Optimization of roaming costs

Finally, a long-awaited vacation!

This time I am going to Europe, and more specifically to Germany, and then to Austria.

However, each such trip becomes a rather heavy burden for the wallet, since international roaming always costs a lot of money. This time I decided that I want to conduct an experiment to reduce the cost of mobile communications abroad. And help us in this device, called Mobigater PRO
')

What is it

The following is written on the device’s website: “MobiGater is a device that transfers your Skype calls to your mobile phone, without using SkypeOut credits. With a SIM card inserted in it, it communicates with your mobile phone, and with a USB cable, with your computer and Skype. ” To be honest, I didn’t understand anything at all from this description. But I already more or less imagined the capabilities of the device and what I want to get from it.

Main features

For my purpose (saving on calls), Mobigater can do the following:

• Forward a call from my main (Moscow) SIM card via SkypeOut to a SIM card of a foreign operator (to Germany)
• make a "call back"

Connection

Mobigater is connected to the computer via USB cable. The PRO version has a dedicated power supply, which is nice, since the power supply via USB is buggy and you have to disconnect / reconnect the device. As the right experimenter, I began in sterile conditions: I connected the device to a stand-alone computer with the newly installed Windows XP operating system. Of course, for work it is necessary that Skype work on the same computer.

After installing all the necessary drivers and software problems immediately arose. As soon as I launched the program, she happily told me “Network Found!” And instantly flew out. I am even confused - lately I have lost the habit of jumping around with a tambourine around software. However, the solution is still there. There is a strange crutch, which is that it is necessary to prescribe compatibility with the Windows 2000 operating system in the properties of the icon, after which the program began to work. And the second, more correct solution, is to send the device's IMEI code to the manufacturer. I do not know, why they needed it, but this operation helped. Has reacted those. support is surprisingly fast. They sent me a notification about the fix in 10 minutes after sending the message.

Setup and operation

So ... Mobigater PRO was able to connect. Now it's up to the settings. The most important thing now is to register the number of the foreign sim card. In the section Phone To Skype, oddly enough. And also note Receive calls from any phone (Take calls from any numbers)


It is also necessary to make a number of additional settings: prescribe the PIN of the SIM card and the number of beeps, after which the call will be forwarded. Now everything is ready and you can start testing.

For this, I bought the first SIM card of the MTS company (because I am already their client) and spent the whole day in the redirection mode. Of course, it cost me some money, since SkypeOut is not the cheapest call in Russia, but I understood how it works.

Since I started talking about the MTS, here's a comparison for you (for Germany):

• a normal roaming call costs about 2 euro per minute.
• SkypeOut when calling the most expensive plan costs € 0.23 per minute.

As you can see, when you call on Skype, there is a 10-fold savings. Yes, I know that MTS is now introducing a certain action called “The World Without Borders”, which seems to allow saving something on calls. But as it turned out, Skype has a subscription, which will further reduce the cost of the call. In the money, I will still understand - it is necessary to calculate which tariff plan is best to buy. So far, the results are not ready.

Back call

Does this Mobigater have a callback function? This is what: I send SMS to my Moscow number password type ; number_cause_call After that Mobgeater, who is in Moscow using Skype, dials number_cry_call and calls me back. This means that I can not only receive cheap calls, but also make them myself. A little crooked, but I can

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to say that beyond the scope of the review I left a bunch of functions related to the functionality of Skype, did not mention SIP at all, and so on. Just because I now have a specific goal - to save a little money on calls while roaming abroad.

I would like to express my gratitude to the technical specialists of the Voip-shop and personally to gorbarsky for their responsiveness and prompt assistance in solving problems with software settings. A rare case when the seller does not send to the bath to read the documentation, but really helps to solve the problem.