Originally Posted by andy (Post 18752)

Perhaps they still have a little more choice than that

If someone from the UK uses one of 4 or perhaps soon up to 8 roaming SIMs with +447 numbers, then call rates from an ordinary BT landline are cheaper than that, 8 to 13 pence a minute depending on tariff. Or possibly 20 pence per call on some business landline contracts (I haven't yet checked if this can apply to these).

And there are cheap calls providers here from 6 pence a minute, 3p weekends, occasional cheaper offers like 1p next week. Or a forwarded landline DID can be set up for 4 or 5 pence a minute. Or just forward the home landline at tariffs already mentioned

And anyone from other countries can do several of those things too. A German would probably get Sunsim or Solomo. And plenty of countries have cheap ways to reach their own and other mobiles.

Apparently someone from South Africa could call a UK mobile direct from a Telkom landline for the equivalent of 20 eurocents a minute. Mobile subscribers in Hong Kong or Thailand can manage to reach UK mobiles for similar rates.

12 cheap call providers in the UK advertise rates of 8 to 13 pence a minute for Iceland mobiles, though I haven't tried any out.

If rates are heading higher for Iceland mobiles, or they will be unobtainable from most of these providers, as you and your colleague keep emphasising, despite posts in this thread that call rates under 20 cents still seem to be available and work, then perhaps people will remember what happened with Liechtenstein mobile rates and remain a little cagey

Originally Posted by yackietech (Post 18757)

Andy, that is of course a very UK centric point of view. The Jersey and IOM etc. numbers with free incoming are probably great, (although they also carry a higher rate than other UK mobiles). I have also seen elsewhere that there have been reachability issues to those numbers from various voip carriers as well.

Jersey and Isle of Man mobile numbers fall under the "United Kingdom Cellular Other" category. A quick check on a popular voip carrier reveals that UK mobile usually costs from $0.17 - $0.22, while "UK Cellular Other" costs $0.35. So here you have the same scenario.

Originally Posted by andy (Post 18765)

As I already said, some providers have not defined certain numbers as valid. This certainly applies to +4476 and even still now to +4475 which is already more common on the main UK networks.

And quick checks on popular voip carriers reveal that they can't necessarily differentiate between all UK prefixes, especially recent ones, and may just as easily charge 32 cents to call T-mobile or O2 as Truphone Vectone or Xfone.

In other words, that is their own opportunistic choice of tariff, not necessarily based on direct feedback about what they are actually charged wholesale. This seems particularly true of US providers, as you probably noticed, and others have commented here in the past.

But although my post appears UK-centred, it was mainly for ease of looking up tariffs. Someone in Germany will have just as much chance of cheap ways to call German and UK mobiles and most other countries, and likewise throughout more and more of the world all the time

Originally Posted by yackietech (Post 18771)

I can't speak for the multitude of voip carriers out there, yes it does take time for new series to propagate through the telecom world. However, we work on access issues first hand daily, and our experience is that this is not the issue here, rather that cheap carriers are unwilling to breakout our series (understandably)

As others have confirmed, normal local mobile/fixed line access to the series is usually good, it's mainly the voip carriers that might have issues. My only advice is to use voip carriers that do terminate to +354380, the business centric ones tend to do so more than the cheap ones. I know that some prominent, good quality UK based ones do so as well. I also know of 0845 numbers with prepaid account in the UK that work fine to +354380, but I would rather not advertise them here.

Alternatively you could use your DID.

Originally Posted by christophe (Post 18816)

Hello I a new member from France and i use one prepaid card from celtrek since several months
I wd have an advice for a second prepaid card ... i wd like to have a second choice........yackie seems OK but some points are not very cleat in fact.. especially the DID number they provide and the Real price charged to call it ... thank you
christophe