[SIZE=7] Lots of UM users here and a few of us would be Yackie users. I just did a search here on all the Intl. Cards posted.

Why doesn't everyone here use some provider w. an IOM number? To call a UK number via the usual discount carriers is under 20?. They provide free incoming to dozens of countries. That would seem the total cost of calling a roamer could be only 17?/min. Am I missing something? None of the carriers I found had diff. rate listings for IOM phones. In fact, one or two actually listed tons of exchanges covered by their calls placed to UK mobile phones - and +44 7 numbers were specifically listed.
I researched GeoSIM fairly thoroughly. Haven't done the other one or two.

...mike

A few points come to mind................

1. Some of us have already invested in UM and other cards. Numbers given out and known.

2. Change is painful.

3. Check out the coverage or lack of it on the IOM cards. Friend going to Honduras on a mission trip from church; no coverage with GT-SIM, but UM has it covered. I think it is 80 versus 120 UM countries.

4. Can use CBW to reduce rates with UM.

Stan

IOM charges same as UK mobiles....most calls to UK on many US providers at about 30?/minute as is CBW via pin2dest.....UM at least on my plan is 10?/minute and on CBW pin2dest in 14?/minute as well as cost to make a call...

One glaring omission on UM, however, still remains New Zealand...I think IOM has roaming partners in NZ.

Well, I bought a IOM sim (GlobalSim) since yackie could not produce(still waiting on my refund :o ). I also have UM, but all the calling cards charge very high rates to reach a UM number. And, a lot of times it does not even work. UM+CBW works flawlessly though and the PIN2DEST always works too. But, as we all know, there has been occassions where CBW just does not work, in which case UM becomes very expensive to use without CBW.

I wanted people to be able to reach me by dialing a local number (the reason for jumping on yackie bandwagon), and GlobalSim + voicestick makes that possible. Voicesticks rate to the 07624 number range is 15cents/min. Both globalSim and UM have free incoming calls in the countries I am likely to visit.


PS: Snidely, I would assume you cannot receive incoming calls on your yackie sim either right. Since they deactivated all the US DIDs.

I have both UM and CallKey. I've used the latter a lot more, but it would probably be because of potential extra advantages to UK users, like availability from within inclusive minutes on some networks (even though they don't know it), so I can forward my O2 number straight to it.

The number prefix is out of the sequence allocated to UK mobiles - 077, 078, 079 - so it may be worth exploring tariffs with several providers.

While many blanket define all +447 as UK mobiles, some others don't enable +447624 at all, or may even default to count it as a landline; in which case get a landline diverted to it, and use callback to that number (but who can guess how long this would last?).

I'm wondering if the availability of Orange Israel SIMs that was underlying Yackie will resurface elsewhere. There are some pretty cheap tariffs for Israel Mobile.

Just got an e mail indicating increase in rates on geosim...haven't gone through all the various combinations but apparently and especialy makes use of geosim in the USA absurdly high....

As far as voicestick, we still remain with the problem of being charged for a minimum of a 5 minute call for many many calls as they still can't seem to fix the idea of what happens when a call is terminated and despite the fact they have been made aware of the problem, they just can't seem to fix it and to the best of my knowledge they are just about the only provider who can't get this right.

Yes, UM is quite expensive to compare with national SIMs. E.g. I paid for mine 42 EUR with 15 EUR credit included. Never had to pay as much as 27 EUR for a "national" empty SIM :P. Moreover, when I (and some others of us) bought a UM (then Riiing) SIM, there were no alternative with free incoming calls...

Did you hurt your finger(s) when you were changing SIMs :P?

Yes, coverage is a real issue and Manx cards are missing quite many countries even in Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo). UM is missing
only Faeroe, Jersey and just Isle of Man :)

As well as almost the same with 09 (which has even larger coverage than UM, and about 110 countries with free incomimg calls)....

I think that handset compatibility may be also an issue....Manx SIMs seem to be more "restrictive" :P

After all, it's impossible to say which sim is the best/worst or even determine "better- worse" for any two of them....

AFAIK rates of all international SIMs in USA, Canada, Cuba and India are pretty sick. Since Yackie has been a failure so far, only Hop remains somehow acceptable solution for these countries :unsure:

It must be pointed out that the biggest omission of O9 and it is a very important one is Switzerland.

There's something strange about that. On http://www.09.is Switzerland is mentioned in the call callculator but not it ithe coverage list: http://www.09.is/coverage.php. OTOH it was said here that 09 uses Swisscom roaming agreements - it would be pretty strange if the SIM had no coverage on its home network :unsure:

To me, right now, O9 is the best to use as enlinea only charges 10? US/minute to call the USA (its billing system treats it as Iceland not Iceland mobile) but I was in Switzerland extensively in both July and August and O9 would not register on any Swiss network. Unless it has changed since August.

can you reach your 09 card via elinea without problems?
as written in another thread there are quite some problems reaching the 09 cards if not using the expensive providers...

Chris

Chris...

I'm back in the USA now and haven't touched the O9 sim since 28 August...all I can tell you is that during the time I was in Europe which was between 09 August and 28 August, I used O9 extensively to call back to the USA via enlinea and it worked almost flawlessly...except of course when I was in Switzerland; however I used UM to receive calls as I have a plan that allows call forwarding via my landline at the rate of 11?/minute (AT&T ld)...for convenience sake when I am in the UK I use a local UK sim to make and receive calls as I do call locally extensively and I learned a trick from somebody here to cut my ld calls via the mobile to 5p/minute and then 7?/minute using a US calling card....

Also although I don't use it that much, O9 does not seem to support text messaging and voice mail.

Yes, the SMS service does not work yet (btw, the SMSC-Number is from Switzerland).

We had problems using the card in Africa some weeks ago. It did not register to the network in Namibia even though it is on their coverage list. In South Africa it worked perfectly as it does here in germany.

Just the incoming calls from the cheap providers (like 10-10 in the US) are not satisfying at the moment. Cheapest working provider charges about 35 Eurocent per minute :-P

Chris

Yes, and UM and Manx SIMs support both. Moreover, Manx SIMs (at least some of them) offer online billing, VM retrieving via website and GPRS. It's really hard to say which is better....

I went with the globalSim because it was pratically free. I only paid fro the credit. Also, the fact that this particular sim allows free forwarding is a big plus. So, it may not have free incoming in all the countries that say a UM sim has. But, I will just forward the globalsim number to the UM number if I happen to be in one of those countries. As is right now, the number is forwarded to my US mobile so that my family in UK can call me from inclusive minutes on their mobiles.

I can understand that forwarding to US numbers can be done for free. But have you tried forwarding from a Manx SIM to UM and it's really free, too? BTW, I 've checked http://www.freeglobalsim.com/callRates.asp and can't see a Liechtenstein mobile rate at all :P. Moreover, if forwarding were free to any number, why not to forward to Iridium and to have a worldwide coverage with free incoming calls when using a +44 mobile number :whistle: ?

Yes. It's free to any number. I have tried to UM sim and to UK number. The call history also shows it.

BTW, this sim does not show callerID even though when one receives the VM text it shows the number that left a message. So does the call detail below. Do other IOM sims show caller ID? I guess the caller ID gets to their system and they just do not send it to the sim...I do not know jack about any of the technical details!

Here is an excerpt I just X'ed out the last part of the numbers:

In (SIM) 13-Sep-06 08:09
Forwarded Call Unknown 447624129XXX 447624129XXX 0:00:09 US$ 0.00
To Forwarded Call 423663009XXX 0:00:00 US$ 0.0000
Incoming Call Leg Unknown 447624129XXX 0:00:00 US$ 0.0000

In (SIM) 15-Sep-06 08:08 Forwarded Call 847915XXXX 447624129XXX 447624129XXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.00
To Forwarded Call 1847452XXXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.0000
Incoming Call Leg 847915XXXX 447624129XXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.0000

Like everyone else, I can make outgoing. No incoming. No refund.
When I ordered it ($100+) - I remember stating in an email that I would be the first to take a chance.
I knew I was taking a chance - but someone has to be first. Someone was "first" here w. UM, Hop, etc.

When things did look flakey, I did call my credit card in time to cancel. That was before I got my SIM. A week or so later, when I got my SIM, I called and told the credit card company to let the charge go thru.
As we did discover, though, on the test calls we made to each other - technically the Yackie idea does work.

...mike

my girlfriend just returned from 6 weeks of USA trip using the yackie-card.
During the first 2 weeks the incoming calls still worked and it was like a perfect solution.
Afterwards she just made outgoing calls until we burned the 99$ which had been on the card.
The good thing is that we still saved a lot of money as we sent quite a lot of SMS messages and none of them was charged at all yet.... Seems like the SMS billing does not work yet.

So your account WILL go into a negative balance!

For travellers TO USA, USA T-MO (among others) may be a reasonable alternative. On prepay SMS may still be FREE to receive and $0.10 to send, including . Also, coupled with a good US or German calling card, outbound calls to a German cell could be $0.10 (T-MO / minute charge) + $0.25 (calling card) or $0.05 (landline). A $100 balance buys 1000 T-MO "minutes." No FREE inbound of course, but Yackie did not give you that either.

Stan