Activation of International roaming

Question

I plan to visit Europe from India and have activated the international roaming (IR).

My questions are;

1. Since incoming calls are also charged, will I get charged even for a missed call (or if I just Decline/Cancel the call)
2. While I have activated international roaming while in India, can I activate the particular packs after going to Europe?
3. If I buy calling cards from Europe (say France), can I call any toll free number from this Vodafone IR activated mobile and not get charged by Vodafone.
4. Is there any way to avoid getting charged for data (like by mistake if the data gets clicked)

Thanks

Answer 1

Calling an Indian or global toll-free number will on your Indian mobile from abroad will most likely cost something, calling a French toll-free number will be even more expensive, if possible at all. You need a local mobile (not 100% sure about that one), landline or phone booth for a calling card to make sense.

To avoid unwanted data traffic, you have to switch it off somewhere in your phone (depends on brand/model/operating system). You can still use wifi.

Answer 2

Activating international data roaming in your phone mean, that the phone will use network from other network as the network of you SIM card. It's better to deactivate that option, particularly in border region, to prevent unwanted cost from unintentionally switching to roaming.

Missing calls: I've never heard of anyone being charged for it. They are missed calls after all. However, I've heard, years ago, and at least Polish providers, charged for connections to your voice mail, once your SIM has registered foreign. So better disable your voice mail to be safer than sorry.

The best thing to do is to buy local SIM card in France. In many EU countries you need to register to use SIM card, but you can do it in shop (especially if you buy in official shop of given operator). Usually an address is needed, but hotel is OK. In Germany, you need to know ZIP, in Poland, you need passport.

The best way to prevent uncontrolled costs is to disable mobile data until you activate a data bundle that will match your needs.