Callkey Manx-based SIMs completely offline no calls possible
 

http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/contact.php

Service Advisory

28/09/07 19:00 BST

GeoSIM has been advised by the service provider that the system is currently non-operational from the perspective of SIM's (web calls are not affected nor is access to the backoffice) and that they are working on resolving the issues. They advise that it will not be possible to complete any form of resolution until Monday. They will be issuing a further bulletin at 12 Noon (BST) on Monday 1st October.

GeoSIM was not advised of any scheduled outage by the service provider and we are endeavouring to seek further information at this time.

Although GeoSIM has no control over the outage we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disruption that this will cause. Please be assured we are doing what we can to find out what the problem is and resolve it as soon as possible.

Further information will be posted on this page when available.


Do other manx card still work or is this the only one that is offline ?

even i am having the same problem.. i cant access any network.. says access denied.
any 1 able 2 can access the network?

Seams like some major problem when the system is offline this long. I hope they can resolve this issue a.s.a.p as being offline this long makes me think about the reliability of this card.

I was in the netherlands yesterday evening, no network login possible. I did see 3 networks today but no access allowed.

Doubts
 

The problems come already from the last week. Some SIM didn't receive the calls. Sure that it is not good stopped at all, but maybe they maybe fix it at all.
But I have one doubt. When it happens, happens in all IOM SIM or it is a exclusive GEO-SIM problem?
Because what I read in the forum is that all IOM use the same carrier. Is it true?

Like the GT-SIM use the same carrier because the numbers is similar, services are similar, even the suport, balance, voicemail all is the same.


Thanks

This outage will affect all IOM cards using the same service provider/carrier as GeoSIM.

I have an ekit sim (uses Manx network). It does not work at this time. It does register on one of the available networks only. If I dial the ekit number from local providers, I get the number does not exist. I can not make outgoing calls. I did send an sms to the ekit sim but it did not arrive.
So it is not functioning.

I too have an ekit SIM forwarded to another mobile. I have been trying to call it and keep getting the 'the number you have called is not available message'. I got worried thinking maybe it's been too long since I topped up etc. Had a look at their website, and there is absolutely no mention of an outage! Very annoying. I should have known that I should have come here first! PPgsm always one step ahead! ;-)

I have a freeglobalsim card (IOM number) and it stopped working yesterday.
when i switch on the phone it detects the usual 3 operators but then fails to register with any of them.

Same here...freeGlobalSim will not register on tmobile or AT&T.

Of course... impossible to find any engineers on the island at the weekend! They'll need to fly them in on Monday morning! :-)

My Globalsim.de card stop responding esterday. It was impossible to register in ANY network in Spain. After tommorrow I'll try using it in France and Italy and I'll post the result here.

Don't think that it makes a difference. Like they wrote the systems does not work at all. So it does not matter in what country you are in you can't register.

I asume that when you log into a network, that network contact the operator of the sim card to check the data and if you are allowed to receive any calls. It seems that this is not working at all.

Just received this from Globalcalling.com/FreeGlobalSIM.com...

Dear Valued Customer,



This is a Global SIM Network Announcement. The Global SIM Service is currently not functioning due to a major service outage with our network provider CallKey. CallKey has informed us that they are working the situation as best they can, but it is likely that they will not have the system up and running until Monday at the earliest.



We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused you. Please know that we are making every possible effort to get the service back up and running with CallKey and will communicate with you as this situation progresses.



Chris Wixom

President

Very old 0044/SIMazing IOM card not working and inbound calls not possible
GT-SIM euro and aussie version not working and no inbound calls
FreeGlobalSIM.com SIM not working and no inbound calls
MeSIM not working and no incoming calls
Cherry Mobile SIM not working and no incoming calls

Tried both 07624xxxxxx and 07924xxxxxx type numbers, non are working.

Their websites and host4tele.com backoffice sites working fine though

Just hope CallKey gets things sorted soon, i liked using their service

(Just to make sure it wasn't all of the isle of man that had stopped working i tried a TruPhone.com number 0762400xxxx and it worked)

I have seen network problems before but never have I heard that it has taken this long for the ntwork to get back online. This does say something about callkey and I would expect a pressrelease saying what the problem was and how the can prevent this in future.

I think this is needed as cellular phone is part of our life and you want to be reached on a number you handout. Certainly when you are selling a roaming free products that business people also use. An outage means not reachable and this is not good.

Still no progress! This is getting annoying as I depend on this. :mad: Had a look at the Geosim site and I see this:

However no update at 6PM!

Hello World,

as far as I was told, there could be a "non technical problem" on the Isle of Man where Callkey.com (the platform operator) and Manx Telecom (the network operator, a subsidy of o2 plc) are located.

As far as I understood, this problem could last minimum to end of week.

If you dial +44 7624 1xxxxx from a working phone you get an announcement, that "the number is not available."
If you dial e.g. +44 7624 2xxxxx you get another message that "the number is not recognized."

Seems to me, they have blocked our numbers/SIM cards, for whatever reasons.

To learn how many numbers are affected, what are your first two digits after +44 7624 ?? xxxx

Mine are 19xxxx (Globalsim.de) I know customers with 14xxxx (Globalsim.de and GT-SIM)

Are other Area Codes in use with callkey?

mine is 7624 17xx (globalsimcard.co.uk)

could you give some more info on "non technical problem" what do you mean with this.
Some financial problems ?
Political problems O2 wants to shut down roaming free cards ?

How did you understood that it could last till at least end of the week. You seem to know more so just give some info.

There was a posting here. I think it was removed immediately. It mentioned that it's a "Financial issue". That's not too good. So, until an agreement is reached, if ever, the service will be off line.

hrgajek was saying a non technical problem and indeed in most cases that would be a financial problem. Normally these kind of problems and not published as they want to keep them secret because it would hurt a companier name.

...it is beginning to look like this is a much more serious issue, as others have noted, then just a small temporary technical problem. Most of these telcoms have pretty smart technical people who can usually quickly diagnose and correct a technical problem. Also, as a peripheral issue, it is interesting to note that UM has been unable to get its voicemail system up and running in the nearly two months it has been up......it really can't be, from a pure technical point of view, that difficult...I suspect something serious is indeed going on and the future of the international cards using Isle of Man might be in jeopardy.

So what about people who paid good money for these SIM's? I note that most places are still selling them and haven't really published much info about the outage!

Actually, I just looked through my email sent from prepaidgsm, and I still have the post that was removed. It was removed, so no need to repost it! It definitely does not look too good.

Regarding the question about "what about people who paid good money for these SIM's", I think we will be out of luck. The more reason why it's good to put the minimum as possible on these sims. I actually have 2 freeGlobalsims for my family with a total of about $70 in credit between them. Never topped them up. This is the initial credit they came with. So, if I lose it...such is life.

Other than Manx Telecom, is there a common company involved with all these roaming virtual providers, e.g. Callkey?

I just received this from the UM+ guys...

so... :-)

..got the same e mail but as noted in the other thread. if I can't personalize it by calling into the mailbox rather than having to dial in, at the rates they charge in the USA, that's a problem that I haven't had with previous UM cards; although I note that when they sent out the sim cards, they used a generic pin code for voicemail for all accounts...in the past your temporary password were the last 4 digits of the PUK code.

My GT-sim and 0044 (both 07624 10) stopped working on Friday also while I was in France.

Now I'm back in the Isle of Man, I find that they won't even log onto their home network (Manx Telecom).

But I can confirm that normal phones (and normal Manx Telecom mobiles) are working on the island, and the island is still here. :-)

CallKey Down?? OK FINE - but for good??
 

I'm new to this forum, so pardon my ignorance if i didn't read all the threads leading up to this, but from what I can see IOM products - in so many variations which i didn't know about til this week seem to be pretty much out of business.
I was attending gitex show in Dubai couple weeks ago and ran into three of such providers showcasing their products: CherryMobile, QiiQ and CallBlueGSM. I am new to this product/service and thought of such a product to be pretty decent and I am constantly in Europe and Middle East. I bought a SIM from CallBlue, even though their prices are ridiculous from Canada, almost $2 a minute to call U.K. I am almost glad I didn't buy one from Qiiq or cherry mobile as i would've been left complaining as i'm in Rome next week.
Now that I've been introduced to the wonderful world of so called "free" roaming, it seems to be more of a soap opera - ranging from dozens of callkey resellers looking for alternatives to so called "financial" problems.
Let's see how this unfolds..:whistling:

callkey
 

Tried emailing Callkey as they are the provider for the Manx numbers for roaming cards. This was the reply:
This mailbox is no longer in service - to report faults please contact your distributor directly.

From geosim's web site

Service Update
17:32 2nd Oct 2007
Received from service provider 17:15 BST.
"We are acutely aware that you are waiting for news and we have not been able to deliver this to you for a little while. There are intense activities going on to enable us to restore the system very quicky.....
There will be a further update later in the day."
________________________________________
Service update
14:27 2nd Oct. 2007
No further information has been received from the service provider regarding the service outage at this time.
GeoSIM is sourcing alternative services and will advise customers in due course of the proposed solution.
Thank you for your patience in this matter and sincere apologies for the inconvinience caused
__________________________________________________ ______
Service Update
08:48 2nd Oct 2007
At this time no further update has been received from the service provider regarding the current system outage. The last report from them was at 19:30 1st Oct advising there was no further information on when the system would be operational.
We are looking at various alternative options on resuming service for customers at this time.
__________________________________________________ ____________
Service Alert Update.
Received from Service Provider 12:02 Monday 1st October
"There is no update to the status of the system that we can give at this time - it is still not functioning for all SIM activities.
There will be a further update at 6pm BST today."

Not holding my breath!

Mine are...

Old 0044.co.uk/SIMazing +447624104xxx
GT-SIM.com +447624103xxx
GT-SIM.com.au +447624105xxx
FreeGlobalSIM.com/GlobalCalling.com +447624155xxx
MeSIM.com +447624126xxx
MyCherryMobile.com +447924xxxxxx

Well
 

I agree that looks very strange a technical problem take so long to return.

But other strange things happens yesterday. Here my GSM mobile efect my computer when is receiving a message, or call or any other information. And yesterday at least 4 times my mobile (with the Geosim) efect my computer. I was happy thinking that the things would return to a regular working, but nothing.
Any way some thing happens in the network, so some times I beleive yet that could be technical problem, but it is hard to beleive that a operator stoped during days. Imagem if happens with Orange because some technical problem, how crazy will be.

And I beleive that they is tring to solve soon, because if all was losted they already advise us. Why they will hide that they never will return or that will take at least months to return?

Anyway congratulations to Geosim that at the same time that the problens happen stoped to sell.

I had an email from my supplier (eKit) this morning. The key line was:
They told me they were offering free replacement SIMs with another provider.
So I got on the phone to them! As suspected the problem is with Callkey who have gone down in spectacular fashion! Anyhow, I have been told I should have replacement SIM's by the morning. Apparently most of the older callkey +44 7624's will cease to exist and will instead all be replaced with +44 7924. This is not really a problem for me as my 3 SIM's were all 07924 as is. I don't know any further details yet as to what product it is and which countries are included etc.

Callkey = finished
 

Just talked to the supplier of my manx sim and he told he he received a letter 2 am this morning saying callkey has stopped and has gone out of business.

More updates on their website and they will look for an alternative offer for their existing customers.

Yes... I will echo that as I posted in the other thread! My supplier eKit have confirmed this but have already managed an alternative. I hope to report back to you guys as soon as I have it.

The removed posts contained private communications between other parties, and should not have been on here.

Furthermore, the way that they were written risked misleading people as to sequences of events and actions by certain parties. For instance, a statement "I have received ..." isn't the same as "I phoned up and asked about ... [and later got a forwarded email reply]". That party has told me that this phone call approach was the first he knew about it.


As for other comments above, it is still just speculation at the moment. There are still things happening, and it's expected to play out this week. I'd say don't destroy the SIM card.

The message may differ from different resellers depending on their motivations; some are approaching other networks - even though some SIMs are still working, some can be replaced, or they may all start working again. I'm not rushing with a similar replacement offer (valid to Oct 12th) to what petkow mentions, though I know slightly more of the detail.

I also got an alternative solution from eKit. They are sending the new cards within 2 business days.

On the Globalsimcard contactpage I read this:

I made a phone call a few minutes ago that suggests that nothing necessarily that final has happened or been communicated. This is not a reseller but someone who will know.

It is not impossible that all of the existing SIM cards will work again.

I want to believe you, but we can't rely on Callkey anymore do we? This could have been avoided by Callkey if they published the problems they were having theirselfs on friday last week.

If you know more, can you tell us all you know, or have you agreed in an NDA ?

I really depend on this, so I have rushed in! However, I am now having some second thoughts, especially as I do have 2 of one type (Global Premium) and 1 slightly different (England and Ireland).

The devil is in the detail... what is the detail that you have Andy? I was told it is a like for like type replacement product! Same countries etc.