iPhone 6(S)/Plus Best way to handle calls when traveling and using a different sim?

[questionwonder]

Leaving for Asia and Europe on a backpacking trip for 1-3 months.

I don't want to get the AT&T international plan as I've done it before and it was expensive.
I want to be able to receive my AT&T calls.

In the past I purchased a burner phone when I arrived and a SIM card with a small amount (~20Euro)
Then I forwarded my calls from AT&T to Skype, then I forwarded all the incoming Skype calls to my new
international number. And now I can receive, on my burner phone, all my calls from people calling me from the US.

Is there a better (more efficient way) than doing a double hop (AT&T->Skype->foreign SIM) to get my calls?

Also, what about texting? I know I can get iMessages when I'm on wifi back in the hostel, but what about getting them while on SMS/IMessage? I can post this in a new thread...

 

[akash.nu]

Are you not under lockdown?!

Depending on where you’re travelling local SIM cards might be difficult to obtain or can be too much of hassle to swap around as you travel through the countries.

From personal experience, from last December through to mid January this year, I travel through the Middle East, India, Hong Kong and Australia. After all calculations and considerations I just decided to stick with my service provider EE here in the UK. I had to just contact EE to switch the roaming plans depending on the region I was in. I was never without internet / relying on only hotel / public WiFi as they’re never safe.

 

[questionwonder]

I am AkashY.
I didn't say I was leaving tomorrow, but when things open back up next month.
FYI - I'm in the US, so UK SIM don't work the same way.

 

[ian87w]

How reliant are you in accepting calls and SMS from your US number? If you will receive important calls/SMS while you're abroad, then I would just take the bullet and use your carrier's roaming plan.

Personally, since I have dual SIM phone, I usually keep my origin country's SIM and put in the destination country's SIM as default for data. People can still SMS/call me if they wanted to (extremely rare), but if the number is not in my contacts, I'll ignore it. For SMS, it's free to receive for most carriers here in Asia. For calls, if I don't answer it, I won't get charged. So I'm saving whatever roaming cost only for truly important calls.

In your case, why not just put your AT&T SIM in the burner phone, and use a local SIM on your iPhone?

Now, for data, which countries are you going to? Some carriers in Asia have tourist SIMs that allow you to roam various countries the existing data plan. If you will stop by Singapore, get Starhub Tourist SIM. It will allow you to use the data in many countries including Australia, China/Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, UK, and even US.

Happy Roam Data Roaming Service | StarHub Mobile

All packed up and ready to travel? Don't forget to get the StarHub Happy Roam too! Find out more about Happy Prepaid Data plans and how to activate here!

www.starhub.com

 

[questionwonder]

"In your case, why not just put your AT&T SIM in the burner phone, and use a local SIM on your iPhone?"
That's what I was thinking, so then I would do what I mentioned in my OP, which is to forward my AT&T calls to Skype and then from Skype to the SIM in my burner phone. Now I can receive all my calls from the US and use the data/web from the burner SIM. I've done this before and it works pretty good to receive all incoming calls!

What about text????
It doesn't seem like there is any good solution for text. The only thing I can think of is to have a auto response to people texting me telling them to text me at my international number (which they prob won't do because it will charge them) or email me and provide both in the auto response. Maybe even text me over the web with some chat app like WhatsApp or another. So, if they then email me, after seeing the auto response, I will then get instant notification on my burner phone because it will be connected to the web.

 

[gee.christy]

You could port your main ATT number in to google voice ($20 one time fee), which would allow you to keep the number completely portable and link any phone to that number at the flip of a switch. This would also let you receive texts, voicemails, and calls to your original ATT number on any number/device you associate with your account. You pick which device rings, receives texts, or receives voicemails. Voicemails can be converted to text and emailed to you, texts can be emailed to you, you can place/receive calls, texts, etc from the web site (voice.google.com) as well once you log in.

Other solutions with g voice: forward your ATT phone number to a free google voice number. Use google hangouts/google chat to automatically forward your text messages to the free voice number or find the hidden(ish) folder where all of the messages are stored in gmail. The messaging part of this solution may only work with an android phone.. and sending messages back in this case would show them as coming from your free google voice number. Outbound calls would also reflect the free g voice number.

For the easiest solution to sms forwarding from your iPhone you would have to have a iPad, iPod Touch, or Mac with you and of course link it to your iCloud account.. then: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208386
I don't know of a wireless service provider who lets your forward SMS/MMS to another phone.

 

[questionwonder]

Hey Gee.
Thanks for the reply. I have some questions.
"You could port your main ATT number in to google voice ($20 one time fee), which would allow you to keep the number completely portable and link any phone to that number at the flip of a switch. This would also let you receive texts, voicemails, and calls to your original ATT number on any number/device you associate with your account"
- I don't think you can do this and have all my ATT calls be rung on my burner phone while abroad? If so, how do you do it?
FYI - I already have my ATT number linked in with my google voice number. I just looked at adding another (presumably the burner int. number) but it looks like you can only add US numbers to link?

 

[gee.christy]

Sorry, didn't subscribe to the thread.

Linking a number to Google voice is not the same as porting a phone number. When you port a number you are taking it away from ATT. Meaning ATT would have to assign your wireless account a new phone number. You can see what I mean by logging in to your Google Voice account (on the old web interface located at https://www.google.com/voice/b/0#phones), going to settings, and clicking on Change/Port next to your google voice number. See image below.

Your google voice number is basically a virtual phone number.. since it's completely portable to any device that you can access your google voice account from.

Also, you wouldn't need to link the international number. Assuming the phone you use while abroad is a smart phone and can use the google voice app, all you would do is install the google voice app on it and use it over mobile data or wifi.

 

[questionwonder]

Sorry, didn't subscribe to the thread.

Linking a number to Google voice is not the same as porting a phone number. When you port a number you are taking it away from ATT. Meaning ATT would have to assign your wireless account a new phone number. You can see what I mean by logging in to your Google Voice account (on the old web interface located at https://www.google.com/voice/b/0#phones), going to settings, and clicking on Change/Port next to your google voice number. See image below.

Your google voice number is basically a virtual phone number.. since it's completely portable to any device that you can access your google voice account from.

Also, you wouldn't need to link the international number. Assuming the phone you use while abroad is a smart phone and can use the google voice app, all you would do is install the google voice app on it and use it over mobile data or wifi.

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Oh I see what you're saying, but there is a small inaccuracy in what you said.
If I port my AT&T number to Google Voice, AT&T doesn't assign me a new number, they cancel my account!
So I would have to go into AT&T and get a second line for my plan first, before porting the primary number.