Cheapest sms with an international sim card?
 

I'm going to travel the world for a year and am looking for cheap way to sms. I just found that UM ICQ has a rather low sms rate € 0,19, but has no roaming agreements in Chili, Bolivia, Panama, Fiji, New Zealand, Laos and Nepal. So not so useful. 09 sim has roaming in almost all counties I come, but has an sms rate of €0,39, And then I read something about Hop, they have sms for $0,10, but aren't any good outside Africa.

I do know local cards are often cheaper for smsing, I already know most rates, but am looking for a sim I can use at least in most countries.

I think Travelsim is the best offer even if sms are not very cheap, but you can call in Chili, Bolivia, Panama, New Zealand, and Japan. Take a look http://travelsimshop.it/?ref=V8OEK

That doesn't bring me much unfortunately. I already have a few sim cards that are a cheaper to call with and receive calls with than travelsim (09 sim, and go globals sim especially, but I have UM, UM+, Air Baltic Card and Max Roam as well).

I am specifically looking for sms. Max Roam is rather cheap with € 0,20 in quite a few countries but is 52 cents in a some countries as well, and doesn't have a coverage as 09.

If you have a SIM that supports data and a phone that does Java, then smsBug can be pretty cheap. Sending SMS to most places is 3cts. The GPRS connection costs perhaps 2 or 3cts per message. So the total is about 5 or 6 cts per message.

That looks better indeed! :)

I've been looking for a Dutch provider that has a pay as you go that offer good data roaming rates. The problem is the increments at which they charge. Rabomobiel is the best I've found so far, they charge at least 25 kB, which is about 36 eurocents, which isn't close to the 3 cents you mentioned. Do you know a prepaid, international or national that charges in 1 kB increments, and has preferably low rates? A friend of mine told me a sms would be 1 kB max, can anybody confirm that?

Virgin Mobile UK charges in 1k increments, however GPRS based SMS providers do add some overhead to the message size. With SMSBUG the average message size is in the 3-4k range.

Very true that nothing beats local sim, as I am currently using MTN in Nigeria and sms is about $0.08. However, I have used my virgin UK sim with smsbug in several countries and it's quite cheap at about $0.06/sms total.

PS. Data rates are so cheap here it's like a joke. I sign up for the $5/50 MB daily deal on MTN.

I prefer MobiSMS to SMSbug, but they are both good services.
Wind also was a very good solution with 1KB increments and plenty of GPRS roaming agreements but in the last 4 months most of those agreements don't work :(

Same here Effendi. I prefer mobiSMS.

Back before I stupidly let my Wind SIM die :( , one technique I would use to keep it active would be to check my smsBug balance. This used just a few bytes and the charge was only about 1ct or 2ct.

Virgin UK has hardly any coverage in South America, 02 UK is a lot better in that matter, but I'm not sure whether they provide data service as well. Telfort NL for example has roaming in most of those South American countries, but doesn't do data in those countries. I just mailed 02 customer service. I still not sure if they charge in 1kB increments with pay as you go either. I just downloaded mobisms to my phone over GPRS, but mobisms can't connect with the server packetinfo or something is failing :???:

mobisms filesize of sms should be less than 600 bytes. so that would be 1 kB.

I wonder if 3 UK charges in smaller increments than 1k. I got 7 separately connected ~1400 byte messages for a penny, which would be 3 pence in Europe and some other countries.

There are other mobile Java programs, such as Vyke and Voipbuster, and a new arrival called Fishtext. A bit off-topic: both Vyke and Voipbuster clients can also use their callback services

Vyke used to charge 2 US cents per message, but has recently gone up to 6 cents. It was my favourite until a protracted discussion with them about their switch to a Java MIDP 2.0 version of Lite and withdrawal of the old one [is the word 'deprecated' a vogue amongst software engineers?]. They also have a version with free messages between users who are both online, as do others. For people without inclusive data packages, it may be wise not to leave this type permanently on, to avoid constant pings to check for updates.

The Voipbuster client can use any of the Betamax brands. Their sms rates are something of a movable feast; there have been occasional free message offers in the past, some with fair-use conditions that weren't all that clear, and for a long time the rates were a cent or two each, but are now typically 4 cents or so.

Fishtext appeared a few weeks ago, rates from 2 or 3 eurocents each. I wouldn't expect problems, as they've run an online service cbfsms for some time. They claim to have compression techniques that use less data. I've only just signed up a trial account, synchronise settings (?) twice, did a couple of balance checks, test about four tariffs, sent one message, used about 3k.

There are quite few services which will send non-sms messages between two of their subscribers free, and I don't know them all

It seems that many of these clients now are only supporting MIDP 2.0 version of Java [check version], so if downloads or installs are found not to work on an older phone, that's a possible reason. It may be worth trying to find an old version, but some are no longer supported (Vyke as I mentioned).

There are also services which send sms from websites, with some useful possibilities, but I don't know if we want to go into this here

Ah! That's a lot of good info! If I must believe the websites, mobisms is still the cheapest for me. Unfortunately they charged 2 credits for a sms to Telfort NL although it's only 1 according to the website. And sms to 09 sim and go global sim is not possible. :mad:

Great thread here: If you really want cheap international SMS, either while roaming abroad or from your home country to a friend abroad, you need to use GPRS data and one of the mentioned services.

Like Andy, I too was a Vyke proponent until their recent changes. The move to a Java client means that you can no longer select the recipient from your phone's contact list, and now have to enter the number from memory. (Who wants to do that each time they send an SMS?) 6 US cents per SMS is still competitive though. I've switched to using their service with the goText client instead of the native Vyke client because with goText you can store contacts (though you still have to manually enter them in).

You can get a €1 free trial credit per phone number with Vyke, depending on where the number is based, which can be handy for short travel and experimenting. They don't accept US mobile numbers and they won't take US credit cards to add credit. You can have a friend with a European credit card pay to top up your account, but expect a lot of hassle: they made me fax in copies of my friend's credit card, his ID and my ID for security verification.

I also use Voipcheap (one of the many rebranded Betamax VoIP services) with the goText Java client, simply because I have an account with them. Here's a pricelist for the range of Betamax services. Note that the rates of these services tend to change often, sometimes drastically. Some offer free SMS to certain countries, but there's a limit on this in the fine print and only applies to SMS sent from their PC VoIP client and doesn't apply to SMS sent using goText.

You can also supposedly use Wadja with goText, which would allow free SMS (minus your GPRS data charges). I haven't had success with it from goText, but I haven't played with it much. If an SMS does go through, you can expect it to be limited to something like 80 characters with a Wadja endorsement at the end. At least, that's how the free SMS sent from their website show up. WARNING to US users: I sent a test SMS to my US mobile from the Wadja website, and it ended up sending the message over 20 times (at a cost of $.05 per SMS received). I didn't have this problem with test messages to my Germany mobile, though it's not as big of a concern in Europe where incoming SMS are free anyway.

So far it looks as if a UK prepaid SIM at £.005/1kb ($.009/1kb) combined with FishText may be the best deal, though obviously it depends where you're going and what country you'll be sending SMS to.

Andy, do you have a link to the Voipbuster client? I wasn't able to find anything looking on their website.

via the Features page > Voipbuster Mobile, etc

http://www.voipbuster.com/en/mobile.html#client

Wow. Fishtext looks pretty good. Rates are about 15% of what T-Mobile (US) is now charging for most SMS. T-Mobile now charges $0.20 per domestic SMS and Fishtext is €0.02. They also claim to be able to send to US CDMA carriers. Their Java aplet loads and runs on my E61. The smsBug aplet is very buggy on the E61 and Moto phones. Thanks for the tip. I think I'll give them a test run.

Regarding all those midlet-based services always make sure your GSM-provider doesn't block them. E.g. the voipbuster midlet doesn't work with a French Orange SIM, as they seem to have blocked the required port (9000). Changing the port in the midlet to 80 didn't help. Betamax' websites could be accessed with a browser though.

Fishtext indeed looks very good! I think I'll go for that one. It looks better designed and you can change the number where your sending from. Ideal when traveling the world.

I just got a reaction from 02:

"The various GPRS Call Data Records (CDRs) generated for each session are consolidated into a single daily total. The daily total is then rounded up or down to the nearest Kbyte, based on the following rules:

Daily usage: 0 to 512 bytes: total sent for pricing is rounded down to 0 Kbytes. Daily usage: 513 to 1024 Kbytes: total sent for pricing is rounded up to 1 Kbyte. So usage of less than 512 bytes in a day will not be priced. Usage of 0.5 to 1.5 Kbytes in a day will be rounded to 1 Kbyte. Usage of 1.5 to 2.5 Kbytes will be rounded to 2 Kbytes, etc."

And they offer data roaming in Chili, Nicaragua, Jamaica, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. So that's covered! :)

No data coverage in Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Fiji, Vanuatu, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal though :(

Laos had pretty cool sms rates! to 10-15 countries its free, and to all other countries they charge 0.15 kip, which means you can send about 8300 sms for 1 eurocent :)

I'm not sure about FishText but as I recall smsBug only takes about 100 bytes to send a SMS. If you only send a few per day it looks like 02 would never charge you for the data.

100 bytes? That's impossible. I doubt there's any compression algorythm that can shrink 160 bytes of text + overhead (e.g. recipient's number) to 100 bytes. Further you forget all the header information of the HTTP-request on TCP/IP-level. I fear you can't send any SMS over TCP/IP with less than 512 bytes.

Take this example: the request has 50 bytes, the response 286 bytes and that's without those 160 bytes, which need to be transferred and without the at-least 12-digit number of the recipient. Furhter the request should contain some authentification information. So no way to stay below 512 bytes!

I'm assuming this is O2 UK. For everyone's reference, they charge £3/Megabyte within the EU and £6/MB worldwide (O2 roaming page here). This translates to just under £.003 per KB within the EU and £.006 per KB elsewhere. The latter is just over Virgin UK's £.005/KB, though that extra £.001 may be worth it for those wanting greater international coverage. Either way, it sounds like this is the cheapest option for low usage data roaming in Europe.

I do think they should specify that their billing is per KB. My first look at that pricing implies that you get charged in 1MB chunks.

Using O2's international coverage check, it gave this info under the network specific information for Panama:

"You can use GPRS data services and media messaging on this network.

O2 customers roaming on this network will not be able to use 3G services."

Nepal and Peru also say you will not be able to use 3G services but with no mention of GPRS at all. These countries may simply not have HSDPA or UMTS, but still have GPRS or EDGE, which is all you need for sending SMS as mentioned in this thread. I would guess that's the case but it would be worth inquiring if you're headed to one of the above mentioned countries - except Myanmar, which only seems to have one network at this point and no realistic options for phone service as a foreigner.

Nepal and Peru in fact don't have 3G-networks, as you can see at the GSM.

OK. I was wrong. Here is the info from the smsBug FAQ:

Q: So how much GPRS traffic does smsBug typically use?
A: Below is a table of typical smsBug transactions and the traffic generated by them.

Registering (Part I) | 422 bytes in | 240 bytes out
Verifying password (Part II) | 420 bytes in | 188 bytes out
Sending a 160 character SMS | 422 bytes in | 500 bytes out
Synchronizing 5 Contacts | 709 bytes in | 194 bytes out
Requesting remaining credits | 422 bytes in | 155 bytes out
Setting Delivery Report status | 421 bytes in | 188 bytes iut
Purchasing credits | 422 bytes in | 260 bytes out

This afternoon I send an sms with Fishtext and according to my Nokia around 700 bytes where send (sum of up- and download).

3 UK is also £3/MB in Europe and several other countries including USA

but T-mobile UK cut its rates a couple of months ago to £1.50/MB

and I think someone on here has recently mentioned similar rates with other networks (T-mobile Germany?)

Well I know that it's interesting enough to buy a 02 uk card and have some credit from fishtext, there are enough countries where it works. Maybe it works for some of the countries as well where it's said there is no 3G but where nothing is written about gprs, when not I can always buy a local prepaid or use one of my international cards. The countries where it where it works according to the site of 02 already saves me enough. :)

And if you have a WiFi phone you should be able to send FishText, smsBug or similar system at any hotspot you can access.

For 3 UK prepaid, it's £3 in the EU, but not all of Europe. They have no roaming in Norway, for instance. Japan is not covered (maybe you were looking at the post-paid, Andy?) and neither are quite a few major spots: Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, and it looks like they're missing all of South America and a lot of Asia. Some places where they do have coverage don't have data access (i.e. India).

It is a good deal for data roaming in the US, which is a worthy point since getting a prepaid SIM in the US isn't as easy as it is elsewhere in the world, and the only ones that do data are AT&T ($ 0.01/KB) or T-Mobile (with a $1/day Sidekick package).

As for T-Mobile UK, £1.50/MB is a great deal for roaming the EU (again, not including Norway) but everywhere outside the EU is £7.50/MB. I suppose that's only slightly worse than £6/MB when you're talking about using only a few KB of data. Their coverage list is pretty extensive, with multiple partners in a lot of countries. No coverage in Nepal. No GPRS in Bolivia. (Random checks, those two.)

Excellent point. This is handy in Europe and the US where you can often find WiFi access. From my experience in less-developed countries though, finding open WiFi networks is not very common.

If you'll have consistent internet access by computer, one advantage of using one of the Betamax services is that you can send SMS from their client or through their website and you can set it to appear as coming from your phone number. I use this feature a lot even at home, as I can type a message a lot faster on a keyboard and it's often cheaper than the home country SMS rates.

One more point for T-Mobile and roaming in Europe: they offer a Euro Travel Booster where you get £7.50 credit for £5, valid for 20 days.

"Charge: £5. Allowance: £7.50 (up to 19 minutes of calls, receive up to 39 minutes of calls or send up to 30 texts)"

This might be handy since sometimes you may actually need to make or receive a call. I've contacted them asking whether this credit applies to GPRS as well. That would make their £1.50/MB for Europe even lower.

Follow up on T-Mobile's Euro Travel Booster: the credit will be applied only to calls and text messages.

www.goglobalsim.com 20p worldwide....

The GoGlobal SIM card rates and tariffs assume fair usage of the Services by the customer. This includes, but is not limited to maintaining a ratio of outbound tariff enabled calls to inbound calls of more than 30% on the customers account. There is also a call to SMS policy, i.e. if it is deemed that a customer has bought the GoGlobal Sim for the use of SMS only, GoGlobal reserves the right to suspend service forthwith. In the event of fair usage not being sustained, GoGlobal reserves the right to review the rates and tariffs applied to the customer account or to terminate the Services and in this event, such termination shall be deemed to have been made by the customer. GoGlobal reserves the right to terminate without prior notice for any misuse of the product.

1. This service is for the benefit of all customers and will not be permitted to be abused (see clause 8.4). Therefore GoGlobal reserves the right to disconnect this service at any time, failure to make any outbound calls after receiving 50 inbound will result in the inbound calls being blocked, and a £3.00 fee charged for reconnection. Failure to comply can result in this service being withdrawn and the customer’s contract being terminated forthwith.

2. The service will be run 24 hrs 7 days a week to the destinations posted, some destinations will run 24 hrs 5 days a week Monday through Friday (please see main web site free roaming for details).There will be a 10p incoming call tariff set for countries that only run free roaming Monday through Friday. This charge will only apply Saturday/Sunday .

Cheap ?

Read the small print and you will find above rules.

The monday to friday part is really a big laugh.

o2 ireland gives 250 free sms/month to all numbers