I recently noticed that when my friends called my T-Mobile USA cell phone from Germany, the caller ID worked correctly with +49 country code and everything. Now, when I was on Cingular and people called me from Japan or Russia I would get “Unknown number”. I don’t have anybody I could ask to call me in Japan or Russia at the moment, so does anybody know if T-Mobile forwards caller ID from Germany because, hey, it’s T-Mobile, or does it work with any country?
Something about having Caller ID work internationally just tickles me the right way. If only I didn’t have to use a calling card to call internationally from my cell it would be twice as awesome, but unfortunately cellular international rates are still pretty horrendous, not even talking about international roaming ($5 a minute in Russia, sheesh).
Groman
P.S. Not putting this in GQ because… well, it’s more of a ‘hey, that’s neat. isn’t that neat?’ than a need for factual information
Hey man welcome to the nineties! Don’t all GSM phones routinely pass on country codes, my number has always started with +44 whatever, and the overseas use has only been a matter of cost?
I have Cingular and when my best friend calls from Germany, I see her number. (And American numbers show up on her caller ID in Germany.) When my relatives call from Mexico, though, I get Unknown Number. I’m thinking that passing on the number internationally is something that happens country by country.
It depends on the setup by the local company (whether they’ve bothered teach their software to write more than N numbers or not) and sometimes on contracts they have with the company abroad.
My cell displays “unknown number” only for numbers that are unlisted in their country of origin. Mom and Lilbro’s landlines at home, same. Middlebro’s, any foreign number or even calls made from my cell while being abroad show as “unknown number”: he’s been answering “hi unknown Sis!” whenever his phone shows “unknown”. SiL’s cell recognizes numbers from Orange FR but not from Orange CH.
My cellphone identifies numbers from my list correctly whether I choose them from the list, whether thery’re incoming or whether I’ve typed them in with the 0034 in front (for Spain-from-abroad). Mom’s only if they’re incoming.
Reminds me of the kind of clues in teen mystery novels… “a-ha, whomever wrote this is from Europe! He dashed the 7 across!” (real clue from a book, and real fact)