Article about UM
 

Take a look guys:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2215895,00.asp

We here all know most of the stuff in the article but interesting part is they claim that by December or January they will have figured out a way to bring down US rates.

Good news may be on the horizon.

What's this about data on UM?

technically data works on UM for quite some time already. I know cause the helpdesk of UM was asking us a lot of questions regarding our USB-EDGE-modem some time ago and they told me that they will officially release it soon. When i remember a talk with a technician from them right which was about a year ago data was also available on the +432-cards on request for big business customers but never officially for all.

Chris

Where does it work? What rates? What settings?

not published yet. when i asked him when he said "soon"... veeery precise.

from the article...

"Although United Mobile has reduced charges, they're still expensive within the United States. "We have mobile termination charges, and we have to pay them because we have no local interconnect," Donhuysen said. However, United Mobile is actively working on entering the US market. "We're just readying our offer.""

Can someone explain? A landline call from Germany to a US mobile on my calling cards costs the same as a landline call from Germany to a US landline -- dirt cheap. So what "mobile termination charges" are they talking about? Why do they need a "local interconnect"?

Stan

He means the charges levied on visitors by the US network roamed upon.

That's why they need an arrangement with a US number instead

I don't know what a "local interconnect" really means here. But, as to "mobile termination charges" - I think it's about the "receiving party pays" part of the roaming fee. When you call a US mobile phone, you pay the same rate as to US landline and the receiving party pays the "mobile part" of the call. But when you call a non-US mobile phone roaming in the USA, you pay the rate to the mobile phone in its "home country" and the receiving party pays the cost of forwarding the call to the US and the cost of receiving the call in the US mobile network. I think that "mobile termination charges" means the money you pay for receiving calls due to RPP rules.
Now, the termination fee to UM is enough to forward the call to many CPP pays without charging the receiving party with any surcharge. But it's not enough to forward the call to the US and to pay the local "receiving party fee". It seems strange since forwarding to the US is (or at least should be) really cheap and the "receiving fee" should be (what I conclude by checking retail rates of US prepaids) somewhere from 10 to at most 50 US cents. So, why the hell, since UM receives a lot a money for calls coming to +423 663 and +44 7937 numbers, it still has to charge to receive a call in the US €0.79 on +423 and $0.99 on +44
on top? Do US operators charge roaming SIMs for receiving calls much more than US SIMs?
I can't see any other explanation for the current pricing...

I think this is the reason. It is also happening in every rpp country. rates are always worse for roaming sims that for local sims.

yes its good money you earn. Some years ago the biggest provider in austria made more profit with roaming sims than with his local customers....

Thanks, Andy.

So ATT and TMO-USA (et al US GSM carriers) have roaming arrangements for US and possibly Canadian SIMs (not sure my old FIDO CA SIM would even register in US), BUT Voda, T-MO (UK, DE), O2, TIM, etc have NO roaming arrangements with US GSM carriers and the termination costs are exhorbitant.

Strange that telco calling card companies can provide cheap access TO US mobiles. Doesn't that involve high TERMINATION costs at the mobile end? I guess since in the US, the mobile customer has inbound minutes deducted from his/her balance or calling buckets, that is sufficient for the US mobile providers as a "termination fee."

OTOH, since the US GSM provider is providing network access to the ROAMER from abroad, it must exact its pound of flesh. So far, the pound of flesh has been quite exhorbitant for these international roamers..... if roaming is even allowed. My SIMYO (E+ DE) allows SMS but I believe they do not allow either outbound or inbound calling. At least it WAS that way in the past. And as I noted, my FIDO CA prepaid, when I had it, would not even register here.

Stan

When someone in Germany calls my German mobile and I am roaming in the US, the caller pays for his "national" call, regular rate. Caller does not care where I am. Since I am roaming in US, my home provider is charged with a fee to forward the call to the US. That portion has a minimal charge. Since the network interconnect inside US is provided by ATT mobile or TMO, they want to be paid for their service. High fees result from

1) high fees demanded by US companies on receiving end
2) high fees imposed by home provider trying to pad the bottom line

AFAIK, the 2 US GSM carriers with which I am familiar, do not GENERALLY charge roaming fees for US SIMS. This may not be true for other technologies present in US. I had Suncom REGIONAL CDMA and was dinged a hefty roaming fee once when I made a call while I was out-of-region. I think that was like 99 cents per minute. Long time ago.

I think the answer to your second question in line with my answer 1 above is YES!

Stan

The main providers in germany charge you the roaming fee of the foreign network +25%. Service providers and virtual operators sometimes charge a different surcharge.

Chris

It should, but you won't like paying $2.50/min coming or going :(

Fido's Prepaid U.S. roaming rates

T-mo De
 

If that is TRUE, I see from

http://www.t-mobile.de/xtraroaming/0...3397-_,00.html

that the rate in the US is 1,49 €/Minute. That means the fee (before the +25%) to roam within US (and it could be on T-MO US!?) is ~ 1,19 €/Minute or $1.80 US per minute (using 1.5 $ / 1 €).

We have said that the EU national carrier is going to pay for the "dirt cheap" call forward to the US (5 US cents per minute, my estimate).

What is contained in the roaming fee within US?

1. The US carrier is going to ACCEPT the inbound call (as any other inbound call - estimated COST without profit under 10 US cents per minute - TMO US is taking that from its gold rewards prepaid customer AND MAKING A PROFIT).

2. The US carrier is then going to call back to the national EU caller. Now, at one time TMO had international rates of 49 US cents FROM and possibly TO on its network with many EU countries; those rates are now GRANDFATHERED and no longer available to new customers. DRN has this favorable old rate - please correct me if I am wrong. I bet TMO US is still making a bundle at that price. I would guess the COST without profit to TMO for a call US to DE is < 5 cents landline and < 23 cents mobile. Calling card companies are charging such rates to normal customers AND STILL MAKING PROFITS.

So we have 10 cents to receive and 5 - 23 cents to transmit back. A total of 15 - 33 cents of "costs" which include some profit margin.

I can only conclude that roaming rates while in US are akin to "highway robbery."

Stan

I'll also be interested in learning the details when it becomes available.