Callkey Latest/Is there hope? [merged threads]
 

[This was a statement by Callkey to its agents - but it does not appear to include or have attached instructions that it was also for public consumption and should be published at this stage.

There is a stored copy of it, should it be deemed worthy of being restored.

There is also information on some reseller websites]

is this public knowledge? Callkey still haven't released a press release

There backoffice websites for each SIM using the following links still work {provider}.host4tele.com

CallME shortcuts still work, meaning i can still trigger my calls, web based, sms based from other mobiles and email based

Now also shows caller id of +447624100000

The CallKeyOne.com and CallKey.com sites are still working

They also do other types of telecoms as well as a providing roaming sim platform and there is no indication on their site about any troubles

Does it?... I get 404.

e.g.
http://ekit.host4tele.com/hosting/globalsim/404.htm
http://geosim.host4tele.com/hosting/globalsim/404.htm

Or am I missing something?

I don't have eKit or GeoSIM so don't know the link for where their websites get their information feeds from.

I tested one of mine which is FreeGlobalSIM.com/GlobalCalling.com whose link is http://longdistancesim.host4tele.com/hosting/globalsim/

http://longdistancesim.host4tele.com also points to the same place

I just go to the Callkey home page and press the button there

it automatically identifies which reseller you're with

Looks like there may have been financial trouble brewing since March:

http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/070313/115433.html

(see "Financial Restructuring" where they admit they were in default on a loan).

Doesn't anybody (sunrocket, voicestick, callkey, and especially their investors) realise that a business plan should have a way of making profit built into it from the start. Don't just go out giving away services or selling them cheap, in a business where the revenue per customer is tiny, and then hope to find a way to make money later from volume. It's daft.

If it is financial trouble and not trouble in dialling plan on the Isle of Man maybe when they come back online we might have to get used to costs/prices changing in some areas for CallKey backed services

Just go to the relevant resellers website and click on login.

Simple really.

IOM sim will work again soon :)
 

few seconds ago i get information.
By monday i should work again.

uffffffffffff

where did you find out about that?

i get email from reseller, he told me he have confirmation from main operator
thats good :)

Krik - Who's your reseller? Would be good if the Manx sims did come back to life (-:

can i ask what reseller it was that said this??

look at my signature :)

On www.freeglobalsim.com there is a crawl at the bottom of the home page saying that service will resume by Monday 08 October.....as they say we will see what we will see.

i wonder who their supplier was, as every other provider who ran on callkeys platform are still reporting their service is down and won't recover.

I got a response to an email I sent to Travis at freeGlobalSim this morning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Sir/Madame,

UPDATE:

As of 1:15pm we have been informed that our provider will be resuming services and given the current information we are hoping this will be done by Monday.

I hope that this information helps and puts at rest any worries of the service not resuming.

If anyone has any other questions please feel free to return an email to this address.

Kind Regards,

is it morning :) 1:15pm

edit : i'm stupid :)
You are from USA :)
now You have morning :)

callkey - back in servive
 

Someone living in cloud cook coo land. As far as I know, no other distributor had received this marvellous update with the good news

Latest from GeoSim as of 1500 BST 05/10/07

Service update
15:00 5th October 2007
No further information has been received from our current service provider regarding the resumption of service. Speculative comments appearing on various websites suggesting reactivation of the service seem unfounded at this time.
We continue to seek a suitable and reliable replacement for our customers very soon.
Thank you for your patience and undertanding.

Callkey Latest/Is there hope? [merged threads]
 

Service update
14:47 8th October
The service provider reports that they are in the process of seeking ways that the service may be reenabled and that discussions are now well underway. All parties are anxious to have the service resumed as soon as possible and are doing what they can to meet this objective.
They report that they cannot give a definitive outcome or timescale, but that the conclusion to the processes involved should be within the next 36 hours.
GeoSIM awaits further information at this time and hopes that there is a positive outcome for all concerned.
_____________________________________
Service update
10:50 8th October 2007
We are continuing to seek a reliable alternative system for our customers and have identified a number of solutions which we are continuing to appraise.
We appriciate the inconvinience caused by the continued lack of service and thank you for your patience.
__________________________________________________ ___

if you meant to say "it" should work again, and you meant this Monday, it didn't. No surprise there. Presumably just stalling by one reseller trying not to lose customers.

Yes RTuesday it was type mistake :)

by the way
maybe WE (prepaidgsm forum group) will ask resellers for prepaided money back?

Will Callkey ever come back?
 

Hello,

It's Wednesday 10th October and nothing works.

Some telephone companys tell me if dialling the +44 7624 1xxxxx this number does not exist, others give me the callkey announcement, "unavailable" at the end, both is the same thing.

Replacement SIM did also not arrive yet.
Globalsim.de Customercare was a little bit unfriendly "Why do you call? The Replacement SIMs were shipped End of last week."

Anybody from Isle of Man reading here?

I am not a lawyer but how I see it is that you bought a prepaid card from a company. You paid that company and have a relationship with that company.
The company you bought from has not gone out of business and is still alive.
The problem is that their supplier is out of business and if the company you bought your card from has paid the full amount on you prepaid card to the company out of business now they have a problem.

Legally you have no relationship with the company that has gone out of business. Theirfore you still have credit from the company you bought your card from. As with any prepaid card you can't ask your money back but the would have to offer you a replacement service and transfer the prepaid amount to the new service.
This is as long as they can pay it and are not going bankrupt because of this.
So the only thing you can hope for is a replacement sim from another provider and have the money tranferred to the new sim.

A general principle is that "the law abhors forfeitures." If you have lived up to your end of the bargain then it's up to the other side to live up to their end or refund your money. Even if the other side went out of business then you can get in line with the rest of the creditors to have your claims sorted out by the receiver.

This debacle is really going to damage the "global sims" business - which was already loads of resellers competing (mostly unprofitably) for a very small niche market. They'll get terrible (word of mouth) publicity from early adopters like us - they're unreliable, hard to recharge, change the rules and rates without notice, and you can lose all your money.

Certainly I doubt I need to bother replacing my global sims. In many cases, they havn't worked when I've needed them (e.g. 09 in Mexico, at times), or have had rates changed so that they were not the same deal I brought (so become useless).

Adding in the wasted sim cost and recharges to the per-minute costs, and the need to have backups for when they don't work, they become really debatable for me (for a heavier user who goes to more countries it might be different).

Since I spend 80%+ of my time in just 4 countries (including Mexico which now has free incoming on local sims), the global sims have lost me as a customer. I'll rely on local sims, wifi voip on my Nokia 770, plus my non-contract postpaid sims from Orange UK and Virgin UK for the odd time I need to make a call elsewhere.

Even if the postpaid roaming calls cost many times that of a global sim, they just work - and don't require prepaid credits that disappear. The cost, for low usage, will probably work out similar, and a lot less bother.

As the owner of two dead Swiss EasyRoam SIMs I sometimes wonder if my total costs would have been lower had I just paid T-Mobile's roaming fees rather than chasing savings which later prove to be largely illusion.

Today i received a free temporary replacement card from globalsim.de
Its a maxxSIM (www.maxxsim.de with +491570 number) including some starting balance.
The rates are not very good but at least they sent a free replacement to their customers. They say the old cards remain active and if the service shall resume you can also continue using the replacement card as well.

Chris

Advisory from GeoSim
 

Just passing along the latest advisory from geosim:

Service Alert - IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Replacement SIMs - If you are an existing GeoSIM customer you are advised to maintain possession of your GeoSIM.
We are aware of a number of companies offering to take your GeoSIM and "swap" it for a free replacement. You are strongly advised to keep possession of your GeoSIM until a suitable solution is found.
If we need to replace your GeoSIM, you will need to register your requirement for a replacement SIM. Registration facilities will be available on our website soon.
You may also be required to return your GeoSIM to us so that your GeoSIM online account can be closed properly and securely and any remaining call credit be transferred to any replacement SIM we may or may not need to provide.
We are currently looking at a number of options for our customers. Although, this is taking a little longer than hoped, we are aiming to provide a long term solution, rather than a "quick fix".
IF YOU ARE AN EXISITING CUSTOMER YOU ARE ADVISED THAT IF YOU PASS ON YOUR GeoSIM TO ANY UNAUTHORISED SUPPLIER OR TRADER, TRANSFER OF YOUR CALL CREDIT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE.
You should also consider the possibility of the service being resumed and consider the problems of unauthorised people using your GeoSIM or phone number.
Your patience and understanding is appreciated at this time.

Interesting. I checked some rates to EU mobiles from Poland and France and they seem to be 79 or 99 cents/min. Is maxxSIM excluded from euroroaming maximal rates???

as far as i know this only affects the direct roaming rates and not the callback rates from this kind of SIM-cards. correct me if i am wrong.

Chris

Well, at least Polish ops cut down also callback rates (where applicable) - I think they wouldn't have done that if there hadn't been forced to ;-)

Guess the time the Manx +447624/+447924 Sims start working again
 

Well this is a lite hearted post but according to callkey, Wednesday 17/10/07 is the big day.

The most interesting thing is that every one is going to be looking at there phone to see when it goes live.

If your Manx sim number (+447624 or +447924 has gone live, please put the time your sim could make or receive calls on this post. :chair:

Please give details like:

Is you number: 07624 or 07924
What brand: geo, worldsim, ect.

Nice info but i have written this before a better question would be how long will they be able to keep it going.

As we have all understood now there were some financial problems which are maybe resolved now. But what will happen in 6 month's time, offline again. What has changed that they can guarentee now that it will be working.

I think many people are a bit upset as they use there number on a regular basis to call and receive calls and you need a reliable provider for this.

We all have seen what happend to yackie and unhappy customers so if anyone has some more info on why callkey can now make it work again it would be interesting to know.

Callkey
 

lets see if it works first and then worry for how long for :p

callkey > :chair: < customer

I still have the sim but allready gave my customers my new +44 um+ number.

I am not really interested to see how long it works this time. As most people I want a reliable solution and not worry how long the number will be online this time.

Also the last month I noticed some quality problems with the callkey service. I am using callback myself and my dtmf tones would not come through. This is an indication that they are using heavy compression on their line. More compression = more calles through these lines.
This only happended the last 2 month, before that no problem. Using Um+ I can use callback without any problem.

Two facts
 

Hello,

there are two facts at the moment at 21.51 C-E-T Time.

Fact one:

Some Callkey Distributors told us (including the Germany based Globalsim.de) that the original SIM-Cards and Phone-Numbers will return on Wednesday, 17th of October A.D. MMVII (i.e. 2007) This is today, mostly in the world, I think.

Fact two:

My and many other SIM-Cards from the +44 7624 1xxxxx number-Range do not work at this time. Just tested again, calling the number from my landline,
I get an announcement: "Sorry, the number you have called is not available".

Its a pity, that nobody at Callkey.com or Manx-Telecom has the "power" or "courage" to put any information on their homepage to give us a current status, whats going on there.

Every day, our Callkey-SIM-Cards/Numbers are not working is reducing the chance to recover the company and to earn money as the little rest of customers is still gone away to Iceland (09.is or Yackie) or Isle of Jersey (UM+) or Liechtenstein (UM423), Estonia (AirBaltic) or any other SIM in the big GSM-world.