This is the point I try to make about the "free incoming" cards. At some point someone has to pay the piper. In my case that will most frequently be me or my family. I'd rather have a card that offers a reasonable and rational rate plan than one that is tied to some premium prefix that either gets hugely surcharged or blacklisted.

have a look also here: http://www.piranha-mobile.com/roaming.pdf to fully understand how estonian based simcards like xxsim make profit from their customers.

The EU has a lot of options for telecom cheap calls, here's an example!


cheap calls from UK to Estonia

Cheap Calls to Estonia - just 1p/min | DialToSave

Cheap Calls to Estonia 1p per minute, Call to Estonia, International Calls to Estonia

Cheap Calls to Estonia | First Number (UK)

PrePay sim - Lycamobile | Low Cost international calls | Best international SIM card | Free SIMs

PrePay sim - International Calls & Free SIMs | Pay As You Go | Lebara

look on the internet there are a lot of options for cheap calls from UK


Cheap calls from A - D - CH - F to Estonia etc

Billig nach Estland telefonieren vom Handy

Festnetz Schnellrechner für Telefontarife und Call by Call

PrePay sim - Welcome to Lycamobile - The New Lycamobile Pay As You Go SIM

PrePay sim - Günstig Telefonieren | Telefonieren ins Ausland | Lebara

PrePay sim - Lycamobile | Günstige Auslandsgespräche | Beste internationale SIM-Karte | Kostenlose SIM-Karten

PrePay sim - vectonmobile.at

PrePay sim - Billig Telefonieren | Telefonieren ins Ausland | Vectone Mobile

PrePay sim - Tarife

pennyphone.be - Le moins cher pour appeler l'étranger ! Gunstig naar het beitenland telefoneren !

Llamadas Internacionales baratas a movil a precios locales


I personally use Xxsim and I have no complaints from the client does when it is too expensive to call from their country etc.


I do not advocate Xxsim experience but I will be glad to share with everyone.

(Fsotirop, refrain from comments without basis, thanks)

Eustar -
You can't, really, expect people to take your post seriously? If I give my flaky Estonian SIM number for people to call - why would I expect them to know they can't dial it in the usual manner (without incurring huge costs if their carrier even allows the call to go thru)?
In my case, if I use a "int'l SIM", I get one w. a U.S. number and simply forward my regular number to that SIM's U.S. number or give out the SIM number. Couldn't do that with an Estonian or IOM SIM.

please don't bother EUSTAR from his meaningless spamming about xxsim!

have a look also here: http://www.piranha-mobile.com/roaming.pdf to fully understand how estonian based simcards like xxsim make profit out from their customers.

Sure, this is the business model for all SIM that offer zero cent per minute for their customers. The other way is to charge the customer per minute and give cheaper minutes to the callers. The sum will be the same. Just a matter of communication.
If i take our reliable carrier it charges 13ct/min to Camel, 15ct/min to XX and 5ct/min to Piranha. From our cellphone all three cost 29ct/min...

I have moved from free incoming numbers because it was a game of "whack a mobile." Wack a mole was a video game where you tried to stop a mole from popping up. When you whacked the mole, it popped up elsewhere.

I used to purchase free incoming SIMs, find the cheapest route to connect to it, forward a DID to it from my Asterisks box. These rates, however, would change on the fly. The typical carrier didn't realize that they were quoting a particular termination below cost and would try to retroactively change the rates which would create a fight. Sometimes I'd win, sometimes I'd lose. When I won, I'd win that fight only and then would have an unusued balance witht he carrier that I would have to try and use up doing something else. I'd also wind up buying new SIMs on new routes and repeating the saga.

Perhaps it is a product of age, but I decided that I was better paying a little bit more and getting a little more certainty. I don't ask people to make international calls to reach me, I eat that. Therefore, it is a question of whether I pay the VOIP carrier or the roaming SIM provider. I decided to try Plan B.

Plan A (the super cheap approach) also contributed to the company's failures. They projected a profit plan (in a narrow profit industry) based on receiving termination rates that were often not paid. Many of these folks also assumed that the ratio of incoming to outgoing calls that applied in domestic cellular behavior would extend to international. I think people organize their life to take advantage of the cheaper incoming rates and carriers that don't plan for this take a bath.

from our pstn carrier (business plan) in Greece calling to Camel costs 0.21eur, to xxsim 0.29eur. and to US numbers 0.09..per minute billing

from our reliable voip company calling to Camel costs 0.12eur, to xxsim 0.19eur. and to US numbers like piranha's just 0.01eur... with per second billing.

from our Greek mobilephones (business plan) calling to Camel costs 0.30eur, to xxsim 0.50eur. and to US numbers 0.14..per minute billing

all very confusing, all I know if that when I tried the Xxsim, my home phone my wife was using to call me got stung, I have looked again at costs and making a call from France to my home was £0.11p with my Piranha and £0.04p to receive a call. Using XxSim maybe free to receive, but I was paying €0.19 cents to call home, to me this is a big difference and I would rather have the £0.04p incoming and cheap outgoing than the wallop I got from my wife for letting her call high rate numbers, especially when we found out she could have rang me for £0.01p per minute. Good thing she does not read these forums, I would be in more trouble:>)

I could not have said it better myself. This is why I have stopped using Intl. sim cards. I have used Hop and GT-sim. I got burned on both cards. So now I have a UK sim that I use for roaming if I am only be in a country for a day or so. If I am spending any time there I will get a local sim. If some one needs to reach me I use a call forwarding service to reach me anywhere in the world I am in. Yes in some countries it is somewhat expensive, but I can deduct the cost to business expenses. If I remembered correctly Hop was 35 cents to receive and 99 cents to call. So not a cheap sim at all .
If I need to make a call back home there is Skype which is to me a great product for the price.