1. I am ready to order. If possible, would like a 510 number, preferable designated by phone carriers as "Oakland-Piedmont" exchange area - but any Oakland or Berkeley exchange would work almost as well. If you can't do this now, I would like to "reserve" the possibility of changing numbers later. (Whatever number I am assigned would only be used by me anyway.)

2. We all should remember that not every product will suit every person. Eg. Many here are satisfied w. Riiing/United Mobile. It didn't work for my needs. My main needs are a seamless way of getting incoming calls AND a functional VM system. Outgoing calls are important, but secondary. Eg. A Toyota may have some features/design not offered by Honda and vice-versa. Everyone has individual tastes and requirements.

3. I would like to take credit for referring you (Yackie person) to this helpful site. Remember that users here are trying to be "constructively critical".

4. I realize that early users of a product are really beta testers. As such, i wouldn't/won't be publically critical before reporting any glitches to Yackie support.

5. Sales sugggestion: How about offering a "special rate" to anyone who signs up via this web site? Even a 10% discount would help - and word would get around to order via www.prepaidgsm.net. I assume this could be structured so the "site" here gets a commission. This would be a good way to quickly get knowlegeable users on the system before the "retail buyers" come along.

...mike
email mike thaler at gmail . com (Close up the spaces<G>)

P.S. I should add that altho i am an early adopter in many things electonic, i am not a techie - like some here. I don't do SMS. I don't tie a computer to a cel phone. I hardly know what a Blackberry is. I DO use tons of minutes on a cel phone at home and a fairly modest amount on the road.

No problem, we have 510 numbers 'California: Oakland; East Bay'.

I know and I am grateful.

Fair.

You've got mail (PM)

We are doing the affiliation program with Yackie as well as we did with UM, Travelsim and Mobal. For the discount you have to ask Yackie, of course it would be great both for our users (you and me) and for the site. :beer:

One problem about Yackie is the fact that it does not have have roaming in most of Arabia. I presume this is due to the Israeli origin of the SIM.

Good guess, Stu<G> I hadn't noticed. They sure have a LOT of countries, tho, that others don't have. They seem to have virtually every Latin America country, Nz (which UM didn't have - at least last year) Also seem to cover virtually all of Africa.
They do have Jordan, Egypt and Morocco - all arab countries that recognize Israel. And they have Mexico, which I think some of the others didn't/don't have. That could be a big seller for Yackie for U.S. customers. They charge 24? for incoming - less than the 79? i believe Cingular charges and much less than the $1.49 that T-Mobile charges. (Even my grandfathered T-M rates are about $1 as i recall.)
An aside, prepaid in Mexico seems to be more expensive than roaming via Cingular last time i checked!

Stu - As i recall, you also had/have T-Mobiles old rates of 29? for incoming in many countries, including Israel.


...mike

There are few arab countries in our list of roaming coutries :

Afghanistan
Egypt
Morocco
Iraq
Jordan

but end of June we will add more destinations such as :

Algeria
Tunisia
Saudia Arabia
Lebanon
Koweit
Bahrein
Libya

we are working on our roaming list to provide the most complete coverage.

good news.
i just talked with a customer of us today who spent 900 euro in saudi arabia last month... he'll be pleased to get a better tariff for his next business trip ;)

Chris

Having a US # is definitely a big plus. I am assuming CBW can be used just like we do with UM. If I am reading CBW's rate correctly, it's 0.08. So, that will bring outgoing calls to 0.32(.24+.08). Assuming incoming calls are 0.24.

Anything will beat Mexico's prepaid rates. It's so damn expensive!

Since there is usually at least 25 cents difference between the incoming and outgoing rate, there's a "place" for using a callback service based in any of the countries in which Yackie landlines are available. However, I don't think if it's kind to Cizake to mention about such cost-cutting opportunities in this thread :)

BTW, another question to Cizake.
I think that each international prepaid should be rechargeable directly from the phone because sometimes it may be difficult ot even impossible to make an online recharge when credit is running out. I mean charging a credit card by using a USSD code, an SMS or DTMF. Of course for fraud protection reasons such transactions might be restricted e.g. at most 5 times a month and no more that $50 at once. Do you think about a solution like this?

I think I would be very interested when you get area code 310 numbers (could make do with 323 or 213).

I tend to use my mobile in two ways: One for clients to reach me while I am traveling in Europe. And second to make calls back to the US when I don't have broadband internet access (then I use VOIPBuster). Third on the list is for locals to reach me (but a distant third -- most will SMS).

For the first I use a CBW 800 number (well, 866). If I am in Switzerland or Germany (where I have national SIMs) I usually fwd to that number, even though it is more expensive, it tends to be more reliable. If I'm elsewhere, I fwd to my UM SIM. I have one of those do-hickies that lets me have two SIMs in the phone (though of course only 1 is active at a time) so its no big deal to switch over to the UM one to make a call with CBW.

Anyway, the point of this long ramble is having a US number (in my area code) would be of great value. Even better would be when/if I could also get a German number that would also fwd to the same SIM -- then I'd be in heaven. :)