Hi Andy,

Your logic makes sense, however the real reason is as I previously specified. The +3543 series has been around for a long time now and the issue is with voip carriers not breaking out certain higher rate series. It would be commercially impossible to offer free incoming on a normal rate Iceland Mobile.

There are other reasons for the +4484x and +4487x, those are "national" rate (in many cases revenue sharing numbers) that aren't really designed for access outside the UK ( most of the ranges at least).

If you really need to make calls to +354380 via voip, there are indeed carriers that will do the Iceland +354380 series, check out i.e. www.voipjet.com, but the rates are €0.5 - €0.6.

Anyone who has worked with bundled destinations and rate tables understands the scenario first hand.

Hmm, I thought that the main idea behind using DID numbers is caused by the fact that Yackie is a US-based company and US customers want to be reachable on US numbers instead of foreign ones....

NOPE

Our business model was always based on the possibility for the user to have a local number attached to his sim card, we never trust to the incoming free as a valuable option for this product, we have it, but we have 90 % of our incoming call made on the DID

Well, it's a pity that you think that nobody else does, but perhaps in future you'll refrain from veiled criticism of other companies' rates

I think it's a valuable option even because the simple fact that you may have the same number for SMS and voice calls. As to 90% of incoming calls via DIDs - OK, I believe you. But, how many %% of your customers are from US/Canada and how many from Europe or other calling-party-pays areas? From what I have read on the forum so far, the Americans need local DIDs much more than the Europeans and that was motivation for my suppositions...

Hum... maybe Przemolog, but we offer many European countries too, and all of our customers have selected their own countries as DID when available

Maybe they give the did to their friend or family ( who can make call locally so free ) and they will pay 0,29 $, and not oblige the caller to pay 0,6$ to.....)

This is the point, let the caller pay 0,6 $ or more for have his incoming free, or letting them use a DID and have to pay 0,29 .....

Andy, VOIP companies are in this business to make money, any such company who does not break out higher rates, but absorbs the difference is of course free to do so, no criticism there, but the reality is that many/most of these carriers are not willing to absorb the difference, and simply don't terminate to higher rate series, be it Iceland +354380 or any other higher rate series. Some have done so (probably unwittingly) but usually end up not continuing to do so when their billing systems alert them, hence no more access.

There is no criticism of these companies here, as it makes perfect sense according to their business model. Seeing as there are other voip carriers who will terminate to +354380 and the DID option is available, it shouldn't pose major problems (unless what you are looking for is your own cheap callback solution through the incoming numbers).

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

I have tried in the past a few of the 0871 callthrough numbers to reach 09 mobiles and was unable to do so.
I do not know what will happen if someone tries it now.

That was about the same as experience with FL mobiles. Two and a half years ago, three providers all eventually came back and told me that the cheapest carrier was not reliable enough and there was a big step in tariff to the next one.

But I still think it's potentially also a issue of how dialplans define or mask valid and invalid numbers. How many providers can ring a UK +443 landline yet? Not three I tried about 6 weeks ago.

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.

Regarding South Africa to the UK, 20 eurocents is around $0.29 which is what Yackie is charging already for incoming DID calls.

Normal Iceland Mobile rates are lower than Iceland Mobile +354380 rates, similar to the situation in the UK, so access is of course usually fine through cheap voip carriers on normal Iceland mobile even if +354380 is not accessible.

I think that people will also remember the Manx based operators who are no longer providing service, one can only speculate as to the reason for that.

I think that people will also remember the Manx based operators who are no longer providing service, one can only speculate as to the reason for that.

Yackie you had the same issue using your previous supplier and took te system down, leaving customers in the dark

United Mobile wanted their users to swtich from lichtenstein to jersay because incoming rates were getting to high on lichtenstein.

That said the idea of having a did numer forward to the sim is not that bad and I said it before the $ 0.29 that yackie charges for incoming is reasonable. It can be done cheaper but not by a plug and play user.

Through my experience with 09 Mobile when it first started and also Yackie Mobile now a days, calling +354380xxxxxx can be not successful sometimes.

I've noticed Tier 1 providers who connect directly to +354380xxxxxx using no cheap routes, call compression, cheaper switching of calls, voip/sip, etc.. connect each time with no problem.

But when i use cheaper providers that uses these cheaper ways of transmitting calls do have problems, especially at peak times. These sort of companies can use in-direct dialling (ie 18185.co.uk call1899.co.uk call18866.co.uk). Sip/Voip can have problems depending who you use. You can usually tell a carrier that uses call compression as things like DTMF won't work.

I don't praise or blame 09 Mobile/Yackie Mobile for only connecting calls to them from top quality Tier 1 providers. A suggestion for the future may be that they connect from more carriers and take some that are of lesser quality. (I come across similair problems when i choose a company for web hosting my websites... Do i choose a cheaper provider that connects to one or two ISPs, or pay a bit extra for a provider that connects to many ISPs of varying quality)

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

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.

Has Yackie integrated the voicemail between its voip and GSM solutions?

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

calls to the DID are charged at normal landline rates for each country. DID are normal landline numbers

ok thank you but they can not provide loca

what do you mean local ?

off course our DID are a local French number, who offer you to receive a local call ( so free ) to your DID number, and you will pay 0,29 $ worldwide ( most of the countries ) for your incoming

Eventually can you clarify your question

sorry but they can provide local aera codes like celtrek do;
my second interrogation is about the forwarding on the +354 number .. on the website its impossible to know exactly the exact cost of that service.. its is inly the 0.29 incominf rate?

celtrek give me a local several eara codes in France easily reachable for family and also for others like +33 3 or +33 5 etc... i wa

i xould have the same with yackie but no possible to have a real answear on the live website

We do exactly the same

In 35 countries

which forwarding ?

Our system is not a forwarding

we do not forward the DID to the 354

we have our own system, and it is independent from the 354 number

this number is only used for the SMS ( In and Out ) and for the free incoming option, that all

Our DID option is one of the basic feature from Yackie Mobile used since July 2006 when we start to offer this service ( memories, memories....)

So Ok local area numbres are available., i ll buy a sim card and i ll have One Sim card with 2 numbers...to be called....
I have the choice to be reached on the local landline O.29 (free for family or relatives ) or the +354 numbre (free for me ) but over charged for callers with our local providers in france (france telecom) or begium ( belgacom).. Most of people dont use VOIp... it doesn't matter if i pay to have a call when abroad ( O,29/min is a reasonnable rate); the main point is the price for family or customers when they call me...i search a second alternative solution for family friends customers to pay nothing when they call me...If yackie answears to my request as celtrek do thats Ok i ll test it..... i ll put the 2 sim cards in phone and will expect the calls...

So in fact everything is Ok just on time to be tested during holidays.... with a voice mail for free.....

Forwarding with Yackie
 

Hi

I tried this:

"Forward on my SIP Account and after, on my SIM Card"
The caller of the DID hears a ring-tone.
My VOIP phone rings for about 15 seconds.
Then 5 seconds "nothing".
The caller of the DID still hears a ring-tone.
My cellphone rings.
The caller of the DID still hears a ring-tone.

and I tried this:

"Forward on my SIM Card (+35438039xxxx)"
The caller of the DID hears... nothing.
5 seconds later, my cellphone rings.
The caller of the DID still hears nothing.
I'm not quick enough to find the right cellphone that is ringing (just kiddin').
The caller, because he did not hear a ringtone, disconnects the call.

So, scenario 1 looks fine to me.
Is the problem of the missing ringtone caused by Yackie or by my provider?
I called my DID with my other cellphone and with a VOIP-provider, so I guess not, but you never know.

Anyone?
Yackie?

BTW: I tried calling my Yackie +354 number with VoiceTrading, I hear a dialtone, but my cellphone does not ring.

What happens in Scenario 1 when you are not online?

Also, further question to Yackie or anyone else: Does your SIM not work in Switzerland? I can't see a rate.

Interesting remarks.
Betamax does not seem to connect to +354380 numbers

Billed prices not as shown by the rate calculator
 

Hello guys,

did someone reviewed the billed units on his Yackie account?

I took today a closer look on the per minute prices, to my surprise all calls I made until today had been billed with completely other prices than shown by the rate calculator.

Did somebody has the same problems?

it is true, we are looking about our rates tables, it seem that few countries have a minus error ( 3 / 4 countries )

@YackieMobile

... any quote on solving the issue rate tables minus erros?

YackieMobile raised prices without notice?
 

I just took a closer look on the rate table.

@YackieMobile, have you guys honestly raised the prices within the EU without notifying the customers???

Calls from HU to DE and UK have been raised up 10 US Cent. I´m little confused and I feel a little f...ed over to be honest, since I have the SIM card I´ve been not charged the regular price which was 0,69 US cent, so this 0,79 US cent crap was the whole time in your system implemented and you do charge it constantly.

Why doing business this way???

Hell yeah! You have changed the prices and no info at all!

Why are you doing this??? DE->DE is now 0,89 US cent what the hell happened? Since when does the oil price infect the roaming prices?

You do charge now for a call from A to DE 0,89 US (0,601 Euro Cent) cent, why for jesus christ should I use the YM SIM when the outgoing calls are now cheaper when I do them through my home operators SIM???

I´m so stupid, I really thought you guys will do a way better job than these Callkey midgets. Why don´t you offer real value instead just raise prices after making a good show.

The rate table was updated by yackie.
Now i observed something very strange. I thought the forward from the DID would be always charged with 0.29 US$. Plus the incoming charge in the non-free incoming countries.

BUT: They seem to charge randomly different amounts for the forward depending on where you are.

randomly choosen examples:

Russia
Incoming call by using your Free incoming number (354) : $ 0.5
Incoming call by using your selected local Number : $0.74 + $0.5

Mexico
Incoming call by using your Free incoming number (354) : $ 1.3
Incoming call by using your selected local Number : $1.54 + $1.3

Germany
Incoming call by using your Free incoming number (354) : FREE
Incoming call by using your selected local Number : $0.29

Thailand
Incoming call by using your Free incoming number (354) : $ 0.8
Incoming call by using your selected local Number : $1.04 + $0.8

So that makes a range from 0,29 US$ to 1,54 US$ for the forward. What's this crap about? I'm eager to find out the reason.

Chris

Wait wait

we had one update on our Rates tables yesterday, and it is always possible to have some mistake, we are checking ( and you know that it is not 5 rates to check )

We will update you asap

Thank you for your assistance, because without guys; we will not have this reactivity

It's not about oil, I think. Simply US dollar is getting weaker and weaker againt euro, so they have to pay more and more dollars to Europan operators (perhaps not directly, it's enough that 09 charging them in euros - the final result is the same). However, if you pay less and less in forints for each Yackie dollar top-up, you should be "rewarded" (to some extent) for those nominally higher prices :-P

You mean a Hungarian SIM roaming in Austria? Despite the fact, that roaming prices in the EU are limited by the law, think about the number of operators involved. When you call from Austria with a Hungarian SIM, it involves your "home" operator and its Austrian roaming partner. But when you use Yackie, you really use an Austrian roaming partner, 09 of Iceland, Swisscom as the "roaming provider" and Yackie of Miami to charge for all this stuff. Whereas using Yackie allows avoiding European VAT, it doesn't have necessarily to be cheaper, I dare to suppose ;-).

Nice that you have looked after the Forint but I´m paying in Euro, !should! YM have raised the prices without giving a notice to anybody I !would! be very pi...d because I´m doing business as well every day and I have to inform my customers (when I have to raise the prices) if I don´t want to loose them. The oil question was sarcastically asked, but I´m sure you noticed that .. :confused:

No I mean not just a Hungarian SIM I mean a German and Italian and English SIM as well. Honestly I don´t care how many operators are involved in any action when YM is connecting a call form my destination to the recipient destination. Now you ask why, because YM is offering a roaming solution (as they call them self the roaming solver), as long as they aren´t market able with these prices I won´t use them and when their prices are higher than the prices my home operators do offer why should I use them, it´s for my needs more comfortable to have one SIM and not 8, so asked again why use YM when other operators do have !now! lower prices than YM? Simple question. So don´t try to break in a market you can´t rule, the prices which where offered 4 or 5 weeks ago have been perfect for use within the EU the prices now are definitely to high.

But I think you as a smart customer and user of roaming solutions are clear with these facts ...

@YackieMobile, I really hope this was just a mistake, as well as the connecting fees for the DID. If you need to raise prices do it with offering new or "more" value for the single customer.

Actually, you're lucky; try looking up the rates for making calls from France Germany or Belgium- 89 or 99 cents to UK and other mobiles.

Some of Yackie's rates look quite a bit higher that the underlying 09 Mobile, whose tariffs are published in Euros not Dollars.

Yackie will be interesting to Americans of course, but apart from them one wonders how attractive it is. The Eurotariff is 59 eurocents which is cheaper than Yackie to Europe, while some are cheaper still; a 3 UK SIM has outgoing calls at 25 pence a minute, about half the price of Yackie.

Basically you're right about the informing about price raising. But, it seems that neither the law nor the customers' attitude hasn't affected Yackie's policy so far, so why not to continue it :-P. Of course, I noticed that you were sarcastic :-).

No customer cares about the number of operators involved. I didn't justify Yackie, I tried to find an explanation.

Sure I am.
After all, you can see that international SIMs are "risky" for customers in many ways.
1) Sudden stopping of operations with remaining credit lost (Buytel, Manx SIMs)
2) Raising rates w/o prior notification (Yackie, some Manx SIMs)
3) Raising rates to call the SIM (mainly UM +423, but not only)
4) Problems with reaching the SIM numbers at all (mainly Yackie/09 but also UM +423, Jersey)
And as about items 1 and 2, you're not protected by your national law in any extent....