Hi we are glad the Piranha Sim worked well in South Korea for you, unfortunately the incoming VoIP problem is dependent on the routes used by the calling party, we only use premium routing on VoIP and Voice calls which you described as good quality when calling out (thank you). SMS, we have tested your existing number and given you a new number to test SMS, we have sent you test texts from 4 different operators/networks, all of which have been received on your original and test number, please let us know where the texts you are talking about were sent from and the result i.e were you charged etc. Finding network, this is very unusual and only normally happens when a handset is left on flight mode, once we replied your support ticket, it was logged that your handset registered shortly thereafter.

PSIM.

P.S We expect to be around for sometime and thank you again for using our service.

Just pulled this off the Piranha forum:

Dear Customers, from the 31-12-2012, Piranha Mobile reduces the costs of Call-Off-Load and Call-Forwarding by approximately 15%-20%.
More price reductions, “COMING SOON” in 2013. Happy New Year from the Piranha Mobile Admin team.

If they have reduced prices today, i wonder what they are planing for 2013?.
Happy New Year to you all.

Built to be sold, a rich man's toy, built for roaming revenue in areas not covered by major companies. In the case of Telna, it appears to be primarily to claim "GSM carrier" status for their international roaming operation.

n.b. There are really no "GSM licenses", just RF licenses. Verizon got into the GSM business when the bought Western Wireless (or when they bought Alltel, who had bought Western Wireless) a GSM-850 carrier. Since they had the network up and running, they kept it operating for the roaming revenue. This was a good thing for ATT & T-Mobile customers, who in many places would have no service otherwise.

i guessed so... We have a customer here in germany who has one (1) GSM tower in antarctica on a research station. So he is a registered carrier and gets good conditions on SMS and data services to sell his telematics products here in germany :-)

Chris

Piranha Mobile Data pricing
 

Noticed a few folks posting here on how good the Pirhana data prices are. Maybe it's the engineer in me, but can anyone confirm that? I see on their web site that they show they charge by the Mb. In my world, that is mega-bit. Other carriers usually charge by the MB (Mega-byte).. If they are charging by Mb you would have to mutiply thier rate by 8 to convert it to MB... I know it's a trivial issue to question if a letter is capital or lower case, but when it means a factor of 8, that is a BIG price difference...

Anyone know the real story?

You are quite right it is a typo it should read MB.:) Thank you for pointing this out.

Dear o dear seen some points on this forum but the last comment takes the buiscuit Mb over MB every body else seems to understand, prehaps you need a hobby.

I am a lawyer and wouldn't have thought about that! I have a client however who has a draft website going live and is paying employees and outside beta testers (small group) a bounty for errors, gaps, and omissions they find on the website. Despite serious proofing, it is interesting what they are finding.

Haven't used an int'l SIM in 2 or 3 years
 

Will be in China for 3 weeks as a tourist in April. For the past couple years I have found using T-Mobile's (U.S.) UMA wifi calling to be quite adequate since wifi was quite prevalent wherever we went overseas the past few years
This time I thought I'd look into an int'l SIM. Piranha seems to be the only provider to provide reasonable rates. Many charge over $1/min. Piranha charges 32 cents/min. for outgoing to U.S. and 19 cents/min. incoming. Question, has anyone here used them in China? The fact they are so much cheaper makes me wonder if I am missing something. The reviews, here, seem quite good. They make use of both carriers in China.
I read a review of China's own prepaids. Excellent and detailed, posting on the "Asia" forum here. Sounds almost impossible for a foreign traveler to make real use of it.

Any China travelers here? Is wifi easily found? Anyone use Piranha or another SIM there?

Thanks.

Hi just for your info Piranha have reduced the cost of Data roaming in China by 50% effective from today :D

PSIM Admin

I looked up the rates just a couple hours before my above post. Sure enuf, a few hours later - the rates are exactly half what they were -- now 64 and 48 cents per M (depending on carrier) That's 1/30th of what my home carrier would charge!
I have never used paid cell data overseas. The exception is - I do use the Blackberry unlimited email feature for 67 cents a day when roaming.

Snidely,

Tell me what the differences are between the soft UMA they are loading onto Android phones and the hardware UMA in things like Blackberry or the old Nokia flips?

i wish they reduce termination rates for Greece numbers too.
termination rates to Greek mobile numbers have reduced for over -50%

I am not a techie - but here goes:

UMA is hardware based and was available on an old Nokia you mentioned, an old Samsung and all the Blackberry models starting a few years ago up thru OS 6. The BB "newer" models using OS7 are software based - like the Androids. I don't know, of course, what BB OS 10 will have. (We'll know in a month!)
Not that it ever made a diff to me - but UMA allowed users to start a call on wifi (UMA), which stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access, and it will automatically jump to a cell tower when you leave that wifi connect - and vice versa. The software based wifi calling (technically not UMA according to what I've read), won't do that.
T-Mobile was/is the only U.S. carrier to have this feature. Rogers in Canada does as well. On both hardware and software based calling via wifi - the calls are processed thru the carrier's system. UMA on my old BB is often as clear as a regular cell tower or even landline call. We haven't made many calls on wife's Android via wifi - but while the calls are still processed via the carrier - don't seem quite as good.
The calls show up on your bill just like regular cell tower calls. As you know, wifi calling can be used anywhere in the world there is wifi and calls back to U.S. are billed as local calls. IOW - you can be in Hanoi and call a U.S. number for "free" - but calling a number anywhere else in the world is billed at regular intl. rates - even calling the restaurant down the street. [That's where Google Voice comes in - but I digress.] As far as the carrier is concerned - when using wifi, it is as though you were at home, not overseas.
The advantage of all this is that making calls using the old or new UMA is seamless. You don't have to load an app - phone will automatically connect via wifi. You do, the first time you enter a new wifi zone, select a "wifi signal" and save it so you automatically connect the next time you enter that zone. If it is secured, you enter the security code that first time.

We have used UMA everywhere from Australia to Zambia. Nothing like sitting in "your" Dubai airport for a while a few years back and making free calls rather than paying $3+ in roaming costs (which I'd never do.)

I know I repeated a lot of what you already knew - but I'm sure others here are not familiar with UMA since only a dozen carriers, I think, have this feature.

One thing w. the BBerry - I can tell the phone NOT to connect via cell tower so as not to accidentally make an expensive roaming call when you want to use UMA as the way to connect. I'm not that all familiar with the wife's Android - but it doesn't seem as easy to make that set up.

mike

Thanks. As you know, I had a general familiarity with the technology and I appreciate that much of what you posted was for others.

Cinci Bell has it as well. So does Orange UK, but it is like pulling teeth to get them to talk about it.

Piranha Mobile SIM - Battery Life
 

Anyone else notice that the battery life with a Piranha SIM is greatly reduced? My Tru and Telna SIMs can sit in idle mode for about a week... My Piranha SIM, the battery only lasts a day and a half in idle mode... Same phone, same battery....???

Phone for piranha voip
 

I'm looking to buy a quad freq phone with wifi that works with piranha voip for about $100-$125. What minimum version android does voip need? Anyone use a quad freq phone in this price area that works with piranha voip? Thanks...

I've been away for too long :D I'm afraid I crumbled and joined "the enemy" (=local Canadian prepaid sim lol)

However I was looking for a SIM card to rarely check email on an additional smartphone without any other obligations. It seems Piranha is very competitive especially here in Canada! I have ordered mine today, will keep everyone posted.

PS nice to see so many of the same faces in here, hi everybody :)

Perhaps. Could it be doing something different with data??

Just to clarify, this means you can have Piranha customer service setup your service so that when you call someone the number that shows up on caller ID (of the person receiving your call) when calling over GSM is different from the one they give you? I assume you have to prove you own the other number, but if this is the case, this is a great feature, and may have sold me on getting a Piranha SIM.

Piranha battery usage issues?
 

From another thread:
Perhaps you are not alone.

I mentioned I will get a chance to test this sim for my incoming US calls, when I was in Nigeria the last 2 weeks. However, between the sim logging on and off network and searching for network, and going to emergency mode most of the time, until I restarted the phone. I resorted to my Ekit sim quickly! Not a single issue with Ekit - The thing worked perfectly.

Piranha may have lower rates, but it certainly did not work out for me in Nigeria.

Always make sure you have a backup.

I'm truly beginning to see a floor in the international SIM niche. Sure my home carrier may have ridiculous rates as compared to a Piranha, but 'it works'. I'm not sure if it has to do with the maturity of the equipment and software (SIM) or it is truly just a pricing issue... [I'm still on the fence as I seem to be addicted to collecting SIM cards.] Some days I lean toward just paying the higher rates for convenience, other times I want to root for the underdog. In the end, it comes down to trying to support someone on the other side of the world that can't get thier phone to work... Growing tired of being the sounding board for service that 'may' work and saving money.... Who knows.. http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/images/smilies/cool.gif

Just got my Piranha SIM
 

Shipped on Monday, arrived in California on Saturday. It took about 15-30 minutes for the SIM to first register.
Although our last trips the past couple years we've relied on having wifi at hotels and restaurants (Vietnam, Cambodia etc.) - we weren't sure we'd have universal wifi in China (never been there) and I have business needs that might not wait and wife has mother to deal with who is in a care home.
While I got it mainly to put in a dumb phone for phone calls, their data rates are quite reasonable at 47 cents per Meg. I'll use my Blackberry for email - unlimited at 67 cents/day.
My wife's ipad is locked, but I might take my Android Tablet.

hold-off on Piranha
 

I've been using a Piranha SIM for the past month in the US, and thus far I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone. On paper it's a great product. In reality, it seems that they have some serious bugs that need ironing out.

Some experiences:

- Within the first few days, I noticed I was not receiving text messages being sent to my Google Voice number (i.e. I saw them online at Google Voice, but they were not being forwarded). With further testing I discovered that it had nothing to do with Google Voice, and direct phone-to-phone text messages were not going through to my device. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved.

- A couple weeks ago on a road-trip to Chicago, my phone service stopped working completely. No reception at all. I was able to see T-Mobile's service (Piranha's US provider) when I did a manual service search, but was unable to connect. Despite restarting my phone and reinserting the SIM numerous times, nothing helped and service was unavailable for hours - even in areas I had used Piranha and T-Mobile before. I tried an actual T-Mobile SIM in my phone just to make sure it wasn't a T-Mobile outage. The problem was clearly on Piranha's end. I contacted Piranha online and the problem was quickly resolved (confirming my suspicion that it was a problem on their end). In my email I asked to speak with a supervisor, as not having service for such a long period is a serious fault. I received an email suggesting this was to do with T-Mobile's 3G bands and an incompatibility with my device - which it wasn't (I was using GSM and have used T-Mobile's GSM for years). Despite asking again, I've still received no explanation as to why I had no service for hours on end, nor any assurance that it won't ever happen again.

- Once your balance goes below 3 pounds (remember it's a UK service), you receive a low balance SMS after EVERY call or SMS sent that reduces your balance further. Highly annoying. I've just contacted them asking for this to be disabled or at least reduced so that only one such notification is sent out per day at maximum.

- On the plus side, they do allow you to change your outgoing caller ID info to another number. To do this simply contact customer service through their website. I changed my outgoing CID to my Google Voice number, and this plus the free incoming SMS (an unusual feature in the US market) make this ideal for using with Google Voice.

So, if they can just fix the first 3 problems I'll continue using them. As it is now, if you're considering a Piranha SIM, I'd hold off if you can to see how things pan out. I'll definitely report back here if things get better or worse.

Huh?
 

Incoming SMS is free but the ones they send you about low balance are not free??

No, sorry - I should have worded that better. What I meant was that any billable action (calls made and received, SMS sent -- but NOT SMS received since that's free) results in an low balance notification by SMS. So, send 3 SMS over the course of 5 minutes, receive 3 low balance notifications over 5 minutes. It's stupid.

Dear Sir, as you rightly stated we quickly resolved your Google Voice SMS issue, we did however explain to you that T-Mobile for 3G works on the 1700 MHZ band and that you may have had an issue if your handset did not support the 1700 MHZ service, (we do have a notice on the website stating that a 1700 MHZ handset is recommended when roaming in the US). if your handset does not support 1700 MHZ it will revert to default 2G, which has less coverage than 3G, you have since informed admin that your handset does not support 1700 MHZ, we also explained that T-Mobile were re-farming there 1900 MHZ network to get around this issue and that they are hopeful all works will be completed by the summer 2013. You were given a full explanation regarding the T-Mobile roll out and 1700 MHZ bands. The low balance SMS service (standard in most PAYG services) is there for all users, unfortunately at this time we do not run a bespoke service for individual users.

PSIM

Wow, interesting that you (and I assume you are a representative of Piranha) decide to reply in a public forum and state the same thing as your email - an email which I replied to and in which I addressed this issue of T-Mobile's 3G bands - and to which I never got any further reply. But since you seem to have either "missed" it or you just want to revisit this issue in the open, let me copy and paste it for the benefit of you (and everyone else) here:

(Email from me to Piranha Mobile on April 18, 2013)

I'm very aware of T-Mobile's 3G bands and their current refarming of their 1900MHz spectrum. Unfortunately it doesn't apply to me at the moment as my current Android device is 900/2100 only (I live in Europe much of the year). I can tell you though that T-Mobile's 2G network is just as good as their 3G network in terms of coverage in urban areas, and better in rural areas, which I covered many during the time of this outage. Let me explain (and repeat much of what I've already said).

I first noticed that I wasn't getting any service in downtown Chicago at the beginning of a drive northwest to Madison, Wisconsin, on a major interstate highway (I-90). As I was a rider in the car I was able to check my phone throughout the entire 150-mile trip, and at no time was I able to get a working signal -- this despite the fact that I was in an area which T-Mobile clearly shows as having 2G coverage, but more importantly, I began doing manual searches for service during the trip to try to get a working connection. T-Mobile (and AT&T) came up every time, but despite repeated attempts to connect, the SIM was unable to register on the network. I tried AT&T as well (just in case) and upon crossing the border from Illinois into Wisconsin, I even tried connecting to a small regional GSM provider. I tried rebooting the device and re-inserting the SIM card numerous times. Nothing worked. I concluded that either the entire T-Mobile network in this 150-mile stretch was down, or the problem was on the Piranha end of things (my money being on the latter, given my experience with SMS not coming through a couple weeks ago). Upon arriving home, a location that I know has working coverage, I inserted an actual T-Mobile prepaid SIM card into my phone just to see if it was a T-Mobile problem or not. The T-Mobile network came up fine. I began this "conversation" by emailing Piranha, and not long after that, I was able to get service again.

So, on my end of things, it seems quite clear that it was something on Piranha's end. I just want to know what, and whether to expect this kind of service (or lack thereof) in the future. The fact that I'm getting the run around doesn't bode well, and certainly doesn't put me in a position to recommend Piranha's to others. This is why I asked to speak to a supervisor. On paper, I think your service is ideal for a certain group of people, including myself. I can sympathize with small businesses: I know very well that starting out there can be hiccups, and I'd like to see you guys succeed because I like your product on paper -- but right now I'm feeling that I've wasted $20 and a good deal of time on a half-baked service.

Thanks for reading (if you got this far)
(End of email)

Now, just in case that long-worded email wasn't clear enough, let me say it outright: My extended lack of service with my Piranha SIM had NOTHING to do with T-Mobile's 3G bands. I keep my Android device set to "GSM only" in the US because I know it doesn't get T-Mobile's 3G network, and I've been using T-Mobile's 2G network for the past 7 years directly with T-Mobile's own prepaid service. In fact, that was one of my reasons for buying a Piranha SIM: because Piranha uses T-Mobile in the US, and I knew from experience that T-Mobile's service works for me.

I read this forum on regular basis and reading through your posts it is clear that you do not seem to be happy with piranha. I am using and have for a long time used the piranha mobile sim when travelling to the states and many other countries and find the service and rates are very good. Also I note that the majority of people on this forum are very pro piranha and its service. I am curious as to why you alone seem to be having such a big issue with the network, I have a trip due to the lakes in Wisconsin next month for research and will need my phone to work.

It's one thing for a sim to have lots of features/bells and whistles, and it's another for it to be usable for the basic things when you really need it. See my post above - Piranha was not usable for me when I traveled. Bottom line, The thing would not register on the network. And if it does, it goes to emergency mode within minutes. I certainly do not plan on depending on it on my future trips.

gkeeper is not alone, I've used Piranha and generally it's fine, but there have been some reliability issues, once in Iceland and once somewhere else I don't recall. They are responsive in resolving them, but still.
Nevertheless, rates are very good, esp. for VOIP, incoming VOIP number same as GSM is great feature (using Acrobits for that), and I use it for international call forwarding even when not in a phone.
Carry a backup sim - there was a thread on this!

Earlier today I spoke to a colleague who is already in Wisconsin near Milwaukee who is also using the piranha Sim and asked if he had any reception connecting issues when using it and he says it is satisfactory and is happy using it. I was getting worried I would have to go on the Sim hunt again.

gkeeper, I agree with what others have already said: have a backup. If you're coming from the UK, chances are your UK SIM will work in the US, even if the rates are much higher, but at least then you know have an alternative if you encounter problems.

You should always carry a backup SIM. I've experience and seen horror stories with plenty of people using gold plated contract SIMs from first tier carriers.

Besides Piranha who would you recommend as a second sim provider in the US as backup

T-Mobile has been offering free prepaid SIM cards rather regularly through their website (bottom of the page) - though not at present. If you have some time you could keep an eye on that and order one, though obviously you'd have to have it shipped to a US address.

I was also looking at Truphone, which is another prepaid international SIM that uses T-Mobile's US network. Their SMS and data rates in the US are actually better than Piranha's: $.10 per SMS sent (free incoming), $.15 per MB data (billed every 100kb), calls being $.15 per minute incoming and outgoing. I haven't actually used their service much within the US but I haven't had any problems using their service outside the US.

The other thing you could look into is a SIM that runs on AT&T's network. Overall AT&T's coverage is better than T-Mobile's if you're going to be in more rural areas. Expect rates to be more expensive, though.

The easy answer is: "The one that works!'
Of course you do not find out which is
the one that does not
work until it is too late.

Since you are in the UK, I would suggest Tru or ekit. Both do the AT&T and T-Mobile networks. ekit actually does almost all GSM networks in the USA. If you happen to be travelling to some of the weird GSM places in the US, ekit might be better. I believe Wisconsin is one of those weird GSM places. {'lakes in Wisconsin definitely sound weird.} [As is some of the empty places in the West {Wyoming, Montana} and Maine]
Understand ekit's rates can be more--there is a connection fee that means shorter calls are more expensive, but longer ones would be cheaper. If you are using data, than Tru probably is the better choice.

Pertaining to the thread mentioned below. If you could get both Tru and Ekit along with already having Piranha, it would be braces and a belt and a rope.
The 'research' you mention is probably not "GSM coverage" in Wisconsin, but now it can be!

The thread in question is linked below:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inte...html#post41610

Just got back from 3 weeks in China. Piranha took a couple hours to register and worked fine for incoming. I was using the SIM in a dumb phone. I stupidly contacted CS when I couldn't make outgoing calls. Stupidly - on my part - because all I had to do is do a battery pull reboot - which I should have done before calling them. (I forgot that even dumb phones need re-booting to get them going at times.) Outgoing then worked quite well - just a few seconds to get the call back connection.
I didn't need to use voice , much, because there is a 15 hour time diff. and that I could make use of T-Mobile's (U.S.) "automatic" wifi calling feature from my 3 y.o. BBerry from most hotels. Calls back to U.S. are free and almost as good as being on a cell tower. (T-M's Androids also have wifi calling builtin, but I didn't find using wife's Android as seamless in making calls via wifi. ) With a Blackberry I could do unlimited email for 67¢/day while there (or anywhere in the world where BB servers work).

I will tell my solution for data in China in a separate post.

Bottom line - Piranha works fine in China. The couple of test calls/SMS here in the U.S. worked fine as well. Did not use SMS on Piranha in China.