

Line Two:

This is not available whilst roaming callers ringing your number will get an unavailable tone, but if you still need to receive your Line Two calls either:

Divert Line 2 to your main phone number, using Everyphone on 330. (Before leaving the UK)

Divert all Line Two calls permanently to your Orange answerphone. (Before leaving the UK)

What will it cost?

Incoming calls: You will be charged for incoming calls when roaming as someone has to pay for the international leg of the call. Anyone calling you pays the standard Orange rate. You will usually be charged for incoming calls at Orange's standard international rate for the country you are in and these calls are billed per second. Orange's charges for international calls were much cheaper than on Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile but have tariffs are changing all the time, so check the current situation. Please remember that you always pay for receiving incoming calls whilst roaming. If you would rather avoid this take a look at our Riiing international roaming SIM card which offers free incoming calls!

Outgoing calls: You will be charged at the visited networks roaming rate plus a local markup, plus local tax (sometimes), plus Orange's markup. There is no differentiation if you are on a Value Promise tariff. UK VAT will only be added for calls made within the European Union. Calls may be billed per second, per unit or per minute and sometimes there is an additional call set up charge on top of the recurring charge. Orange roaming with GSM 1800 networks is normally significantly cheaper than GSM 900 networks used by Vodafone, Cellnet, one2one as well as Orange. Calls to Orange answerphone, UK special rate numbers and Orange customer services are all charged at the standard rate to call back to the UK from the network you are roaming with.

Call Diverts: unconditional "do not disturb" diverts are charged at the standard UK rate if applicable. Conditional diverts (which are only available to UK numbers) are charged twice: for the incoming portion and the outgoing portion back to the UK.

Text messages: There is no charge for text messages which you receive while roaming, except in a few exceptional circumstances. You will be charged at a higher rate to send text messages, it is important to check with Orange before leaving the country. There is no need to change the message centre number stored in the phone but you must remember to enter the mobile number in international format. eg: +44 7973 123 456

Orange Insurance / Warranty: You are covered under the terms of your free insurance and warranty in any country in which Orange has a roaming agreement with. Naturally though the 24 hour phone replacement service only applies in the UK.

Internet access:GPRS and 3G are charged at higher rates when abroad, and as with voice calls any usage does not get deducted from your usual inclusive bundle.

Assistance?

The Orange roaming helpline is accessible 24 hours a day by calling +44 7973 100 159

More Info?

Introduction to roaming