Call Forwarding while Roaming - Implications

**WorldIRC** · 06-20-2012, 12:57 AM

Hey Guys,

I am leaving for Europe on Thursday. Before I leave, my calls will be forwarded to another local Toronto # before I board the plane. This # will then forward to my UK #, great!

Now, what happens if I turn on my TELUS SIM while in the UK to just check incoming SMS'es I may have missed? Will the call forward continue as normal as it was activated in Canada prior to leaving; or will the system now detect me in UK and treat every call forwarded as an international call back to Canada?

I know that on Rogers, if one sets the call forwarding after they're on the foreign network, they would be charged as international roaming, instead of it simply being treated as local call forwarding.

Advice appreciated as I don't expect an accurate answer from TELUS on this.

**jattdesi** · 06-20-2012, 05:04 AM

As long as call forwarding is done on Candian Soil you will be fine.

Sent from Bell LG Optimus LTE Running on Bell's LTE Network

**WorldIRC** · 06-20-2012, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by jattdesi

As long as call forwarding is done on Candian Soil you will be fine.

Sent from Bell LG Optimus LTE Running on Bell's LTE Network

Hope you're right.

Sent from my HTC One S

**jattdesi** · 06-21-2012, 06:31 AM

^ I did what you are doing in 2007 with Telus and had no extra charges and I had both my Telus CDMA Phone and the Telus GSM Sim with one phone number turned on at the same time. This was in a country where Telus offered CDMA and GSM Roaming. However texts messages only came in on the GSM Sim if they were both turned on at the same time. When I would turn off the GSM phone then the texts would come in on the CDMA Phone. But outgoing text was only the GSM network.

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note LTE running on Bell's HSPA+/LTE Network

**stufried** · 06-24-2012, 08:53 AM

Originally Posted by jattdesi

^ I did what you are doing in 2007 with Telus and had no extra charges and I had both my Telus CDMA Phone and the Telus GSM Sim with one phone number turned on at the same time. This was in a country where Telus offered CDMA and GSM Roaming. However texts messages only came in on the GSM Sim if they were both turned on at the same time. When I would turn off the GSM phone then the texts would come in on the CDMA Phone. But outgoing text was only the GSM network.

Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note LTE running on Bell's HSPA+/LTE Network

Are you sure about Roger's policy. My understanding was that an unconditional call forward did not incur foreign roaming charges because the divert happened on the home switch. My understanding was that conditional call forwarding (e.g. forward if unaswered, busy, or out of service area) triggered the roaming rate. I used to have a contract Rogers phone, but never had international roaming on. On ATT, TMobile, Orange UK, and Etisilat, I know this is the policy.

**PhotoJim** · 06-30-2012, 10:15 AM

Unconditional forwards never leave Canada. They get forwarded before any effort is made to find your phone. Conditional forwards are another story.

Also, you don't have to enable call forwarding from Canadian soil. As long as it succeeds while you are in the foreign country (which it should), if it's unconditional you'll be fine. The only exception would be any calls you received between arriving in the foreign country and enabling call forwarding.

**WorldIRC** · 06-30-2012, 11:09 AM

Thanks all, had a great trip!

**jattdesi** · 06-30-2012, 07:55 PM

^Were your call forwards through a third party coming through in Europe.

**WorldIRC** · 07-01-2012, 07:34 AM

^My TELUS # was unconditionally forwarded to another Canadian # that was forwarded to my British #. As my TELUS plan includes CFWD @ $0, there should be zero charges.

**WorldIRC** · 11-04-2012, 06:17 PM

Hi Guys,
While roaming, I know that if your phone rings to voicemail, one won't be charged -- at least this is how it is on Rogers.

Question though...my calls forward to Google Voicemail via conditional call forwarding. Will I be charged roaming fees if this forwarding occurs while abroad? I'm going to the Dominican and need to know if I'm going to be disabling this before I leave...or I'll just do an unconditional forward to my Skype Account (US # - Free Forwarding) since I'll have free HotSpot.

Thanks!

**xtachx** · 11-04-2012, 06:35 PM

Cant guarantee Google Voice, but to the local voicemail, it isnt charged. I know this because when I went on a trip to europe / asia, I wasnt charged. In fact I called the International Roaming helpline, and they said I wont be charged.

**WorldIRC** · 11-04-2012, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by xtachx

Cant guarantee Google Voice, but to the local voicemail, it isnt charged. I know this because when I went on a trip to europe / asia, I wasnt charged. In fact I called the International Roaming helpline, and they said I wont be charged.

Ya, the TELUS VM # is whitelisted most likely.

**WorldIRC** · 11-04-2012, 07:14 PM

New solution:
Unconditional Forward to Skype -- will always be online as I'm always going to be in WiFi. If Skype doesn't answer, Skype will forward to Google Voicemail at my Skype rates!

**WorldIRC** · 11-06-2012, 10:20 PM

Solution is working great from the sunny south!

Sent from my iPhone

**Fortissimo** · 11-13-2012, 04:55 AM

Don't know about Telus, but both Rogers and Fido have had gone back and forth on what is billable and what is not in terms of Call Forwarding conditionally while roaming in another network. It has gone to such confusion and customers' frustration that ended up with Fido discontinuing Conditional Forwarding on all customers except those not having a Voice Mail option (such as friend of mine) (while I lost mine as I had FidoPro). Rogers has had also that kind of dilemma while Fido way back didn't have this problem, conditional forwarding while roaming didn't incur charges, that is until Rogers took over and merged the systems and that got changed.

Man, that is just a big can of worm, and everyone hated it. Plus the explanation was also lame too. (how the call went to the US and then back to Voice Mail is billable because the call did go out to foreign switch and back, etc, But so what? it is done electronically and the customer did NOT pick up the call!). So this is some kind of grey but carriers like to take advantage of all kinds of greys, yes 50 shades of them! (a ka hem).

I didn't hear that Telus has such problems, but Telus also didn't have conditional forwarding in the CDMA system either.