Here is a selection of our most frequently asked questions:
Roaming is a service offered by most cellular service providers that allows subscribers to use cellular services while travelling outside their home service area. The areas / countries you can roam in and the cost will depend on which service provider you use. For more information on roaming please visit: www.cellphones.ca/resources/r.cfm
If you are a UK resident: It will take 2-3 days for you to receive the SIM pack. However if you are travelling the next day, you simply need to inform AwayPhone and we will send the new SIM card to your preferred address (either in the UK or abroad) using next day delivery. We will add any charges including international postage to your bill at the end of that month.
If you are an International resident: click here for delivery times and charges
| Delivering to | Rush Delivery (Within 72 hours) | Regular Delivery (Within 5 working days) |
| United Kingdom | GBP £8.95 | GBP £4.99 |
| France | GBP £33.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Germany | GBP £33.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Belgium | GBP £33.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Netherlands | GBP £33.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Austria | GBP £37.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Portugal | GBP £37.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Spain | GBP £37.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Italy | GBP £37.75 | GBP £7.50 |
| Canada | GBP £40.00 | GBP £15.00 |
| United States of America | GBP £48.00 | GBP £10.00 |
| China | N/A | GBP £40.00 |
| Hong Kong | N/A | GBP £40.00 |
| Ireland | GBP £8.95 | GBP £5.00 |
| Rest of the world | N/A | GBP £80.00 |
To use the AwayPhone SIM in any country, you will need to have a tri-band, unlocked GSM phone. It is essential for your phone to be unlocked if you use your regular mobile phone.
| RIM | HTC | Motorola | Panasonic | Samsung | Siemens | Sony Ericsson | Nokia | LG |
| BlackBerry 7100t | i-mate SP5 | A768 PEBL Razor V3 ROKR SLVR V80 V180 V220 V360 V400 V560 V620 V635 E365 Timeport | GD55 | D100 D500 D600 D600e D900 E330 E350 E600 E630 E720 E730 E800 E830 E870 S500 X820 | S55 A65 C55 C65 M65 S45 S65 SF65 SK65 SL65 | K300i K500i K750i K800i S700i T290 T610 T630 T68i W800i W810i Z500i | N73 1100 2600 3100 3120 6100 6220 6230 6233 6310 6600 6820 7610 6610i 7250 8800D 9300i 9500 N70 | 8150 Prada KE850 |
Some mobile handsets are "locked" so that they will only work when used with a SIM card from the network that sold you the handset. For example, if you purchased a Vodafone Line-rental handset, the handset may be locked so that it only works on the Vodafone network. For more information on locked and unlocked phones please see www.wisegeek.com/what-are-unlocked-cell-phones.htm
Insert a SIM card from a network other than your own network into your phone. If the network logo appears and you are able to make a call, then your phone in unlocked.
You can either do it through a local phone unlocking shop or enter an unlocking code. Remote unlocking codes only work with certain phone models. For detail on code unlocking please visit: www.foneszone.co.uk
Alternatively, AwayPhone will unlock your phone for you through our unlocking service (only available in Central London). This service is £9.99 and needs to be booked through our customer service department accessible through .
There are 2 ways to do this:
Calling home or other country is easy. Just dial +international calling code and the number you wish to call without the leading zero at the front of the number i.e. calling to UK 0207510xxxx becomes +44207510xxxx. If you want to call someone travelling with you and they have a UK mobile number you will still need to add the country code in front of the number. By calling someone travelling with you on their local AwayPhone number, both of you will save on call costs!
If you are using AwayPhone in certain countries with your own mobile handset (click here to see the list of countries that this applies to) you will have to follow the “callback” procedure below:
Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Cayman Islands, Croatia Republic, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Egypt, Faeroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles Islands, Singapore, Slovenia Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Yugoslavia/Serbia.
Yes. You can use your AwayPhone SIM to send SMS to local and international recipients. Be aware that sending international text messages (SMS) are sometimes subject to delays caused by mobile network connectivity agreements. AwayPhone has no control over lost or delayed international SMS messages.
Please note that your text (SMS) messages sent to your home mobile will not be passed through at this time. They will remain on your home mobile phone.
Unfortunately your Home text (SMS) messages will not be passed through at this time. They will remain on your Home mobile phone for you to pick up when your home SIM is in your phone.
Yes. Your AwayPhone SIM card is valid for 3 months from last use. To keep your AwayPhone SIM card active, we will charge your account the Renewal charge £2.99 at the end of the 3rd month of inactivity on the SIM card.
Your call will be diverted to your voice mail. To pick up or set up your voice mail abroad please refer to 'How to pick up voicemail when abroad/ at home'
When you arrive in a country there will be a welcome message sent from the local network. Sometimes you will get more than one text message - they are all local network promotions. Important texts sent from your contacts will always be sent in your preferred language or messages sent from AwayPhone will always be in English compatible formats.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. For more information please visit: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voip
The AwayPhone Call Manager is the routing engine that drives the clever call handling in the AwayPhone service. It is managed on your behalf by AwayPhone client managers and it ensures your calls reach you no matter where you are in the world.
To pick up your voicemail messages when abroad, simply dial your AwayPhone Local Number. After you hear the voicemail greeting press ‘*’ (the star key) and then enter your Voicemail PIN AwayPhone allocate to you once you become a member.
To pick up your voicemail please dial your AwayPhone Local Number. After you hear the voicemail greeting press ‘*’ (the star key) and then enter your Voicemail PIN AwayPhone allocate to you once you become a member.
To set up your voicemail please dial your AwayPhone Local Number. After you hear the voicemail greeting press ‘*’ (the star key) and then enter your Voicemail PIN AwayPhone allocate to you once you become a member, then press ‘5’,‘1’ and ‘2’ to record your message.
We recommend you set up a personalized message so your callers are sure they have reached you!
You can check this with your regular mobile operator.
Most AwayPhone destinations support internet access via the AwayPhone SIM so long as the handset you use is capable of this functionality. If you are using a separate handset for AwayPhone, the AwayPhone system doesn't interfere with your existing data setup, therefore you can use the internet from your home handset. Please check with your current provider about GPRS, EDGE and/or Internet availability on their system prior to going to your destination.
Blackberry users may need to do the following to forward your phone: go into the phone menu (i.e. hit the green phone receiver button just under the screen) -- then tap the trackball to see the list of possibilities. One of those is options. You can change the forwarding number from there.
However the AwayPhone service does not at this time forward your email or data messages. These will remain on your Blackberry device. Please ensure you are only forwarding voice calls to your AwayPhone number for redirection.
We recommend that Blackberry users use a separate handset for the AwayPhone system and continue to use their Blackberry for their email communications as usual.
Yes – as long as this separate mobile is an unlocked GSM phone. If you are traveling with a spare mobile, you can insert the AwayPhone SIM card into the mobile before you leave Home. When you get to your destination, your phone will pick up the local network.
Please dial +44 (0) 845 868 1474 for our support service.
Please feel free to contact us at +44 (0) 845 868 1474 or email us to
Our customer service and support line opening hour is 9:00-17:30, Monday- Friday GMT (excluding UK holidays)
Yes. AwayPhone can be used by residents of any country. We bill users in either GBP, Euros, or USD. Shipping costs and delivery times vary based on the country you want the AwayPhone pack delivered to. Please click this link to find out prices where you live.
Unfortunately, these costs are driven by the costs of global telecoms providers. AwayPhone endeavours to give our clients the very best rates - to either mobile numbers or landlines. To find out about our rates click here.
No. AwayPhone operates on a post paid system. After credit checks and taking credit or debit details from our clients we bill our clients on a monthly basis and generate an itemised bill.
Your itemised bill will include call dates and times, duration of calls (rounded to the nearest 60 seconds), type of call or data transaction, counterparty call/text number (when available), and the cost of each call.
AwayPhone also will show you how much you've saved versus the average mobile costs in your home country (when this information is available).
For our corporate customers we can tailor our bills to suit their needs.
Contact us by clicking here to learn more about how we can make your corporate mobile bills simpler and cheaper.
If you are a corporate customer, we will invoice you on a monthly basis with your total bill. Alternatively, we can invoice each of your participating employees with their call costs.
As an executive customer, you will have signed up with AwayPhone with your credit card details. This credit card will be debited on a monthly basis for the full amount of your AwayPhone bill. This bill will include the service fees and your call costs.
Inactivity fee: fee incurred when no calls have been made on your account for X period of time (typically 3 - 6 months)
Please contact us at to change these details.
The term country code frequently refers to international dialing codes, these are a sequence of numbers prefixed to the national telephone number to access the line internationally.
