Forum Discussion
Overseas Travel: How can I avoid incoming call costs but still use free text/data roaming while abroad?
We're planning to travel to Europe later this year and would like to take advantage of T-Mobile's free international text/data roaming. However, I saw that incoming calls are charged at one minut...
Great question. The easiest way to do this is to enable unconditional call forwarding. This will tell the network to immediately forward the call to a selected number without trying to pin you first which is where the charge comes from.
To enable unconditional call forwarding, you will need to follow these steps https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4041#secondheading
Dial **21*18056377249# from your phone to enable CFU and ##21# to turn it off when you are back in the states and want to resume being able to get calls.
The 18056377249 number is the same number that your calls are forwarded to when you do not answer the phone so that the people calling you can leave a VM. Since we are enabling unconditional call forwarding, the call will be automatically routed there instead of ringing your phone first.
I don't know iOS but GSM has unconditional and conditional forwarding. With unconditional forwarding activ, no attempt is made to deliver the call to your phone, rather it is diverted at the switch to the target number. With most conditional forwarding (e.g. Busy, no answer). the call is sent to the roamed carrier for completion, this is where billing for roaming kicks in. The third condition (out-of-service) is not reliable as it depends on the roamed carrier updating T-Mobile if you are in or out of their service. Many roamed carriers are intentionally delinquent in doing this as it reduces their opportunities to generate revenue from your roaming.
