Does it also accept incoming SMS or only calls?

Callcentric free US number is valid for 1month only or unlimited?

Not sure about sms, will try tomorrow morning and i will revert back

Travelsim has very agressive marketing lately... http://www.prepaidmvno.com/2013/08/1...o-sim-service/

You have to use it at least once in 30 days (i.ex: make or receive at least 1 call).

They will renew it every months as long as you use it, so you can keep your free number for ever. If you don't use it after 30 days it gets canceled (but then you can request a new number).

The free INUM number (+88351000: the new worldwide local call - can be called via SIP or worldwide local dial-in numbers: Dial in numbers | inum ) however, has no limits. You keep it even if you don't use it.

The INUM number is very useful for:

• calling people who have INUM numbers (SIP users)
• forwarding between SIP providers that don't allow SIP address calling/forwarding but do handle free INUM calls (i. ex: betamax clones, localphone,... don't allow external SIP addresses, but call INUM for free)

Edit: these landline & mobile operators route calls to INUM: http://www.inum.net/?page_id=22 , and these are known to route SMS to INUM : http://www.inum.net/?page_id=24

I obtained a callcentric US number forwarded it to hotvoip.com sip address and through hotvoip windows app forwarded it to the +372 . it works for just 0.07eur.per minute.
not sure if and when betamax will reblock these 372 numbers as many times since the last 5years.
Because bear in mind that termination net rate to travelsim 372 numbers is 0.15eur per minute...excl.vat

US phone charges landline/cell
 

It is so long ago and I was late to the cell phone party so I am not totally sure if it was regulations or the phone companies that wanted to promote cell phone use by keeping the prices the same to call. Both parties pay a cell rate for a mobile to mobile call. [Of course many/most people seem to have unlimited plans.] Landlines never paid more to receive or call a cell phone. For cell phones now there is no 'long distance'. I can call on my cell phone Portland, Oregon or Portland, Maine or my neighbor for the same charge or free if I have unlimited.
There is, I think, a notion of 'fairness' in our own minds, at least. Europeans may differ.

On 1July 2014 when roaming within EU will cost as national EU rates all +44 +1 +371 +372 roaming simcards will loose a significant market portion. They will only fit for non EU residents or when roaming outside EU

Yes!

And now you can also be reached through hundreds of worldwide local access numbers:


And also via INUM access numbers:

If you set the same treatment as for the US number, everything lands on your +372.

Isn't this great? Yes it is! :)



edit: you can set a single "speed dial" key in your phone/directory, if you don't want to double dial.

Thanks for your tips! Great information!!

I'm currently trying to build the desired "call flow" in my anveo account, but it seems like transfering incoming sms is nog yet possible (created a support ticket).

So having my callcentric pick up my GV seems a good alternative to keep one number with sms. I only have only question as I'm familiar with callcentric:

- How do you force the incoming call to be "picked up" before starting call hunting?

And then a additional improvement point would be to have a good solid US number provider for sms with cheap forwarding to Estonia. Because now I have GV send an email for each incoming sms and forward email that to sms by email-to-sms of SMSmail (5cpm)

...and is MobileVoip btw not a cheaper version of callcentric.com/support/device/iphone/callcentric? Maybe that explanation can help others.

You should be able to forward the SMS with Anveo like this:

You get the variables ($[from]$, $[to]$, $[message]$) from the incoming SMS:
Anveo.com - Receive SMS over HTTP Gateway

To send the new SMS out with Anveo (use the variable from incoming above in the http link):
Anveo.com - BulkSMS HTTP Gateway

Anveo charges $0.057 for the SMS to +372.

If you want, you can send it out cheaper with the betamax clones (€0.02 with Telbo, hotvoip is €0.04 - rates here: SMS Betamax ):

To send the new SMS with hotvoip (replace hotvoip with telbo in the URL to use telbo):

(use the $[from]$, $[to]$, $[message]$ variables from incoming)


But the cheapest for forwarding is of course to use the onesimcard as you can send it for free to 372xxxx@sms.onesimcard.com.

You mean, pick up the incoming call > Play some music or on hold message > start call hunting?

I don't think you can do this with callcentric (the caller's phone will ring (so they don't get charged) during the call hunting). So if GV limits you to 25 seconds this will send you back to using Anveo or Voip.ms.

But you can do this with Anveo and I'm pretty sure with Voip.ms too.

I think, if GV limits the call ring to 25 seconds (can't you just definitely forward the call by passing the call over without GV ringing it?), the best 2 options are:

1. Anveo > forward SMS out with Telbo for €0.02. (as per above post)
2. Anveo > forward SMS to 372xxxx@onesimcard.com for free (this is why I went with Onesimcard over the other +372)

Yes, it is comparable (both are VOIP apps), but MobileVOIP uses all of the betamax clones (you can use only betamx clones with it), and it has more options:

• it can send SMS (all of the betamax clones support SMS sending)
• call out with callback
• call out with local access number (it automatically calls the local landline access number to call out)
• call out with WIFI/3G
• you can switch the multiple Caller IDs you want to set your outgoing call to use
• betamax clones have the lowest rates on the market (if you are calling many different countries you will use several of the clones to get the best rates everywhere)

The callcentric app on the other hand is really a SIP application with callcentric (and there a many other similar SIP applications, also with a broader range of SIP support), with the advantage that it can also use the callcentric callback and receive your callcentric incoming calls.

Some more info as you are using betamax clones:

If you want to be billed by the second and have the choice of 100% call quality, the professional betamax clones (you can use them in the same way as the others, also with MobileVOIP):

• have 1 sec. billing
• support an unlimited number of simultaneous call channels
• have 3 quality route rates (grey - standard - premium), grey being the cheapest with lowest call quality or connection success rates, standard is usually always good, premium is comparable to the top telecoms.

Example:

VoiceTrading. Wholesale VoIP solutions

A-Z Voip telecom Termination worldwide


edit: this also answers the comment of one of the above posters who didn't want to sometimes risk some little degraded call quality (doesn't happen often, mostly sometimes when calling some "exotic" countries); (use the standard or premium routes for this).

An observation
 

It seems to me, one partial solution is to ask that people who want to talk with
you send you an SMS and say what time would be good time to call back?
Perhaps they can even include the topic and you can always reply that you
can 't [don't want to] get back to them.

Do you mean, by explaining this to some/your closest contacts and giving everyone else the local US number which goes to a voicemail that asks them to call you at or to send an SMS to +372... (or any other number)?

This way the people who don't want to call an expensive foreign number will know that they can send you an SMS?

Yes, this wouldn't be as transparent or convenient for the caller as forwarding the call, but it would save you the forwarding costs (as well as saving you the whole bamboola of setting up an efficient forwarding system :p) .

@ckh

Regarding this, Anveo supports Early Media (= the ring tone = audio that is played back before the call in answered = the caller is not charged for the call while he is hearing this media).

Early Media even supports key presses. So, for example with a call flow like the attached picture the ring tone is replaced. If the callers press 0 they will hear the song "remix". If they press 1 to 9 they will hear the song "original". And while doing this and hearing these songs they are not charged for the call (until you answer the phone).

This can also be a good way to playback a recorded voice message.

I want everyone to send SMS--no phone calls!

wouldnt it be easy to do this if you have a VoIP enabled PBX box at home (e.g AVM Fritz!Box which is basically the standard router here in germany from all telco providers)?
I have set parallel calling on my landline number - so calling my landline rings our normal phone and two cellphones. first pickup gets the call.
With this function i also forward my calls to our XXSim and ToggleMobile if needed and can pick my provider as i wish...

Yes, but this way you are depending on your home Internet connection.

Home connections are less reliable than the providers using datacenters, so when your router is offline or not reachable you calls won't go through.

Except callcentric which other voip providers with did numbers support sip uri forwarding?

Voip.ms supports SIP URI forwarding.

If talking about the better ones:

• Anveo (limits on free accounts)
• Voip.ms (also free inum) (needs to load some credit to waive all limits, the credit doesn't have to be used afterward).
• sonetel (also free inum + local access numbers in some countries not found elsewhere, i.ex: Thailand. I also use it to complement the Sipbroker and Inum local access numbers.)
• ...

And several providers who don't support external sip uri, forward to inum for free (so you can get the same result). I.ex:

• localphone.com , forward to your callcentric inum and from there you do whatever pleases you.

For the others with no sip uri or inum calling, no problem either. You can bind them together with a cloud PBX to manage and link all your SIP accounts and devices together in one place. I.ex:

• pbxes.com (also offers free accounts)
• sipsorcery.com

very cheap DID local numbers with sip uri forwarding: https://didlogic.com/purchases/new

Thank you MKB.

I'm really considering switching my GV number to Anveo for 24 dollars per year including free number porting.

This way I can transfer incoming calls to both US numbers of XXsim for free and forward incoming sms via the HTTP pro option for 4 cents per execution and 5 cents per message.

And when this robust setup is working condider the cheaper alternative: transfer via cheapers VOIPs and cheaper SMS http send providers.

Thank for this info and your advice!

Just wandering one last thing. Anveo states tow different things about the orginiation sms number:

- NOTE: Outgoing SMS are not originating from Anveo phone numbers!
- from [optional] is a phone number which will be displayed as the sender of the SMS message.

Which is true? As I would like to transfer incoming sms 1-on-1, without any edits.

The from variable let's you set the number you want the recipient of the SMS to see.

If you are sending a new SMS, always set the from field, otherwise it won't show your number as they are using 3rd party providers instead of sending it out directly via your number.

If you are forwarding, you will be using the from variable anyway to pass on the incoming number.

Hi MKB,

Just wanted to let you know I've combined hotvoip and telbo with my Anveo and xxsim account! Thanks for all your information as this is both a robust and cheap setup. My setup is now.

- 1 US number (at Anveo capable of receiving call and sms)
- 2 XXsim mobile numbers with extra US number attached
- 2 VOIP accounts and mobileVOIP app

For call:
- Incoming calls are transfered via one hotvoip account (7cmp) and to one included US number of xxsim directly
- The hotvoip account forwards to the other xxsim number directly.
- In this way I have both the hotvoip price and the security of a direct connection with our second phone.
- Outgoing I can use mobileVOIP with callback to xxsim directly or xxsim, depending of the availabilty of a dataconnection. In this way I can even dial out and use the calledID of my main account.

For sms:
- Incoming sms messages are posted to my own sms-message gateway script * which uses a telbo account and if that fails the anveo account.
- In this way I have both the telbo price and the security of a robust backup connection with anveo

* Build this using a free mailgun-account and some hours of php programming. Not only to process incoming sms messages but also to process incoming notifications of new voice messages and so.

Conclusion: I'm setup to leave for our trip ;-) One minor improvement point is to select a backup sim provider in case our xxsims gets stolen or don't work.

localphone.com does. Though they require an actual IP address as opposed to a DNS name. So you can use foo@127.0.0.1 but not foo@example.com

Do you get Caller ID Forwarded?

so what is the IP address of hotvoip?


For a provider that does not support iNum, but will forward to a SIP URI, you can send the call to 88351000xxxxxxx@sip.inum.net . A minor disadvantage of the URI method is that the caller will occasionally hear a message "Please wait while we attempt to connect your call."

For use (free) with Rebtel or Localphone numbers that are not yours:

If you have a contact for whom one of these numbers is a local call »www.rebtel.com/en/Get-Help/Access-Numbers/ , add them as a Contact in your Rebtel account. Add (and verify) your iNum (with any provider) to your Rebtel Phones list. Set that number as Preferred.

On the main My Rebtel page. showing your Contacts, click the new entry, as if you were going to edit it. On the screen that appears, you'll see "xxxxx can call you back - Find out how". Click that link and a screen will appear that shows a number local to your Contact. When they call that number (from the number in your Contact list), your iNum will ring. The call is free for you and you don't even need to ever fund the Rebtel account, if you don't use it for any real calls.

On Localphone, it's a little tougher -- you have to use it "backwards", setting up your contact's number as 'yours' and your iNum as the Contact. Set your Location to the contact's city and you'll see the number s/he should call in your Local Numbers. This backwards mode creates a possible security issue, if you don't completely trust the contacts. You can prevent them from making arbitrary calls, by setting a PIN that they don't know, but they could still call your other Contacts. For example, if both your brother and sister were on your account as both Phones and Contacts, they could call each other on your nickel! Also, although calls forwarded to iNum are free, Localphone won't allow them without a positive balance. So, you'll need to pay at least $5, even if you don't use Localphone for any paid calls. Balances do not expire.

You can find that out on Windows from the command prompt with 'nslookup'


On Linux systems you can use 'nslookup', 'dig' or 'host' to find it.

Here is an example on Linux:
$ nslookup hotvoip.com
Server: 10.16.36.29
Address: 10.16.36.29#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: hotvoip.com
Address: 77.72.174.52

$ dig hotvoip.com

; <<>> DiG 9.9.2-rl.028.23-P2-RedHat-9.9.2-10.P2.fc18 <<>> hotvoip.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 23998
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hotvoip.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
hotvoip.com. 839 IN A 77.72.174.52

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
hotvoip.com. 172738 IN NS ns3.finarea.ch.
hotvoip.com. 172738 IN NS ns1.finarea.ch.

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 10.16.36.29#53(10.16.36.29)
;; WHEN: Wed Aug 28 12:55:41 2013
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 102

$ host hotvoip.com
hotvoip.com has address 77.72.174.52
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 10 aspmx.l.google.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 20 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 30 aspmx2.googlemail.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 30 aspmx3.googlemail.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 30 aspmx4.googlemail.com.
hotvoip.com mail is handled by 30 aspmx5.googlemail.com.

That is one of many IP adresses. All the betamax/finera clones use the same server park and have multiple IP adresses that are routed by load using the DNS names.
e.g. right now it returns 77.72.169.131 and not 77.72.174.52

Chris

Hi

Can you explain in more details what you are doing exactly here?

Have yiu triedto use hotvoip also to Latvia Camel mobile?

For my trip to Europe I ended up getting a Toggle Mobile card, which seemed like the best deal for this trip. It has free incoming calls in 20 countries and in 16 additional countries there is a 19 pence connection charge but free per minute on incoming calls. The default UK number +45 74385-XXXXX is expensive to call. But I got a Denmark based # +45-7156-XXXX (free for 30 days or get it for a year for 5 pounds) . Localphone.com will forward to the Denmark # at a cost of 2.9 cents/minute. Localphone.com charged $3.00 to setup a USA incoming # and then $0.99 per month to maintain it.

My trip takes me through or in to these countries (Toggle Mobile "local number" countries are in bold):
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, France, and Spain.

Toggle Mobile: Free incoming calls in over 20 countries link

Toggle Mobile free incoming countries (countries I will be traveling in or through in bold):
Australia Austria Belgium Cyprus Denmark France Germany Greece Hong Kong India Ireland Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Singapore Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States

Toggle Mobile free incoming calls with a 19 pence connection charge countries (countries I will be traveling in or through in bold):
Cambodia Czech Republic Dominican Republic Hungary Indonesia Kenya Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico New Zealand Nigeria Romania Slovenia Thailand Vietnam

Toggle Mobile "local number" countries (countries I will be traveling in or through in bold):
Australia Denmark France Germany Ireland Netherlands Norway Poland Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom

Rates for the "local number" countries to calls to any of the 20 free incoming countries seem to be:
Landline: 3p/min, Mobile: 9p/min, SMS: 9p/sms, Data: 15p/mb. Incoming calls and texts are free.
Toggle Mobile Tariffs & coverage link

I also have a Truphone SIM and a Piranha Mobile SIM in a cheap $28 Dual SIM Quad Band phone (Samsung GT-E1182L) that I will also carry with me. And additionally I have a Hotvoip.com account if I need it. And of course Skype :)

And I'm leaving open the option of buying a local SIM for extra data coverage. I am traveling with a total of three phones (two Android phones and one dual SIM voice/text only phone). Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Toggle Mobile SIM), Samsung GT-E1182L (Truphone and Piranha SIMs), and a LG Nexus 4 (local country SIM if desired). Seems like overkill when looking at it :D

Seems like overkill when looking at it
 

Not if your third or fourth option is what works when you need it.

Hotvoip rate to XXSIM is now 18 cent per minute!

Bummer.... luckily I both used the hotvoip solution and the normal US number of xxsim for 15 cpm. I will now quickly change the hotvoip solution for another proivider....

My wife will be travelling to Germany for 6 days and then driving to Belgium and staying for 2 days. I'm struggling to figure out the best sim for her cell phone (unlocked AT&T iPhone 5). There are just so many options. After reading through all 12 pages of this thread and doing some other research it looks like onesimcard will be the best option.

Here are my reasons:
- Will work in both countries (don't want her to worry about finding multiple sim cards)
- local USA number provided for free (so the children and I can call her for free)
- I can purchase a 1 week data package. Its small (100mb = .30/mb) but most of her time will be spent working or in a hotel where they have WiFi
- no charge for incoming sms or voice calls
- Free concierge service (could be useful as this is her first EU visit)

Things I'm not concerned with:
- How long card stays active
- Losing credits
- working anywhere but the two countries listed above



My other thought was to go with Keepgo.com. You get $10/day to spend on voice or data, unused gets rolled to next day. Incoming and outgoing calls are $.11/min and data is $.65/mb and sms is $.20/msg to send (receive free). Any day in which the full $10 isn't used gets rolled into the next day. There is no charge for the sim card. Comes with local USA number.

I would like to hear thoughts and opinions on these two services.

Thanks!!

The Onesimcard is one of the best worldwide roaming SIMs, but for such a short trip to Europe I think Toggle Mobile would be a better option.

• Add a free US number valid for 30 days (costs 5£ to extend for 1 year if needed, which is not your case)
• Add a free German number if she needs to call locally in Germany for cheaper calls within Germany.
• You can call her on the US number and she receives the call for free in Germany and in Belgium.
• From Germany she calls you in the US for 3p/min.
• Calls within Germany 3p/min Landline, 9p/min mobile
• Germany data: 15p/MB, as she will be using WIFI it should be good enough.
• From Belgium she calls you for 1£/min, so the better option as it is only for 2 days is for her to send you an SMS for 7p and you call her back for free.
• Calls within Belgium 23p/min, good enough for 2 days.
• Belgium data: 67p/MB, so it is better to use WIFI, as it is for 2 days only she should be fine?

Added benefit: you can use this SIM's remaining credit in the US when she comes back home (3p/min US landline & mobile).

Sorry. but I lost you there. Why Latvia? I don't think there is anything special about calls to Latvia.