Thoughts re telestial? Am looking for hasle free roaming SIM
 

Hi all. I just started looking into SIMS as a gift for my boyfriend. He travels internationally at least twice per year and invariably makes the mistake of calling from a hotel room, resulting in huge bills. I would like to purchase an unlocked phone and SIM for him. He is not a techie and would not want to change SIMS in different countries, so I need one product tha works in multiple destinations. The Telestial Explorer and Passport products seem like they may fit the bill, but I have real reservations about doingbusiness with Telestial. To be blunt, the company seems like it might be on the shady side. Among other things, the customer service rep. with whom I initially spoke would not describe the company's return policy. Instead, he said I had to read the "terms and conditions" to get that information. When I finally found the T&C (I had to ask for the link -- it is not apparant) I saw that it contains totally conflicting information about its return policies. So now I am hesitant to plunk down over $200 for a phone/SIM combo.

Has anyone out there done business with teslestial? is it a good company? Are there other companies that offer similar products to the Explorer and Passport options? Thanks.

Re: Thoughts re telestial? Am looking for hasle free roaming
 

Telestial is a good company and they do provide a measure of support. They deliver on schedule and won't cheat you. Their prices are often higher than other providers and you should factor it in.

I'm presuming you are in the US based on the general feeling I got from your post. If so, another good place to buy unlocked phones is:

http://myworldphone.com/

Here is a link to another popular provider:

http://www.mobileplanet.com/

Compare the phone options there.

The explorer is an Estonian SIM. You can get good rates calling Estonia, but you can also get robbed blind. I would checkout what your rates are for calling that number. Alternatively consider getting a US phone number that can get internationally forwarded to his mobile. You can get free US phone numbers where you just pay the rate of the international forward from stanaphone.com, voicestick.com, and many others.

Competing SIMs are made by United Mobile with a Liechtenstein number and a whole series of providers from the Isle of Mann which give you a British mobile number. There is also a competitor form Iceland, but their SIMs don't have voicemail. Here is a link to a summary of the various plans:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html

Another good place to get an unlocked phone is ebay. As for the sim, you just have to compare the international sims, like Stu mentioned, and then see which one might work best for him.

Re: Thoughts re telestial? Am looking for hasle free roaming
 

I think you should answer some more specific questions before we can help you.
1) What countries does your boyfriend usually visit?
2) Does he want to make calls only, or also to receive?
3) Does he need voicemail and/or SMS messaging?

Please also notice that:
1) Some of international SIMs require internet access to recharge the account online (no auto-debiting of the credit card)
2) Some of international SIMs use euro, not US$ as their "native" currency (so the "final" pricing for a US user depends on the exchange rate and currency convertion costs applied by the credit card company)
3) If you don't buy a SIM bundled with a phone, remeber that may be some SIM/phone compatibilty issues
4) International SIMs have numbers from small European countries: Isle of Man (UK dependency with UK numbering), Estonia, Liechtenstein and Monaco. The only exception is Yackie Mobile where you can choose by yourself a US number (but of course incoming calls are not free and the company itself has suffered from "startup pains" and it's reliabilty was, ehmm, doubtful :P)

Thanks very much for all of the replies. To answer some questions, my boyfriend travles to a different location in a different part of the world each time he takes a trip. There is no rhyme or reason to his plans. His last trip was to Austria, before that, the Amazon, before that, China. His next trip will be to New Zealand. So I basically need something with wide coverage.

Re payment, I would prefer a company that deals in dollars, just to keep things easy. I like an auto recharge feature, but having a manual recharge feature is ok too. (In fact, he may prefer that.)

Re phones, I recently made my first two eBay purchases and both were disasters (neither product was as advertised). In fact, this phone/SIM present is an alternative to my original idea, which has fallen through thanks to two rotten eBay sellers. So, regardless of how good the deal is, I am staying away from eBay.

The things that interest me the most are the reliability and helpfulness of the company, coverage of the SIM, and ease of use. These things are more important than price. (Although a good price is always a much welcomed bonus!)

Thanks again for your help. This is a very useful forum and I appreciate your taking the time to inform me.

Two more pieces of info. to add to my prior post. He will likely use the phone to make calls, but I will undoubtedly use the phone to call him.

Most of his calls will be to and from the US. I don't think he will be a heavy user (outgoing or incoming). I am buying the phone for him primarilly as a convenience -- so that he doesn't have to hunt for phone cards and does not go broke calling from hotel phones. (Ouch!) I also think it is a nice safety feature.

Neither one of us even knows how to text message, so that isn't a big thing for us. However, having the option to do so is nice. (I plan to learn one of these days.)

Cheers.

So far so good. If by "Amazon" you mean Brazil, United Mobile would be OK. In the above mentioned countries incoming calls are free, and calls to the USA (or to the voicemail) cost 39 eurocents per minut + 25 eurocents
first minute surcharge. The same rate are valid in most Europe and some non-European countries.
The account may be autorecharged if the balance drops 10 euro.
Here come troubles :wink: - UM has no coverage in New Zealand.

United Mobile, 09 and Travelsim charge in euros.
Hop, Yackie and multiple SIMs with Isle of Man numbers charge in dollars (although there are Man SIMs charged in euros.

As to phone issues, I meant some technical requirements. All so-called international SIMs use callback technology when making calls. This means that you dial the number, the connection is broken and the service provider call you back and the "proper" connection is being established.
The crucial point in comfortable using this technologuy is that not all phones can handle callback in this way. Some of them require using fancy menus or completing the destination number with some extra codes.
Moreover, if the phone is to be used worldwide, it must support four GSM frequency bands 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (so called "quadband"). If Korea and Japan are possible your boyfriends's travel destination, please notice that there's no GSM networks there and the phone would have also support WCDDA 2100 (aka 3G/UMTS).

You must realise that there's no SIM which works everywhere where GSM networks are :( . If you care about coverage then your choice should be either 09 (Icelandic number, forgot Iceland when listing international SIM "home countries" :) ) or Yackie Mobile.
09 covers about 170 countries and it has free incoming calls in about 110 ones. However, rates from and to some countries are pretty high and there's no coverage in Switzerland - strange but true. Yackie also covers about 170 countries. It has paid incoming calls starting from $0.19/min but it has a US number which is forwarded to the mobile phone so you can call the number and national or even local rate (if numbers in your area are available). However, there have been many problems with Yackie. Since I don't have this SIM I can't tell you if it's realiable now - maybe those who have the one will tell...

OK. BTW, what was (roughly) average per minute rate which he paid when calling from hotels? I wonder if the example rates I have told you would mean any significant savings...

As to incoming calls it doesn't matter from where they come - the only thing that matters is the country in which the phones is working.

Text messages are not available in 09 and Hop anyway :P. Moreover, international SMS interchange may not be very reliable. However, it's a good feature since receiving SMS with international SIM is free worldwide (the GSM phone maybe considered as a global pager). Travelsim even has a WWW gateway for SMS sending so it's free even for the sending party :) (however daily limits may apply).

Thanks Przemolog -- your information is really helpful. But now I am scared. You mentioned that all SIMS operate in a callback manner. The process sounds complicated. :?

My boyfriend is not a guy who likes anything complicated. If he has to do anything more than dial a number and get a connection, he is likely to toss the phone off a bridge and claim he was mugged. :eek:

It sounds like this may not be a good idea for him :(

If you choose a fully compatible phone, it's not any problem. In such case the only difference with "normal" dialling is that the outgoing connection is broken, and a few seconds later you just answer an incoming call and wait for establishing the connection. Special menus and/or codes are required only in case of partial phone compatibility. Unfortunately, without callback there would be no competitive prices on outgoing calls (or even making outgoing calls with prepaid-type payment mode would be impossible). Believe me that providers of international SIMs did a really good job in making SIMs easy to use as much as possible.

Doubled post deleted

OK, then it sounds like I should stick with Telestial. Even though the prices are high, they sell phone/SIM packages, which I assume means that they have selected fully compatible phone/SIM options.

Thoughts?

(Thanks again for the info.)

Two things to keep in mind:

1. You can have easy or you can have cheap. The two are not often found in the same package. If Yackie Mobile has their bugs worked out now, they might be a good solution. They really got off to a rocky start.

2. Almost all of the international SIMs have very high rates in the US and Canada.

Cheap and easy would be great. But if I have to pick, I will take easy over cheap.

Yackie does sound like the best option but I am very nervous about the bugs. I just don't have the time to deal with problems. Neither does my boyfriend.

And India. I think, however, that the US is not a problem in this case since the SIM will be used by the US resident.

Yes, I'm sorry for neglecting to mention that I am in the US.

hello
 

Hello

Some complementary explainations

First; it is trye that the first week was a little hard, but fortunatly we have resolved all of our problems

Now Yackie Mobile is ( i think i dont make a mystake ) the only one SIM card who offer 24 countries for the incoming number includ on the package; and 40 countries for the extra numbers ( up to 8 per sim )

It is also the first GSM sim card attached with a Voip account, if your boyfriend whant to receive a Fax, he can use his Incoming number and he will received it on his email ( just he need to go to his Voip account make this setting)

Off course at his hotel, he will receive also his call on his Voip account, and avoid all incoming fees

The call back system used by our company is not a big deal

For receiving a call it is direct, so you call him ( localy in USA and not in latvia or liechtenstein, like most of many cards, how much will cost you to call your boy friend??) and he will receive directly to his GSM

For him make a call he just need to make the number, to send it, and 5 seconde after he will receive a call and he can speak with his correspondant. Nothing complicated

We charge in US $, we have 170 countries covered now,

And we was selectioned for make one offer to the US forces....
( iraq = 0,79$ for call his US family )

http://www.onebusinesssource.com/usarmedforces.html

Do finaly, maybe we are one good alternative

And you know what ? it's Christmass....i offer you the Sim if you want for your boy friend..

Have a gret Week end

YM,

Wow, thanks! I really appreciate! I took a quick look at the website and your product does seem to offer about as much as one could hope for. I understand the concept of growing pains -- I started a small business myself and it does sometimes take a while to work out the kinks. The key to success, in my opinion, is how the business responds to its start up pains.

My concerns stemmed from the fact that my boyfriend isn't the most patient person in the world when it comes to having to figure out how to work around things!! (He's got other great qualities though.)

I have two questions:

1. is there a particular phone that would be considered fully compatible with a Yackie Mobile SIM?

2. Does this product work in NZ (he is traveling to NZ in March)?

Also, boyfriend does not have a VOIP account (which, I am assuming is somethng like Vonage.) Also, he does not travel with a computer. For internet access, he visits internet cafes. I don't know if this makes a difference, but I thought I would throw it out there just in case.

Thanks again.

Yackie appears to have improved its services. What has thus far stopped me from using them is that the under roaming provider on Yackie is Israeli (your phone number is not Israeli) and this means that they do not have roaming agreements with countries which Israel does not have diplomatic relations with, e.g. the UAE ("Dubai"), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi, Lebanon, etc. For you this might not be important. For me, it is a deal breaker.

Please note that this is not a political statement, it is a pragmatic concern.

Yes, it does.
http://www.yackiemobile.com/main/coverage/?part=MP
However, if global coverage is required, please remember Stu's remark about no roaming agreement in some Muslim countries which are "top enemies" of Israel :(.

The VOIP account is provided by Yackie just as an alternative way of making/receiving calls. Your boyfriend doesn't have to use it at all.

Thanks again for the help, links, etc. I think YM sounds like it offers what I need.

The final, very important question, is which phone is/phones are "fully compatible" with YM? :? Once I have that answer, I can place my orders and keep my fingers crossed that everything will be here by Christmas.

To all, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the advice I have received on this forum. You have really helped me a great deal. More important, you have all been very kind -- no snide remarks or jabs, as is common on many forums. Thanks very much.

:D

Just keep in mind that everything you learn here is "to the best of our ability to understand at this point in time, YMMV". An international SIM that works great today may be out of business tomorrow. I have at least one Swiss easyRoam SIM that was one of the earliest prepaid international SIMs. They pulled the plug on easyRoam back about 2003.

I completely understand. In fact, I noticed off the bat that some of the products Telestial offered earlier this year are no longer being sold, so I guess things can change rather rapidly.

re: re contact
 

just one information.....

It is not one israeli sim card.....we use one Israeli GW and one UK, in fact our deal is to use ALSO all Orange World roaming agrements, and our own agrements

And soon Orange World will open around 20 Arabian countries

we roam in afghanistan, irak, marocoo.....and bahamas, who is great for 4 000 000 touristes a year

We expect have this countries open soon.....without any real dely unfortunatly

You have here all Certified Handset working with YM ( many more, just need to be tested...)

http://www.yackiemobile.com/environm...s_05-09-06.pdf

If you accept our offer, DONT order to the web site, send me a PM and we will tell you how you can receive this offer shipped from Miami for be sure you will have in Time

Thanks so much YM! I have the list, now I am searching stores for the phones. (I won't buy from eBay, but it looks like I have enough alternatives; I should find something fairly quickly). As soon as I find the phone, I will pm you. :beer:

I'd get a direct call model and I"d report your experiences back to the forum so we can share them with the next person who asks.

Re: re: re contact
 

I'm not sure how many "tourists" are going to Iraq or Afghanistan yet. I'd be curious about how much your roaming is for the Bahamas. My current advice to my friends who got on short cruises over there is "don't." There aren't many roaming agreemetns and the few that exists are silly high. For example, I figure out for one friend cruise ship roaming was cheaper than Bahamian roaming.

Bahamian prepaid SIMs cost about US$70 which is steep for three days. The best advice I can give is that there is an internet cafe near the cruise ship peer, go there and VOIP it.

Stu

Stu,

If I am reading the Yackie list correctly, all of the handsets listed, except those few that are highlighted in yellow or pink, are "direct dial" models (at least they all say "direct dialing"). I am only considering those identified as "direct dialing" models as my options. Once my boyfriend opens the box containing the phone, I am going to tell him about this forum and advise him that he must report back to the forum about his experiences when he returns from NZ in March. I will also report back on my ability to call him on the road. It is the least we can do to repay you all for the help I have been given.

Re: re: re contact
 

There are different ways to roam. I recently took a cruise on a ship that had its own floating cellular system where my phone would roam, at $5/min. Before we left I forwarded all calls to voicemail and left a message telling callers to send me a numeric page or text message. This way I could stay in touch and never worry about getting any unwanted $20 phone calls.

But, if fact, how many international SIMs have been out of business so far?
Swisscom easyRoam and Buytel are two cases I know.

Be aware that "direct dialing" means that you dial, say, +12345556789, press the button OK/Send and wait for callback. Callback itself isn't avoided :).

BTW, do you think that $0.69/min NZ->US is a really big saving to compare with what your boyfriend would pay when calling from a NZ hotel?

Re: re: re contact
 

What do you mean by "numeric page"? Did your pager roam on the ship?

My sim works in my Moto V551. I also know it works in a RAZR. Both with the so called "direct dialing". None of these phones are listed there though. I just want to point out that this is not an exhaustive list. So, you will probably be okay with majority of the phones sold these days.

The reasons were very different

And anyway, Buytel wasn't a SIM in its own right; it was Riiing/UM with their own branding on (so maybe people shouldn't have thrown them away so fast)

Re: re: re contact
 

The voicemail system on T-Mobile (US) has the option by pressing 5 to send a number via SMS, rather than leaving voicemail. The default is the calling number but you can enter any other number.

Re: re: re contact
 

So it seems to me it's a kind of numeric paging "emulation" in the GSM network, right?

Re: re: re contact
 

If that's what you prefer to call it....

Actually United Mobile do now work in US Dollars, Pound Sterling and of course Euro.

Bossman--thanks for the phone info. I was having trouble finding some on the Yackie list. Good to know I have more options. I have to find something today to make this work as a Christmas present.

Przemolog -- that's a good question. I don't know what the rates are to call from NZ. For all I know, I could be costing him MORE money by supplying him with a phone and SIM. I do know that he has been hit with some pretty huge charges on the road. That said, he has also said that, many times, he has been surprised by cheap hotel rates. Pricing seems to be very random.

Actually, the biggest phone-related shock we ever got was when I called him from home numerous times at his hotel in China, spending upwards of 90 minutes on some calls (our dog was dying, so we spent more time than usual on the phone). Neither of us knew that China was not included on the long-distance plan. We found that out when we got the next bill. :oops:

Having thought about the pros and cons, I have decided that having a phone is a good idea. He can always opt to use it just in emergency situations, or if he needs to make a call when he is away from his hotel.

If nothing else, maybe I can find one with a currency converter, which should come in handy when he is deciding what to buy me!! :lol:

I agree that having a mobile phone is a good idea for many reasons but I'm not sure if avoiding hotel phone rates is always the most important of them :).