Maxroam review
 

Maxroam review

After testing the Yackiemobile Sim, next was the Maxroam Sim.

I received the sim as a normal letter, which for sending a sim is not a secure option. I don’t know if this is standard or if they are doing this only for free sims like mine.

On the website you have to activate the sim. You can choose from a English, French, USA or Irish number.

I selected UK but could not see which number I would get. Sent a mail to Pat and he mailed me the local number which was a +44-1412 number. I called the number and the cell phone also rang, so no problem with forwarding the call.

I sent an SMS from the phone and I worked. As ID it showed a +97254number. I could also sent an sms to that number which came through.
Calling the number resulted in a message, this number is not connected.

I also made a call using the cell phone and that also worked. Only problem was that the cell phone did not show any caller ID when calling someone. Also I noticed a delay in the voice coming through, which means the signal does travel some way.

What’s my opinion?

I compare maxroam now to yackie as these are the last 2 new services and they seem to offer similar systems.

To start with the webinterface for customers is very simplistic, not to many option. I can see a log of calls made or received. Only showing my number I added under personal details, but can’t change these details.

What I don’t like is that to start with you can only choose from a uk, usa, French or irish number, I could not even select a local area code. Yackie does give you an option to choose from many more countries to start with. You can add more countries but to start with it does not show what the cost for buying an extra did number is.
Also I like the yackie solution to combine the did number with voip so you can also have it ring on your voipaccount.

Rates. Incoming rates vary from country to country and I would prefer a fixed rate for the roamfree destinations. Comapred to yackie the incoming cost are also higher.
Outgoing rates, SMS is normally around euro 0,22 where yackie is $0.49/euro0.35.
Outgoing call rates:
Maxroam, Canada to France 0,79 euro, Local Cal 0,62
Yackie Canada to France $1.49 Local Call $ 1.49 = euro 1,06
Maxroam UK to USA 0,45 euro Local Call 0,40
Yackie UK to USA $ 0.69 Local Call 0.69 = euro 0.49
Maxroam, Hungary to Iceland 0,56 euro Local Call 0,35
Yackie Hungary to Iceland $0.59 (0.42 euro) Local Call $ 0.49 (0.35 euro)
Maxroam Ireland to Italy 0,36 euro Local Call 0,31 euro
Yackie Ireland to Italy $0.69 (0.49 euro mobile)/0.59( fixed) Local Call $0.59 (0.42 euro)

For outgoing rates it looks like maxroam beat yackie for many destinations. Also for sms maxroam is cheaper than yackie. For incoming rates yackie has better rates.

Some more remarks on the website.

The rates don’t clearly show how you bill, per minute, second?
Nowhere does it say how much it cost’s to connect to customer support and I have not seen any normal customer support number.
Please improve the webinterface so customers have more information, like called numbers and received calls. Shoe what extra DID numbers cost before ordering one. I selected Australia but got a message that it was not possible to get a number from there.

Maroam

Positive:

- low sms rate
- reasonable call out rates

Negative

- Web interface simplistic, not many options.
- Only 4 countries available when selecting the first DID number
- SIM number can’t be called directly.
- No Caller ID on outgoing calls
- No SIM password possible, no PUK code provided. If someone steals your phone you have no password on the SIM
- Incoming DID number can’t be connected to a voip account.

Would I use it.

I have mixed feelings about maxroam. Compared to Yackie their whole webinterface and information for the customers is really simplistic and not many options are possible. Why not give the customer the option to choose from more countries for incoming DID number to start with.
As I want to use the SIm also for my own callback, this is not possible, the number can’t be called directly and there is no outgoing caller ID. Yackie complained about possible misuse of people using their own callback solution, Maxroam has found a solution for this.
The incoming rates are higher compared to Yackie and I don’t know if they can do something about this.
The outgoing rates are reasonable and for most destinations cheaper than the yackie solutions. Some examples like Canada maxroam is really cheaper.

This is the reason I have mixed feelings about the product. The basis seems OK but they have more things to do to get a good solution to compete with Yackie.

Pat told me that the new webinterface would be available from november 1st. Maybe you can redo the review in one week.

I also did a review of Maxroam, but it's included in a different thread {Maxroam (aka Roam4Free V2)}.

I can redo it, but this will only take away some of the remarks I made.

Still the choice of only 4 countries for did number to start with is to little. This way when you want a local number and do not live in any of these 4 countries you are forced to pay more for and extra number.

No pin code is something some people do not like as they do want to protect their sim.

Rates on the website, what is billing, seconds. minutes etc.

No caller ID. There are enough people that don't answer a phone when they do not see any caller ID.
Caller ID should be flexible and in the Yackie review I said why not show the caller ID from one of the main DID numbers you are using.

These were some points in the review that have little to do with the webinterface. But I asume that you agree on the rest than.

Thanks Bob
Fair review
V2 is ready this week, then we might ask you nicely to re-review

When V2 is ready I will check and update what has changed.

I thought maxroam v2 was going live on Nov. 1st...what happened?

I guess they don't want to make the same mistakes (launch). They are probably waiting until the site works 100% like it should. I can't blame them...

A blog-update would have been nice though.

UPDATE

The web interface has changed a bit now

It shows the numbers you have, you can forward a call and buy new numbers.

Forward is nice but the webinterface is still not good. Once you have made a foward the screen displays that you have forwarded a did number and that you can turn it off, but it does not show to which number you have forwarded the did number.

It also says: Forward your MAXroam number totally FREE to any number you list below:

You can add numbers but still no trace on how much these number cost before you purchase them.

Yes they have updated a bit, but no it's still not perfect and my intial review still stands.

Yesterday I received my Maxroam simcard so let's try to write a little review too...

It was inside a normal letter, as for bbob, coming from Ireland. Anyway, no problem.

I went to the website to make the activation. I put all the data, chose the number (Italian one) and the simcard was actived. No problems.
I put the simcard in the phone (SE Z160i) and it registered on 3 ITA 3G network very fast. I see the 3 ITA writing and "roaming" just below.

I called the DID number from my Wind mobile and the connection was quite fast, but the Maxroam phone started ringing a couple of rings later than on the other phone. BTW, not a big problem. No call-ID. I didn't answer. But my Wind sincard was charged... After the "non-call" I received a message saying my credit was low and then a second message saying "missed call" from my Wind number.

Then I called from the Maxroam to my Wind number and it went through quite fastly with no problems. Once avain no call-ID and I didn't answer.
I received again a low-credit message and I checked my credit through the sim menu. I received an SMS sayin I have 4.845 €, which is quite strange since I should have 5. I have no idea where the 0.155 have gone...

So, that's all I did by now, but next saturday I'm flying to Belgium and Holland and I'll visit Germany too, so I could test it better, but I'd like to understand why I'm charged also when I don't answer the phone... before buying credit I prefer to know how it works ;)

P.S. I also received a text from 3 to my Israeli provider... "Shalom from 3 in Italy! With 3 you can now enjoy videocalls with your loved ones and download TV news clips directly to your phone!"

Another problem at the website... am I blind or there's no possibility to check the calls sent/received on the website?

Nope! There is no option to view call logs as far as I can tell. I would have to think they are working to provide this very quickly.

Also, as I posted above or may be in the other thread. You get charged as soon as you answer the callback. regardless if the number called is busy, invalid, etc. Also, the caller gets charged as soon as the maxroam phone starts to ring. I noticed you experienced both Effendi.

Yeah, exactly. I remembered I read it somewhere, but I didn't find it on this discussion. I think that's really not fair, and BTW how is the billing? It doesn't seem to be 60/60, but a 30/xx since I got billed 0.155 for just few seconds of (unanswered) call (1 minute to Italian mobile is 0.31). That billing would be not bad if you were billed just for answered calls...

The billing is 60/60. I was charged exactly 1.18 euro for an unanswered test call I made from the US to my US mobile. I answered the callback and my mobile rang and I hung up. BTW, the caller ID that showed is the DID number. Not the +972 as is the case with some similar offerings.

Having to pay for an unanswered call is certainly not very good and they should clearly tell this on there website.

On the other hand it does make sense as they are using a callback system and once you receive the callback it does cost them money ven if the call is not answered.
If you setup your own callback you would also have the cost of the callback when the call is not answered.

But this said, most user don't know about callback and they still have to pay. Because there is no log you can't see the calls and charges being made.
This is really problem for using the maxroam card. There choice is either solve this problem or clearly state this having to pay for non answered calls on their website.

AndreA called me last night, the quality was very good (much better than the test I made with Yackie in Germany), but with a little delay, something like 1 second or a little less. I confirm the 30/30 billing, we talked for 2:28 minutes and I've been billed 0.525 (0.21€/min to receive in Italy).

ZDNet Review
 

This was accessed via the blog link on their website.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=914

Forwarding
 

On a positive note, MAXroam's forwarding service looks like quite a nice feature. I don't know whether other cards work like this, but it appears that you can forward your DID to any number in the world, just by logging in and entering the target number. That gives you unlimited calling to any number for 1 euro per month (the cost of maintaining your account), simply by calling your DID. Or you can get a foreign DID and forward it to your home or cell number for unlimited inbound service.

I have a friend here in the US whose parents are in the UK. He got the card with a UK number, which he forwards to his home number when he is not traveling, so that his parents can call him for free. When he travels, he plans to get a temporary US DID so that his friends here can reach him easily.

The forwarding feature makes it worthwhile to keep your account active even if you don't use the card very often.

I don't know whether the number can be forwarded to a non-US cell phone. If someone has both a MAXroam account and a UM+ card, I would like to know whether your MAXroam DID will forward to your UM+ 44 number . . .

I'd be surprised if the maxroam number can be forwarded (for free) to a mobile. Except in the US or any other country that does not distinguish between landlines and mobiles of course. I know it says "forward for free to any number".

Well, I exaggerated: it can't be forwarded to any number in the world. I was told there are only around 50 countries listed, and no separate listing for cell phone numbers.

There is really only one way to find out, and that's to try it.