Opinions on Best SIM card
 

I just wanted to get people's opinions on the best international SIM card. I'd mostly use it in Europe, but also in Costa Rica. I'll probably patch calls through VoipBusterPro (unless there is a better callback service). Is getting a local SIM in one Euro country another viable options, or are the roaming rates bad in other countries. I'm just thinking of the high costs to call +423 or +372. Are those regular calls for most phones in Europe.

Well, I'd say the best SIM is an O2-UK or or Swiss-GSM postpaid with someone else paying the bill. :) In fact I carry a Mobil O2 SIM as a back-up, just in case. However, once you start considering Dollars, Euro, Yen, etc. it starts to get more complicated. Then what's best very strongly depends on your personal needs and travel habits. Does the SIM have to be used or topped-up regularly? Do you have many incoming calls or are most of your calls outgoing? How phone savvy are the people who call you? Do you need a phone number based in a particular country (e.g. US, UK)? Your SIM choice has to be tuned to your needs. There is no one best SIM.

CelTrek (which gives you a U.S. number) charges (for Costa Rica)19 cents incoming, 29 cents out to U.S. They also cover all Euro countries at varying rates - roughly the same price as other intl. cards if you factor in the cost to call the premium overseas numbers.
I believe I read here, recently, that one of those other intl. carriers now does cover CR, but can't find the post. If i recall, their rates were only about 10-15 cents more than CelTrek. Other intl. cards don't cover CR.
I assume you know CR does not have prepaid on their own system.

...mike

P.S. As DRN said, there is no "best" SIM.

Just found that United Mobile (+423) added CR. Incoming 25 cents (plus cost to call +423 cell) and $1.09 to call U.S.

You may want to consider getting 2 international callback sims. Most have long expiration dates which can be extended by making a brief call or sending an sms text message a couple of times a year, and many can be easily refilled over the web. The United Mobile brand has been around for many years and use Mobilekom Liechtenstein as the backbone carrier. CelTrek I think uses Orange-Israel as the backbone carrier and is a newer operation, but has better rates in some countries (and worse in others) and lets you choose an incoming number in the US, UK or France.

That way if
1) there's a technical glitch with one card that can't be solved by redialing or selection of local carrier,
2) one callback sim offers a better rate than the other in the country your in, or
3) one sim lets you roam on a carrier with a stronger signal where you are trying to make a call from,

you can just swap sim cards.

Okay. So CellTrek is a pretty reputable company?
Also, is there a way to dial +423 or +372 cheap. Or a good callback option so that for one call I would potentially only pay a flat fee for the callback. I was thinking of using VoipBuster to patch calls through, but there is a hefty per minute rate for +423 or +372.

Really can't say much about celtrek, because they are pretty new.

You may want to look into callbackworld's PIN2DEST for calling +423 at an okay rate...at least compared to most other options. Most carriers have increased their rates to +423 drastically.

You'll also find out that quite a number of people here have more than 1 international sim. As GadgetKen mentioned, one might be better in certain situations that the other.

Does anyone know of a callback service that has flat-rate calling to CPP wireless phones? I certainly don't.

Calls to +423 cells vary all over. Many carriers charge 50 to 75 cents or more. IDT charges 11 cents and it has been posted here ATT the same.

Virtually everyone seems to charge around 25 cents to call +372.

There are some countries where the only real option is to get a local prepaid. Eg I'll be in Guatemala next week. Cingular and T-M charge over $2. Most intl. cards don't cover there. CelTrek charges about $1.40.
A local prepaid has calling to U.S. for 12 cents! Incoming is free and I'll use Voicestick to forward my home numbers to the Guatemala SIM at 11.2 cents.

...mike

Would it be easiest to get a prepaid SIM in one European country, and just use that everywhere? Meaning, is there a local European SIM which allows free incoming when roaming throughout Europe.

Not a regular prepaid SIM. Some of the international SIMs have "free" incoming calls in many European countries,

Okay. So it sounds like an international SIM is the clear best bet for multiple countries.

That is correct. Just want to mention that the govt. run system in Costa Rica does NOT have prepaid.
You would have to use your U.S. carrier, UM, or CelTrek there.

...mike

generally, how is roaming on local SIMs in Europe. Do EU nationals stop using their mobiles when they cross borders because of costs?

The whole thing is evolving very quickly....

In the past (before the advent of the international cards) Europeans either got new sim cards as they crossed international borders or paid very very steep roaming rates....the free reception of calls only occurred while inside the country of the telcom that issued the sim card.

The international cards began changing this...united mobile is only a little more than 2 years old when I stumbled on it after a brief trial with an Irish carrier trying to launch an international card. United Mobile, then called riiing, was the first as I remember to offer free reception of calls throughout most of Western, Central and Eastern Europe west of Russia and also, at least according to its web site, Australia, China and South Africa.

Under pressure from the eu, sort of piggy backing on what happened in the USA experience, pressure began to be brought on European carriers to lower roaming rates. In the USA, lest we forget, the idea of national roaming is less than a decade old. Before then, you had a small local calling region where you made calls from your allotted minutes (and that included receiving calls BTW which remains true till today) and Sprint was sort of the first one to begin offering roaming throughout the country...others followed for competitive reasons and for the most part today in the USA you don't pay ld rates or pay to roam outside your local area (you might even remain on the same company)...some in the eu see the eu as the United States of Europe so to speak (they're a long way from that we know) and want the same thing. Of course cmpanies see this as an erosion on their profits. I mean how can vodafone UK claim they have to charge high rates to compensate Vodafone NL if you roam with your UK sim card in the Netherlands other than to say they have to compensate their roaming partner. In other words you pay to have them transfer money from their left pocket (Vodafone UK) to their right pocket (Vodafone NL) even though they're part of one big happy family.

In any event, the eu Parliament is in the process of lowering roaming rates within the eu to a maximum of 0,24€ to receive calls using another country's sim card. We will see how quickly this can come into effect and whether it will have much effect on local tariffs.

This will resolve the issue for most Europeans it would seem.

As an explanation of why people like to use international call-back sim cards, here's a good article that appeared in the International Herald Tribune a couple of years ago that describes how Riing/United Mobile operates: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/...ess/liecht.php