Forwarding a call with an 'international' card
 

Situation:

Geodesa +44 card;
I visit Portugal;
I activate callforwarding to a +32 number (my office in Belgium);
I switch of my phone (meeting)

Why the callforwarding? I want the office to answer the call, and they can call me when they know I'm out of the meeting, I don't want to use the voicemail of the Geodesa-card.

Who is paying for the callforwarding, and how much?

Yves

Just like my IOM sim from freeGlobalsism, the forwarding is just included too. As for who is paying, very good question. obviously, it's not us the consumer, so I would think it's covered by the company itself.

You should test it before you assume.

Although the inbound caller is paying for the cellular airtime, he isn't necessarily paying for the forward to a land line.

The best way to know is to test it and check your balance before and after.

My O2 prepaid SIM doesn't let me do call forwarding at all (at least not while I'm here in Canada; perhaps it works in the UK), so you may want to verify that your SIM allows call forwarding at all. None of my other prepaid SIMs permit forwarding, although one of my prepaid CDMA phones does (at full airtime cost per forwarded minute, alas).

Oh, never mind. I see that you know you have forwarding. :)

Actually, it's still not a bad idea to test it. Even though they list free call forwarding as included, you never know when thay may change and start charging for it. Usually they will inform users before doing so. I actually tested mine with several destinations (including my united mobile #), just to make sure it's free. Every destination I tried except UM (connected about 50% of the time) connected 100% of the time. When I am in the US my IOM sim stays forwarded to my US mobile, so that my family in UK can reach me out of the included minutes on their mobiles.

Well, I tested it, and its working, and for free.
The caller only pays for the call the my UK +4479 number.
I don't pay a cent.
I tried forwarding to my Belgian cellular phone, and I'm not charged for it.
So that's one phone less to carry when I'm in my home-country.

Thanks for making me test it :-)

Does this forwarding think work on all manx sims or geedessa and freeglobalsim only?
What about Ekit sims?

I ordered an eKit sim on ebay (for £5), it will arrive next week. I'll let you know.
The card has only free roaming in a few countries (Belgium not included).
But I'll set up the forwarding, and see what happens.

Keeping logics in mind, I assume that i'll have to pay for the fowarding, since there is no free roaming with Belgium.
I'll also set it up with forwarding to my Geodesa card, and see if I have to pay.
But since I'll activate the card for the first time in Belgium we'll never be 100% sure.

That's great because you can have free incoming both in Geosim free incoming zone and UM (or any other int'l sim) free incoming zone under one +447624 number. I wonder if the forwarding works also for satphone numbers. It would be great to call be accessible worldwide on Iridium using +44 mobile number :D.

Thanks guys. The free call forwarding works for my Czech mobile number. No problem.

BTW anybody tried forwarding to 09 or TravelSim number? If so what are the results?

Incoming Thuraya did work for free with GeoSIM. Tried last year and wrote short report about it. Dont know the current situation.

Yes, I remember your report about the Thuraya-Geosim test, that's why I suppose that forwarding to Thuraya may be free as well. I wonder if the same applies to other satellite networks. I checked the rates from some European countries to satphones and it seems that they charge about $5.50 to Iridium, $6.50 to Inmarsat B and $12.50 to Inmarsat A (no rates to Thuraya(???) and Globalstar).
Whereas those rates are really too high, I really doubt if the termination rate for +44 mobile might cover satelite termination rates...

Yep. I believe it still works the same way. Just did check it again. But I dont have answer for you on other satphones.

I doubt they would allow such a forwarding. Thuraya is the cheapest satelite to reach. Iridium is much more expensive. So if you can not reach Thuraya you should not expect to reach other satelite networks....

eKit Global Premium SIM (+447924)
 

Last week I ordered the cheapest eKit SIM on ebay (£5 + £2 for shipping).
Object: 290078012861.

The card includes a US$20 credit (advertised: £10).

Now, the card only allowes receiving free calls in these countries:
France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Mexico
But, I couldn't resist the free credit, so...

Anyway, not to go off-topic (my topic :-) )
I setup forwarding to my Belgian phone, not covered in the free roaming, and guess what, I was NOT charged for receiving the call, NOT charged for setting up the forwarding.

Just nice to know huh?

And it even gets better !

They have some free (or close to free I assume) access-numbers for your relatives left at home. They call the number, enter your eKit number, and get connected to your phone. It even works with the forwarding.
I tried to call the UK 0808-234-number, and my Belgian phone rang.
And no charges :-)

Good work. I have ordered one as well. For 7 pounds including postage I will get more fun than I deserve.

If you get free or low-cost forwarding to an Iridium phone, I shall start *eating* my latest selection of SIM cards - in amazement!

Steve :))


>>I wonder if the forwarding works also for satphone numbers. It would be >> great to call be accessible worldwide on Iridium using +44 mobile number

Only thing I have found worrying is that there are 60 free minutes to free call numbers for teh life of the card. But will see.

Hypothetical question for all you call forwarding nuts: How often can you change the number that you are forwarding to? (and how long does it take?). Theoretically, if you live in the UK you could call anybody in the world (mobile, landline or even some satellite) for free out of your inclusive o2 minutes, just by forwarding your IOM number to your destination number, and then calling "yourself" (i.e. the IOM number) from an o2 phone.

Am I missing something?

On GeoSIM you can make as many changes as you like and its done online.With eKit I dont know. Have to wait until it will be delivered. Works for Russia, Cyprus and South Africa Mobiles. I have tested these in last few days.

Theoretically you can change a forward as often as you like. Some freaks here in germany do it like you said - calling on-net people by switching a free of charge divert call to the destination number...

If many people abuse the service (forwarding to expensive international destinations) they will soon close it for all (even for those who do not abuse it)...

You right Prion.

This is exactly what I fear. It seems to happen to so many good things these days. I shall remember not to abuse this.

Anyhow, I have ordered the basic ekit "Global Premium" SIM off ebay (for £25 + £1 P&P) so I will have a play when I get it. Does anybody know what the card validity is on these?

9 months. Every nine months you need to have some activity (call or sms, or recharge). Same like UM

How do you set this up? In the instructions it says dial 102+ (number). This does not seem to work for me. I even just want to forward to one of the "free" countries.

On the ebay shop it says call forwarding is not supported at all for any of their cards on offer.

Strange, I did it with 102+number.
Maybe you can try another phone. It was not working in my Sony Ericsson T105, but it is working in my Siemens S55. Haven't tried my Nokia...

They do seem to claim that call forwarding is not implemented with their sims though....

ygeffens, did you simply just dial "102+32499887766" and then hit send?

Where 0032 499 88 7766 is your mobile number in Belgium... though obviously it is not... (I hope) ;-)

That's exactly what I did.

To prion:
I didn't know, but since it was working with the Geodesa card, I assumed it should work with the eKit card as well, and I did.
I'm using it at this very moment.

How do you cancel the forwarding?

Ah.. I have just managed to get it done. (Thanks to some further info from Andy via PM):

What worked for me was "10232499887766" ie. without the additional "+"

Thanks all once again!


Edit: Prion: To cancel call forwarding dial 103

Dial

103

Yves

I don't think that 09 supports call forwarding.

how did you do it to get the number +4479

This thread is about 7 years old.

Some resellers mentioned are selling a different product (which does not have a +4479 number) and some of the products no longer exist.