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How can I reduce my mobile phone and wireless broadband costs when overseas?

Return to: ISTS FAQ Home > Telephone > Mobile > General

The University's standard mobile phone and mobile broadband plans cover voice and data usage within Australia only.  Using wireless broadband (mobile data) and making mobile voice calls while overseas can be very expensive.

If you frequently travel overseas and need to use your laptop or phone (for both data and voice) we've listed some cost saving tips below.

Internet Hotspots

An easy way to avoid costly Internet charges is to use wireless Internet hotspots or wireless cafe's.  These often provide free access to a wide variety of Internet services including both email and VPN connections.

Turn off Push email

On some smart phones (e.g. Windows Mobile based phones and Apple iPhone) you can turn off Push email or even set it to Manual when receiving emails or calendar items.  The Push email function allows your phone to automatically receive new emails when they arrive.  This can be very expensive especially if you receive a lot of emails.  Please refer to your mobile phone manual for instructions to enable or disable this feature.

eduroam

eduroam is a world wide education roaming service.  eduroam allows you to visit a participating institution and connect to the internet the same way you do on campus - all without having to request a guest account. You can use eduroam on campus at UniSA as well as over 500 sites world wide throughout 30 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the UK.

Accommodation

When travelling overseas, you could check to see if your accommodation provides an optional broadband connection for a nominal fee.

Frequent Travellers

If you travel frequently to the same destination or country you may consider maintaining your own local broadband connection for that country.

Skype

Skype allows you to make free PC to PC calls from your computer to other people on Skype.  It is a free program to download and use.  It also allows you to make calls to phone and mobiles across the world at good rates.  Utilising Skype to make PC to PC calls while at an Internet cafe or wireless hotspot is a great way to reduce your voice call costs.  Further information about Skype can be found at http://www.skype.com and on the Wikipedia Skype page.  To configure Skype to work with the UniSA firewall please see our "How to configure Skype FAQ?".

 

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