New to forum. Q on UK/US SIM cards
 

I stumbled on this forum while trying to find out why my United mobile SIM cards suddenly stopped working prior to a trip this month. :chair:

I travel to western Europe quite frequently, with occasional visits also to Abu Dhabi (UAE). UM was working fine, but I now need to purchase some new SIMs (I use 2 when traveling with others or family; great to find each other when separated).

The new dual UK-US cards are especially appealing, since they'll make incoming calls cheap (essentially zero) to my US friends and colleagues. I am looking for reasonable calling rates from abroad back to the US and reasonable costs for in-country calls. Also important are ease in recharging and a long inactivity period (since most of my travel is in summer). Texts are not too important.

The options appear to be (in no special order):

ekit
WorldSIM
GeoSIM
Camel

I am a bit confused, because not all of these dual SIMs seem to be available at present. Also, the dual SIM seems less interesting if I have to pay more than $0.17/min for an incoming call to the US number (this is the rate my family would pay to call me at a European number from Verizon in the US).

Any advice, comments, or experience would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

Welcome

ekit is on the market at the moment. The others you list, plus easyroam and some more, are resellers of the same underlying product, so will presumably all have them arrive in stock at the same time; this looks fairly soon now but not quite for example this week.

Though one ID is active at a time, I think I understand that both numbers would be accept calls, so people could call either the US one, or the +44 UK/IoM one using other providers if you so choose. Or you could arrange a US landline DID forwarded to the UK number, in which case perhaps you don't necessarily need a dual ID - unless perhaps you also want to receive calls from here while you're in the USA.

I have the New EKIT Dual phone number Passport SIM. I also have Verizon wireless. You are correct that if you pay an extra $3.99 a month to Verizon, you can call a cell phone in most countries for 17 cents. With the EKIT SIM calls to the U.S. number costs me 19 cents to a receive a call. In your case, it may cost family 2 cents per minute. But with the EKIT SIM, anyone from any phone can call you on the U.S. number and it will cost 19 cents.

When friends call me on the U.S. number, the call goes straight through like a regular call. No callback issues. And while I am in most countries in Europe, if other associates call me on the UK number, my incoming calls are free.

Lastly, I like EKIT's Service life. Basically, you must make one charged service, (like a call or text message) every 9 months. And you must do one recharge at least every 15 months. You can also recharge through their web site or over the cell phone. This has been a real convenience for me.

Thank you very much for your input. This is exactly the information I wanted. EKIT looks like it may be the winner. Any others out there with experience or knowledge of the other SIMs?

I am intrigued by the DID forwarding but am a bit clueless on how to do it and what the costs would be. Where could I find the equivalent of "DID for Dummies"?

Various VoIP providers would set you up with an account, the number itself free to maybe $3 a month, then whatever their tariff per minute.

Or there are a couple of firms such as Freedigits (Iowa) and IPKall (Washington state) where you can get a free number and set it up to your own choice of provider. The various Betamax VoIP brands have fairly cheap calls to UK mobiles, 7 (Justvoip) to 18 eurocents per minute.

Another huge plus for eKit is their customer service. Of all the international providers I had to deal with they're #1 when it comes to customer service.

I agree with VladS on EKIT's customer service. Last year I bought a new unlocked Z6C World phone from Verizon. I got to Ireland and could not make a call. Even with their *126* prefix dialing.

So I called their customer service from a land line. They were very patient in trying to find a work around. Finally they had me send a text message of the phone number I wanted to call to 1234. Basically I used a text message to trigger a call back. Worked great and I was on my way making calls all over Europe. Their 24/7 customer service is outstanding.

I was going to buy the ekit for all the good reasons explained above when just few days ago I noticed on their web they have restricted a lot the number of countries with free incoming calls. Now only mainly EU and US have free incoming calls. UAE is not free anymore and so is Egypt Seychelles Brazil and many others. By comparison Easyroam and Worldsim will offer all those countries with free incoming for their new dual IMSI. And also offer almost free call forwarding while ekit charges for it. I will wait for their offers.

When I first started looking at International SIM cards I too focused on how many countries had free incoming calls. Then I realized I probably would never get to many of the countries that were not free. I only know one person who has ever been to the Seychelles. And even if I go to Egypt, (I am in September) or the UAE or Brazil it's still only 9 cents a minute from EKIT for an incoming call. That's not enough for me to worry about. I prefer to stay with a company that will be around for a while and has good customer service.

I think there is a surcharge for all calls that come in on the US number in countries where there isn't free roaming if I remember correctly.

I would second your opinion, especially after losing about 40 EUR on my now-defunct UM cards.

Matha531:

You are correct. There is a 19 cent surcharge for incoming calls if associates call me on the U.S. number. But since they are all in the U.S., their call to me on the U.S. number is usually free. So the actual combined charges for their call to me is close to 19 cents in most of Europe. Or maybe 28 cents if they call me and I am in Egypt.

But for me, that's OK. In the past, I have had associates call me on the UK number and it often costs them a lot more than 19 cents if they don't have some discount dialing card or a deal with their long distance carrier.

Jeff-

Sounds like you've pretty well done your homework. The only thing I might add is that the rate your family would pay to call a European mobile number is probably higher than the .17/min. Are you including the Mobile termination fee? For example, though I pay only 8 cents/minute to call the UK from my home landline, the cost to call a UK mobile is 28 cents/minute. That additional mobile termiation fee would be passed on to Verizon who will certainly pass it on to you or your family. ;) Now, if you've already factored that in and know for certain this is the final rate, then you're good to go.

FWIW, I'm another displaced UM user, temporaily using Sim4Travel, and waiting in the mail for my eKit from Telestial.

Kupe

Thanks to all! I just ordered an ekit card vie eBay (better deal than Telestial). My next trip is in August. I'll try to remember to report back on my experience.

I went with Celtrek and and Geodessa.

As a Yank, I'm only interested in the dual IMSI SIM so that I can test it and show people how it works in the US. I'm hoping that these adoptions might bring down Canada, but I don't think so.

I do have some friends with Verizon Storms and Epics who have thought about swapping out the Verizon SIM with these on the theory that it would give them backup coverage on TMObile and ATT, together with cheaper roaming in Europe. Data may prove to be the sticking point on that issue.

CDMA only in the USA?
 

Are they sure that it has GSM 850/1900? I think it is only CDMA 850/1900. I could be very wrong of course. Of course, if I am right then US use of GSM is not going to happen. Are they locked to Verizon [the GSM, that is]?

I believe the Verizon Storm is also a quad band GSM phone. If it's unlocked, it should work. I have a Verizon Z6C World phone that is unlocked. But it only has GSM 900 and 1800, So I cannot even test it in the U.S.

From my understanding all Verizon World (GSM-capable) phones are locked to a Verizon/Vodaphone SIM. At least that's the story with the ones we support at work (Blackberry 8830 and Storm and we have a LOT!).

I have a Verizon Motorola Z6C World phone. It also has a Vodaphone SIM. I had mine unlocked by Verizon. They gave me a code (called a subsidy code) to have it unlocked to use any SIM. I used it in Europe last year with a Telestial/Ekit SIM. I was also told by Verizon that I could get an 8830 unlocked too if I bought one. Check with their Global Support Group.