And how about the activation of the SIM itself?
More precisely, I have some questions about the balance.
Did yiu test the +447937 SIM with zero balance or you had to transfer some/all the balance from the +423663 SIM before?
If you hadn't transfered all the balance, is you +423663 SIM still active?

How did they ship the card? Postal mail or courier (DHL, TNT, UPS or Fedex)?

Activation is done by typing in PUK code in My Account section of UM website. I have got my card with airtime credit balance, bought as brand new one. SO balance transfer was not issue.

SIM card was sent by airmail from Kloten, Switzerland. So this meant I think they are sending them directly from Zurich Airport Post Office.

UM's headquarter is in Kloten, which is the same district of the Airport, but they are not so close, I can assure you, a taxi is needed! ;) Anyway they always used Swiss Post which of course uses ZH airport! :)

Talked to UM customer service last week about shutting down a +423 card.

What they told me is that when not used for x month it is not shut down automatically but a person has to do this. She said that for some card it could even take 1.5 years before they shut it down. If this is true ?

Got mine yesterday and put it through some tests but of course since I am in the USA, can't actually finish off calls or make calls as pricing to make or receive calls in USA is asiniely high.

1. Caller ID works both ways...

2. On AT&T long distance, calls go through pretty quickly so it seems that I will be able to use it when I travel (next trip two weeks to London, although as noted before, have always used a British PAYG in London as calls to the USA from there are dirt cheap on various PAYG's). In the past I was able to call forward from my landline to UM at an astoundingly cheap rate of 11¢/minute but those days are gone...calls to UK mobiles on my call forwarding plan are listed at 28¢/minute, not disgustingly bad but not as good as in the past. I assume there is no further surcharge to Jersey mobiles that it is treated as a call to a UK mobile.

3. The alternate 1016868 service does not seem to recognize the number so I couldn't complete any calls that way....

4. Don't know about sound quality, can't actually complete any calls (unless I want to throw away my credit) but I wonder wouldn't the sound quality be mostly dependent on the roaming partner being used? At least that's the way it seemed to work with the +423 (not that I hardly used their service to make calls but receiving calls was fine....using cbw and enlinea back in the good old days of 14¢ (can't believe it's only been 3 or 4 months) was not always great but that's understandable due t0 the nature of CBW and enlinea (they clearly route the calls through ISP's of some sort_ but then again wouldn't calls made and received with some of the phone cards with hundreds of minutes also go through these ISP's?

The big hang up, at least at present seems to be setting up my voicemail. In the past when I received the +423 card, to set up voice mail I shut the phone, waited about an hour for it to de-register from the US roaming partner (usually T Mobile USA but sometimes Cingular (interestingly enough, th ephone now say AT&T when roaming on Cingular/AT&T) and called into voicemail from a landline to re-set the pin and record my personal greeting. In any event, with the phone off, I can't seem to get through via any of my ld carriers...I get a message on my AT&T your international call cannot be completed. Please check the number and dial again or ask your operator...wonder if that is again caused by the fact it is a Jersey number or is just not working when the phone is off or needs some sort of activation...turn the phone back on and it registers and calls can be made (at least the phone rings)..see what happens today but this could be a problem.

Finally, interesting enough, when making a call via +44 UM, it's the usual callback we've grown to know and love but before you get the call back, the card flashes your balance on the display....that is nice and new.

Today I received my UM+ SIM, which I upgraded from my +423 SIM including a silver number at the cost of € 25.
To my surprise the card came with an initial credit of € 25. So in the end the silver number was for free. LOL

>>Wonder if there will be any changes to terms and conditions re topup amounts / frequency. Any gotchas in the small print?

>No, in UM's FAQs it says:

Quote:
Originally Posted by United Mobile
Q: When does the United Mobile SIM card and the credit expire?
A: SIM card and credit will become invalid if the credit has not changed for nine months.

______

I have transferred my balance over but now when doing a balance check
it says

Your remaining credit is EUR 10.25
<b>Expires in 359 days.</b>

This does not tie up with the FAQ which says the card will expire if a chargable activity isn't done for nine months.

So if I make a call now does it reset to 365 days or just keep counting down?

If this is the case then the FAQ entry ought to be changed to something like:

If the card isn't used for a chargable activity within nine months it will be cancelled and credit forfeit.
If the credit isn't used within 365 days it will be forfeit anyway.

Or have I misunderstood something?

I've just sent an SMS from my UM+ SIM to my German O2 SIM. The message instantly arrived, allthough my UM+ phone said "sending failed". Afterwards it displayed the message "remaing credit EUR 25.00. No expiry".
Not only that the message wasn't charged a single cent, but my credit seems to have infinite validity.
UM is very generous to me!

You are very lucky!