MaxxSim.de with new interesting rates
 

Hi all,
i just noticed that MaxxSim changed its rates.

Inside germany 8ct to landlines and 19ct to mobiles.

They now also offer very competible prices also for roaming. Free incoming calls trough Europe and some other countries like australia or south africa. They have a german mobile number +491570 (Vistream network)...

Check the rates on their calculator as they dont have a full downloadable list yet: http://www.maxxsim.de/tarifrechner.php

I have one card here - so if someone wants to test the reachability of the vistream number range please send me a message.

Chris

Chris what is the life cycle of the card (expiration date, validity) and can someone outside Germany buy it?

They require one recharge every 395 days (13 months). Otherwise they take the right to disable your card. If you are out of credit the card stays active for 13 months as well for incoming calls. If they cancel your card you can get the money refund if you tell them within 2 months.

I dont know exactly about ordering from abroad. The ordering form has a drop-down box with all countries though. Payment is possible with paypal and credit cards as well so might be possible. If you like i can email their service.

Chris

MaxxSIM offers true free roaming in most of EU
 

The MaxxSIM card has no roaming charges for calls received in the following countries:

Tarifzone 1: Ägypten,Australia,Bahrain,Bolivien,Costa Rica,Dominikanische Republik,Finland,Gambia,Georgien,Israel,Japan,Jord anien,Kasachstan,Kongo, Laos,Mongolei,Niger,Paraguay,Seychellen,Sudan,Togo ,Trinidad & Tobago,Tschad,Uganda,Vietnam,Cyprus.

Tarifzone 2: Albania,Algerien,Armenien,Aruba,Aserbaidschan,Bots wana,Burkina Faso,Chile,Denmark,Elfenbeinküste,Faroe Islands,France,Französisch Polynesien,Französisch Guyana,Ghana,Gibraltar,Irak,Ireland,Iceland,Israel (Palestine),Italy,Jamaika,
Jemen,Kamerun,Croatia,Latvia,Libanon,Lithuania, Mauretanien,Moldau,Monaco,Montenegro,Mosambik,New Zealand,Netherlands, Nigeria,Norway,Oman,Austria,Poland,Portugal,Romani a,Sambia,Saudi Arabien,Sweden,Senegal,Serbia,Sierra Leone,Slovakia,Spain,Südafrika,Syrien,Tansania,Cze ch Republic,Tunesien,Turkey,Hungary,United Kingdom,Uruguay.


In Germany, several MVNOs offer discount call rates (10 cents/min) to MaxxSIM mobile numbers (01570-xxxxxxx). For example, simyo, etc.

Solomo currently charges 5 cents/min to MaxxSIM mobile numbers. Interestingly, solomo are going to enhance their range of voip services in February.

Congstar offers unlimited calls to eplus and vistream (including MaxxSIM) mobile numbers for 15 euro/month.

Eplus Base5 contracts offer unlimited calls to all german landline and all german mobile numbers (including MaxxSIM) for about 75 Euro/month - an online special offer. Although normal price is/was 90 Euro/month, last year, Base5 was available online for 50 Euro/month.

Eplus Base2 contracts EXCLUDE free calls to the vistream network (solomo, MaxxSIM, etc).

At last, genuine free incoming-roaming within Europe - and callers need only pay 5 cent/min when calling from Germany. Customers of Deutsche Telekom need only pay about 8 cent/min when using alternative "call-by-call" telcos.

EU countries excluded from Tarif zones 1&2: Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Luxemburg and Malta.

MaxxSIM has beaten MAXroam (Celtrek) to offer TRUE free roaming within most of the European Union.


****

One slight problem: At the moment, MaxxSIM cards are not receiving all of the SMS messages that are sent to them. The eplus SMSC appears not to forward all of the vistream SMS messages to the vistream SMS gateway. This problem is being fixed: a new, bigger router has been ordered.

Tip: Use http://youni-mobile.de/freesms to successfully send up to 10 free messages per day to vistream mobiles (or to any other german mobile). If you need to send more texts, sign-up for more than one free "youni" accounts.

I just got the reply from MaxxSim service: You can order and get shipped worldwide.

Chris

I went to their web site...on the home page there is a list of languages but it doesn't seem to work...do they have an English language web site????? Apparently there are two versions, one for €39 and one for €19 but I wasn't able to figure out the difference nor find an ordering page....oh damn to be so linguistically challenged.

The 39 Euro card is the (cancelled) +44 manx sim. The 19 Euro version is the MaxxSim (Vistream, +491570)... so this is the correct link: http://www.globalsim.net/index.php?l...&order=maxxsim


Chris

Can you tell me (if you have any idea) why Belgium is excluded?

VOIP Rate
 

What is the cheapest rate to call these numbers over the VOIP?

The betamax clones have german cellphones starting with 8ct/min (http://backsla.sh/betamax). Generally just look for german mobile rates. Its not a special number.

Thanks, I know about Betamax clones. Is there any better rate to call via VOIP using other German providers?

not that i am aware off. Generally the VoIP rates in germany are higher than using "call by call" carriers on the normal landline. But also there 8ct/min is the absolute downlimit - cause of the quite high termination fees to the mobile networks.

Chris

More info about using MaxxSIM and solomo
 

Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Luxemburg and Malta are in tarif zone 3 (incoming-calls to these countries are 28 cents/min.)

Tarifzone 3: Andorra,Äthiopien,Belgium,Bosnien-Herzegowina,Bulgaria,Estonia,Fidschi,Greece,Guadel oupe,Kap Verde,Katar,Kenia,Libyen,Liechtenstein,Luxemburg.M ali,Malta,Marokko, Martinique,Macedonia,Namibia,Reunion,Switzerland,S imbabwe,Slovenia,Zaire

Sorry, but I don´t know why Belgium is not in tarif zone 2.

****

solomo have been offering free voip calls to german landlines, but this offer ends tomorrow.
Voip voice quality is very good in my experience. I have never had any problem with it.

Solomo are planning to introduce new voip services in February. At the moment, solomo has software ready for billing incoming voip calls. Perhaps this charge will be for picking up incoming voip calls on a solomo mobile number - but this is only a guess on my part!

On Monday, I´ll check to see if any new voip services are available. Perhaps there will be a new possibility to call MaxxSIM numbers via solomo voip.

****

From 1st February, "Fonic" will charge 9 cents/min to all german landlines and mobiles. The great thing about the Fonic SIM is that you can buy it in any german "Lidl" supermarket or "DM" drug store. Perfect if you want to quickly buy a SIM to cheaply call someone´s MaxxSIM number.

"Simply" have a new 8,5 cents/min tarif to all german landlines and mobiles.

Cheapest voip rates to MaxxSIM? Must wait and see
 

Solomo are preparing different tariff rates for voip calls to:

German landlines,
German mobiles,
Solomo community (internal network calls),
European landlines,
European mobiles,
North American landlines/mobiles,
Rest of the world landlines,
Rest of the world mobiles.

No prices have yet been announced for any of these voip services.

Let´s hope that the community rate is especially cheap. At the moment, solomo internal network calls include calls to MaxxSIM.

****

N.B. The "minimum top-up" payment for solomo is FIVE euros, every 395 days.

Do you have a complete pricelist for all zones? I just found the calculator till now but its a bit messy to click all through it...

Chris

HOMEMADE list of MaxxSIM tariff zones
 

Here is a HOMEMADE list of MaxxSIM tariff zones - use it as a guide. Use the online calculator to CHECK current prices.

Tarifzone 1: Ägypten,Australien,Bahrain,Bolivien,Costa Rica,Dominikanische Republik,Finnland,Gambia,Georgien,Israel,Japan,
Jordanien,Kasachstan,Kongo,Laos,Mongolei,Niger,Par aguay,Seychellen,Sudan,Togo,Trinidad & Tobago,Tschad,Uganda,Vietnam,Zypern

Tarifzone 2: Albanien,Algerien,Armenien,Aruba,Aserbaidschan,Bot swana,Burkina Faso,Chile,Dänemark,Elfenbeinküste,Färöer Insel,Frankreich,Französisch Polynesien,Französisch Guyana,Ghana,Gibraltar,
Großbritannien (United Kingdom),Irak,Irland,Island,Israel(Palestina),Ital ien,Jamaika,Jemen,Kamerun,Kroatien,Lettland,Libano n,Litauen,Mauretanien,Moldau,Manaco,Montenegro,Mos ambik,Neuseeland,Niederlande,Nigeria,Norwegen,Oman ,Österreich,Polen,Portugal,Rumänien,Sambia,Saudi Arabien,Schweden,Senegal,Serbien,Sierra Leone,Slowakei,Spanien,Südafrika,Syrien,Tansania,T schechien,Tunesien,Türkei,Ungarn,Uruguay

Tarifzone 3: Andorra,Äthiopien,Belgien,Bosnien-Herzegowina,Bulgarien,Estland,Fidschi,Griechenland ,Guadeloupe,Kap Verde,Katar,Kenia,Libyen,Liechtenstein,Luxemburg.M ali,Malta,Marokko,Martinique,Mazedonien,Namibia,Re union,Schweiz,Simbabwe,Slowenien,Zaire

Tarifzone 4: Brasilien,Brunei,Hong Kong,Indonesien,Kuwait,Malaysia,Malediven,Mauritiu s,Pakistan,Singapur,Taiwan

Tarifzone 5: Weißrussland,China,Iran,Macau,Philippinen,Tadschik istan,Thailand,Turkmenistan,Ukraine,Venezuela

Tarifzone 6: Afghanistan,Bangladesch,El Salvador,Guatemala,Kanada,Kirgistan,Mexiko,Panama, Peru,Russland,Ski Lanka,Usbekistan

Tarifzone 7: Anguilla,Antigua & Barbuda,Argentinien,Bahamas,Barbados,Bermuda,Domin ica,Grenada,Indien,Jungferninseln,Kaiman Inseln,Kambodscha,Kolumbien,Kuba,Madagaskar,Puerto Rico,St. Kitts & Nevis,St. Lucia,St. Vincent & Grenadin,USA

To the best of my knowledge, all of the vistream discounters (Che Mobile, PTT Mobile, sunsim, telesim, solomo, MaxxSIM, Tourist mobile, avanteje, igge & Ko, PhoneHomeMobile, 01051Mobile, turkuaz, etc) use exactly the same tariff zone structure. MaxxSIM is unusual because tariff zones 1&2 have the same price. Let´s hope tariff zones 1&2 remain free and that this is not a special introductory "bait & switch" offer.

Bad news: The "youni" free sms service is not working today.

Solomo VOIP and 5 cent/min diversions to MaxxSIM
 

Solomo is not really a vistream discounter. "Solomo" is the new brand name of vistream´s own SIM card. For this reason, anything learned from solomo can usually be applied to the vistream discounters. Here are some tips:

An example of a normal solomo phone number: 01570-1234567

Solomo mailbox number: 01570-99-1234567 (The mailbox can be dialled directly)
Solomo voip number: 01570-98-1234567 (The voip number can be dialled directly, if it has been activated on the website)

**** USSD codes for diverting incoming calls to solomo voip

To erase all normal call diversions and to disable mailbox: ##002#
Mailbox callers will then hear a cost-free service message saying that messages cannot be left in the mailbox.
Solomo mailbox menu instructions can be heard in either english, or german.

How to divert calls from normal solomo phone number to solomo voip number:
Method 1: **21*+491570981234567#
Method 2: On the solomo website, activate the option to divert calls from 01570-1234567 to voip number.

**** voip notes

1. There are reports that only calls from Deutsche Telekom landlines can directly call a 01570-98-1234567 voip number.
This is not quite true. I have been able to directly call 01570-98-1234567 voip numbers using a german vodafone SIM.

2. O2 Genion, Aldi, Simyo, MaxxSIM, 01051mobile, are not yet able to directly call 01570-98-1234567 voip numbers. However, if you use methods 1 or 2 above, you can then use Genion and all the others to indirectly call solomo voip numbers. The "internal" solomo call diversion is free at the moment, for a solomo SIM within Germany. This technique is wonderful if you want to receive calls to a solomo mobile (in Germany) on a voip phone anywhere in the world. I have no information about the internal diversion cost if the solomo SIM is moved outside Germany. Someone needs to test it. The cost of completed calls can be checked on the solomo website, within 24 hours of call completion.

3. You can use method 1 to divert a solomo number to a MaxxSIM number. MaxxSIM do not yet have voip numbers so don´t forget to delete the "98" in the middle of the USSD code given above. Your USSD code should look like: **21*+4915701234567#
The solomo (internal call) diversion costs 5 cent/min at the moment.

4. A solomo phone number can only be diverted to other german network numbers (+49 numbers). A solomo phone number can be diverted to other german voip numbers (for example, to sipgate-germany voip numbers, etc). As far as I know, a solomo phone number cannot be directly diverted to USA, UK, sipgate-UK, sipgate-Austria, etc. I tried several methods but without success.

5. As far as I know, the normal solomo phone number and solomo voip number cannot be made to ring simultaneously.

6. Solomo usually announces special promotions near the start of each month. If you are thinking of buying a solomo SIM, try to avoid buying it at the end of a month. New solomo voip services are going to be launched on 4th February.

7. Setup within Germany, MaxxSIM to solomo voip is possible, but probably expensive at 19 cent/minute. I do not know if this can be setup outside Germany.


**** A word of caution

Solomo is definitely not prepared for an influx of newbie voip users. Solomo has no voip userguide, no voip installation information and no contact number for voip support. If you have never configured a voip phone before, please wait for solomo to produce some voip documentation.

For people who understand firewalls, one-way audio problems, etc, setting up solomo voip should take no more than two minutes. Just logon to the solomo website and make a note of your voip username and password, and the voip server. That´s it. That´s all you need, if you know what you are doing.

There are other countries in Zone 3 I would expect to be in free incoming like Greece, Luxemburg, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Estonia etc. Other countries in there I would not expect there as it seems very cheap (like Fiji, Mali etc.)

MaxxSIM offers free incoming calls in Greece
 

Greece appears to be in Zone 2 (MaxxSIM: free incoming calls).

It is possible to find cheaper documented incoming rates to Fiji and Mali.
(Zone 3 incoming calls: solomo 15 cent/min, 01051Mobile 20 cent/min).

solomo tariffs: https://www.solomo.de/solomo.de/docu...preisliste.pdf

01051mobile tariffs: https://www.01051mobile.de/pdfs/0105...e_08012008.pdf

For those of you who don´t speak German, "Eingehende Gespräche im Ausland" means "Incoming roaming calls received outside Germany".

Hopefully, MaxxSIM will publish a full tariff list soon. And if we´re really lucky, in English as well.

Belgium is a profit center
 

Answer: Someone will visit Belgium, have a fantastic time, and help boost company profits.

Great country + one happy customer + quality tariff = significant benefit for all

New solomo voip tariffs
 

Solomo has announced its new voip rates

solomo voip to solomo voip: free
solomo voip to German landlines: 2 cents/min
solomo voip to German mobiles: 11 cents/min
solomo voip to other countries: 9.99 EUROS (neither "per min", nor "per call" is specified)

Voip rates for individual countries will be published gradually.


Free call diversion from solomo mobile numbers to solomo voip numbers will continue.

solomo community SMS (internal network SMS): 5 cent/SMS

A roaming data-tariff is expected shortly.

... with an expected price of 9 EUR/MB billed in 10/10 kb. For small data transfers not very bad...

Mixing manual and internet diversions with solomo
 

Earlier I explained that there are two methods to divert calls from a normal solomo phone number.

Method 1: **21*+49157098XXXXXXX#
Method 2: On the solomo website, activate the option to divert calls from the normal solomo phone number to the voip number.

****

Whenever you start mixing diversion methods 1 & 2, the solomo phone number will always point to the last diverted number. (This makes sense.)

However, you also have to remember that whenever you use the solomo website to disable the diversion to the voip number (i.e. method 2), the solomo phone number will then divert to the solomo phone number (i.e. effectively there is no diversion).

**** Here are some examples

1. You can use method 1 to divert the solomo phone number to a maxxsim number.
Calls to solomo phone number will cause the maxxsim phone to ring.

2. You can then use method 2 to divert the solomo phone number to a solomo voip number.
Calls to solomo phone number will cause the solomo voip phone to ring.

3. If you now use the solomo website to disable the diversion to the voip number (example 2 above), the solomo phone number will then divert to the solomo phone number. (Effectively, no diversion.)
Calls to solomo phone number will cause the normal solomo phone to ring.

4. If you then want to divert the solomo phone number to a maxxsim number again, you have to use method 1 once again to set up the diversion.

**** Question

If you are in Germany, and you can use method 1 to divert the solomo phone number to a maxxsim number, calls forwarded from solomo to maxxsim wil cost 5 cent/minute.

Does anyone know how much you will be charged if you are outside Germany when you use method 1 to divert the solomo phone number to a maxxsim number? Or in other words, does the charge depend on the country that you in when you setup the diversion?

solomo has activated some of its new voip services
 

Today, solomo activated some of its new voip services. This is what I have discovered.

1. If you use your solomo voip telephone to call your normal solomo phone number, your solomo voip number rings (if your ATA has multiple lines).

2. If you divert your normal solomo phone number to point to a maxxsim number, and then you use your solomo voip telephone to call your normal solomo phone number, your solomo voip number rings (if your ATA has multiple lines).

3. If you use your solomo voip telephone to call a german landline, or a german mobile number, you hear a message saying that "you have no online credit to make 0049 calls. Please visit solomo.de to credit your account".

Solomo customers have two credit accounts: "Solomo SIM credit" and "Solomo online credit". So far, I cannot find anyway to load credit to the "online credit account". It would seem that solomo still needs to activate this facility.

4. When you use your solomo voip telephone to make calls, you are informed of the call rate before the call is connected.

Solomo are planning to offer a Germany-Flatrate and an International-Flatrate in the next few weeks.

Solomo voip service not yet fully active
 

Does anyone have a working sip URI for solomo? I´ve tried the obvious combinations, including:

sip:01570XXXXXXX@voip.solomo.org
sip:491570XXXXXXX@voip.solomo.org

sip:0157098XXXXXXX@voip.solomo.org
sip:49157098XXXXXXX@voip.solomo.org

Perhaps incoming sip URIs are disabled?

Solomo have reported that they are having problems loading the new voip tarifs into their database. I guess that only solomo voip - solomo voip calls are enabled at the moment.

Solomo - first international voip rates
 

Solomo has announced some of its international voip rates:

Country - landlines - Mobiles

Deutschland 0,02 €/Min. 0,11 €/Min.
Österreich 0,02 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Belgien 0,02 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Canada 0,01 €/Min. 0,01 €/Min.
Dänemark 0,02 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Finnland 0,04 €/Min. 0,13 €/Min.
Frankreich 0,02 €/Min. 0,14 €/Min.
Griechenland 0,02 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Ireland 0,01 €/Min. 0,22 €/Min.
Italien 0,01 €/Min. 0,22 €/Min.
Luxenburg 0,02 €/Min. 0,22 €/Min.
Mexico 0,08 €/Min. 0,24 €/Min.
Netherlands 0,01 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Norwegen 0,02 €/Min. 0,20 €/Min.
Poland 0,02 €/Min. 0,08 €/Min.
Rumänien 0,02 €/Min. 0,12 €/Min.
Russland 0,03 €/Min. 0,05 €/Min.
Schweden 0,01 €/Min. 0,19 €/Min.
Schweiz 0,02 €/Min. 0,22 €/Min.
Spanien 0,01 €/Min. 0,18 €/Min.
Türkei 0,03 €/Min. 0,15 €/Min.
United Kingdom 0,01 €/Min. 0,22 €/Min.
USA 0,01 €/Min. 0,01 €/Min.

Calls to all other countries are still 9,99 Euros (per min).

Hmmm, I'm not seeing this on their homepage. How does the VOIP service relate to the prepaid GSM service, anyway? Is there a VOIP gateway for cheaper international calls from the mobile?

You can activate a VoIP account together with your SIM-card.
When you are abroad you can use the VoIP for outgoing calls and also the incoming calls on your mobile phone number will ring on the VoIP.

Chris

Payments can now be made to online credit accounts
 

From the homepage, press "tarif" and then "voip-tarif".

Money can now be added to "solomo online credit" accounts so that chargeable voip calls can be billed. Credit payments can be made only via bank money transfers (Überweisung/Bank Giro Credit/etc) at the moment. Credit cannot yet be added using credit cards - but solomo is working on this. Solomo requests credit payments of 5, 10, 15 or 20 €.

Maxxsim is not included in solomo voip community
 

Now that some credit has been added to my online voip account, I have repeated most of the tests reported above.

There is not much new news.

1. solomo voip to maxxsim calls cost 11 cent/minute.
2. maxxsim displays the Caller ID of the solomo voip call as: 01570XXXXXXX. (Not 0157098XXXXXXX)
3. O2 Genion can now successfully call 0157098XXXXXXX numbers.


Solomo have just announced a promotion offering free WAP surfing using the Access Point Name: wap.vistream.net.
You can download the APN settings over the air, or set them manually. Checkout the solomo blog.

http://blog.solomo.de/

Good news from MaxxSim
Tarifzone 3: Andorra,Äthiopien,Belgien,Bosnien-Herzegowina,Bulgarien,Estland,Fidschi,Griechenland ,Guadeloupe,Kap Verde,Katar,Kenia,Libyen,Liechtenstein,Luxemburg.M ali,Malta,Marokko,Martinique,Mazedonien,Namibia,Re union,Schweiz,Simbabwe,Slowenien,Zaire.

Now more of these destinations are free of charge.
Belgium,Bosnien-Herzegowina,Bulgarien,Estland,Griechenland,Liechte nstein,Luxemburg,
Malta,Mazedonien,Schweiz,Slowenien are free of charge.

Only for the brave or foolhardy
 

This tip is only for the brave or foolhardy located in Germany.

Solomo have a promotion offering free surfing via the APN wap.vistream.net. I´ve tried it with my mobile and I´ve been billed for the pages that I looked at last weekend.

However, I have also surfed the net using the APN internet.vistream.net using my laptop. And so far I have not been billed for anything.

Warning: If you want to give this a try, you must be prepared to pay 24 cent/MB. You should look at your own online account to check if you are billed, or not.

APN: wap.vistream.net, Username: WAP, pwd: vistream
APN: internet.vistream.net, Username: WEB, pwd: vistream

you have to read carefully, the free surfing is only on the wap website of solomo for downloading ringtones and games...

Chris

Use internet.vistream.net at your own risk!
 

Chris, You are correct.

Solomo say: "Und nochmals: solltet ihr nur surfen und nichts passendes finden: das surfen ist kostenlos (über den WAP Zugangspunkt)." -- Surfing should only be free on the APN wap.vistream.net.

So it looks as though someone has made a (temporary?) mistake. Solomo is billing for wap.vistream.net, while internet.vistream.net is free (until they correct their mistake - and bill everyone retrospectively).

Use internet.vistream.net at your own risk!

yes, that happens sometimes. I was using the solomo card for GPRS tests at the company till the very beginning and hardly ever were charged at all...

Chris