Is Celtrek working?
 

My buddy has my Celtrek SIM in the Philippines and it's not working. The CompAdmin site is down and my online account balance now shows $0.00 (It should be at least $50.) I hope this is not the beginning of the end for Celtrek.

This may not be related, but thought I'd mention that my Maxroam sim (which use the same back-end as Celtrek) has not worked in about a week. And I can no longer log into my account as of 3 dys ago. Even though before then, I could log in but not do much because they were going through some maintenence.

Here is the msg I get
-------------------------------------
We are sorry but either an error has occured on our system, or your account is no longer active on the MAXRoam system. If you feel this message is being displayed to you in error, please contact team@maxroam.com

Response from Celtrek:
I'm not sure how many constitutes a "handful".

Hello

I have the same problem contacting support when traveling in spain and belgium this week; they answer it ll be fixed in the next days.

With yackie wich is out, i hope that celtrek will be most reliable!
:whistling:

What a response from celtrek. " A handful of customers" The network is down and it's all their customer that is affected. I seriously think it's NOT a coincidence that maxroam is down too. They both use the same back-end. Maxroam is not saying much either.

Yep - my balance is gone too. Same generic message from Ryan with Celtrek. Will be fixed in a "couple of days". Between Hop Mobile, Yackie, and these guys, I'm wasting more money than I'm saving by using the cards in the first place. Learning lessons here but not as quickly as I should.

Somewhere I hear my AT&T Sim Card laughing heartily as I prepare for a trip to Perth...

This is why I do carry both my T-Mobile & Mobal SIMs when I travel. I have not heard of any problems with Mobal yet.

BTW, Ryan says Celtrek will ship new SIMs tomorrow. At least they are responsive. The 45 Euro I had on 09 just vanished in a puff of smoke. (I wonder if they invested their customers, balances in derivatives.)

It sort of brings into question if I've actually saved any money with prepaid SIMs or not. If all the balances just vanish, how does that save you money?

Well so far, the only one that has been relatively stable, and I understand the word relatively is well very relative, has been United Mobile...for the most part they've worked and I haven't lost a cent of my balance yet (although I obviously don't like the 0,19€ fee for receiving "free" calls) but according to this board gossip mongers, at least the +423 UM version seems to be in real financial distress. Of course, I can only hope the euro (as well as sterling) continue their downward plunge against the USD mitigating some of these costs (when last I checked today, the euro was down to $1.26 and sterling down to about $1.42 which means the 0,19€ is "only" $0.24 or thereabouts and I as a traveller of course only hope it eventually ends up where the euro should have been all along namely at par with the USD but that's for economists to answer).

Ekit passport is available on ebay for $20 with $10 credit so there's not too much to lose there. Also will be interesting to see just when UM+1/44 actually launches.

For travel solely within Europe, one of the free British sims with eu roaming rates might be a simple solution too.

Response from Maxroam.
 

Wow! The cards stopped working or they deactivated the cards, sent out new ones, and did not inform customers. Again, I believe it's the same underlying problem that affected Celtrek.

I think this is my 3rd or 4th replacement card from maxroam. I lost count how many the now defunct Yackie sent me.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

I'm afraid that the temporary solution we set up did not last until you received your new sim card as we had intended. It was sent out earlier this week.


My apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,

This is the email CelTrek sent, Wow they want me to pay for the sim replacement!

Dear Valued CelTrek Customer:

First let us thank you for your long term relationship with our Global Roaming SIM card. We do hope you have enjoyed the savings.

In order to carry on our service to you, improve, avoid past technical problems and provide more stable service, we have been forced to terminate our relationship with our past carrier and move to a new carrier. This has allowed us to add additional countries to our service, lower costs and finally have the pre-paid data service for your convenience.

The above improvements mean changing the SIM card you currently have, and as these SIM cards do have enhanced features, we propose the following:

1. All SIM cards that you have with us can replaced with our new Global Roaming Voice and Data SIM card for the reduced price of $10 per SIM. (a $49 value)

2. Airtime rates--now for 215 countries--will be per the attached rate sheet. Note the large savings for all our top destinations!

3. Your current airtime pool will be transferred to the new SIM.

4. This offer also includes free shipping in the US. (Shipping outside of the US is possible but will carry cost, cost may be deducted from airtime)

To receive your new upgraded SIM:
1. Please contact customer support either by email
(Support@CelTrek.com) or via phone 1-888-5CELTREK
2. Please have handy the best shipping address for us to mail your

replacement SIM to.

Administration will deduct the $10 cost of the new SIM from your airtime and then load your new SIM with the remaining airtime balance.

We appreciate your continued business and support.
Best Regards,

frenchfry,

Shoot an email back to them, and let them know that it's not your fault that they are changing service and that you will be moving to a competitor such as Maxroam or United Mobile if they insist that you pay for the sim. Let them know that it makes no sens that you have to pay for their own issues.

As posted in the "Is Maxroam working" thread, maxroam uses the same service provider as celtrek and had the same problem. And they are doing the right thing by sending new sim to their customers. Even though the sims are not fully functional yet.

I believe that if you just tell them that they can refund your credit balance, they will find a way to get you a free SIM.

I've been in contact with Aaron at Celtrek about the SIM swap. The new system seems fairly attractive, in spite of the $10 SIM charge. In particular there is no gaping coverage hole in the Magreb and Mideast, like their previous system had. The rates seem attractive for most destinations and not bad at all for the US & Canada. He tells me that the SMS number will be in Belgum. Does that ring any bells?

Please let us know if you receive a new card. Ryan w/ Celtrek has ceased returning my calls. I've pretty much lost faith.

According to their own public comments, Celtrek and Maxroam have been partners not rivals

A little more then casual partners.
 

Make that more then partners. Celtrek bought 50% of Cubic\Maxroam found this below from 2008. Both companies must be sharing a lot infrastructure. Must be why they are both undergoing the same issues these days. If you look at Cubic's presidents twitter account he seems to have no issues with anything other then the weather. Twitter / patphelan

In just the first quarter of the New Year, GRDB has announced that it was to acquire a 50% ownership in Cubic Telecom Ltd. and along with that, Pat Phelan has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Phelan, age 43, currently serves as President and co-founder of Cubic Telecom Ltd., an Ireland based mobile telephone provider, which is now 50% owned by GRDB. But his Resume is much broader than that. Phelan has also founded several other European Telecom companies including Excell Collections Ltd., Cork Phone Limited, and Roam4free Ltd.

Adding a company such as Cubic and an experienced and well versed Board member is exciting, but it’s just one of the many advances the company has been making. In fact, just this February Global Roaming Distribution, Inc. attended the GSMA World Congress 2008 in Barcelona, Spain. It was there that Global Roaming’s subsidiaries MAXroam and Qik, were able to discuss their products and services to many of the 55,000 attendee’s of the now famous cellular event show.

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it. There's apparently still co-operation between these firms, but that quote above is out of date.

I stand corrected. I missed that in my research. Just happened in Jan.

26-Jan-2009
Form 8-K for GLOBAL ROAMING DISTRIBUTION, INC.

Change in Directors or Principal Officers
Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.
Effective on January 16, 2009, Yakov Seroussi, Pat Phelan and Jenny Callicott resigned from their respective positions as members of the Registrant's Board of Directors and as an officers and employees of the Registrant. Mr. Phelan's resignation follows the previously announced rescission of the Company's acquisition of 2,000,000 shares of common stock of Cubic Telecom, a mobile telephone provider organized under the laws of Ireland. Mr. Phelan is a co-founder and Chief Executive of Cubic Telecom. The Company has also ceased all business operations due to a lack of sufficient operating capital.

New celtrek card received!
 

Hello

I receive my new sim card with a 32 489 number wich seems to be a KPN (base) network like my original bel sim card with Simyo.
The prices from GR Celtrek are pretty attractive comparing to before especially for receiving calls without call set up charges.
Easly reachable . its running Ok but i lost the previous attached DID numbers. I need to wait for that, therefore its always possible to use other services to maintain french landline numbers wih DID providers forwarded to bel gsm numbers.

I ll test the card during April in Europe and South America.

I received a UPS shipping notification for my new SIM today.
I asked if the Celtrek SIMs might be reached via a SIP address. I was told "No". I think this would be a good service to provide and "no skin off their noses". It's not like they make anything on the inbound connection like CPP carriers do.

BTW, do they provide the GPRS settings?

hello
yes they provide gprs settings with the data enabled sim card.
ill not use it why still very expensive.

My interests in roaming GPRS are twofold:
1. Using FishText or smsBug to send SMS at much lower cost.
2. Triggering callbacks via GPRS.
These both use very little data but having the access is important.

hello EveryBody

Celtrek based New "Base" sim card works very well with Callback and Balance check.
Using in France Belgium and Luxembourg. great its just assigned DID missing.
rates are cheaper than before Out and Inbound calls.

Some information
 

I received my new Celtrek SIM on Saturday. I now have a US number based in Atlanta, GA. It seems that there is also a functional Belgum mobile number (+32489XXXXXX). There are standard conditional diverts set to the voicemail number: +32486191996. However, I have been assured that Celtrek does not charge for diverts to voicemail. OTHO, when you call to retrieve your voicemails you are charged for a call to "destination zone 3" which can range from $0.43 to $0.82/min ($0.66/min from the US). As of this time, they don't have a web interface for VM, etc like they had with the old SIM. Rates in many countries are very attractive. For instance, incoming calls in Japan, Singapore & Costa Rica are listed at 10c/min. Incoming calls in the US & Canada are now only 23c/min, which is about as low as I've seen.

The Belgian network Base, which underlies this, has its own cheap calls there, copying its European tariffs while roaming on AT&T/Cingular - 26c incoming, outgoing 45c (eurocents),

I received my SIM too. Works well although I can't test data - that piece doesn't appear to work. Phone keeps switching between T-Mobile and AT&T even though I'm no more than 400 yards from either tower in my neighborhood. I was told no USA numbers at this time so not sure how DRNewcomb got one. Guess I'm just a Celtrek loser (also a HOP loser, 09 loser, Yackie loser, you get the idea).

So far they will not "replenish" my Celtrek balance. I had a balance of over $170 and after discussion with Aaron they are crediting my new SIM $21. They are asking *me* to send *them* proof of what purchases I've made with Celtrek (WTF?). I'm currently fighting with Aaron via email. Already sent a heads up to my consumer attorney pal who just happens to work in Tampa Florida - not far from Celtrek's "office".

Wish I had a attorney friend in Beirut to go after Hop Mobile - that was a huge loss I incurred on their "going out of business" event. I have indeed learned my lesson. Keeping the same prepaid phone number for multiple international trips is not THAT important.

That's much worse than my situation. I had a tad over $50 credit. I'm not sure exactly how much. I may or may not be able to recover that information. I now have exactly $35. I'm not sure how it hit exactly $35.

I take it that the Celtrek name died. The new web site is Global Roaming, Inc.

As for the DID numbers, When I talked to them last week all they had was a New York number. I guess they ran out of them. They did say that in a week or two they would have a Mississippi number for me.


I have not got my new card yet!

I asked for S. Mississippi (228 ), S. Alabama (251) or N.W. Fla (850), in that order, as first choices. I'd prefer to have a number local to Gulfport/Biloxi but was satisfied to get an Atlanta number. They had nothing in Miss. or Ala and all the Fla numbers were way down the peninsula.

I have checked their new website and new rates look very attractive. Do you know how much they cost the DID numbers for US and to receive calls on them and if they will have for other countries as well. Also os the ony one to offer 10 seconds charging increment after the first minute.
Thanks

I don't know. They say they only charge for the SIM and for the calls. No mention of charges for the number.

Also, I tested smsBug and FishText sending to the new Celtrek/GRO SIM. smsBug :thumbup: ; FishText :thumbdown: I'm fussing at FishText about this right now.

I just checked celtrek's rates too. I only checked the places I am likely to visit Western Europe, the Caribbean, Nigeria, and a few South American countries. I must say their rates are quite attractive. Especially their incoming rates. Incoming in the USA is $0.23 I think. And most other countries I checked are $0.25 or less.

I also want to mention that both fishtext and mobisms did not work when I sent a test sms to my maxroam Belgian number. I really will not be sending to a Belgium mobile anyway.

My account is missing $12 too. I had $32 with Celtrek. Now they say I have $20 minus the $10 for the new Sim leaves $10. I emailed them back to see what was the deal.

Interesting that their map shows Cuba in green but Cuba is not on the list. I wonder what would happen if you tried it there? Being a Belgum SIM it would probably work, the US company just can't mention it.
Come to think of it, I can't think of any reason to either. Unless I loan the SIM to someone, which does happen occasionally.

Would like to know if DID numbers are assigned to the SIM now for free and fromwhich country (US only or other?) I tried to email support but no answer yet.

celltrek to global roaming
 

Does anybody has experience with new sims?
Are did numbers for us assigned correctly and work?

I just called Ryan... I tried to be as pleasant as possible, even though I think they are handling us previous customers in a pretty sh*tty way... I suppose the bright side is that the rates *are* better and there is apparently no expiration -- so I could argue that I don't have to make any 2min calls within the US anymore, which would have blown the $10 SIM replacement fee...

Ryan said the new DIDs should be available next week... We'll see how this all plays out...

They still have not reimbursed me for the $170 I had on my old SIM card. They are playing the typical email "games" that these type companies usually play. Nonsensical answers to my questions, "form" answers, etc. Went through all this with Yackie and others. Never again.

All good ... finally ...
 

This is a "dead" thread, and sorry to bump it, but just wanted to mention that they finally made my account right and credited me the correct balance.

We complain when people do us wrong so I feel it's important to mention when companies do us right ... the lost hair (from scratching my head so much) notwithstanding ...