Hmmmm. I wonder if this means that the SIM has two IMSIs? It seems to say that the phone actually has two SIMs active at the same time but I wonder if that's what they really mean?

Hop certainly has some sort of dual ID - Monaco and Ghana networks.

Incoming Riiing calls sometimes show IDs of Russia or Bahrain, and not only on US sourced calls, also GSM and other companies. That could be a separate issue though.

Hong Kong seems to be one of the cheapest places in the world for phone calls ...

where will the next one come from ?

This is a REALLY interesting SIM for me - as I'm based in the Isle of Man.

I phoned them and discussed it. They're definately Germans, not in Hong Kong. :-)

They say the free incoming ("national") is for the country of the SUBSCRIBER, i.e. if you sign up from Germany, it's Germany, sign up from France, it's France, sign up from the Isle of Man and it's the whole of country code 44. They claim it works in the Isle of Man.

They say the roaming partners are idential to Manx Telecom:
http://www.manxpronto.net/roamingpartners.asp

So it doesn't cover Mexico yet. :-(

Note I'm just reporting what I was told, haven't checked it yet, although I'm ordering one today.

The Isle of Man number system is a little unusual. Fixed phones are +44 1624 followed by six digit numbers starting with 6,7, or 8. Mobiles (on the only network) are +44 7624 followed by six digits numbers starting with 4. So there is a special dialling rule locally, just dial the six digits to get a local fixed or mobile number (e.g. 4xx xxx from a fixed phone is all that's needed to dial a mobile).

So mobile numbers starting with 1 might be a problem. Breaks the local dialling rule (numbers starting with 1 are services, like the operator or 112). Dialling one of their unallocated numbers, with area code, from within the Isle of Man gives the message "this service is not compatible with this call" which might be because the number is not yet in service - or might be to stop anybody using it locally! I'll ask Manx Telecom next.

Note that international incoming calls to GT-sim are charged at the UK mobile rate, as it's with country code 44. BUT note that UK mobiles usually charge more to call the Isle of Man than to call UK mainland mobiles, so if you're a UK user anybody calling you from within the UK might get a suprise on their bill.

[update]
Manx Telecom don't have a rate for calls to these numbers, it's not clear whether they are diallable from the Isle of Man or not, might be barred to block competition. I'm chasing this up with the local company that own that number block (which is not Manx Telecom) before ordering - since the majority of calls I get while travelling are from the Island.

[update 2]
It's been confirmed to me that the number should be diallable locally. And their helpline within that range rings OK. Ordering: note the order form doesn't work with Firefox, and to see the Terms and Conditions click on "privacy policy" (they've used the wrong term). Had another chat with them, there will a better ordering process "soon", and the "only" countries not diallable are satellite phones, and Cuba. The people behind it have been run 26cent.com, which is where the pricing comes from. I've ordered one to play around with, will report back when I've received it.

info: i just got a GT-sim card for a review.

So very soon I'll test it for you, let me know what you want to know ;)

from their site :P

GT-SIM is a product by Global Termination Holding HK Limited, <span style='color:red'>a Hong Kong based company</span>. The enterprise has been well established in the worldwide mobile phone networks with its own products since 2003.

If you wan't to test the international SMS ability feel free to pm me the number and I'll send you some SMS.

HK is a good place for a tax base for an international company. They're Germans. Support is in Germany, with limited English spoken (I've spoken to them at length). Their older domains all have German contact addresses...

I ssuspected that free "free incoming" may pertain to the country of the subscriber but it looked so strange to me that I didn't even want to tell a word about it :)

Does this mean that their "real world operator" is Manx Teleceom, like FL1 for Riiing?

On Mozilla either - but it's practically the same as Firefox inside.

HK is also one of the world's cheapest places for cheap phone calls. And they have dropped hints about dual IDs.

Their site 26cent.de is interesting though slightly less informative than you'd hope - it seems like it's a callback service like any other, triggered by website, wap or other options. At 26c for landlines and 38c to mobiles (per minute billing), it isn't quite as cheap or convenient as other callback services that we've seen.

You can apparently set up an account with a phone number of any country - even a free trial account with ?1.00 credit.

For roaming agreement purposes, yes. The incoming numbers are within a Manx Telecom range, but have been subcontracted to a local company who provide various phone services (callback etc) who have allocated a range to gt-sim.

You're not kidding - you have to know what the product is before you can work out what's going on. They say they don't get many customers using Firefox - it's easy to see why... Even with MSIE it's a bit flash-heavy. I agree not the cheapest in most places, especially when you take the cost of the SMS into account, just another call back service.

But the reason the SIM is interesting for me is that it has a local (to me, and many family and friends) mobile number, and does roam on the island so I can test it here (unlike Riiing and Hop).