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I receive this e-mail today:

Quote:

Some exciting news from Truphone

We've just launched Truphone Membership designed to make it even easier for you to enjoy local rates in all Truphone countries. And because we'd love you to experience the benefits first hand we're giving you the first month's membership absolutely FREE!

How does Truphone Membership work?

Rather than paying separately for each country now you'll simply pay a £10/$15 Membership fee which gives you access to local rates in all Truphone countries - UK and USA (and Australia coming soon) - for 30 days.

* Hassle free
No need to add local rates for each country individually, you'll now benefit from local rates in all Truphone countries automatically!

* Flexible
We offer a rolling monthly membership plan or, if you'd prefer, you can pay for a one-off month's membership when you need it most.

* All on one SIM
Add a local mobile number for any Truphone country for £5/$8 a month so friends, family and colleagues in those countries can call you without paying for an international call.

Truphone countries are UK and USA with Australia coming on board later this year and Spain, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and many, many more joining in 2011. As a Truphone member you'll get local rates in each new country automatically - for no additional charge.

How will the changes affect me?

If you're a Starter Pack customer you will be given 30 days membership absolutely free from today. All you need to do is enjoy Truphone's local rates!

If you're a Holiday Pack customer or you've added local rates for the UK or USA recently they will still apply for a month from the date you purchased. So you don't miss out we will add an additional 30 days free Truphone membership on the day your local rates expire.

Pro Pack customers, don't worry, the remainder of your 12 month's local rates plan has been automatically switched over to Truphone membership at no extra charge.

If you have an additional Truphone local number on your account then it's yours to keep for 12 months from the day it was added. Only after this time will the new rate of £5/$8 month apply.

We will send you reminders by text and by email to let you know when your free introductory membership is coming to an end.

If you have any questions or are looking for more information you can contact our friendly Customer Support team .

Best regards,

The Truphone Team

I got the same email from Truphone.

Unless I've misunderstood, it appears Truphone have replaced the free "home country" for Local Anywhere with a paid membership that gives the lower rates for the US and UK (and maybe others later).

In other words, previously the US Local Anywhere had reasonable rates for the US when used domestically. Now, it changes from 10c to 70c a minute, unless a monthly fee of $15 is paid (after 30 days).

So the "home country" appears to have been totally withdrawn, at least in the rates tables. Really kills the main selling point, which was a number that you could use in your home country then add other numbers to when you went overseas. With a monthly fee required to get sensible per minute rates, it becomes uninteresting as a home country number, in most cases.

And they have changed the US rates also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teleroam (Post 34320)

Unless I've misunderstood, it appears Truphone have replaced the free "home country" for Local Anywhere with a paid membership that gives the lower rates for the US and UK.In other words, previously the US Local Anywhere had reasonable rates for the US when used domestically. Now, it changes from 10c to 70c a minute, unless a monthly fee of $15 is paid (after 30 days).

So the "home country" appears to have been totally withdrawn, at least in the rates tables. Really kills the main selling point, which was a number that you could use in your home country then add other numbers to when you went overseas. With a monthly fee required to get sensible per minute rates, it becomes uninteresting as a home country number, in most cases.

No, you have misunderstood.

Quote:

You get local rates for your home country as standard.

They have changed the US rates also. The US receiving a call rate has increased to 15cents [from 10cents, I believe]. The former send/receive US SMS rate was 12cents. Now receiving SMS is free. Does anyone know of ANY other prepaid SMS that has free receipt of SMS to a US number?

I decided to test if the rate is really/already 0 for incoming SMS. It is. However, It is not receiving SMS from two different AT&T MVNOs. It did receive SMS from T-Mobile and a T-Mobile MVNO. Also received from Google Voice.

Just pinching in on this forum to say I have been using Truphone Local Anywhere for a few months and their service so far has been flawless for me.

I've used the service in the USA (home country), France, Spain, Andorra, Italy and Greece and it worked like a charm everywhere, voice and data included.

Their voice local rates for USA and UK are fine, but their data rates blow chunks (change is coming apparently). They should be adding lots more countries soon so hopefully TLA is going to become a great solution for us international roamers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfranzq (Post 34324)

It's pretty amazing Truphone Local Anywhere is offering free incoming SMS in the USA. I'm not aware of any other provider that does it? other than Google Voice of course. Their data rate of $500/GB is still on the pricier side.... :p

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartolo5 (Post 34361)

I've used the service in the USA (home country), France, Spain, Andorra, Italy and Greece..................... They should be adding lots more countries soon so hopefully TLA is going to become a great solution for us international roamers.

If you indeed live in Spain, they might be a 'home' country before the end of the year. I don't know what your typical usage might be but you might get a Spain SIM and ditch the US one?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfranzq (Post 34364)

If you indeed live in Spain, they might be a 'home' country before the end of the year. I don't know what your typical usage might be but you might get a Spain SIM and ditch the US one?

It really depends on what sort of data pricing Truphone comes out with. I sort of need decently priced data, most of my phones are iPhone's or Androids these days, and data is very important. There are many cheap alternatives in the spanish prepaid SIM market for both voice and data so if Truphone doesn't come out with something remotely competitive to that it won't make much sense for me to use them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bartolo5 (Post 34362)

It's pretty amazing Truphone Local Anywhere is offering free incoming SMS in the USA. I'm not aware of any other provider that does it?

I'm not aware of any European provider that charges for incoming SMS when roaming anywhere in the world. Does this really still happen in the USA? It must be a rather rare occurrence.

(I suppose it may happen when having SMS 'forwarded' from a local area code number to the number that the SIM is identified with).

Quote:

Originally Posted by petkow (Post 34369)

(I suppose it may happen when having SMS 'forwarded' from a local area code number to the number that the SIM is identified with).

Yes, all cellphone carriers in the USA charge for incoming SMS. Bizarre but that's the way it is. They've been many complain through the years because unlike a phone call, you can't reject an incoming SMS and thus you get charged for something that you can't control, but most people have unlimited text messages plans anyway so it really doesn't matter.