United Mobile--coming back?
 

Their website now says that service will resume shortly.

They think people will trust them?
 

Well said. I sent a friend off with a United Mobile phone when it went dark. If they had said that they were shutting the system down, I would have gone with plan B. They had to know this was happening and the mild run on calls they averted cost them enormous good will.

is this there link https://www.united-mobile.com/index.html , its showing the server details , and i hope they will come back i have about 38 euro in my account with them .

There was a message yesterday saying that they would be coming back. Hmm.

That message still appears if you go unencrypted ("http" instead of "https"): United-Mobile - Low Cost Roaming

Even if they come back looking at their last rates makes them not very competitive. As one of the few the had incoming call cost for belgium besided the call setup charge.

If you read all the news they were shut down for some financial reasons, so if this would be true have they found more money than.
If they have it's the question can they still survice as they did have a good name in the industry but looked like it was not enough to make enough money to keep offering the service.

So lots of questions.

Hello,

the majority shares of UM have been sold to an experienced company in this scene. At the moment there are running a lot of negotioations between all involved parties and suppliers. A concrete schedule for a restart of the service cannot be given at this time.

As of 1st July roaming charges in the European Union are reduced again dramatically, you have to calculate very exactly, if your "normal" home-SIM-card couldn't attractive, while being abroad, too.

Since Vodafone UK shows, that its possible to offer incoming free calls in the complete EU for british Vodafone UK Prepaid-Customers, it can be foreseen, that incumbent players are willing to wipe out all these small Roaming-SIM-Companies from the Game.

If and when roaming costs in the eu become what they should be, namely something close to what vodafone uk is offering this summer, that will most likely spell pretty much adieu to efforts by these international sim carriers. Or am I missing something?

Don't you think that is why everyone is rolling out dual-IMSI phones and that reasonable rates in the US and Canada have finally arrived. There are certainly a number of non-EU spots where they can compete (particularly with a UK number). Dubai has tons of British tourists, as does Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Thailand. Carribean and Mexican rates can help as well. Then there is the rest of South East Asia.

Well, EU-roaming is not getting cheaper for everybody. Actually, In Hungary, it is just getting more expensive...

There are two factors: Hungary increases VAT from 20% to 25%, plus the EUR/HUF rate was awful on the day when the commission made the decision. So the overall effect is that we will have to pay more than what we are paying now. The only thing that makes it somewhat cheaper is the 1 second billing.

By the way, I do not think it is fair that roaming prices are to be declared using a specified date's currency exchange rates... Okay-okay, we have also benefited from this during this period coming to an end now. Now reduced roaming charges will mean increased prices. Hungarian fate, we never do what others do...

This is true but is major eu carrier offer free eu roaming or at very low cost this would mean that a big market for the current roaming sims will be gone. This would mean that they will loose income and it's the question if the other destinations that you refer to will be enough to keep them going.

That said. The Vodaphone offer is only for the UK and would carriers really lower their roaming rates as this still brings them nice money ?

That's the fate of every nation, that elects a bunch of communist liars to govern their country, who then screw up €uro-adoption, arrest domestic demand by a VAT-increase and so set back the economic development by a decade or so. That's like letting a monkey drive your car. But obviously there are serveral nations in Eastern Europe that like the idea of apes being chauffeurs.
You'll need to wait for relief in spring 2010, when Fidesz will hopefully gain the majority in parliament and then can start removing the communist destruction.

inquisitor: you are right. But things are not so simple, Fidesz has done quite some harm when they were in power, no wonder people voted the commies back. Hungary should be annexed to Austria to get things right :-)

Anyway, let's not discuss politics here, apart from what concerns telecoms. BTW: this morning I sent an e-mail to Ms Reding asking for her opinion in the issue of increasing roaming charges, whether the increase felt by the end-user is in-line with the Commission's intentions.

I still have 196 Euro in my account. I will never forget the day April 01, 2009. I was in London, relying on my UM 423 SIM card. Outgoing calls did not work anymore from this day on. First I thought, it is because of Obama. He was in London that week. Security reasons, that no calls can be placed. But then I realised the UM debacle. When UM should come back, I will use my remaining load but not re-load anymore.

I wouldn't put 200 EUR onto a supposedly cheap prepaid card (well ... unless some company pays for it for business trips and such but then I wouldn't cry too much for the money).
On the other hand I don't know if UM will really come back. The web site is for sure no indication whatsoever. It all boils down to a balance between liabilities and potential profit for whoever takes over. Overall I think it's a losing proposition as UM was losing money before and they had quite a few loyal customers who now swear they'll never spend any cent with UM.

Good morning.

As you can read at Neuer Eigentümer bei United Mobile: Lage für Kunden weiter unklar - teltarif.de News (in German language) United-Mobile was sold to Cubic Telecom from Dublin, Ireland.

You know Cubic as the supplier of the Maxroam Roaming SIM card, based on a BASE-Belgium SIM. BASE Belgium belongs to the dutch KPN Group, which is also the Mother of the German E-Plus-Group. United-Mobile (Germany) has/had an IN-Roaming-Agreement for issuing germany-based Mobile-Numbers in the E-Plus-Numbers-Range. Now think about the possible products out from this deal :-)

At the moment it's unclear when and how the issued UM-Liechtenstein oder UM-Jersey SIM-cards will come back.

Its not known at this moment, if the well known United-Mobile Brand will remain or if the Customers will be served under the Cubic / Maxroam Brand in the future..

At the moment the're negotiations between Cubic and Jersey Telecoms, Liechtenstein Mobilkom and some other mostly unknown in-between-suppliers. Nobody knows (or says) at this time, if and when their service will come back in detail.

UM-Outage is now for 2 months. Compared with Globalsim/Isle-of-Man, which needed round about 6 months for their comeback, they've still a little time, but most old loyal customers could be lost, then, I think.

My personal advice: If you're interested in your UM SIM-Cards and Numbers, keep them in a safe place, and register on the UM website.

Me neither!
I think most of their clients will act the same...

I think UM should be given a new lease on life after those new investors have replaced the fragile financial structure and removed that parvenu from the board, who has spend only two years at university (persumably ungraduated) and who's main interests are boating and sports cars among other little boys' dreams.

Let's confine the discussion to the issues we're interested in, not childish personal character assassination

Hello,

i've just read a lot of threads on experience with Maxroam and others. So I'm thinking about the chances for Cubic and UM.

Will they restart UM as known before?
Will they take the existing customer base and give them new Maxroam SIM-Cards with new numbers (and maybe preloaded with the old UM-credit?)

If I were the Buyer of UM I would permanently contact and inform my existing customers e.g. by newsletter or information on the homepage, explaining the situation, offering interim solutions, ask the customers what they are doing with their SIM-cards, what their needs are and how to keep them happy.

But doing nearly nothing is....no good base for valuable customer-partnership. Just my 0,02 Euro :-)

I totally agree with you.
Their commercial practice is zero, they should keep their clients informed...

Max roam is not the best example, switching platforms also.

Why would they now do it any better. If they grant customers their existing credit that will cost them a lot of moeny. someone has to pay for that. Will these customers still be loyal or run away once their credit has finished.

I do see a nice market for someone that would just setup a system where you independent sell did numbers that forward to a mobile. Whenever the sim provider goes out of business just take another one. You will keep your did number and only pay to forward the call.

It seems that it remiens diffiuclt to really make money and that even big players can have big problems tomorrow.

I don't think anyone will see a cent from his previous UM credit (me included). If they failed with the available prepaid amount from their customers' deposits, how could they restart with a negative balance?

Hello,

most of us were wondering, why the buyer of United-Mobile, Cubic Telecom from Ireland did not inform the UM customers about his deal and the possible future of UM customers, their numbers, SIM-cards and accounts.

Now we know, why: The Deal was not completed in full yet. The financial "repair" plan had still to be acknowlegded by Mobilkom of Liechtenstein, who denied this until now.

If you understand german language you'll find more details at
Treiben persönliche Streitereien United Mobile in den Konkurs? - teltarif.de News
The article is based on swiss News portal 2lounge which is run by an "insider".

The main issue: A former employee of UM, now working at Mobilkom and anxious about the former CEO of UM convinced the Mobilkom management not to accept the "repair plan", which could mean, that UM had to go to Bankruptcy ("Konkurs") soon.

Mobilkom.li it self cannot restart the UM423 Service for end-customers as they have only a license for Liechtenstein country itself. But could they ask a "new" "Operator" to do this?

You remember I said some weeks before, that my crystal ball thinks, that the Liechtenstein SIM card could come back :-)

Experts told me, that the Jersey model (or the IoM model) is not viable on the long run, as you cannot earn enough money, when some customer groups only use the cheap legs of the connects to save costs extremly.

The thing that makes me stare is why it is impossible to port my +44 7937 number. JT should be able to offer UM users to adopt their cards or release the numbers for porting...

Hello everyone,
just found this site, which I find it great since it has all the info available about the issues of prepaid cards...

Ok, LISTEN to this now!

A week ago, I was planning to travel to Switzerland (Ticino), as I do 1-2 times a year... Back in late March, while browsing around for a solution about not having to pay roaming charges when they call me (mom and girlfriend are the worst nightmares for me when it has to do with roaming!!!)...

So I found ICQSIM (which was given by United Mobile), and as such I bought a 20euro account with a +423 SIM card... perfect in shipping, fast, great service... I set it up, made the checkings and all... I am based in Greece I must tell you, and the service here is (I guess) supported by Vodafone Greece (that's what shows up in my phone, even though I try to change the network to another company, I have no signal and it goes automatically back to Vodafone; I actually like it because I am a customer of Vodafone here anyways...)

So, everything worked fine... when I was calling my +423 number from a local landline/mobile, I would always get a line... when I was trying to call from my +423, some problems existed (I had to try 2-3 times in order to get a line through)... but didn't really care, as I wanted it mostly about to be called instead of calling...

So I was getting prepared to leave for Ticino about 10 days ago, and I turn this dedicated phone I have for my trips (SE K550i) on... while still in Greece... signal full strength, Vodafone network... I try to make a call, nothing... it says "call not allowed/busy network"... I call the number from my Greek mobile, nothing... I send an sms message, nothing... I call from my home's landline, nothing... I try to send from the +423 number an sms to my Greek mobile, nothing! I think, WTF is going on here?! I was getting upset... while I was trying to see the configuration of the phone, etc, everything was just fine... So, think maybe my account is out of money? but how? I have only used it to send a couple of sms, and test the calls, etc, when I first got the number... I try to log onto my account in UM, nothing... I get an error page after I put my username and password... I was getting really upset!:eek: What happened, I thought?! Not only that, but all my business friends in Switzerland, had this phone number for me!

So, I run a search on the net to maybe find some info... and there I get it... UM has been shut down... a lot of people lost their money... move to another company... etc, etc... I had no time to do something because I would leave in a couple of days... so I just got my Greek Vodafone Blackberry, and paid roaming :mad:

The think is that I had left my +423 number at home in Greece, and I had left it on... I just got back yesterday... still Vodafone signal shows, full strength signal... but how did I see that??? Suddenly, while at home with my girl, we hear a strange, not familiar ringtone... I check my BB, nothing... my girl checks her phone, nothing... so who's is that mobile that rings??? Yes, it was my +423 number that was ringing (someone from Switzerland was calling me)... by the time I figure out what/who's phone was ringing, the caller hung up... so I went crazy! now it is working, I thought?! and I paid Vodafone roaming for a week in Switzerland?! So, I try to make a phone call from my +423 number, nothing... again same message "call not allowed/busy network"... I try to call this number from my home, again nothing... try to call from my Vodafone number, nothing... send an sms, nothing...

But it continues to show Vodafone signal, full strength...

So, what am I suppose to thing guys??? :chair: :???:

What are your thoughts???

My +423 sim also works for incoming calls, not for outgoing.
I think this has been the case even when the problems started some time ago.

The most interesting part of this article is that +423-663 is also being used for sex hotlines. This being the reason that these numbers get blocked by many provider world-wide. Unless Lichtenstein does something about this the mobile platform will still see these high rates and blocks by my telecom providers.

Is there really a future for +423-663 lichtenstein. Rates to these numbers are still very high and this is the reason most people went to other cards. I doubt that this platform will see any growth if it remains like this.

I can officially deny all rumors/statements regarding Cubic acquiring UM.

May we review?
 

If UM is basically defunct, what options, if any, remain, to use our old UM cards?

Travelsim (Estonia) was sending out free SIM cards with a 5 euro balance; I did one of those.

Who else, if anyone, is offering to REPLACE the card, and under what conditions?

I have one more card to either hold or exchange. Holding is looking more dubious every day. I am glad I converted the one UM SIM already.

Stan

An offer I like
 

I like: FREE International OneSimCardTM SIM with $10 of talk time

10 plus year old US based company with Estonian phone number SIM.

The problem of course remains that Estonian based numbers have almost the same high termination fees that led to the unraveling of what had been a very successful well run United Mobile with its Liechtenstein number.

You just can't win.

Why? Neither Jersey Telecom or any other Jersey network offers similar products at the moment, and porting across territories is impossible

Less of a problem within EU
 

The rate of calling a Estonian phone number from within the EU is not higher then calling any other EU based number. So it is more a problem for calling from outside the EU to Estonia.

Sim4Travel does offer a similar product and is using the same Jersey Telecom platform. Jersey Telecom itself offers mobile phone services.

Phone numbers are resources that, IMHO, should not fall victim to providers. Porting was partly introduced as a means to make the end user able to keep their numbers alive, even if they want/need to change providers.

I actually expect porting across territories and countries become a reality a few years, at least within areas such as the EU.

Well, calling a number in Estonia from Hungary is definitely far more expensive than calling a local, Hungarian mobile. Depending on our plan, it can easily be 15 times that expensive. This is a prohibitive factor for many. Should I hand out my UK or Estonia-based number here, sure nobody would call me. That is great on a holiday, but not that fantastic if I expect business calls.

Then it is either normal roaming or forwarding to my roaming SIM using a local DID. I am a geek and I can arrange for a local DID, but most people can not.

I really don't believe that the difference in price in termination is whether you are in the EU or not. Half of us now use VOIP to terminate our calls. I'm in the US, but buy foreign route from voicetrading (a German company). I know that many other people here use other Betamax resellers. I have a hard time believing that any EU resident is getting better rates.

The only better route I would know would be mobile to mobile on the same network.

Same overhere, but i was talking about the Eurotariff which sets limits on the prices mobile operators can charge for mobile calls made or received while roaming within the EU. Same rate now to call a Estonian mobile number while roaming in Spain as calling a French mobile number.

Understand your clairification; but then again and we've been beating around this for a while. I believe, and will always believe, that a big reason for the demise of UM, O9 and many of the other international cards are the eurotariffs (while we can argue about degree we surely can't argue this is a big factor).....in the past (pre Eurotariffs) a large segment of clientelle would come from Europe as Europeans cross international frontiers a great deal more than say Americans and the roaming rates when say a Brit went on a short holiday to Spain were large, weren't they. With the advent of very reasonable (and getting more reasonable each year) roaming European rates, the need for the international cards would dramatically decrease.

That of course leads to the people who would want international cards are people perhaps travelling to several different countries such as UAE from North America say or from Australia but then again those people tend not to do a six or seven country trip and for them local sims in the country visited might do the trick. The beauty of the international cards for me as an American who might visit three or four European countries on a trip was one number, no need to acquire three or four local sims (although pre riiing, that's the way I used to do it and still have the French, German and Dutch sims to prove it).....

Now as noted, in its glory days, UM was great and I was fortunate to have found an ld carrier to call forward from my home number at most reasonable rates. But then termination fees, as we know, on +423 skyrocketed. Estonia has the same problem for me at least if I want to call forward although enlinea rates are pretty reasonable but they are a bit unreliable. The +44 rates are okay, nothing great. So at least for most North Americans, Estonia is not really a good option. Yes you could receive for free but when your friends or business associates receive their phone bills, you will probably have one less friend.

Given my pattern of travel (mostly Europe from North America), given the way I like to handle things (call forwarding off my home landline), it is beginning to look like there is really no need for international sim cards any longer...as I said elsewhere this summer during my visits to Germany, France and the UK, I relied on a new vodafone uk sim card because of their roaming free summer rates....how that holds up will go a long way to determine whether I need further international sim cards (although the dual US/UK ekit card looks very viable).