After United Mobile
 

The only real options seems to be the iom sims.

GT-Sim is not an option, just because of this:

How long will the card and the balance on the account remain valid (only for Prepaid customers)?
If there are no calling activities within a period of 3 months, a rental charge of Euro 9,95 for the number will be automatically deducted from teh account. To avoid these charges simply top up your account by Euro 25.00 and the life time of your number will be extended for another 3 month at a time. If you would add another Euro 100.00 your life time of your number would be extended for another 12 month.

Estionian sims are nice but I just don't like the access number and can be hard to reach using voip providers.
09 iceland, same problem calling direct. Yackie, what more needs to be said, so many changes that you can't keep up exchanging sims.

So not many real working alternatives anymore.

That said um +44 outside the eu might still be a lot cheaper than using your standard sim. But it's nices to have 1 sim for where you are going, not having to swtich card every country you visit.

I have ordered the easyroam card, will hopefully get it today and enjoy free roaming again. UM is really pricing themselves out of the market this way. But the biggest question is, why did they do this. Was it needed to cover increasing network cost ? were they making to little money ? Time will tell.

@ bbob: well, yours seems to be a good analysis (maybe those who have Travelsim and/or 09 can say if they have problems with incoming calls).

Now, I'm looking forward to reading your report on easyroam :)

It would be nice to know... I only hope other providers won't do the same.

Most MVNOs/MVNEs seem to use Jersey Telecom as their MNO partner. UM used FL1 for the +423 and JT/Wave as their +44 partner. Who knows... maybe UM was too hungry and signed an agreement for too many line, now they have to recoup the loses... if it's JT that jacked up the prices...we will find out pretty soon, others will have to increase their prices.

Anyhow, I hate United Mobile so much now. Strange...no one ever mentioned the customer service that I find horrible. no more 24h/7d....:mad:

See the other thread...O9 is now apparently the late O9...the Icelandic economy is in the toilet.

Easy roam is another of the Isle of Man sim cards that make you pay a renewal fee every year........to me a downer.

Here's my question and I go back on this international sim thing to the days of HOP and Ryan Air which were revolutionary at the time....

I do wonder how much the eurotariffs for roaming have cut into the business of the international sim cards....if you're only going to have to pay say 0,19€ to receive calls within the eu, do you really need the international sim card.

Of course for those of us from North America, it might pay. But especially with British sim cards being so cheap (they are literally giving them away), for a three week trip through Europe from the USA, I can probably do just as well using eurotariffs using very very cheap calling cards and very cheap receiving calls.

I do wonder if this is one of the reasons for the sudden spurt in pricing.

I will say that for several years I swore by UM not at them. I remember a trip a couple of years ago throughout Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic) which finished in Germany, France and the UK. I had acquired German, French and UK sim cards but while in Eastern Europe, UM +423 functioned perfectly. And at the time, my ld carrier in the USA charged 10¢ US/minute for calls to +423 with a 1¢ (not a misprint) termination fee to a +423 mobile. I thought I was in pig's heaven using callbackworld for the outgoing.....I couldn't believe how cheap it was...

And then calls to Liechtenstein increased ridiculously so and they even added on asinine termination fees so I migrated to the +44 UM...no where near as cheap but the call forwarding to the +44 number was reasonable (not 11¢/minute but what the hell)...and I had no problems with them. Enlinea kept very cheap call back rates to the Icelandic mobile (O9) and I was paying something like 16¢/minute to call back to the USA on O9. Call quality wasn't as good but acceptable.

Now....well as the song says those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.....

The only hope now is that the eu gets its way and eventually we get the free reception of calls with an eu sim throughout the eu!

The problem is with countries outside EU. The cellurar providers in my country have recently increased their rates when using roaming in many countries outside. So, for these countries an international sim is still a perfect option.

According to this document termination fees to Jersey Telecom's GSM-network are £ 0,08008 (day), £ 0,04368 (night) and £ 0,02968 (weekend). I don't believe, that these earnings do cover the forwarding-costs to a lot of roaming networks, especially now that the Pound Sterling has weakened. So it had always been quite obvious, that UM does subsidize the free incoming calls by the earnings from outgoing calls. Presumably due to some users (including me), who have a very assymetric ratio between incoming and outgoing calls, UM was forced to introduce the connection fee. Of course that's disappointing, but from the entrepreneurial point of view it's a reasonable decision. Anyway I will abandon UM in favor of solomo, who offer incoming calls in European countries for € 0,10-0,15/min, as soon as my contract with O2 has finished and my number is released for porting.

Two points regarding the posts above:
1) the travelsim (i have a airbalticcard) worked very well in russia and kazachstan. In February we will use them in Vietnam as well. The reachability is ok if you accept not to use the cheapest providers

2) the problem with the EU tariff is exactly as prion said: since we have the EU roaming tariffs for example Vodafone DE charges 5 Euro per minute in&out in "world 2" zone (for example in australia, south africa etc.) riddiculous!!

Chris

Yes, Sim4travel also use Jersey, but I think you'll find that there are also several on Manx Telecom and Cloud9/Wire9 in the Isle of Man, plus those Vistream brands with eplus in Germany, Celtrek and Maxroam using an Israeli SIM. In addition, 09 Mobile in Iceland, Travelsim in Estonia, the first a main network, second I don't know

The fact is, I expected price would lower or, at least, stay the same in UE right because of the Eurotariff. I like international sims because, in case of need, I can be called without worries. Moreover, it is comfortable to use always the same number, both for UE countries and extra-UE. Last but not least, when I'm abroad I prefer being called only if it's an important matter...and an international number is a very good demarcation for this :cool:

Right..."we were sure we'd never see an end to it all"!

This would be quite useful, but I think we still have to wait to get to the 0€ threshold for incoming calls

To me too.

So far, I think Travelsim can be the best solution for me. :confused:

It is a pitty. I was standardizing on UM. There were places that 09 was cheaper, but it worked reliably and had a pretty good feature set.

Fair Play
 

You have two choices.

We could charge you a connation or daily fee or we charge a small yearly fee.
Top-up your credit within 90 days and there's no fee.

Our Service Life
The travel sim card has a fixed service life of 365 days. However to keep your sim card working for the following year, there is a renewal fee of U.S $21 (£10) This will keep your number working and any un-used calling credit valid for the next year.

If you’re roaming sim has expired, you will loose your call credit and it cannot be refunded.

Customers who purchase call credit within 90 days of there expiry date will not need to pay the network fee and all credit will be rolled over for the next 365 days.

Also,
We are the only network to offer FREE voicemail and FREE call forwarding/call divert to landlines and some mobiles inc USA/Canada

BTW..

Easy roam...I note the yearly renewal rate is £10....which you set at $21...the exchange rate between the GBP and the USD never reached $2.10 and as a matter of fact as of today, it is under $1.50 so the proper fee should indeed be $15.....also did you adjust your other rates to reflect the current exchange rate between GBP and USD?

Responce from UM to my question why the is no more free roaming in belgium:

Dear Bob,

Thank you for your request. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you the reasons why the rates had to be changed. It is a company policy which is effected by several variables.

We are sorry if the new rate plan is unfortunate for you.



With best regards

United Mobile Customer Service

The new rate plan is unfortunate for everybody, I fear ;)

Very encouraging! :sleep:

What mobiles are covered in North America. For work, I get a mobile for USA and another for Canada currently, what providers are covered? When you say free voicemail, you mean we can call back the voicemail to pickup our messages for free or we can "receive" voicemails for free?

Thanks for clarifying...

Quote:
Originally Posted by easyroam- View Post
Also,
We are the only network to offer FREE voicemail and FREE call forwarding/call divert to landlines and some mobiles inc USA/Canada
What mobiles are covered in North America. For work, I get a mobile for USA and another for Canada currently, what providers are covered? When you say free voicemail, you mean we can call back the voicemail to pickup our messages for free or we can "receive" voicemails for free?

Thanks for clarifying...

That statement of their's makes no sense. In the U.S. there is no distinction made between calling a cell phone and calling a land line. In fact, it is now almost impossible to know for sure whether the phone you are calling is a land line or cell.
...mike

Regarding free call forwarding, No. You are not! Maxroam offers not only free forwarding to landlines in, but to mobiles in several countries too.

free call forwarding
 

When you call our +447924 number, we don't have a inbound charge.
Maxroam use local numbers and charge a inbound fee to cover the cost.

Maxroam is a good service, you will need to find the best option/cost for you.

Cloud9 resellers also dont charge in addition for call divert, the call cost is worked out based on if you were receiving a call on the network the call ends up at. Ie if you forward to UK landline thats generally free to receive and so is a call forward, UK mobile also free to receive so is call forward. Can generally forward to any international landline free and most mobiles basically!

PS. Just wanted to mention one other thing about Easyroam in that I do not believe that they have the best golden numbers as they advertise on the website says he with +447700000032 as his mobile number...... 079245 and 079246 will shortly be activated on the Cloud9 network, note these two DNIS ranges are NOT MANX ones they are ours, 07924 is not exclusively allocated to Manx as is a common misconception! This will allows many new golden numbers for our resellers, they already have the likes of 07872222222 .....

@cloud nine, the biggest difference of all is that easyroam does not charge for incoming and most of your provider have a ration for incoming outgoing or have minimum usage per month, year. You could say that this is not free incoming anymore if there are ration's. Also those ratios can only be read in the small print. But you know this.

So free callforward is nice but watch your ratio when using one of cloud9 resellers or get disconnected.

My head is spinning from all this. I grant you I'm not a geek but interested in good value for my money. I never suspected that if I buy an international sim putting money up front and basically only use it to receive calls in those areas where they advertise it's free to receive I am violating any tariff or something like that. Is that what is being said here? Isn't this similar to a bait and switch plan when restrictions such as this are buried?

And it's almost something like I once read from an executive at one USA gsm carrier. He was asked how you could afford to give people unlimited use at whatever the rate was at that point. He said because the average person who uses unlimited never (or almost never) reaches the level he or she would if they used prepaid. It's far more profitable for them to give unlimited say for $80/month rather than 500 minutes @ 15¢/minute and that most people even with unlimited never gets to 500 minutes!

I bought a United Mobile card, put up 25€ or whatever up front...they have the €25, use it mostly to receive for free, they have €25 they wouldn't have if I haven't bought the card and also don't they get a piece of the termination fees when I receive?

Chalk me up as one confused hombre.

Gold Numbers
 

Cloud9.

When you resellers start to advertise these numbers on there website 07700000032 and 07872222222. Then maybe what you say could be true.

But I don't see these number for sale. These numbers seem to be use for your staff :p

The first paragraph, it's a pity that one of your resellers didn't appear to have time or patience for the conversation to reach that point.

As for the second, let's just review and calm down about the presence and actions of providers and resellers on here.

In the past, I and and others have occasionally removed defamatory material posted about rival companies. This certainly isn't anything like as bad, but let's not be even tempted to head down the wrong path and indulge petty squabbles like this.

We already knew before your arrival here that not all 07924 numbers were allocated to Manx Telecom; I'm not checking, but it's possible I've said so myself.

I don't want to referee a silly dispute about who has the best phone numbers. As far as I can see at the moment, some websites are listing specific individual numbers they have available, while others do not. If or when the latter have nice numbers available, they might consider advertising the fact themselves, and avoid the temptation to comment on others.

Of COURSE they get the termination fees.

Leads me to believe that their partner carriers and - or whoever doles out the "termination fees" have changed the rules, formula or whatever - and - or their business model for revenue streams and costs needed serious revisions.

We do know the +423 dialing costs skyrocketed. Probably because the loophole they found was in the sweetspot. When providers (ATT, etc) found out they were bleeding to death from the sweetspot termination fees, they cranked up the rates to cover their costs. This, in turn, whacked inbound revenues from UM. They then added UM+ (UK) hoping for the same stream. None of that panned out, so they (UM) are now down and out. In addition, they never reached the volume of clients they had hoped for. The Germans have lots of reasons for NOT buying into the +423 mobile #s. Mainly too inconvenient for their friends to cal a foreign #. Probably the same for all folks. There were several firms that marketed Riiing, etc., but I doubt they did much advertising. Who wants to go with a newcomer, let alone from +423? Might as well have been from Outer Mongolia. Sorry all you Outer Mongolians out there.

Now, poor customer service, trying to generate revenues any way they can like offering outdated phones, offering bonus for refills. What next? Will they be selling a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge? Does not look very good at all if you ask me.

Use up your balances, guys and gals!

Of course, this is all speculation on my part.

Stan

Termination fees to Jersey Telecom's GSM-network are £ 0,08008 (day), £ 0,04368 (night) and £ 0,02968 (weekend). In Euros, which I suppose is the most important currency in terms of roaming-expenses for UM, this is € 0,034 / 0,05 / 0,09 per minute. If you consider, that JT surely keeps part of the termination income to cover the costs for their very own network, do you believe the remain is enough to terminate a call in a roaming network? I'm convinced UM lost money with every incoming call terminated outside of Jersey and despite of the recently introduced connection fee they still do if the call lasts a bit longer.
The main problem of all those roaming discounters is, that there are too few potential customers and the regulation of roaming tariffs by the EU has reduced their number. With the further decline of voice roaming tariffs in the EU and the new caps for data roaming tariffs including SMS they are successively becoming less attractive. All in all I think the whole roaming discount segment will disappear sooner or later.

I think youhave it and it does sort of jive with my thinking. I go back with this oh about 5 years and joined this forum when Ryan air introduced a revolutionary new product. It failed miserably but we started discussing it. At the same time, just about, United Mobile introduced a product called riing which eventually it merged into its original United Mobile card. It was, as we all know, based in Liechtenstein and featured the free reception of calls throughout Europe (whether in the eu or not) east of Russia as well as places like South Africa, Australia and a couple of others. It was a god send. Top that off with services from entities such as Callback World and Enlinea and, as I said somewhere else on the forum, I was in heaven. I did a long trip through Eastern Europe (Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic) for about 2 weeks and this is what I had...I had free reception of calls...I had call forwarding from my US landline and at the time calls to Liechtenstein were 10¢/minute with a 1¢ termination fee to Liechtenstein mobiles which made it 11¢/minute for a call to be forwarded to me and then using callbackworld to make calls home, the fee when all was said and done was about 12¢/minute. Who could ask for more. I bragged about it and Effendi scolded me for what I was doing.

That was before the eurotariffs. Then we saw the termination fees to Liechtenstein mobiles skyrocket to as much as 50¢ ore more per minute killing the call forwarding and also the use of cbw. I then started looking at the Isle of Man sim cards and eventually two summers ago, UM was forced to introduce the Jersey product with the +44 number; termination fees for call forwarding were regular UK termination fees (on my carrier that's about 27¢/minute) but using enlinea or cbw on these sims for outward calling incur fees around 50¢/minute. In the interim I was getting around it as late as this past summer with O9 because enlina was only charging 16¢/minute whether I was calling out or receiving via their US toll free number even though termination fees to icelandic mobile was very high and so were termination fees to Estonian numbers making Travelsim I gues it is not really viable.

But the rub here is that the people most affected by all this are North Americans because of the way the system is set up. Our gsm carriers in the USA charge 99¢/minute or more to roam throughout Europe, calling out and receiving. And of course they have that rip off where if a call goes into voicemail, they're able to nail you with two fees. Of course when I argue when T Mobile USA pulls this crap because if I'm roaming on T Mobile UK and T mobile UK charges T Mobile US a fee, then all they're doing is transferring money from their right pocket to their left pocket as both are fully owned by Deutses telecom...of course on the way from the left pocket to the right pocket, they take a stop at my pocket!

So, as this has gone on what's left. Well most of my European travel is to visit friends in London....well we all know what's going on with British sims...they're literally giving them away and I do believe that on the whole using the eurotariffs while on the continent are really not all that bad and wonder if my UM+, now with the 0,19€ fee to receive is really economical.

Of course a big killer of the market is VOIP. Services like Skype are simply fantastic and dirt cheap/essentially free. So as long as you have Internet access, it is really pointless to make your calls any other way. It doesn't solve all int'l roaming phone usage, but it easily diverts 50% of the usage or more.

I agree voip is a good alternative but 50% no way, maybe 10%. When on the road in your car you can't really use voip. You have to find an access point first and range is limited.
Sure some hotels offer free wireless but the more expensive ones just let you pay for internet, so gone are the savings.

No voip is nice but when travelling you want to call and be called anywhere and that is the biggest limit of voip through internetaccess.

I am both sorry for United Mobile and mildly annoyed. I understand they are probably caught between a rock and a hard place and they can't possibly make a viable business with free incoming.
But this goes both ways. One of the great features of United Mobile/Riiing was that you were called for free in so many countries. For this we were willing to put up with unreliable network, different (and expensive) phone number and poor support resembling an "apartment company" not a phone operator.
But now for EU where a big chunk of the "roaming market" is (because countries are small and so easy to cross borders) because of regulations most prices are capped now by law (and will be even lower in the future). So even if you take the most inefficient "local" SIM and use it in roaming in EU you can still get some calls out of a 15 EUR recharge.
For more exotic places people adapt. You have your "normal" mobile with you but use it only for emergencies because it's expensive (but that's no surprise, it has been like this for as long there was roaming and there was a time when there was NO roaming at any price). The rest you can easily take care over skype and such.
Even if disappointing there's no big tragedy that UM went this way. In the end maybe I'll even feel better, I'll take my UM+ number out from my business card (it was anyway confusing people and the SIM was off most of the time), I'll take the SIM out of my wallet and not have to decide which one to use (or whether I should carry two phones) when I travel. Good riddance.

You should remember that we in the US often get unlimited night-time (usually running from as early as 19:00 and ending the next morning, sometimes as late as 09:00) & weekend minutes to any domestic phone, and some people really take advantage of that. One person I know uses around 10'000 (yes, ten thousand) night/weekend minutes and maybe 200 daytime minutes every month. If they had to pay for each minute, the price per minute would work out to an extremely cheap eight tenths of one cent on our current plan, even less on months which more time were used. I don't know how tarriffs are in most other countries but I bet that even having unlimited incoming calls isn't as good in the end when you are used to using a mobile phone like you would a land-line. The average price per minute is probably much higher. We got rid of our landline due to the mobile rates being that good.