Using Fongo with European SIM

[indys]

Hi all,

I will be travelling in Europe in March 2018. I am thinking of buying a European SIM for access to data only on my unlocked iPhone 5S. Can anyone think of any reason why Fongo phone calls (received from and made to Canada) would not work if I use a European SIM? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Jake]

The only thing that will stop it is if the carrier you are connected to blocks Fongo. To give you an example I can connect to Fongo via wifi in my local Walmart, but not in the McDonalds over the road. What I mean by this is my Fongo works just fine, but McDonalds is blocking it which is beyond Fongo's control.

As far as the Fongo system is concerned, all it needs to see is a connection to it's servers. That could be from wifi or 3g/4g, it doesn't matter what part of the world you are in it is all the same to the system.

I think you will be fine, but unfortunately it's one of those 'suck it and see' things. As far as Fongo is concerned, there will be no restrictions.

[indys]

Hi Jake,

Thanks very much for your response. What you're saying makes total sense, and I sure hope Fongo wouldn't be blocked by the SIM provider. I'll see if I can find some info on that based on the SIM provider I might choose to go with.

If anyone else has tried using a European SIM for data and used Fongo in Europe, I'd sure like to hear about your experience.

Thanks!

[lustucru]

I have not used Fongo outside Canada but I your european SIM provider blocks canadian VOIP, a workaround would be a VPN. You can google to find the most suitable product for the country you are visiting. FYI, Avast has a wide choice of european virtual servers for CDN $3.99 per month with no long term commitment. Opera VPN is free but has a more limited locations.

[indys]

@lustucru: so you believe it's likely that Fongo will be blocked on a European SIM? Good to know. I don't know much about VPN's but will look into your suggestions. Thanks.

[lustucru]

Some cell providers will block VOIP on their network because they want their customers to use their data plan and pay the high rates. These providers can be located anywhere in the world.

[indys]

Good point. I looked into Avast's VPN and it requires a yearly subscription. I'll keep looking around for monthly providers. Thanks for your help.

[FONGO_jeff]

Generally we don't hear of too many issues connecting in Europe or anywhere else in the world for that matter, however some wireless carriers in the Middle East do block SIP UDP and even some ISP's there block it for home internet too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[alexkillby]

Just got back from a week-long trip to Mexico City and used the KnowRoaming sim card I have to buy a week's worth of LTE data while I was down there. Worked like a charm, and much better than any former roaming experience I had on pure carrier roaming. The LTE data was fast, and all of my calls back to Canada connected very quickly. SMS and incoming calls worked great as well. Saved so much money, and foreign LTE is very stable at least in this case.