Yes, exactly.
But especially the target group usually does not have a landline connection themselves. And calling cards from the public phone are more expensive and less conveniant than such a card.

I was surprised that they added Europe and USA to these prices. I'm sure some business-contract users are quite pissed to see that the prepaid-card beats their tariff by 75% or so :unsure:

Chris

Whatever the target group, it's about time someone had calls outside Germany that reflected reality. The 2 euro per minute rate hadn't changed since prepaid was introduced 10 years ago, back when Deutsche Telekom was your only money-grubbing alternative and a landline call to the US cost 23 pfennig (12 cents) for every 5.6 seconds.

It's just a shame I now have to carry around yet another phone, or at least SIM, and that the likes of simyo couldn't have done this earlier.

If anyone else is planning on getting blauworld, give me your e-mail address and I'll recommend you. :beer: I get 5 euros! Dunno what you get, though... :blink:

oh bad, I didn't notice it, that changes the situation a bit, but anyway it's still a convenient offer.

That's great! :) I wonder why SIMyo doesn't offer cheap international calls as well...

when I'm abroad no one calls me... except maybe AndreA, but he calls at any number! :D
I use it as a tourist, I never used any forwarding service, in Italy they are not popular at all, and by now I never needed any

lazyness :( My fault, I shold put news there, maybe I could "open" it to some forumers which often have news in order to keep it more updated.

Somehow OT. Sometimes I think that our US friends are a little bit "crazy" (no offence, just my impession :D) about forwarding incoming calls from home-country numbers to foreign SIMs. I realise that sometimes such a solution is justified and necessary, but my general opinion about the "problem" is the following: if I'm abroad, my compatriots should call me at a foreign number :D. In fact, besides possible costs for for the calling party, what is the problem to say "when I'm in Germany, call my mobile phone # +49...(or +423, +354, +447624, +372)" or "when I'm in Germany, call my hotel +49... room #1313" (as it used to be obvious in pre-mobile times)???

It's a whole lot easier for people to reach you, if you can give them a local number(a number with a US area code) they are familiar with rather than an international one. See, a lot of people in the US have never (and probably will never have a needd to) dial an international number. So, they tend to get confused and not dial it correctly when they have to dial an international number. For me I just want my family to be able to reach me easily. As for friends, I just give them the international number.

This is probably (at least it was for me) why most of us found Yackie to be very attractive, because it's the only international sim that provided a local US number. Yackie has not yet come through, so I have resorted to using Voicestick forwarded to my GlobalSim for an upcoming trip.

Europe and USA are very different sometimes, and talking about telephony I think we are again in 2 different worlds. I live the same situation of my Polish friend, but I understand the reasons of the American guys.
Here it would be no sense to give a local number since we all use mobiles. And on Italian mobiles you cannot divert to a foreign number (and if you could you'd spend tons of euros). Also Italians are not used to diverted calls, most people hang down before even hearing any sound. So better use a foreign card, if I need I call, if someone needs me, they'll call! :D

Yeah, same for germans.
If there is no ringing sound after 1 second they think it doesnt work and hang up. Sometimes tricky for my o2 genion which has a landline number as well and sometimes needs a few seconds before it realizes that it has to ring ;-)

Chris

The O2 Home Zone (originally a Viag Interkom innovation) is quite an interesting concept. I'm surprised that none of the US GSM providers have picked up on the idea. Furthermore, I can see the moment coming where at least one other network will try to compete with BASE's flatrate offer. I use it myself and it's very practical to have at one's disposal.

I have READ something about T-MO experimenting with this concept in test markets. I think it is hush-hush. Perhaps others in US or elsewhere know more.

Yes, this would be a rare advantage of the otherwise poorly planned North American system where mobile phones have telephone numbers indistinguishable from those of landlines. Genion is indeed pretty neat, although it took some time for the other companies to offer a similar service.