All this chaos begs for someone in the know to do a fair, unbiased review of the international SIMs. I only have one (United Mobile +) so I would be a poor choice, but I think it would be very interesting to see a general comparison of all of them (in a new thread or as a featured article).

Callkey Latest/Is there hope? [merged threads]
 

:D17 October 2007 19:20

---------------- Great gossip-----------------

As you will already have noticed, it was not possible to restore the system today as had been hoped. We will have a further update in 24 hours.

Please note that any system restoration will not be done by CallKey but by a third party using CallKey assets which it will have purchased. Although the brand may be reused, CallKey as a company has ceased trading and will not resume trading. Therefore, throughout this month, CallKey has had no employees and hence support and information through this channel and any other has been on a best efforts basis. We are doing our best to keep you informed using the information we have available and the commitments we are given from the parties along the way, but as these are second hand it is very hard to be definitive and certain - which I know is very frustrating.

We thank you for your understanding so far, and we hope that the next news we can deliver is the introduction to the third party who can propery, and with authority, answer your questions and concerns.

post by easyroam.co.uk aka: gossiproam :p

so hang on to your de-icer cards, the will become expensive again. Looks like some trademarktet where priceing for de-icers cards can fluctuate day by day. :-) So maybe when you are lucky you can make some money on them.

FYI: I've seen the e-mail from corporate @ callkey , which was quoted by easyroam, too. I think its real.

This is "benefit" of outsourcing.

May be the guys at the "third party" are just to find out, how their fresh bought computers work and how to setup a GSM database ? :whistling:

Seems we get here a rich featured multilevel, multiplayer, action game, but not a reliable and stable mobile telephone company. :evil:

I will bobby. No more de-icer cards for sale, today :evil:

In theory, if this switches back on, will these just pick up off from where they were before? i.e. Will all credit still be there, and if you had a call-forward set up, will that still be activated?

in theory, if the callkey number range gets going again. Your mobile will start to work again.

however, the issue with your balance is upto your provider.

I read not reliable and stable. Good news for the de-ice market, buy and sell on the right day's and you can make money :)

call key
 

due to whatever problems you are facing, i have lost thousands in business, as my clients can no longer reach me. i hear runours of a take over, and services resuming imminently. could someone please let me know what is going on, and when realistically the serivice will resume. additionally, will i keep my original number?? someone help

someone help

danielaziz

I have come to the conclusion that many of these services could work and some do it for serverla year (United Mobile) and some for some month's and than they shut down.

I am now using my UM+ number for incoming calls.

To have your own reliable solution setup your own system. Buy a voip DID number and forward this to your roaming free number.
Whenever your roaming free number goes offline you just use another roaming free card and forward the number to that card.
You only give your customers the voip DID number.

At houme you just pickup the voip did number on a voip line and when not at home it's switched to your mobile.
The only cost you have is the extra cost to forward the voip did number to your roamingfree cellphone. These forwarding cost should not be more than 0.10 euro per minute.

To be safe always have a second roaming free sim card from another provider/network. So when like now manx roam free is offline you just use jersey roamfree (or anather solution)

I would NEVER use a cell number as my primary business number, even from a regular licensed carrier like Voda, T-M, etc. Using a number provided by an unlicensed 3rd party is asking for trouble.
My main number is a landline number provided by the local carrier. I can easily forward that number to any other phone, cell or otherwise even if I am thousands of miles away from the landline by making use of the "remote access to call forwarding" feature that has been in the U.S. for 10 or 15 years and, I am sure, is available elsewhere.
Eg. If I am in a country where I am using a prepaid, I forward calls to a Kall8 or Voicestick number which then forwards calls overseas to my prepaid. When at home, I usually just forward calls to my main cell number. IOW, for 20+ years I have only given out my one landline number and simply forward it to the phone I want to use.

...mike

GeoSIM update
 

A new update has been posted on the GeoSIM site.

http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/Service_alert.php

Callkey Latest
 

31/10/2007

At around 7pm. Callkey servers went offline for both end users "customers" and for distributors.:(
No information has been released by callkey about resumption of service or who if any has or will take over the network (callkey)



www.easyroam.co.uk

I think you mean 31/10 since there's no such a date as 31/11.
Anyway, it was a nice disaster :-P - I suppose that much more customers were affected than in case of the Buytel collapse....

Yep! A nice disaster indeed. Some of the resellers such as freeglobalsim are totally offline. And, they refuse to respond to customers questions.

Let's call it like it is....

Callkiey is dead....the sim cards issued by the resellers with the Isle of Man numbers provided by callkey are dead and there is no chance of resusitation. The only question left is how many will get their credit back in some form or another.

One large disaster all around.

The current status of the Manx international SIM stuff makes me think that Callkey didn't pay what they should to Manx Telecom. Otherwise, if the whole business had been profitable to Manx Telecom, they would probably have offered some replacement service - the loss of a few thousands customers who bring profits would be noticeable for a company operating on the market so tiny as IoM.

BTW, I wonder why CallBlue and Yackie abandoned Manx sims before they stopped working - they knew something before or just "more luck than reason" :-D

I've already written my money off. I've lost about US$75 in credit. Whle I don't like losing money, I consider it one of the risks I assume in playing in what is a fringe market.

Could even be the other way round - I assume MT collected the termination fees, then passed part of them on to Callkey (maybe there were delays/disputes/fraud allegations there). AFAIK Callkey just subcontracted a number range, didn't use MT switching etc, so there's really nothing for MT to replace it with.

And since MT is part of O2 who are part of Telefonica Spain they're not the sort of comany that would want to get involved with callback, or even miss the revenue (which they may have had very little of). Looks like the Manx sims are permanently dead.

One Manx distributor is sending manx sims as replacements for the older ones that do no longer work. So I suppose this does not mean that all manx sism have ceased service

Prions what manx distributor are you talking about.

ekit sim card

I can tell you that Callkey and the Sim cards are definitely not dead. I have it in very good authority but cannot say more at this moment. Sorry i can't expand on this but watch this space.

OK with termination, but what about outgoing calls? Because callback was used, both "legs" are in fact outgoing calls from the operator to the both parties of the call. Since MT roaming agreements were in use, I suppose that Callkey

It's not only about the number range. As I've mentioned above, Callkey used also MT roaming agreements what means some kind of switching, too (but I have no telecom education so may be wrong)

Yes, I realise that MT is a part of much larger business nowadays. But, nevertheless, they have to care about the revenues on the island, not to count on "MT size" doesn't matter within the O2 group :D

eKit sends out Telestial Passport SIMs which are also hosted on a separate MVNO platform with Manx. Their numbering range is +44-7924-4

It's more the other way round, that Telestial send out eKit SIMs

Or who knows, perhaps they are even the same company

not again, new user 1 post and allready telling us, it's not dead and having good contact.

where have I seem this information before..... yes gossiproam sorry easyroam was telling us before, it's dead no it's alive but the next day it was dead again.

Like many users they have written of their manx number and have an alternative now. But maybe someone buys Callkey at a low price and will continue the service. That said, we still don't know what has happened to everyones call credit.

Is this call credit owned by callkey or is it owned by the companies that market the cards under their own names. I would guess the last but you never know.

I also suppose that. All companies that have issued replacement sims have also given the credit back

Telestial developed the Passport MVNO while they were still standalone.

They are now.

People should discuss this first with the reseller they bought the SIM from, as positions will vary depending on which party the added credit was bought from in the first place.

Is there hope?
 

Serveice Update
19th November 2007 10:20
We are of the understanding that significant progress has been made regarding resumption of service and await confirmation of this.
Additionally, we will be in a position to issue replacement SIMs shortly to those customers who have registered.
Existing GeoSIM customers that wish to register for free replacement SIM should it be deemed necessary to send replacements out, are asked to register their interest here or at http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/replacement_sim
Customers are reminded not to pass on their GeoSIM to any reseller or third party offering to "Trade In" their SIM. If you pass on your GeoSIM it will compromise your GeoSIM admin account security and our ability to transfer any call credit if necessary. It will also mean that you will forfeit your number and not be able to make or receive calls if the service is reactivated, which is still a possibility.
Thank you for your continued patience.

Sure wouldn't hold my breath.

I don't think there is too much hope. Since end of September nothing serious happened, only updates on their homepage every two weeks - but nothing substantial. I regard my assets as lost but would be very happe if a similar system. I am registered for a free replacement SIM and I've got no response until now or any personal information. They know my address. An email would have been the least they should have sent to their customers.

Hello,

the IoM Reseller Globalsim Germany (www.globalsim.de) announced in a recent newsletter, that they are sure, the old (Callkey) IoM SIM-Cards will be reconnected in midth of January, 2008. The old +44 7624 1xxxxx number and the amount will be there again, Globalsim says. Customers who don't believe in this or don't want to wait, are offered a germany based "Eco MaxxSIM" which is based on the german virtual "vistream" network (powered by Materna), which uses the Radio-Network of E-Plus in Germany.

International those vistream SIM-cards use a dual IMSI SIM-card which acts as a original E-Plus SIM and offers SAT based Callback-Roaming. Reports of users are ... quite mixed, some exotic countries (the Caribic, Former Yugoslavia countries) don't work at all or at unknown times of a day, only.

The Tariffs of Eco MaxxSim are just under construction, private tests resulted in 15 euro-cent per Minute to Germany fixed-landlines and 19 euro-cent per Minute to other mobile Providers. Calls to vistream-based-providers are free of charge at the moment, but be careful, this can be changed without further notice.

Swisscom Natel offers a 33% bonus if you recharge your NATEL by creditcard online at www.swisscom-mobile.ch this SALE ends today Nov. 30th

mid jan does not seem like a good alternative and we have heard before next week, next month it will be up. Nothing to take serious and does make you wonder how long they will be up next time.

Alternative dual sim seems like some home brew system and not a good alternative .

What you do see is some german based comapnies not offering roaming free but very low roaming rates to eu countries.

For now the only true seriously working sim card using a +44 number seems to be united mobile.

Not only. There are other companies who use Jersey telecom previously using Manx (e.g. Cherymmobile). Also Tellestial sims do still work on Manx network (+44 number)

yes, hope soon
 

Keep hold of your manx sim cards.
good news coming soon - New owners!!

There are several

Callblue (Jersey Telecom)

Cloud9 (Wire9)

ekit (Manx Telecom)

United Mobile (Jersey Telecom)

Voiceserve (forwarded)

Xfone/Swiftnet (forwarded)

Some of the former Callkey resellers have switched to supplying one of these. I'm not aware of problems with 4 of them (I have no feedback on Voiceserve, which uses the same SIM as Xfone)

There are rumours of 3 or 4 UK products in the near future, and I certainly wouldn't discount them or possible new info about the Callkey SIMs as only wishful thinking.

I can't see why you are keen to decry the dual IMSI ones either. Sunsim seems to work fine with eplus and its other arrangement, though I haven't been to places mentioned by hrgajek, and I assume the other brands on vistream would be similar.

What do you mean by "forwarded"? Are Voiceserve and Xfone/Swiftnet Jersey Telecom SIMs "inside"? And what is the difference between them and e.g. UM+? Is it that their Jersey numbers are "hidden" (Voiceserve "works" of forwarded landline DIDs - RPP payments, whereas Xfone uses a UK "mobile" number +44 7822 and thanks to it is a CPP one)?

They aren't Jersey, or I'd have said so