I am sure there are quite a few folks (myself included) that would not have considered their service at all, if it was not for the local DID's they offer. Most of their advertisement is also built around the DID thing.

Now that UM is dead and gone, and people start looking for alternatives, does anyone have any updates on these guys? Are they also heading down the UM route?

ALL my 'tickets' have been 'resolved' without anything actually happening. Has anyone had any indications if the DID's will come online soon?

Yes, I was told they hoped to have it done by the end of the week. Of course, I was told that last week. :)

I purchased a MAXroam Sim last week to use during our up coming trip round Europe - oh how I wish I'd seen this forum first!

After managing to muddle through getting outgoing and text messages working, now that all the instructions and videos on their website are wrong, I realised that I had been issued with a Belgium number - not the UK one I was expecting!

So if some one calls me from the UK when I am roaming in Europe, not only will I be paying to receive the call, they will be paying to make an
international call from the UK, the combination of which would work out more than just ringing me on my UK vodafone sim.

I have raised a request to the support desk asking for a full refund as the SIM does not work as advertised, if I don;t get a response I will be raising a dispute through paypal.

Very disappointed - it would have been nice to save a bit on our data and SMS roaming costs - but I guess I will put vodafone passport on my UK account and keep a look out for free wifi while away!

Mike

You did the correct thing in asking for a refund. I really ca't believe that maxroam has not updated their website to reflect to indicate what they are really getting. At least until they get their DID problems ironed out. As it is now, their sim cards are no better that most other international sim cards out there. In a lot of cases, it's more expensive.

In this very dynamic market, it may be too late for them by the time they fix their DID problems.

They definitely need to update all the outdated stuff they are advertising on their website.

Something is going on a MAXRoam's website. For weeks the page for purchasing new numbers has displayed an error message, with no numbers showing up in the drop-down box. Now the error message is gone, and the drop-down box offers the ability to purchase numbers in one U.S. area code (Toledo, Ohio, I believe). I didn't try to purchase anything because I want to conserve the small credit in my account, but if someone wants to invest 99 eurocents, I'd be interested to know whether it works.

The call forwarding page still shows an error when you try to forward your number. Some while ago, I was able to forward my Belgium number to my home phone, but of course that doesn't do me much good.

Well, the agreement is that each sim will have one DID and then the option to purchase other DID's ifi needed. In my opinion, they need to get the default DID working first, and then work on fixing the part about adding other DID's. Unless they are no longer offering any default DID's as they are advertising and now requiring a purchase. That will likely be the end for them. Since most folks probably would not have considered them were it not for the DID.

I don't disagree. Getting my original DID back is more important. But it would at least be a good sign if they were able to assign any non-Belgium numbers to the card. They may need to set up the capability to assign non-Belgium DIDs before they can begin matching the DIDs of their original customers to their cards.

DID Numbers
 

Is there any update on DID numbers working on maxroam? Is the first free?

No. Nothing from maxroam. However, I just logged into their website and noticed that they listed some US and Canada DID's for 3.99 Euro/month. It does not mean that it will work if you add it. Also, no mention of the one DID that was supposed to be free. I will not be surprised if it's no longer feasible for them to offer a free DID.

Maxroam looks cheapest
 

Hello, i took a Maxroam sim after problems with UM: checking price, tell me if i'm wrong, looks cheapest of the cheapest in the market.

They've no free incoming calls, but to call, send sms and data their prices looks 50 per cent or more less then other travelcard in the market, even if - i understand - for people "uk based" could be not very nice the Belgian number.

I used in Italy, and works good.

About DID i've seen the offer, now, Us and Canadian: could be usefull if they start the same with european numbers, and they start with the "first free number" they offer together with the sim.

Actually, based my comparison of a few countries, celtrek is cheaper. Even up to 30% - 40% cheaper in some places.

I've noticed a couple of times that MAXRoam has made changes to its website that caused me to think something good might be happening, only to be disappointed. A while back, they were offering Ohio DIDs, but this was subsequently removed. Now they are offering DIDs in many states. I hope that this is a sign they will soon give us our assigned DIDs back, but I'll believe it when I see it.

DID Numbers
 

Can you please tell me as a prospective buyer of the sim how much thy charge monthly for a US DID. Are other countries available at what prices? I guess hey discontinued first DID free thry are all paying but thus info is available once you login only as customer.

We don't know that they have discontinued the first free DID. For those of us who purchased the card with DIDs from various countries, they claim that they are still trying to get those numbers assigned. When I log in as a customer, it lists both my Belgium number and my US DID. The earlier version of the card could be purchased with a DID from any of numerous countries, including the US, Canada, and Western Europe.

The site now allows me to go to a page for purchasing additional DIDs. Although it shows both US and Canadian DIDs available, only the US DIDs actually appear when I try to purchase one. As for the US DIDs, all the states appear to be available, and they are priced at 3.99 Euro per month.

Exactly. Not sure what they are doing since they have chosen to not inform customers of anything. Now, I thought somewhere on the website they stated that you get a free DID from one country, blah blah blah. Well, I no longer see that at all. And under the FAQ about which country DID can be added, they listed countries and also stated that DID can be added for a certain fee.

Again, this is all speculation, but they have removed all references to a free DID from their website. They may still honor it for existing customers. But, who knows. This page now states you get a Global number and can add a DID for a fee.

MAXroam - About Our Service

As long as I can add and remove as I choose and I am not obligated keep the DID for more than a month, I think I can live with it.

Just thought I'd mention that maxroam also charges for answering the callback. I was charged 0.25 euro (cost of incoming call in the US) for a testcall. I hung up as soon as the called number rang. Not sure if this will be charged per minute or it's just for answering the calback.

The way they charge now is as you answer the calback they charge 1 minute (irrespective so if call is then answered or not) and after that in 30 second billing increment.
Also free DID are not available anymore, but they charge a fee now, also for just 1 month. I got the above form customer service online, quite a relaible service, they answer same day.

I was told by customer service that they still intend to assign the DIDs we got when we purchased the card, but that problems with their numbers provider have delayed the assignment. He did not say when the assignment would take place, but I think he intended to say "when Hell freezes over." :)

He also mentioned that I could purchase a DID in the meantime.

I seriously doubt that will happen, and will be surprised if they still assign free DID's. They have removed any reference to a free DID from their website. There is only one mention of DID in their FAQ and it mentions there is DID for a small fee. I do not thinks it's too bad though at 4 euro/month for a DID (althought there are cheaper options) as long as I can add and remove as I choose, and I am not required to rent it for more than 1 month. For now, I see a way to add it on the website but not to remove it.

Another observation is that maxroam's rates in general a not cheap.

Will be in Bermuda next week (vacation) and will use my Digicel Bermuda and Maxroam sim cards. At least the Maxroam sim card WORKS and they do respond promptly to any questions I've had (unlike my Yackie, UM, UM+, Riing, and BuyTel sim cards or my Slingshot CDMA USB key; some of these might be resurrected in the future but I'm not holding my breath on it) but the dialout procedure is cumbersome on my Razr, and they still haven't assigned an incoming DID. Think I'll try to use up a chunk of the MaxRoam starter balance in Bermuda, and see if they fix the other issues in the future (if they do I'll add money to the card).
Since my travel is now mostly US (my AT&T or T-Mobile MVNO sim cards) or Caribbean and Bermuda(Digicel), an international callback sim card isn't as critical for me. The Digicel card works in multiple countries where they have networks and I have my Iridium phone if networks go down or I'm not near a tower. Plus I can always use a low tech calling card at a payphone...

What is a payphone<G>? Do they still exist?

So there is a charge of 1 minute as soon as callback is answered, after that billing increment is 10 seconds for both outgoing and incoming calls. DID are not free anymore but can be added for 1 month only as well. Customer support is good, reply is provided by email in 24 hours. Rates are not great but coverage is good. Billing increment of 10 sec after 1st minute is a plus as well.

If you use a Callback system in Bermuda always trigger the call from a different phone. Bermuda has anti-callback technology and after a couple of calls with a no connect followed by a ringback, they will kick in the countermeasures.

Thanks for heads up. May just stick with my Digicel Bermuda card then for my Razr. If use MaxRoam call-back sim, will probably put it in my unlocked AT&T Tilt, so if it is blocked, I can still use the other phone (I did use a UM call back sim in Bermuda a couple of years ago, but only for a couple of calls; most calls were from payphones with a local calling card).
"What is a payphone? Do they still exist?" [snidely]
LOL, yeah they still have them around the island. Vending machines and markets sell calling cards. Usually a souvenir picture on the front.

Let me clarify what I said about callback systems. The technology seems to only block callbacks on Bermudan phones. I don't think that a roaming SIMs method of callback will be a problem.

If you have data on your phone and a Google Voice account, what is really slick is to register your forwarding DID (voicestick) whatever with Google Voice and use their mobile app as your dialer from your Tilt. It will look exactly like an inbound call on your Digicel. I don't recall whether you get free incoming on a Digicel Bermuda phone. I thought it was like 25 cents, but Voicetrading has a route to Bermuda mobiles for 2.5 cents a minute.

OK, understood, the callback restriction would just apply to callbacks on Bermudian landlines, not a callback sim.
Digicel Bermuda is currently doing a promotion with free incoming on both prepaid flex (my account) and postpaid accounts...but the catch is that is only for calls from other Digicel callers.
Calling will mostly be one or two calls home each day plus maybe a local call or two, so will just use the balance on my Digicel card as-is on my Razr.
Do have Skype installed on the Tilt so that would be a cheap call if I'm near free wi-fi that doesn't block VOIP; but tend to use that phone just for US prepaid data (email, light web browsing, occasional light tethering) and installed software. Might try to access personal email via wifi or a Digicel or Maxroam data connection as an experiment.

Is Maxroam just reselling the celtrek SIM?
 

I have not been very happy with Maxroam and am close to giving up on them. With the no more free DID, what is the advantage? I looked at the Celtrek/Globalroaming site, and it looks suspiciously like the service details (countries, etc) offered by Maxroam, but consistently cheaper.

Is Maxroam basically just reselling Celtrek now, and tacking on their fee?

Is there any way to get other country DID from Celtrek? If anybody has experience with both systems (Maxroam resurrected and Celtrek), is there any reason to choose Max over Cel?

I do not think you are the only one that feels this way about maxroam. I will travel next month and plan on using up my maxroam credit.

At this point celtrek does not have any DID period. They did say they plan on having some soon though. Both maxroam and celtrek use the same Belgium company for their sim cards. However, as I mentioned (and you did also), celtrek is cheaper than maxroam in just about every country I checked.

At this point with no free DID ( I checked with customer support) Maxroam doesnt make sense as rates are high,no free incoming calls. Celltrek rates are far better for outbound calls in almost every country. They will have soon DID for US and other countries for a fee also for 1 month only and itemized billing online.
So my choice is Celltrek for outbound calls and ekit US Passport for dual UK/US with free incoming calls in EU and many other countries (evenSeychelles) on UK number and a cheap 19 cents to receive on US number in EU.

Interesting. Did he tell you there would be no free DID even for customers who previously had one?

I checked with customer support about two weeks ago, and they were then still claiming that existing DIDs would be assigned eventually (although I didn't believe them). I suppose they could claim that they intend to grandfather existing customers -- assign them their DIDs, but not offer any more free DIDs to new customers -- but I really don't believe this either. If they can sell a new DID, there is no reason why they could not assign an existing DID that has already been reserved by a customer.

If their business plan is to drop the free DID for new and existing customers, so be it. But they should at least be honest about it.

DIDs do cost money. And there is a monthly cost. (You can check some of the cost at a site like didx.net or les.net.) Why build in the cost of a DID for everyone if lots of people don't need one?

Tried both MaxRoam and Digicel in Bermuda last week (liked the Bermuda day parade).
MaxRoam was more for comparison purposes. Still have to use *182*bigphonenumber# to dial out, but cost was only about a third of a Euro/minute from Bermuda to US, and I'll echo the sentiment that a free US DID number for incoming would be nice. Also noticed touchtone passthrough didn't work well although audio quality was clear.
Used Digicel for most calls back home (average 10/minutes day). International calls to US were more than MaxRoam at US 75 cents/minute, but easier to dial, easier to refill, and easier to be reached if necessary(same 1 country code as US although different country), plus local calls very inexpensive (free incoming from Digicel handsets, and other local calls only charged for first 3 minutes then next 30 minutes free for same call). Still a substantial savings over hotel phones, postpaid roaming or satellite phone calls.

Having watched MAXROAM via reviews and publicity the last two years, I bought a Maxroam SIM card last week for a trip to Germany, with the idea of getting another for my daughter who is off on a trip round the world. Checked questions out with support people in advance of purchase, followed instructions for set up carefully. I am very experienced with computers and mobile phones around the world, having had numerous number in the US, Australia, and France.

With my MAXROAM SIM, I have not been able to make a single call, send a single SMS, or make any data connections at all. For the past two days I have sent in requests for support to fix this, with detailed descriptions of what I have tried and the symptoms. No response.

It appears that every year or so Mr Phelan---a smooth talker who has charmed tech journalists all over--- comes up with a new "killer product" that sort of works some of the time, makes all sorts of promises, makes highly quotable and derogatory comments about his compeitition, and then has to backtrack, and come up with a new product to sell.

It looks as though I have paid 25 Euros for exactly nothing so far. Now that is what I call Rip Off Roaming.

I'll try a charge back next to get my money back. Maybe that will get their attention.

Jeffrey Harris

Did you try to change phones to see if that worked? Maxroam was having some problems and it may not have been fully resolved. Personally, maxroam does not offer the best deal for my travel needs. So, I used up my credit on a recent trip, and will focus on my other sim cards that offer more reasonable rates in the countries that I am more likely to visit.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend these guys anymore either. I am still waiting for a few tickets to be answered by them from about 3 months ago. Incidentally they were always marked as "resolved".

Anyhow, as mentioned the product is no longer even close to what they once marketed it as. You now get a Belgian number which you have to pay incoming with everywhere even in Belgium.

I might have mentioned it before, but there used to be a bit on their website FAQ's which has now been removed:

Jeff, you should have read more reviews here to conclude that it would have been better to buy another card. There are many good working alternatives including ones that have a us number and forward the call.

Maxroam troubles
 

Hello. I also had troubles with Maxroam sim. No way to have call back, at least using Htc G1, Iphone and Samsung Omnia i900. I'll try with more "simple" phone. No data, too.

They - quickly - wrote me as follows, maybe could be usefull for someone, honestly i've not tryied yet...

-----

Please try the following steps to resolve the issue with making calls:

1. Send SMS to check BALANCE - Create a new message, in the body of the message type “Bal” send to “1966” – the system will respond after a few seconds with your account balance. If you have sufficient balance to make a call, please skip to (2.)

2. Remove the battery from the phone – wait 5 seconds, reinsert the battery and turn on the phone. The main screen should show "Roaming" with a network name above that. If this is correct, please continue to (3.). If the main screen shows Emergency only above the Roaming then you need to skip to (4.)

3. Dial *182*00+country code + area code + phone number# and press Send and wait a couple of seconds for the callback – after callback is received the system will connect you to the dialed party. If the phone displays call barred and NO callback is received, please continue to (4.)

4. Manually change network. If the main screen is showing “Emergency Only” Change the network you are using manually.

5. Check the callback setting on your phone which can usually be found by the following - main menu> tools. Ensure that it indicates "Callback OFF".

6. If all above actions have failed we would ask you to remove the SIM card and test it in another unlocked mobile phone as it may be a physical issue of communication between the phone and SIM card.

Please advise me of the results of these steps and the make and model of the phone you are using and where you are if you are still unable to make a call.

With regard to the data connection, please ensure that your settings are as follows:
APN: web.be
Username: web
Password: web

To send or receive emails you will need to enter SMTP details. Our SMTP-server is mail.internetmail.be

Exactly! I am actually surprised that he still went with maxroam after reading all the reviews from the last few months, and also comparing maxroam with the other alternatives.