I emailed Searoam last week and was told the incoming number was in Belgium (didn't say if it was landline or mobile) but I could "add a US number free of charge".

My travel plans have now changed so that I won't need it within the next 6 months. But a US number (IF really available now) could be interesting for North Americans. 50c in/out worldwide is a nice simple tariff.

As you've noticed, although the FAQ are similar, the rates certainly are not, and Searoam says 50 cents a minute even in certain EU countries where Maxroam charges more than 3 times as much

It's a little difficult to understand why, if Maxroam has been able to achieve this 50 cent rate on behalf of its reseller, it hasn't revised its own to make it more competitive

As an example, if I were to travel to South Africa, Searoam says 50 US cents a minute, whereas Maxroam is 83 EU cents for calling either RSA or UK mobiles, which is actually more expensive than the 60p O2 UK would charge me (though they're all more than using certain other roaming SIMs)

The incoming number will be just like Maxroam's, a Belgium mobile, which also happens to be not the cheapest to call or forward to. Post back when you actually are able to add a free US number. These sims (maxroam,searoam) will only make sense if you get a free DID. If not, why would I forward to it via a 3rd party (at a minimum of $0.20 in most cases I have seen), and also pay for incoming calls. When there are cheaper options out there.

I am really in doubt that even if they do provide a free USA DID, that they would still charge only 50c incoming on that. If so, its easy to forward your own personal 3rd party DIDs from European countries (or wherever) to a USA number pretty much for free. My suspicion is that incoming calls on any DID that they provide will incurr at least a 20c/min surcharge.

Does anyone here actually have one of the new Maxroam provided DIDs? What do you get charged on that?

Before their rather enormous change in business plan, all the rates in their calculator used to be to their geographic DIDs. Now they are for a Belgian mobile. HUGE difference in my opinion, especially as they used to heavily market their USP which was that they were different from the rest as they would not issue you a strange number in Estonia etc., but instead give you a real number in your country.

As I said, I haven't ordered one of these, as I now have no immediate plans to travel to where it would be useful. Just reporting what they said to me, in case it's of use to somebody.

Well, I have an immediate need for something just like this. Will be travelling in the black sea, jordan, russia, croatia, I think this option seems pretty simple to do. Any have any history with maxroam or this new solution?

they don't show any "cruise ship" rates, even though they list them.

The difference in pricing could simply be contracts. Maxroam maybe have an existing contract with carriers, and now the roaming fees are dropping, but they cannot simply get out of the exisiting contract or obligations. So, they put out a new company and get a new contract for the interim.

There seems to be some confusion arising because of the name of this product. I really do not think this is intended to be a product for roaming on picocells whilst out at sea. It is only called searoam as it is aimed at seamen whilst in port in a foreign country.

At the end of the day cruise ship roaming will always be expensive. I doubt whether any products exist that will have negotiated significant discounts on these.
The infrastructure for these and the live sat uplink aint cheap at all. Though your home network may be making a healthy cut, they still work on a cost-plus basis, where the cost in this case is high.

As for your question about whether members of this site have experience with MaxRoam, just search through the site a bit. You will find many members have experience with this company and various evolutions of its products. However as far as I am aware, apart from our 2 new single post friends above, no member of ppgsm has a seaRoam SIM!

Some of the packages that the companies offer to cruise ship employees discount the price somewhat, but it still isn't a pretty picture. I think some sort of an extender solution to get a ground signal as long as possible is about the best we are going to do.

thanks for the info. I'll do a search for Maxroam, I know it has come gone and come again. I see that both Maxroam and searoam show a "cruise ship" rate in their rate selections, but yes nothing seems to show up. I think the best thing is to simply make SURE I know which tower I am on when connecting, before making calls of course.

blue ocean
 

Hello, the searoam is working close with blue ocean. this company is the specialist of communication throw satellite.
Why your searoam can be used on a cruise ship ? It is only in case of the cruise ship company take the option of satellite to blue ocean.

- post edited by a moderator: please no commercial activity here (= no spam)