Will a Passport SIM work in an unlocked Blackberry Tour?
 

Anyone know if a Passport SIM will work in a Verizon Blackberry Tour 9630? I have a friend who is thinking of getting the Blackberry.

I think the GSM part of the VZW phones comes locked to Vodafone. If you search the 'net, though, lots of people seem to be able to get VZW to give them the unlocked code.

If the GSM part is unlocked, then it will work with the Passport SIM.

35 cent connection fee.
 

44cents=9cents a minute plus a 35cents connection fee. I know it says 50cents but it seems to be 35cents. Don't tell ekit.

Yes, it will work. To the best of my knowledge, EKit does not support Blackberry pass through. Therefore, even if you are in a data enabled country, I don't think you will be getting your mail.

Hi everyone,
New to this ekit dual sim card thing. Someone on howardforums recommended it. I'm traveling to France and Portugal in a week and I bought a ekit France passport off ebay ($20).
I emailed customer service to clarify a couple of features listed on their website that seemed to contradict:
# FREE to receive calls in more than 60 countries (on your Global number)
# FREE for family and friends to call you (USD 39c per minute surcharge applies)

And I got this response:
> In order to receive Free Incoming calls you must be in a Free Incoming
> call country such as France. Furthermore, in order for the call to be
> free you must receive the call to your Global +44 number. If you receive
> a call to your US +1 number the call will not be free.
>
> You will receive a Toll-Free number making if free for friends and
> family to contact you at your Global +44 number free of charge for you
> for the first 30 minutes. After using the Toll-Free number for more than
> 30 minutes a .39 cents per minute surcharge applies to you. As long as
> people call you direct to your Global +44 number and you're in a Free
> Incoming call country then the call would indeed be free. Surcharges
> only apply when receiving calls to your US +1 or when receiving calls
> via the Toll-Free number AFTER the initial 30 free minutes.

And after further clarification, I got this:
The 30 minutes is for the lifetime of the phone. 30 minutes is the total
you get it does not reset itself or start over when a call is done.

Has anyone been charged when you went over 30minutes of free incoming calls?

Thanks in advance!

The toll free number in the USA is generic...people then have to enter your US +1 number; as noted they don't pay and after the 30 minutes, you pay 39¢/minute to receive.....but note it's only 19¢/minute to receive a call in zone 1 made to your US+1 number....let them call the US number and you pay only 19¢ and that's unlimited...or you can have them call the +44 number and you receive for nothing but they pay whatever their ld carrier charges for a call to a UK mobile and these rates vary very widely....now I have had two choices....I have had a variety of UK sim cards (they literally give them away and whatever is the best deal of the month is the one I use; I just used vodafone UK for my last trip to Europe but of course their wonderful summer promotion is now finis like in finished like in done)...the way I do it is I use remote call forwarding off my verizon landline (verizon allows remote call forwarding to foreign numbers, not all landline companies do)...I pay 30¢/minute through my ld carrier's foreign plan (in my case AT&T| but if I call forward from landline to my mobile, I pay a one time NYC charge for a local call (9¢ total not for minute) and then the call from my mobile to the US+1 number costs 19¢/minute....not bad (I don't have unlimited US ld on my landline so this is the cheapest way)...it works.

It seems to me that ekit, right now today (but can't guarantee tomorrow of course) is a good deal especially for receiving calls and apparently they don't have the free usage hang up some of the Isle of Man carriers have...all you need do is make one paid even every nine months.

I just don't see any pitfalls (although some of the Isle of Man guys here such as Easy Roam point out that countries like Bulgaria on ekit are very expensive, something to be aware of if you travel to Bulgaria).....

Just a quick other note....calls to the +44 number do not, unfortunately, support caller id...you will receive some sort of London 020 7... number as the calling party while calls to the +1 number do support caller id and you see the number, if available, of the calling party. Don't know how important this is to you.

Let me clarify--How you and your callers get 30 free minutes.
 

Thank you very much Matha531 and rFranzq for your responses!

It's always wise to check the rates for the countries you are traveling to. As for easyroam he might want to point out that he does charge for incoming calls in Belgium a country still visited by many users, more than Bulgaria is my guess. Also he might want to change his website to state more clear that he works on fair use bases, using very unclear terms that can shut you down. Also when not using the card for 30 days it's turned of and has to be reactivated.

Ekit for now has a good offer, no fair use crap, good backoffice to check rates.

In June, we used eKit cards (both the old UK number and the newer dual SIM) in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. No problems whatsoever.

I just got back from an extended trip that included Italy, Egypt and Israel. My new dual phone number Ekit SIM worked well. I had no trouble finding a signal anywhere I went. I occasionally set my phone on "manual" to see what carriers popped up. In a few locations I got 6 or 7 options. A few places I was given the choice of a carriers GSM or 3G network. I did get one incoming text message, but it was delayed 8 hours for some reason.

do you get caller id on incoming numbers, I have tried several countries but no incomming caller id is showing when using ekit.

bbob:

I only got one incoming call and it was from a U.S. cell phone to my U.S. number. I did get the caller id to show the number.

Anybody know if it is possible to disable texting (at least outgoing) on an ekit Passport account?

Thanks.

I'm going to South Africa next week and tried to get my eKit working in the US. I can make outgoing calls, but all incoming calls go to Voicemail. I've used both TMobile and ATT. I've also tried both calling my US and UK numbers. It goes to voicemail and doesn't connect.

Make sure you are in US mode. For US mode you enter a 2 plus the PIN. As I posted in another thread, I ahd absolutely no luck getting calls on the US number when I was in Jamaica last month. Even though it works while in the US without any problems.

Is the US service activated?
 

In 'account detail' online does it show that your US service is activated?

I entered 2.

Are you sure you were in Global mode whilst in Jamaica? The calls ought to come in just fine provided you have enough credit to handle the cost (rate/minute for receiving the call over there as well as the US 19 cents/minute for the automatic forwarding from the US number).

Oh, Yes. I was definitely in global mode. 1 or may be 2 out of 10 calls did ring through on the US number. You will notice in the other Ekit thread, that others have reported having no luck receiving calls on the US number while in the Caribbean.

I can make outbound US calls on the phone and it says "US Mode" on the display. I've been through their website and can't find anything under account details. I did start in international mode and dial the code to activate US mode. I then shut off the phone for five minutes.

On the web, it shows my US number is still alive, my account is active, shows a positive account balance, SIM is Passport SIM, etc. When I enable call forwarding, I can send the call elsewhere for US$1 a minute to the US (presumably the cheapest call forward).

I guess then there must be something wrong with the providers out there then...

Customer service seems to have straightened it out, but I want to cross the border and give it a test on Rogers this weekend.

I was testing my U.S. number and cannot receive any incoming calls on the U.S. line. Calls go straight to voice mail. EKIT is trying to figure it out. While in U.S. mode (and in the US) , I can receive calls made to my UK number. Anyone else tried receiving a call on their US number while in the US?

I re-tested my Ekit SIM that would not receive incoming calls (or make outgoing calls) on the U.S. number in my other 2 phones. The SIM seemed to work fine in the other phones. It made calls and received calls and text messages. I assume that the first phone must have some sort of "glitch" in it. At least I know the SIM works.

Once again EKIT's customer service comes through. I have said previously that quality, responsive, customer service is worth going with a company like EKIT.

They determined my nearly year old EKIT phone was defective and replaced it with no cost to me. They shipped my a new phone and included a free UPS return slip to send back the defective one. That kind of service is hard to beat.

I've had some trouble with Sony Ericsson models in the USA with e-kit but never with nokia phones...don't know why....

I succumbed... the pressure was too much.... ordered a $9 eKit set from eBay :D That means that soon I will be able to compare Truphone local anywhere and eKit SIMple USA/Canada - apart from the obvious: cost/m. I'll keep everybody informed :)

Sim Card registration failed in US mode - Anyone else?
 

I now get this message after entering the PIN. I first noticed this one day last week. When I change to Global mode, it registers instantly. I tried this several times. May be the US number has expired or so. I last used it in Jamaica in April. When I call both the US/UK numbers it it goes straight to voicemail. That may be due to the US number been expired, and not being able to receive calls in the global mode while in the US. I can log into the account using both US/UK numbers. Too expensive to try to make an outgoing call while in the US, so I did not try that.

I just sent ekit an email. If anyone else in the US is working fine, then it's likely my US number expiring. No big deal there, I will activate another when next I am traveling.

Fix for Sim Card registration failed in US mode
 

The US number probably has not expired..........yet. Probably the US 'activation' has expired after two weeks of nonuse. Either go online to your account and click on 'activate' SIM of dial 870 from global mode and you should be working in US mode in a few minutes. [Check the SIM card address list and see if there is an item called "Activate US Service" {870}]

Ekit got back to be. Wow! That was quick. It registers fine now. Not sure what happened.

Isn't it 154 that activates the US IMSI?

No, 154 calls customer service-----which would cost $2.50 if you tried calling it from the US while connected to the global service. Perhaps better to call their toll free number from another phone in the US if you are having issues.

Once again another reason to use Ekit. Maybe others know this, but Ekit sent me an e-mail advising me that one of my SIM cards was about to expire unless I made a call. This is a great service. Once I got "screwed" when a pre-paid phone card expired for non use of one call every 90 days. They never sent a reminder and just turned off my card and took the cash left in the account.

Here's what the Ekit e-mail said:
"Your eKit international phone account balance will expire in one month."

As you have not made any calls with your international cell phone or SIM
card for eight months, the balance of your account will expire in one
month.

To extend the life of your account balance for at least another nine months, simply make a call or send a paid text message - or recharge your account within the next month.

I received that email too. Excellent service used it all over EU with free incoming calls, and callers pay small price using Betamax/VoipGain at only 3 euro cent a minute.

I can only confirm ekit is a great service. There will always be a discussion that there are cheaper one. This will all depend on the desitantions you are calling, where you are calling from and how often you use it.

Biggest advantage is ekit has mane free incoming countries inclusing usa, does not have the so called fair use system where other provider limit calls if you go over a ratio. Their internet backend is very good. I have been a happy user for more than 1 year now, and just bought another card for my wife.

Hello guys. I am new to this site. I read through all the responses to this forum string a few weeks ago before I ordered my Ekit Simple sim. Now I am sure I forgot most of what I had read. I hope someone can answer a question for me please.

My wife and I are traveling to Europe in a few weeks and I purchased the Ekit sim to stay in touch with my young daughters in the US. Under our ATT cell plan, my kids have free long distance in the US so I figure they can call my Ekit USA number at no additional charge to my ATT cell plan. I know I will get charged, I think 19 cents or something like that to receive the call in Europe.

However, what I am not clear on is what happens if I call their cell phones in the US from Europe. I presume I would call from the +44 number but would the effect be that I will incur internal calling charges on their cell phones? Do I call from the EKit USA number when calling their cell phones to avoid additional ATT cell charges?

I still am also uncertain what my rates are if we send text back and forth to the kids from Europe and the impact on my ATT cell plan. We have unlimited texting in the USA on our current ATT plan.

Thank you in advance.

First, familiarize yourself with your SIM card.
 

Make sure you log into your SIM card info at the ekit website. Update your personal information and set up a "Identification Question" in the 'Account Details' section. Under the 'My Service' section will be the call rates. [There are two different 'SIMple' cards that have different rates so you will find out which you have when you login to your account.] Might I suggest you write down the rates for the countries you are visiting? That way you will know and not have to worry what they are or have to look them up during your trip. Perhaps you will set up automatic recharge. Perhaps you should test the SIM card in the US before you go. Have a daughter try to send you a SMS to the +447 number to see if it works. It should be free to receive anywhere on the planet. {xxxx=pin number} In the US and Canada when you turn on the phone you will use 2xxxx as the unlock code at the start and you screen will show the network and if a second line is allowed will say 'US'. Everywhere else in the world, you will enter xxxx and the second line if it shows will say 'Global'.

Yes, have them call the US number. Check your rates on the web page. 19cents should be right. Have them test call before you leave while you are still in the US so you can have confidence it will work. Also have them put the number in their phone's address book so when you test it so you know they have the right number in there and works. The beauty of these cards is you can test them before you go.


You will use the 'Global' [xxxx] settings to use the phone outside of the US. Those rates will what apply to you. US cell phones don't care who is calling them or from where. Whatever they get charged [or not] is the same as any US call to them.


Test to see they can send you SMS via the UK +447 number and if they are charged for it and how much. The 'Global' set up receives SMS for FREE. Sending is 69cents--but check your own details online [and write them down.]


Any other questions, just ask. It is easier and better to ask before you go!:)

Thank you for all the guidance. All four countries we will visit have the same rates so that will make it easier. I will try to do the testing you suggested. I just do not trust ATT not to charge my kids' phone for an incoming international call as a regular USA call.

US Phone Number expires
 

I currently have 6 ekit cards. I have never had a US number expire until today. In the fine print it says the US number will expire if you do not use it in 3 months. I believe I have avoided this in the past by checking the account regularly [every 2-4 weeks] and reactivating the US number if it has become dormant. When I checked today, it was gone and I got a new phone number [in Texas not in Massachusetts {which is a bonus for me}] instantly. This suprised me because I added $10 less than a month ago and thought that would have kept it alive. Just so you all can know what might happen.