next country?
 

I think we used to have an old thread wondering which country the next global SIM to be found would come from - small countries seemed to be the usual guesses ...

would like to see one come from either 'san marino' or 'andorra', 'Monaco' 'the republic of hull' 'malta' place your bets people, place your bets?

My bets:

• San Marino on new +378 by STM.sm
• Malta on new network
• island of Kish (Iran) for asian market
• Jersey and/or Guernsey

:rolleyes:

san marino...hardly its just got its first proper network going give it a few years..

malta....dunno vodafone and go-malta have a tiny market already sewn up...

island of kish....nah...dont see iran spending any money on that kind of thing, there to busy making a huge mess in world..

j and g...again to small a market...though how jersey got 2 mobile phone operators is beyond me!

my money is on the 'Republic of Hull' and maybe Andorra!

Yes, maybe you're right but if they want some revenus they can't live with TMS, the 1st competitor
well but not the 3rd one :)

The Maltese telecomms regulator, MCA, has revealed plans to offer a third GSM mobile phone licence for the island, and to introduce 3G licence [...]

it's simply... almost no iranian money on Kish market :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_Island

:beer:

Wake up, Monaco has been "in use" for a few years now (by Hop Mobile)! :)

really...oh yeah....mind like a sieve!!!


mmm malta 3rd network huh......intresting to see if someone like tmobile/ orange/ o2/ three would go in there....think about it three.mt or 02.mt hehehehe would be cool....

Not exactly. Hop Mobile is using Spacetel Ghana network for its infrastructure, the only thing from Monaco is the mobile prefix (+377.7) that's simply cheaper than an african one :rolleyes:

I remember that. But who really cares about the "underlying" operator :)?

India .....

Any details?

India? which one?

they have several networks... :rolleyes:

hey, I didn't say there is one, but I think there is plenty of scope

maybe the one voda uk are in a fight with hehehehehe...three months till upgrade day on orange...yayyyyyyyyyyyy

Time for some more guesses

ok, not really India, though I could see a possibility, as one network says it has some quite cheap roaming anyway

Around January, some O2 networks announced add-ons for a monthly fee that would mean cheap roaming, with free incoming calls

We're still waiting for Cloud9 from the Isle of Man ...

In the last two days, I've seen or spoken to what could be three new roaming arrangements, two of which I found by complete fluke, though the one will be several months away and seems unlikely to me

Is this happening everywhere?

Mind you, I spoke to someone in Ireland well over a year ago who claimed to be working on a roaming SIM deal and it's never happened

We might be about to see one or two other surprises ...

Launching this thursday (21st) they say. I'm actually on the Isle of Man at the moment so it'll be interesting to see what's available. (however as I travel less in Europe nowadays Cloud9 might not be much use to me as that's their focus).

Cable and Wireless (www.surething.im) are also due to launch any day now, and seem to be doing a better job at local publicity.

Both networks are now active (transmitting). Sure Mobile was supposed to be active for roamers during the recent TT races (I wasn't here then) but neither network accepts roamers right now.

with a few rumours of more new SIMs, could be a new country appearing ...

I "Googled" and "Wikied" Republic of Hull and found very little. Can anyone explain what and where this is located?

There are several small newly independent countries in the Pacific which might be good candidates were they better connected to the international communications networks. If the basic rate to call country code XYZ is over a dollar/euro per minute no one would want one of your SIMs even if incoming calls are "free". What ever country it is it will have to be well connected to international circuits.

It's a joke. In the UK, before cable turned up almost all of the landline telephones were run by the Post Office which was then then split to British Telecom ; BT was privatised in the mid-80s. But Kingston-upon-Hull (Yorkshire, northern England) has had a separate arrangement owned by the city for many years, and still partly is though about half was floated a few years back. Nowadays it's diversified owns an ISP and other interests, as well as still running local phone services there.

http://www.kcom.com/aboutus/ourhistory/

Back to SIMs, perhaps even the cheapest countries to call may be able to host them, if the termination fees are based on other forwarded numbers ... which means they might come from anywhere

Got it. I was wondering if it was another of those small islands (e.g. Sark) with some strange legal status.

Unfortnately I got lost with the "based on other forwarded numbers" bit! Can you explain this a bit more? Maybe I just need to be pointed to some sort of dummies guide to how termination works on free roaming SIMs! I thought its just the relatively high incoming call termination that actually pays for roaming into foreign networks.

awwww you rotton spoilsport you, i coulda wound up the doc for ages with all the talk of the R o H!


:-p


Yeah was just messing with you, no offense meant!

seems there is a connection with Hull after all - see Yackie thread

don't bother; I edited it

Damm those Hullians......may there three legs all break at the same time!

let's have a few more goes on this thread

some of the hints I was dropping earlier were because one group of companies in UK launched a SIM with a UK number but a Hong Kong SIM underneath ......... but they switched to another a while back, though I still have the old one

but two new guesses from me would be something with Monaco Telecom in Kosovo, or Romania

now you got san marino setting up networks....why not monaco....????

The monaco deal for Kosovo mobiles sure is strange. I wonder what got that started? Don't Monaco also provide ground infrastructure for OnAir and Ryanair? I was on a Ryanair flight recently where I was tempted to try a voice call...but resisted the temptation. I'm not throwing any more money at Michael O'Leary then I have to. It was good enough just to be able switch the phone on at 40,000 feet, see I had full coverage and then just use offline applications and receive texts.

In terms of "next country", I suspect a small middle eastern Emirate (or other) may well launch something aimed at the North African/Asian market. The guess with Kish Island was good... but I suspect it will be more likely to be Qatar or Bahrain. (Both very small countries).