Global Roaming (former Celtrek)
 

The offer by Global Roaming with Belgian prefix looks very interesting, even if it has no free incoming calls, but outgoing calls are cheap, they have a huge coverage and data in really many countries.
What I couldn't find on the website is how data is billed: 1/10/100/300KB increments? If it were 1 or 10KB increments it would be very good to use with programs like MobiSMS and also to check some e-mail. Some of you have news about it?
Also the voice billing at 60/10 is not that bad...

We got 2 SIM cards today. They didnt come over from the shipping department yet though. I will post my test report here soon- next week the cards travel to India as well.

Chris

first test with globalroaming
 

So now i have the two SIM-Cards on my desk.
They come in a small envelope with some photocopied short manual with all important data including GPRS setup.
The Phonenumber is written by hand on a small hand-cut piece of paper.

The SIM registered to Eplus network by default.

Incoming call works well, charged 10 us-ct
SMS incoming and outgoing works well outgoing charged with 32 us-ct
Outbound call to german landline worked via callback and was charged 34 us-ct instead of 24 us-ct as in the rate calculator.

Now i tried GPRS. Eplus is a "Challenger" Network partner of Base and the rate should be 3,98US$/MB as on the rate sheet.
First connect: 4kb, charged 50us-ct. So i thought ok, 128kb billing stepps.
second connect: 400kb, charged 11,5US$ !!! 30$/MB !!! That is definitely NOT like in the rate sheet.

I will contact their customer care later today and find out where is the problem.

... to be continued ...

Chris

I have not tried mine yet, except to receive a SMS or two. There are some questions about this service that even GR can not answer yet. They list coverage on cruise ships, Cuba, BVI, Thruaya satellite and other places but can't yet tell you the rates in those places. The old system had a nifty online managment service which listed all calls, where the phone was roaming and even forwarded voicemail to an e-mail address. So far, nothing like that seems to be available with the new system.

by the way, this is the GPRS tariff list for the Base.be prepaid cards:
emagiC CMS.Net - Error message

Challanger networks 2.5€/mb, 1kb rounding.

This product looks a lot like the one from MAXRoam. The website says you can choose your own local number, but I can't find where you would do that, what the number would cost, etc. Any info on this?

I believe, just like maxroam once said, you get one default local number (USA, France, UK and some other countries). At some point during the purchase or registration process, you will be given an option to do this. At least that is the way it was with maxroam. Of course, no local numbers with maxroam at the moment.

the paper leaflet on the globalroaming card said that they can not yet assign landline DID numbers of your choice. If you need a US number you should call customer care.
The physical number of the SIM cards are from Base Belgium +32-48...

Chris

It sure seems like both Celtrek and Maxroam are having a hard getting the DID's functioninig on their sims. IMHO, without the DID's, their sim cards are not as attaractive. Since your pay for incoming calls everywhere. So, assuming I set up my own forwarding via my DID (voicestick, les.net, etc.), I will pay for the forwarding to the +32 number and also get charged for incoming.

I hope they realize that the global roaming sim maket is a very dynamic market, and only the fittest, and those that can act quickly will survive.

@Bossman, I would advice you and eveyone to buy your own did number and forward the call. The forwading does cost you money but typically this is lower in price than having it forwarded my say maxroam or yackie (in the past)

If you have a uk based numer free roaming card you should be able to setup call forwarding for around 10 eurocents. So you pay just 10 eurocents per minute to receive calls.

The advantage of having your own did of great as it seems you can expect to almost change numbers every 1 or 2 years whenever the sims platform goed out of business. See problems in the past iom, yackie on israel platform, tan iceland, same for maxroam.
When you change sims just change the forwarding and your free to choose any sim you want.

Realize? Maybe. Understand the implications? Doubtful.
 

They probably realized that the business is difficult. But they probably thought they were smart enough to avoid the pitfalls. Whether hubris or ignorance leads them to try this business, the result will be the same as all the other nonsurvivors if they don't get it to work---and quickly.

Survival is a lot harder than most of these people realize. Otherwise they would not have entered the marketplace.

[Another problem seems that everyone goes to market before they have everything or enough things working.]

I don't think the problem is with the DIDs, but reliable and inexpensive bulk termination to the Base numbering range.

Termination to the Israel numbers was good and inexpensive... Base is the most expensive route in Belgium.

I agree with you. They must also be making some profit for calls made to the Belgian number.

bbob, the only one I had was UM+. I have always used it for my forwarding. By forwarding my AT&T to my DID, then my DID to UM+. Just did not want to dish out more funds for another sim card. In the mean time, I have sent my +423 card for easyroams Travel sim offer. Next trip is not till June (UK, France and Nigeria). So, plenty of time for things to change some more. I'll probably just roam in France for my 2 nights there with my Virgin UK sim. I will be in Nigeria for 10 days and I already have a local sim from my visit there last year.

As vlads mentioned, forwarding to that Base Belgian number is a little high based on the couple of providers I have looked at. For example, voicestick charges $0.33 to forward to it.

The best retail, non-Betamax, rate I'm aware of for calls to Base numbers is $0.1864 with VoipJet (IAX2, not SIP).

future-nine.com -> $0.179
lets get lower! ;-)

Chris

F9 uses Betamax

You can always go with SipTraffic (another Betamax brand) and pay $0.1255 with their gold route or $0.1050 with the silver one. But again... It's Betamax.

I found a cheaper option: 0,1633$ !

http://www.yupeephone.com/rates.php?country=belgium%

They will have betamax as one of the suppliers, yes. But i am using this provider for some months now already and got at least 10 different call routes on their asterisk billing system. Besides the SipTraffic provider needs 200 US$ minimum recharge - which is more than i use in 2-3 years... I am using 2 betamax providers on my private VoIP station at home and never had any problems with them though.

Chris

Very disappointing - so to say non existing customer care...

2 days ago i emailed them regarding wrong billing on GPRS, yesterday i tried to send a message over their "24/7 online support center" (which was offline whenever i had a look) and in the evening i tried to call their hotline number. Rings forever, noone picks up, no email replies, not even a ticket commissioning system or whatsoever.

lovely.
Chris

I never give out the underlying SIM number. I have been burned too much. The way the web site is set up, however, it appears that I am paying US$0.10 to receive a call the Base.BE number or the US number. It is way cheaper to forward to a US landline number.

Voicetrading has a US$0.09 a minute route, but I have tried it out yet. I have a Celtrek SIM here, but am first working on trying to set up a web account. I've also written them and asked for a US number in any area code (I really don't care).

I asked them if their lines had a SIP route. I was told they don't. I think that would be a pretty nice feature and since I beleive that they are using VOIP for the connection to BASE, it should not be difficult.

did you get a hold of them on the hotline? At what time did you call? I tried several times but noone ever picked up. Still GPRS is wrong billed and my emails are not answered to.

Chris

I just e-mailed and Aaron Glickman would respond. Maybe not immediately but within a day or two. Last e-mail was on the 28th.

OK, thanks..
no reply here so far yet though... My last email was sent on thursday, another before on wednesday...

DID Numbers
 

Is it possible now to add a US DID number to the new sim and is it free? Are call received on DID numbers charged same as on BE mobile number ot there is a surcharge.

BTW: still noone picks up the phone at globalroaming, only a stupid voicemail that tells you should send a email for quick reply. I already sent 3 emails, no reply at all.

Same response I'm getting... I put $50 on my account and it has not posted yet... I paid with PayPal, so maybe I need to get them involved as I am not getting the product I purchased and it's been a few weeks... Also, I have not been able to get SMS to work here in the US... Anyone else have that problem?

Let me get this straight....You topped up your account over a week ago and it has not credited yet? I would have done a chargeback or whatever it's called via paypal after a couple of days. Check the credit from the handset first though.

I received a sim card from easyroam lastweek, topped it up via google checkout and it showed up almost instantly!

Dear all,
Although I don't intervene much on the forum I regularly check your feedback and try to improve our customer service.
As you have noticed we recently changed provider. It was not easy as we had to swap all our existing SIM cards.
Our website is under dramatic change and APIs are being developed as we speak.
From Monday May 11th we will have more people answering the phone. More telephone lines. Our toll free number will include more channels.
Local numbers will be available online from May 20th. Existing customers will be able to assign local numbers as well.
Thanks to you we are learning and improving our service daily.
PM me for personal issues as I don't want to turn this forum in a CelTrek chat room.
BTW CelTrek is our brand name operating under Global Roaming Inc since day one. Nothing has changed on the subject. We are still Global Roaming Inc and CelTrek is still our brand name.
I hope this short message clears any doubt you may have.
Again I invite you to PM me for personal issues.
Have a great week-end!

Florian Seroussi

Billing
 

Does any one know if on their website is possible after login, to get detailed list of call made and received?

I replied to all PMs. Thank you.

no, at the moment these links lead to empty pages.

Celtrek cannot deliver on its promises! We bought into celtrek last September while we were living abroad. At a certain point the service stopped and we were never notified. when we were finally able to make contact (customer service started out good but has become worse and worse) we were told we needed a new sim card because of some change. Eventually by celtrek)l we received the cards. A few months later we learned (again never were we informed of another change which would require us to pay for new simcard (2 in our case) and delivery to where we were living outside the US (which would cost us about$100) in order to continue a ´new¨ service. Instead, I asked for a refund of about $150 that we had in ¨minutes¨ and was refused! I now have to take the company to small claims court to try to retrieve my money. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

I also thought it was pretty "cheesy" to kill one SIM and make the customers pay for the new one. But they eventually made things right for me. You might be interested in knowing that you can file a complaint online with the Florida Dept. of Ag. & Consumer Services. It may or may not help.

I filed with the BBB in Florida. It helped a little - maybe? I got a partial credit of my $170 that disappeared. Florida BBB never got back to me - it's been three weeks.

I will PM the Celtrek dude and see if it helps.

@celtrekuser please DM me as your handle don't ring a bell.
@bones_boy replied to your DM.

Questions
 

Would like to know the following:
1. are did numbers free or cost $ a year
2. are there additional costs to receive calls on US DID numbers?
3. Is it possible to view online a detailed list of calls now or in future?
4. Is it possible so setup auto recharge from the website

There will be a cost for DIDs including additional cost to receive calls on DIDs.
Both features, view logs and auto-recharge are being implemented as we speak. ETA is 10 days to get it all sorted.

Just to follow up with a status on my earlier post, CelTrek has sorted out the issue with my $50 top up and all is well...