UK mvno SIMs with cheap int'l calls [merged]
 

Well, I'm slightly embarrassed that someone launched an mvno in the UK without me noticing. As I knew their others, I look from time to time ...

It's on Orange UK, and the first virtual operator on there, beating Blyk by a couple of weeks.

The international call rates start at 6 pence a minute. There are other cheap int'l options on prepaid with almost all of the main networks, but the choice of the cheapest destinations is perhaps not quite as wide on all of them.

http://www.idtmobile.co.uk/rates/



Other IDT mobile operations - in Belgium and Netherlands their rates are similar to Lebara and Ortel

BE: http://www.idtmobile.be/

DK: http://www.globalmobile.dk/

NL: http://www.idtmobile.nl/

Nice to see both National and International SMS at only £0.10. The price of the starter pack is only £2.99. Good topup options too. With a £20 topup, you get £10 free! That makes the equivalent call price considerably lower!

Not enough info on their website, unfortunately. Any idea what their billing increment is, how much they charge for data, and how long the card validity is?

Quote:

Your prepaid service will remain valid for an indefinite period provided you continue to use the service. It will expire, however, if you do not use it in any 120 day period. You will be notified by text message 3 weeks before the service expires. Every time you make a call, send a SMS or top up your service, your validity period will be reset to 120 days.

http://www.idtmobile.co.uk/pdf/user_manual_EN.pdf


from CS: per minute billing; no data yet but later, Eurotariff roaming

As I noticed, eurotariff applies to IoM and Channel Islands, too.

Two stupid questions.
1) What are the correct rates to UK (national)
15p or 7p landline/16 p mobile as stated here
http://www.idtmobile.co.uk/rates/?ra...,415474&name=U
2) What are the rates to IoM and Channel Islands - national ones?

Liechtenstein mobile is 38p - not surprising ;-)

UK mvno SIMs with cheap int'l calls
 

https://www.nomi-mobile.com/

don't yet know which network it's on ...

Its on BT Andy, another one due soon from Lycatel

BT? You mean Vodafone? (Or ex-BT O2?)

and Lebara just appeared in the UK, making 7 countries for them now

rates from 4 pence a minute

http://www.lebara-mobile.co.uk/en/


- looks like it's on Vodafone

From the Lebara website:

Roaming TariffsYou can use your Lebara Mobile Pay-As-You-Go SIM when you travel overseas and you want to call back to the UK.

We call this “International Roaming”. Unfortunately we can’t offer you the same low rates when you are “roaming” abroad as when you are calling from within the UK.



However, our roaming rates are still good value compared with the other UK Mobile operators:



Please contact our customer service for roaming charges.

IDT Mobile
 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/idt-mobile-int...QQcmdZViewItem

Is this a new service? where are they based? what type of number do you get?

I think these are prepaid sims for the UK. They also have for a few other european countries specializing in international calls

There is also a US version called Tuyo that uses the T-Mobile USA network and IDT international long distance:
http://www.tuyo.com/

It launched in the UK in September, an mvno on Orange; they've been in other countries longer.

In the UK, there are also Lebara and Nomi mobile, rumours of Lycatel coming here. And there are also options on all main networks with selected cheap international destinations.



In Ireland, the OP might be interested in using Vodafone's cheap rates to certain countries, sometimes combined with callthrough, to make calls from under 10c per minute

Lebara UK
 

For UK users, I recently got one these PAYG sim for overseas calling, you can also use for roaming in EU 39p/call 19p/receive. Its on vodafone network and call quality is much better than my previous sim from CW mobileworld which used T-Mobile.

http://www.lebara-mobile.co.uk/en/index.php

The website looks interesting. Do you get a normal UK mobile number for incoming calls, and are incoming calls free in the UK like the other mainstream operators?

yes....like the rest of the UK mobile market all incoming direct dialed calls the caller pays not the recipient!

Yes I got a 075 UK number and incoming calls are free. Another new virtual operator offering overseas calls is nomi-mobile...www.nomi-mobile.com, however they do not offer roaming like Lebara. I'm also getting GPRS on Lebara.

Can someone post info on how to use GPRS in Lebara? I've read their entire UK site, but can't find information on how to actually enable GPRS.

I got a Nokia E61, I used the OTA from the Nokia website.

http://www.nokia.co.uk/A4222200

You can also get settings here, see at the bottom of the page

http://www.lebara-mobile.co.uk/en/faq.php

Lycamobile took its time to appear, don't know exactly when

same sort of rates as the others, though it also has interesting calls to other Lyca mobiles, 15 pence connection only, for up to half an hour

http://www.lycamobile.co.uk/index.aspx

New UK mvno
 

Lycatel have finally set up in the uk, there website can be found at www.lycamobile.co.uk

Rates from 9p text, to 10p mobile...uk only, looking cheap for int'l rates...... from 7p per min....

Lycamobile, emailed them asking about a few things earlier in the week, no heard anything yet, not good c/s if it takes a long time to answer basic customer queries?

Funny.....thats all!

still not heard from them???????

Still no news from them....not good!

...still not heard from them.......??????????

Gripe about Nomi and Lebara
 

Sorry to revive an oldish thread, but I wanted to vent on the topic. I'll be coming to the UK in a couple of weeks, a colleague lost my still-active UK T-Mo SIM that I'd loaned him, so I need something new for this trip. Rather than do what I usually do, namely wander around the airport or town looking for a SIM deal, I thought this time I'd buy one in advance and have it sent to a UK friend who could then forward it on to me. First I tried to order one from Lebara online, this triggered an error asserting that Barclaycard wouldn't authorize the charge. I phoned Barclaycard, who told me they <i>had</i> in fact authorized the charge, and when I phoned Lebara they were rather dim and unhelpful, telling me that I should try again and "get the order particulars right" (but not telling me why my order had failed, and not even willing to look up the order from the order number I was given).

Next I tried Nomi, and had essentially the same experience.

This is the kind of commercial dysfunctionality I was accustomed to when I lived in England years ago, I was under the impression that things were better nowadays. I guess not. - David

A couple of suggestions...

Check out my thread several below about my latest trip to Europe and especially the UK. There were hawkers of lebara sim cards both at the exit of the Gatwick Express at Victoria and at the exit of Eurostar at St. Pancreas....free sim cards but they require a 5 quid top up to start (you of course have to put something on them in any event)....lebara as you know 4p to the USA.

Also as I waltzed down oxford Street on Tuesday, outside one of the T Mobile stores (it was right near Bond Street Underground) there was a lady simply handing out free T Mobile UK sim cards, again no time but it does come with a swipe card.....

Now if you don't want to waste precious time, you can go to ebay and do a search for UK sim cards...I have one favorite shop there who will send you most any network's sim card for less than $5 including shipping...of course as always they don't come with any credit but topping up at either Gatwick or Heathrow can't be very hard. Just look at all the listings...this one sent me before I left on my trip a vodafone sim card and when all was said and done I paid $4.50 including shipping to my home address. Vodafone cards come with a £1 initial amount loaded on...doesn't come with a swipe card but go into any merchant displaying the green e top up decal (Boots, Superdrug, Sainsbury, Tesco among others) and they will give you a voucher for as little as 5 quid...stop by a vodafone store (there are many) for a swipe card. I chose vodafone for this summer as their international plan (free to join) gives 5p/minute calls to the USA and other destinations and until 31 August feature free roaming within the eu with no charge to receive calls and 20p/minute to call back to the UK and within the country you are roaming in and 38p to call elsewhere.....

Many of the High Street stores (phones 4 u, carphone warehouse) in their catalogues feature free sim cards for the various networks but require a 10 quid top up.....

Getting a free or next to free British sim card, at least for the time being, is about the easiest thing in the world.

Personally, right now today I would opt until 31 August at least for vodafone....but you really can't go wrong with lebara or T Mobile

Are you trying to pay with a US or UK credit card? I have had endless problems trying to buy stuff from UK sites with a foreign credit card.

Indeed true...but ebay uses paypal and it doesn't matter where the credit card is issued...I have bought items on ebay from US, UK, Hong Kong merchants and have had no difficulties whatsoever.

However, it is very difficult to top up a UK sim card from outside the country on their web sites using a non UK credit card (but you can top up vodafone outside the UK using a local vodafone voucher while in that country namely you can use a vodafone de voucher to top up a vodafone uk sim card as long as you are in Germany!)

It was a UK card (Barclaycard, attached to my UK bank account), though the address on it is US. I assume they either didn't like the fact that the address wasn't really mine (it is a colleague's), or that the IP address on the browser was US, or something. As I said, the charge was authorized by Barclaycard.

The wandering around to find a SIM is what I've done in the past, and exactly what I was trying to avoid this time. Obviously, it is what I'll have to do again, but it really should have been avoidable. (If anyone knows where I should look in Manchester Airport, I'm all ears.) As for the eBay route, I hate paying for something that should be free.

If the IP address doesn't match the country of origen of the card the transaction may get rejected. They assume the card is cloned or stolen. I have had endless problems with this. I now try to use Paypal if it is accepted.

Normally that would be the CC company that rejects the transaction. (My US cards are the same way if I use them overseas without giving the company advance warning.) In this case my CC company was OK with the charge, Lebara and Nomi decided all on their own that I'm some kind of master criminal, using a stolen card to steal a whole 5 quid from them...

Anyway, I'm sure I'll survive. Thanks for the feedback, but really, I just wanted to vent. - DR

Lebara, being dedicated to the immigrant market are amongst the most cautious with online CC payments. Apparantly they were inundated with chargebacks in their early days. No doubt due to numbers obtained from Nigerian card databases. SIMs with cheap international calls that come loaded with credit are easy to flog on in immigrant areas.

If you need a UK sim card (un-used and un-opened) please don't hesitate to pm me...we can sort out a one for one trade!

Missed this one!!!
 

Vectone mobile UK

MVNO using t-mobile.....


Vectone Mobile - save money with low call rates at home and abroad

It seems to have launched a few days ago, after being in the pipeline for about two years. They now operate in 6 or 7 countries. The others have some cheap roaming, like a few minutes of free incoming, but I don't see it on here

It is interesting to read that Lycatel (who are the people behind the MVNO Lycamobile that has been mentioned higher up in this thread) are currently being investigated in the UK. The allegation is that users of their prepaid phonecards get fewer minutes than advertised, and that there are some hidden charges which are not made clear at the time of sale.

Though these misleading practices may be considered common practice in the telecom industry, it just goes to show that if you have good evidence, and put together a decent complaint to the regulator, then these things do eventually get taken seriously. If found guilty, Lycatel can get fined 10% of its turnover. Apart from this, if they have broken consumer laws, then individual customers could even apply for refunds through the courts.