Hi,

I am new at this Global SIM thing, as I had, well, free international roaming for 6 years, but, that finally ended.

I have done a lot of research, went through all the rebadges, and tried to be fair on the country mix vs price, as I travel a lot, all over. I have found these 4 SIMS to be the best of the rebadge of the same companies, etc ... the thing is, there doesn't seem to be a lot of buzz on this forum on these SIMs, and I am wondering if I'm missing something, or if anyone has some opinions.

By the way, as far as forwarding a US phone to any of these, I have found that Skype seems to offer the best possibilities (quick forwarding [as opposed to my former service Kall8], and you can forward to multiple international numbers at once)

1) E-Kit - http://www.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurch...ice_ckregional

I know this is a rebage of one of the Manx SIMs, but, it seems that it has the nicest mix of price vs coverage. I actually got this one, and wil start trying it this month. I see very little mention here, yet, the customer service is very good, and it is pretty straight forward. The only thing it lacks is auto recharge. Any opinions?

2) Maxsim - http://www.maxsim.co.uk

Also, a good mix of price vs roaming. This seems to be a rebadge of maybe the biggest Manx SIM company? And many people tlak about the other badges of this brand, but, this seems to be the best pricewaise, and organization-wise. This one seems to roam in a couple more countries (but at a higher cost) than E-Kit, and it still is a Manx number

3) Range Roamer - http://www.rangeroamer.com

No one has mentioned it here. It is an Estonia SIM, and it seems to have similar rates and coverage to UM, but, to call Estonia is a heck of a lot cheaper than Lichtenstein. Any thoughts?

4) Talafone -- http://www.49centscall.com/

This is mentioned in the Wiki, but, although I see it as another rebadge of a different Manx number than the above 2, it seems very straightforward pricewise, and less complicated than the other of it's similar badge.

Also, in addition to the SIMS, I have found the best callback rates using these SIMs for Manx (UK cell), Estonia or other Euro destinations seem to come from Enlinea callback, in particular their Papaya service http://www.enlinea.com . All tolled, you do a complete callback connection from one of the Manx SIMs, to the US, for 24c a minute, billed 6 secs after first minute. Of course it is much easier if you have a second normal GSM phone to do the trigger. Anyone know anything better?

I would appreciate any bad things anyone knows of these SIMs, and why they aren't the favorite of all here ...

RangeRoamer is another Travelsim rebrand. Estonian prefix means Travelsim.

The othe 3 are Manx based offers. Surely Talafone looks nice, and we knew it. The other 2 does look the usual Manx offers, nothing new honestly, from a quick look.

About coverage, I suppose all Manx offers should roam in the same countries with the same operators. The problem with these many brands is that they all write different coverage lists, but I think the only reliable one is the one you can find on Manx Telecom site...

Thanks for the feedback, Effendi.

You would think that the Manx numbers would all roam the same place. Some say yes to Japan, some say no. I'll be in Japan in October. I will see if E-kit roams there, although they say no in CS.

No doubt, though, that, for me, the E-Kit has better pricing than MaxSim, even though they are both Manx.

I guess, I really want to know, is there a definitive answer for the best priced rebadge brand, of each of the half dozen or so rebadges that these all are ?

I would not use Talafone after libellous remarks against a rival were posted by someone supporting the company on more than one forum.

The tariff is in the hands of the reseller, so it is worth looking around. Some have increased rates recently, and it has been said by one that the others will follow.

On callback, Voipfone charges 9.6p (17c) per minute. Their portal number uses caller ID though, which the SIMs do not send, so use sms or wap/gprs instead.

Using sms with voipfone would make the total cost of the call higher though. So I would not recommend it! Its better if you use a dedicated DID (like the ones given by enlinea or CBW)

I'm thinking that other people than the OP may read this, including guests.

Some of them may have cheap or inclusive text messages or wap/gprs abroad on another SIM, like a local one or my O2 UK contract which could trigger hundreds of calls a year for free.

I think that the voipfone sms trigger needs to be done via the roaming sim.. Not completely sure about that...

In fact, ekit provides two kinds of Manx sims
Global Premium:
http://www.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurch...rvice_ckglobal
and International:
http://www.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurch...ice_ckregional

Please note new prices valid since 1st Oct for the two above plans :P

Moreover, both SIMs are not so global from the point of view of a potential customer :), Ekit SIMs are shipped only to USA, Canada, Australia and 12 EU countries.
Maxsim SIMs are slightly better in that aspect - they are shipped to the entire EU, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, many countries in America, some in Asia, South Africa, Australia and N. Zealand.
Please don't tell me that most potential customers live in the countries mentioned above - for me "global" means also "global shipping destinations" :)

Yes, all the "Manx" SIMs should roam in exactly the same countries, but it doesn't have to mean that this list is identical with the roaming list of Manx Telecom. In particular, soes the callback used by those SIMs work in 3G networks (Japan!)?

It does, so sometimes I use the O2 SIM to start the call, pre-diverted to the IoM one. I and others have asked in the Voipfone forum whether they will consider specifying two numbers to be connected, which they may consider if there is demand. An sms to Mywebcalls from a pre-registered phone can specify any two numbers, including both landlines.

Well, I had thought Voiptalk was 11p per minute, plus the 2p per minute to US, for example, plus, some of the Manx reseller SMS charges are going up shortly, some to 50c. So, overall, makes the Enlinea callback an more consistant option. In addition, getting an SMS callback account at Voiptalk took 4 calls, and a lot of time. They don't have it set up very easily, especially if you have a US credit card. You first have to join their silver package, then, apply for the callback, and, I still haven't been provisioned correctly. A lot of work

Please don't tell me that most potential customers live in the countries mentioned above - for me "global" means also "global shipping destinations" smile.gif


Point well taken, I am a self centered American :D , and to me "Global" means "available for me, myself, and I" :thumbup:

Let me guess: T-Mobile finally realized you weren't being billed? ;)

Thanks for the info on Voiptalk. I haven't tried using my account yet, as I'd already noticed the tariffs are higher than Voipfone and Mywebcalls

I always find some of the places on the roaming lists for these cards kind of interesting. For instance, they list Iridium, INMARSAT and Guantanamo Bay. The price calculator returns an empty page if you select the first two and the third is only shown on the roaming list, not on the calculator. Last time I checked, the GSM-900 system in Gitmo was still a private local intercom that isn't even listed in GSMWorld.com . Most people don't even know it exists. Then there's the Marshall Islands. AFAIK, there is only an old AMPS system there with a few hundred phones. Yet ManxSIM lists a price of US$ 2.7424 to place a call from there.

No, that ended in like 2001 or 2002. I had "other" help :D . But, sadly all good things end.

Was a nice thing, considering I travel internationally 150k-200k miles a year.

Luckily, at this stage, we're embarking on a new era of much cheaper roaming.

I like the Manx SIMs. I have an IOM SIM from geodessa, but the one that stays in my phone the most is still the United Mobile. YOu can still find several routes to those number for US$10 a minute.

The cheapest route I have thus far found for IOM numbers is from the Finnera/Betamax companies, but the connections are just not that good. The calls used to be 5 eurocents a minute. The price just went up to 9 euro cents a minute.

Of course the roaming agreements (i.e. incoming calls surely working) are the ones of Manx Telecom, but we don't know where callback actually works. So coverage is surely smaller than the one of Manx, while on the sites of these rebrands it's most of the times bigger...

I don't think all these rebrands are really useful, I see a lot of confusion, not an official site and many, many problems. I can say UnitedMobile and Travelsim seem to be much more reliable.

I've gone around in a circle on this and based on several factors now believe that the best bet, and I emphasize as it stands today, is United Mobile although it is far from perfect.

As long as Callbackworld can hold onto its 14?/minute charge to the USA and in that vicinity for calls to other landlines I really found there was no need for local sims on my most recent trip through several countries in Europe. I had usually wanted local sims in any country I plopped down for a while but for example I had such trouble with my TIM card....when I arrived in Italy and wanted to recharge it I got some sort of idiotic message that my details were not on record (it worked the last time I was in Italy) and I would have to find a TIM shop which I couldn't do so I fell back on United Mobile and had no problems whatsoever even for some local calls in Italy and the price I pad was around 14.9 ? /minute or something like that.

Of course the two big advantages I have is that my local landline provider, Verizon in the USA, allows remote call forwarding on my landline and my ld carrier in the USA, AT&T has a plan whereby calls that are forwarded to me on my United Mobile mobile cost me 10?/minute, don't think you can beat that.

In the UK I've been using O2 but call forwarding via AT&T cost 30?/minute or thereabouts and I tried voicestick and although Bruce was very helpful there is a big problem that I get charged for a 5 minute call everytime a call goes into my voicemail. I've brought this to their attention and am very disappointed they haven't been able to resolve the issue.

What next year will bring, of course, is another story.

Why would you want to find a route for $10.00/min?

I'm quite sure he means $.10 ;-)

Chris

For my part, I'm looking for more free or low-cost countries for incoming calls. In particular Mexico, Japan and Singapore. While UM works in Japan, every time I've tried it the price has been different. Last time it was something like 1 Euro/min for an incoming call, which is more than I like.

Unfortunately, right now I don't have much confidence in these products. The Manx SIMS are raising their prices and Yackie has gone back to the drawing board.

For Japan travelsim has free incoming and low incoming fee in Singapore (0,21euro/min). 09 has free incoming in Singapore. For Mexico I would check Manx sims or 09 (free incoming in Mexico)