UM Data sim card bundle
 

Moderators, if these has already been discussed, feel free to delete it. Available mostly in Europe. 99 Euro initial cost is kind of high though.


https://www.united-mobile.com/shop/?...ATA-ST-B&lc=en

The SIM card alone is available for EUR19.90 with a EUR10 credit.

What exactly is the data stick? It's not a USB data card, is it? (I don't see an antenna.)

Duh. Yes, it is. Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and single-band UMTS 2100.

I wonder if it's locked. I'm guessing not, since that doesn't seem to be a European thing.

Very good info :)
"light" mail from smartphone will be very ok !!
Seems that the tariffs are quite ok, looking some national operators.
I Hope other international service will start with a price competition ;)

More checking reveals it's HSDPA 2100, and it is SIM locked for twelve months.

The shipping cost really kills the deal. To the US it's EUR47.

You can get unlocked HSDPA-USB-sticks for < € 90 from eBay Germany, e.g. from this seller.
However you American folks should be aware, that there's no UMTS2100 coverage in the Americas, as networks there operate at 850, 1700 and 1900 MHz.

Proceeding on the assumption that the +423-tariffs also apply to new data SIM, since the the PDF rate plan linked on the data-offer-page is headed "+423 rate plan", I noticed some discrepancy in the tariff information:

Whereas the PDF rate plan lists Mauritius in zone 3 and so implies serivce for the +423 SIM, the rate calculator doesn't give any rate for +423-SIMs for Mauritius.

Regarding Cap Verde the PDF rate plan says it's in zone 3, where incoming calls cost € 0.19 and outgoing calls to zone 1 cost € 0.79. However the rate calculator provides completeley different prices.

Also the SMS price differs - the the PDF rate plan shows a worldwide price of € 0.39 and the rate calculator shows € 0.29.

Either UM haven't updated the database of their price calculator or different tariffs apply for the data card and the corresponding PDF file has a wrong heading.
Anyway, I wonder why the data SIM works in more countries than the original +423 SIM, since both seem to originate from Mobilkom Liechtenstein.

I think you refer to the "icqsim" which has smaller coverage but much cheaper rates. (19ct per SMS worldwide and 39ct per 333kbyte of data usage)

Chris

EDIT: just found the SIM alone button on the website too.. sorry. ;)

Okay, according to the first item of the English FAQ the data SIM works only in 15 countries, but the first item of the German FAQ says:
Beyond that why does the link on the data bundle page say "Voice tariffs for United Mobile Data Bundle"?
And if those "Voice tariffs for United Mobile Data Bundle" do not apply for the data SIM and further also do not correspond to the +423-tariff (allthough the document's heading "+423 rate plan" suggest that), what is that rate plan for???

Is there no one at UM to verify their webmaster's work? Apart from this contradictory information the German FAQ need some grammatical correction.

EDIT: All the issues were clearified in the meantime. The English FAQ were amended, accordingly the data SIM actually works in 60 countries for data and voice. Further the mentioned PDF document was wrongly designated ("+423 rate plan") and says "rate plan UM data SIM card" already since noon.

There's also a setup fee of € 0.39 for each connection and 100KB increments billing... :(

I don't like the connect fee either.

ICQ SIM sounds better and better @ €1.17/MB with a daily fee of €0.39. Their voice rates are better too. The only issue is the granularity, at 333KB, but it's still ok for checking your email several times a day.

some news from teltarif.ch
 

just minutes ago, an article about the new prepaid data bundle of UM appeared on www.teltarif.ch. No real news but it clarifies some point of the offer.

Existing coustomers will be able to switch to the new data offer within the next weeks. The data-tariff is regarding this article definately NOT the same than UM +423. The data-sim will only register to the 60 networks that have data-roaming agreement. That might be the reason why the voice tariff is slightly higher.

They have mentioned twice that if you move over to the data-tariff, only will have coverage within the 60 data-roaming countries.

In my opinion the ICQ-SIM tariff is still the better choice with a daily setup fee instead of a session setup fee. Beside that I think this offer might not last too long with this high prices. Weeks ago they would had the best prices for data. Just recently three austria published their new data-roaming prices and they offer 0.28 Euro per MB in Switzerland (swisscom) and about the same for germany (e-plus and vodafone D2). You might argue that this are contract prices and not prepaid prices but that are the best rates I know at the moment...

BK

United mobile got a cash infusion according to this quote from RCR Wireless News "United Mobile: Accel Partners and Grazia Equity invested $15 million into United Mobile, a low-cost roaming mobile operator. The Swiss company offers international travelers prepaid SIM cards that provide voice and data services at low rates worldwide." Looks like they invested it in improving their data services.
I probably would lean towards the new data offer because it covers Caribbean and North America, even though it is at higher rates than ICQ. Agree the ICQ data rates are better, but I don't travel enough to Europe to make that worthwhile to me. Agree on comment the new data offer sounds good for light use like checking email. I'm thinking of just getting the sim card and adding my own data card. Wonder if they will send out an email encouraging people to switch over like they did to get people to go from UM to UM+ service(the TelTarif article sounds like they might). A free sim card would definitely attract my interest.

Got this email today

United Mobile has no longer only worldwide attractive voice rates: now we can also offer low-rate mobile internet services (from only € 0,99/MB). We have special offers now available in our online shop
Mobile Data Bundle: Data SIM + Data Stick for only € 99,-
Mobile Data SIM only € 19,90 (incl. € 10,- call credit) promotion offer instead of € 29,90 regular price
Data-Services for existing Customers
During month of May we will be able to make Data Services available for existing customers on +423 upon request. We will inform about availability and conditions shortly.
Price cuts in different tariff zones
As of May all of our customers can profit from price cuts in our voice rate plans. For example outgoing calls at 59 ct/minute will be only at 39 ct/minute (applying for instance for calls from Zone 1 in to Area 2).
For further information, please visit our website or contact our Customer Service.
Best regards,
United Mobile Team
Is a special device needed to use the new Data SIM?

You can use the Data SIM literally in any device that supports data transmission. For mobile internet usage in laptops we recommend our mobile data stick which is part of the mobile data bundle.

I might do this. Particularly if I can port the +423 to ICQ.

I carry a data enabled PDA but would love the option to tether it. The data sim would murder me with push e-mail or pulling e-mail on a semi-regular basis to my PDA.

The ICQ SIM might make more sense. As noted in another post, I'm also eying Vodafone's new offering which is 12 euros a day for unlimited in the EU roaming. I still haven't seen the terms and conditions so I don't know things like whether it is a new 12 Euros each time I cross a border. Imagine sitting on a train and going through four countries!

I'm wondering if we want to expand our data roaming section and possibly come up with some sample transactions tied to a common currency so that we can compare like things. I know two users are the same, but we can probably come up with some benchmarks.

@stu
The UM data SIM and the ICQ SIM are not the same! They differ in roaming countries, pricing and especially in the session-setup-fee.
Whereas ICQ customers pay only € 0,39 for each day of data usage, UM data customers are charged € 0,39 for each datasession. And since datasessions are regularly interrupted (e.g. if you're out of coverage, if handovers fail or if a cell is overloaded) you must reckon with extra costs for the session-setup-fees of the UM data SIM.
Anyway as +423 customer you'll only be able to switch to the UM data tariff and not to the ICQ tariff. Also keep in mind, that voice tariffs of the UM data SIM are worse than the +423 SIM in many places - so you should exactly compare the prices for the countries you regularly travel to before you switch.

Roaming of the +423 SIM card has been limited in Germany. Allthough I was able to register on all four German networks on May 3rd, today I determined, that my +423 SIM is being rejected by T-Mobile Germany and O2 Germany, so only Vodafone and eplus work.
I suspect this limitation to be caused by some HLR-modification, that will enable +423 customers switching to the new data tariff soon.

First of all it looks like the new data UM plan is considerably more expensive in some countries like France, Ireland, Luxembourg (1.49 EUR/100 kB versus 0.99EUR for Germany, Italy,...). I can't remember how this works: do we pay VAT on top of it like with skype for example or are this the "real" rates?

Anyway it doesn't look so good: not even all EU countries are covered and I am really curios to see if more exotic destinations like Turkey, South Korea or even Japan or US work at all.

Also I don't like the connection fee but on the other hand this might be a price United Mobile really has to pay (not precisely that amount but something proportional).

I don't have any news but the anounced conversion of old UM sims to data doesn't seem to go anywhere (maybe they just have some delays).

I am really looking forward for the time when I'll be able to do some very very light surfing and email checking in roaming without breaking the bank.

Update: without too much advertisement it is now possible to add the data option to normal UM (not UM+) SIMs. One-time fee for this is 3EUR. Anyone willing to give it a go?

Dear customer

United Mobile is expanding the data service portfolio for the use in mobile handsets. Existing customers with voice tariffs +423 can activate the new data option on top of used voice SIM cards.

Be online, surf in the internet or check your emails while you are on the road - the new data option is already available in more than 60 countries. Get attractive data rates in Europe for 1,39Euro/MB.

Easy activation via my account:
The activation of the new data option can be done online via web in your my account (activation fee 3 Euro) Please take into account that the activation of "data option" limits the number of roaming providers to operators with voice and data services

Best regards,
United Mobile Team

@f300

I just tried this out today. It states that it may last up to 5 days until the data option will be activated. As everyone might have seen, in the service area of the sim card there is a option to activate.

The 3 Euros will not been charged againt your balance, they will again bill your credit card or paypal.

They nowhere state if the voice tariff will change? They only state how much it cost to activate, that you will be limited with the number of roaming providers and the cost of data. Let's see what will happen...

Bourbonkiller:evil:

The per MB cost is higher than on the data cards and still comes with the per connection surcharge.

My understanding is that enabling the data profile on voice-only +423 cards will dramatically limits the networks the card can roam on.

As far as I'm concerned I'll stick with my ICQ card for data and secondary voice and the voice only +423 card (ex Riiing) for voice.

I've also ordered the data service in the afternoon, but it has not been activated yet. Also there's no info on the required configuration details (APN, username, password) on the UM website and the customer support couldn't provide them, too.

APN: UML.com
username: umdata
password: internet

Data has been activated for my SIM today.

Usage is being charged immediately, but sessions appear delayed in the web history.

However against the background of the high volume price of € 1,39/MB the session fee of € 0.39 is a real rip-off!

I may try the 3 euro conversion(a cheaper alternative to buying the new +423 data card). My +423 card has a zero balance (transferred last fall to the 44 card which had mixed results), but still says it is active on their account information menu. Would likely use it either in my Motorola V3 razr (GPRS) or AT&T Tilt (rebranded HTC 8925; it can do EDGE or HSPDA) and possibly tether it to my laptop.
I didn't get the email that was mentioned, but that may be because my UM cards are inactive, and only have about 6 euros on my 44 card right now.
The data price isn't a bargain, but it would give better coverage than wifi (which is not always free).

You should be able to activate the data option regardless of having received the newsletter or not. Also activity shouldn't be relevant, as my +423 SIM wasn't used for almost two years and had only € 3 of credit remaining.
Just log in to your UM account, where you should see a link called "SIM Options" behind the "Automatic recharge" button - that's where you can order the data option.
For me it took six days until data was actually enabled.

Has anyone had a chance to try this out to get a feel for how many "data connection charges" they are seeing? Is it like once a day when you turn the phone on and off? Or heaven forbid every time you launch your browser or email client? Less? More?

Thanks!

Kupe

They charge as many connections as sessions you've established. Theoretically a session could last days, but practically it will be interrupted at least once per day. If you move with your phone during a session and so lose the signal for a moment or if a bad handover occurs, the session will also be interrupted.
Another problem I fear is, that if you initiate a session through your computer, it'll be closed if you switch it off. Most mobile phones (like my Nokia N95) will keep the session alive even at idle, if it has been initiated from the handset itself. But I don't know if you can join a handset-established session without interruption from you computer.
Against this background the ICQSIM seems more attractive me, as they charge only a daily usage fee of € 0.39 instead of session fees.

The connection fee is what scares me. Imagine putting the SIM in a device which uses Microsoft Push Mail technology.

I agree, so I'm hoping to hear what others have been experiencing with session charges on a real-world basis. As Inquisitor said, a session could theoretically last days assuming you don't lose coverage at some point or turn the phone off. So all the push Mail wouldn't make a difference- or shouldn't.

Anyone? What have the bills looked like for casual data use in Europe? How many session charges typically in a day?

Kupe

What i found out is that the number of session depends on the network, on the mobile device and also if you are moving or stationary.
This makes it quite hard to estimate.
Our company builds gps-tracking devices for vehicles and personal use - we have between 5 and 25 sessions a day depending on the conditions (for always online application).

The session is on hold from the network if a handover is not successful or if you drive into a tunnel or out of coverage. Depending on the provider it times out after several minutes.
T-Mobile D for example keeps the old session open for 45 minutes - if your device reconnects to GPRS while this timeout the old session key will be used and thus no new connection fee should be charged.

Chris

I have been using my 423 sim for data and found that despite the 1.49 being the cheapest around, by just surfing through pages as I normally generally do it seems to cost about 5 Euros for about 10 minutes of surfing. (I wasnt downloading photos music or videos - just browsing through sites for booking tickets etc)

I wonder how many kb a standard webpages uses?

to give you some hint i checked the size of the starting page of some pages:

www.cnn.com -> 850 kbyte
www.google.com -> 21 kbyte
www.prepaidgsm.net -> 94 kbyte
beijing2008.com -> 370 kbyte

to save traffic when online from mobile deactivate images and flash.
then the CNN website for example comes to: 90 kbyte (which is 10% of the original value!)

Chris

I find content compression to help a lot on wireless connections. It can also save you a bundle while roaming.

For the geeks among us there is ViCompress (http://www.visolve.com/vicompress/), a free Linux compression and caching proxy you can run along Asterisk on an old PC.

Those requiring plug and play solutions can always go to service providers such as Propel (http://www.propel.com) which costs $8/month or $60/year.

Also, Opera Mini does some level of compression. It's also one of the best mobile browsers out there.

Great point. Opera's back end servers do the same thing for Opera Mobile and OperaMini for mobiles and SmartPhones as ViCompress and Propel do for desktops.