SeaRoam - anyone know anything about this company?
 

So on another forum I hear of another global SIM company called SeaRoam. What I am wondering is if anyone on here has heard of them before. Their site seems to claim a bit too much compared to what I have heard about other such services on here (coverage on over 700 carriers in 213+ countries, plus cruise ships/ferries & flights at $0.50/minute incoming & outgoing, $0.30 per sent SMS).

So, I have to ask: is this service any more legitimate than the others which have closed up in recent times? I know another SIM I have claims coverage on some 494 networks in 213 countries yet in my own country it will not register on the largest GSM network in the nation (AT&T) and this network is on the partner list.

Just a rehash of Maxroam. Their sites are identical. Have a look at:

SeaRoam - Frequently Asked Questions
MAXroam - Frequently Asked Questions

Without sounding too negative... as it is a rebrand of Maxroam, I suspect the price calculator may well have to be taken with a pinch of salt! Also, not sure if the claim that you can forward your Belgian number free of charge to 50 destinations worldwide is completely accurate either!

I do not think they can deliver those rates on a cruise ship calling back to the US. I tried their rate calculator for cruise ship calls and it says "error".

More partner deals coming
 

From the Irish Examiner Newspaper:Searoam seems very cheap (too cheap?) to make calls:

SeaRoam
 

Hi guys. This is my first post.
I am Port Chaplaincy IT Coordinator for The Mission to Seafarers which is an international charity working in ports all over the world to care for the welfare of seafarers on merchant ships, ferries and cruise liners.
My function (among others) is the research and devlopment of communications for seafarers away from home including our popular Mission to Seafarers International telephone card which is used by seafarers all over the world.
Our latest development is SEAROAM working in association with Millennium Communications and you will also see the parentage from previous posts.

The Mission to Seafarers has been caring for seafarers for more than 155 years and is respected by seafarers worldwide with an international network of Chaplains, seafarers centres, ship visitors and volunteers caring for their needs when far from home.

We see communications as a vital tool in our work and have developed a range of best quality, economical and reliable systems of communication to a seafaring community which is constantly travelling.

SEAROAM is one of these developments and provides the means for a seafarer (or anyone else) to make and for a single flat rate of 50 cents per minute from the countries listed on Searoam's website.

Since it's launch, it has been in great demand by seafarers and our chaplains are reporting an enthusiastic response. Seafarers are very 'switched on' people and have been asking for just such a porduct for a number of years.

Searoam is endorsed by The Mission to Seafarers as well as Blue Ocean Wireless which is a very reputable communications company iin the maritime world. You will see the two logos and links on Searoam's website.

With regard to another posting which I quote
"I do not think they can deliver those rates on a cruise ship calling back to the US. I tried their rate calculator for cruise ship calls and it says "error"

.... Whilst there is an option in the drop down menu on the rates calculator, Searoam is a GSM system and only works where GSM network is available which may well be not far out at sea. On a cruise ship (providing it is within range of a network, you would select the GSM network of the country you are in. (I admit, the cruies ship option should perhaps should not be there at the monent.)
It's all a little pointless because the flat rate is 50 cents in any country covered.

The obvious answer to any comments of course is to try it and see.

Hope this helps.


Port Chaplaincy IT Coordinator
The Mission to Seafarers
Welcome to the home of the Mission To Seafarers

I thought I would add a reply to your forum (something I do not normally do), as I have been using the Searoam SIM card for some time now, during my time working in South Africa & travelling to many other countries.

I think you will find that a lot of people are not yet aware of the Searoam SIM as it is very new to the market. I had the luck to stumble on it, as the SIM was launched & I have been using it ever since.

Through actual experience, I have found that the rates are genuine and the option to add credit to my SIM on-line, is very simple and really useful. The texts are a bonus, as I receive texts for free. Also there are many other advantages to having this account, accessible on-line.

Also, another novelty, is that if you send them an e-mail with a query, you actually get the e-mail answered & answered quickly, which helped me in the early stages.

I am sorry to write such a lot, but I just want to spread the word to other seafarers, as anything which gives us such a 'life-line' to families & friends & does not rip us off with roaming charges & excessive monthly etc charges is a very welcome thing, in this day & age.

I read that a couple of remarks regarding this SIM were not too complimentary - but I bet they haven't tried using it !!!! Because if they had they would not be disputing that the calls were too cheap to be true.

Trust me - got to SeaRoam - Low Cost Roaming & take advantage of this wonderful new SIM - and it is for life, the SIM does not have an expiry date.

So your SIM will not actually work while out to sea on a cruise ship. Is that correct? Only when you can get a signal when cruising close enough to land and you can get a signal.

Most modern cruise ships now have the ability to connect both CDMA and GSM phone calls in the middle of the ocean. It costs $2.49 a minute if you have a Verizon or ATT phone. Your web site seems to imply your SIM will do it for 50 cents.

Can either of our new members tell us whether Searoam has a facility for, and whether they've had success, getting local landline numbers to attach to the SIM card?

This is something that Maxroam users have been promised for months, and there are now at last a few numbers available in about 15 countries, but they still aren't automatically allocated to users who had one in the past.

Interesting that postings about maxroam here on prepaidgsm no longer invoke counter attacks by their spam team/forum monitoring team. Indeed, even writing to their customer services in the last several months does not yield conclusive answers to important questions such as the one that andy has highlighted.
Looks like they really will go to great lengths to keep this product clean and free from any bad publicity, in particular their other product!

In my opinion, most folks here have pretty much given up on maxroam, and unless you searoam representatives come clean with what your sim can and cannot do, and answer any questions correctly, your sim will face the same faith.

For example, why mention roaming at sea at a lower than normal rate if your sim cannot actually do it or even roam at sea at all?

I emailed Searoam last week and was told the incoming number was in Belgium (didn't say if it was landline or mobile) but I could "add a US number free of charge".

My travel plans have now changed so that I won't need it within the next 6 months. But a US number (IF really available now) could be interesting for North Americans. 50c in/out worldwide is a nice simple tariff.

As you've noticed, although the FAQ are similar, the rates certainly are not, and Searoam says 50 cents a minute even in certain EU countries where Maxroam charges more than 3 times as much

It's a little difficult to understand why, if Maxroam has been able to achieve this 50 cent rate on behalf of its reseller, it hasn't revised its own to make it more competitive

As an example, if I were to travel to South Africa, Searoam says 50 US cents a minute, whereas Maxroam is 83 EU cents for calling either RSA or UK mobiles, which is actually more expensive than the 60p O2 UK would charge me (though they're all more than using certain other roaming SIMs)

The incoming number will be just like Maxroam's, a Belgium mobile, which also happens to be not the cheapest to call or forward to. Post back when you actually are able to add a free US number. These sims (maxroam,searoam) will only make sense if you get a free DID. If not, why would I forward to it via a 3rd party (at a minimum of $0.20 in most cases I have seen), and also pay for incoming calls. When there are cheaper options out there.

I am really in doubt that even if they do provide a free USA DID, that they would still charge only 50c incoming on that. If so, its easy to forward your own personal 3rd party DIDs from European countries (or wherever) to a USA number pretty much for free. My suspicion is that incoming calls on any DID that they provide will incurr at least a 20c/min surcharge.

Does anyone here actually have one of the new Maxroam provided DIDs? What do you get charged on that?

Before their rather enormous change in business plan, all the rates in their calculator used to be to their geographic DIDs. Now they are for a Belgian mobile. HUGE difference in my opinion, especially as they used to heavily market their USP which was that they were different from the rest as they would not issue you a strange number in Estonia etc., but instead give you a real number in your country.

As I said, I haven't ordered one of these, as I now have no immediate plans to travel to where it would be useful. Just reporting what they said to me, in case it's of use to somebody.

Well, I have an immediate need for something just like this. Will be travelling in the black sea, jordan, russia, croatia, I think this option seems pretty simple to do. Any have any history with maxroam or this new solution?

they don't show any "cruise ship" rates, even though they list them.

The difference in pricing could simply be contracts. Maxroam maybe have an existing contract with carriers, and now the roaming fees are dropping, but they cannot simply get out of the exisiting contract or obligations. So, they put out a new company and get a new contract for the interim.

There seems to be some confusion arising because of the name of this product. I really do not think this is intended to be a product for roaming on picocells whilst out at sea. It is only called searoam as it is aimed at seamen whilst in port in a foreign country.

At the end of the day cruise ship roaming will always be expensive. I doubt whether any products exist that will have negotiated significant discounts on these.
The infrastructure for these and the live sat uplink aint cheap at all. Though your home network may be making a healthy cut, they still work on a cost-plus basis, where the cost in this case is high.

As for your question about whether members of this site have experience with MaxRoam, just search through the site a bit. You will find many members have experience with this company and various evolutions of its products. However as far as I am aware, apart from our 2 new single post friends above, no member of ppgsm has a seaRoam SIM!

Some of the packages that the companies offer to cruise ship employees discount the price somewhat, but it still isn't a pretty picture. I think some sort of an extender solution to get a ground signal as long as possible is about the best we are going to do.

thanks for the info. I'll do a search for Maxroam, I know it has come gone and come again. I see that both Maxroam and searoam show a "cruise ship" rate in their rate selections, but yes nothing seems to show up. I think the best thing is to simply make SURE I know which tower I am on when connecting, before making calls of course.

blue ocean
 

Hello, the searoam is working close with blue ocean. this company is the specialist of communication throw satellite.
Why your searoam can be used on a cruise ship ? It is only in case of the cruise ship company take the option of satellite to blue ocean.

- post edited by a moderator: please no commercial activity here (= no spam)

Has anyone heard from these guys? I emailed a couple days ago and haven't received an answer about how long it takes to receive cards?

well
 

well, I went ahead and ordered this card. their phone service was pretty responsive, I'll give it a go. used a prepay debit card just in case. I have a trip in Jordan, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, russia and greece.

for the .50$ in and out, I'll give it a go and see if it can become my new roaming card of choice.

I tried the email and contact us options for about two weeks, with NO REPLY at all. Indeed, calling them yielded an operator, but didn't have much of the info I wanted. So, I ordered anyway and will try it for some upcoming trips.

So if you know that they don't reply to any of your emails or queries, and you know that they stoop low and somehow feel the need to spam forums like this with dribble and pseudo usernames. You also know that they are just another brand of maxroam (and you just need to do a search through this site to get a general picture of customer dissatisfaction)....

So after all that knowledge, you really must be fairly optimistic to still go ahead and buy from them!!

In any case, good luck and let us know how it goes!

spam, psuedo usernames? What does that mean? I've been a user on this forum for nearly four years now, same user name, as across all forums worldwide.?

Sorry for the substantial misunderstanding. I wasn't in any way referring to you at all. I was referring to Searoam who feel the need to Spam here with various usernames, as can be seen in the initial posts of this thread.

Sorry if you got the wrong drift Tivoboy. I know you are a genuine user and just a potential customer of theirs. I know you are not spamming for them. Just like anyone else you are attracted by their promises of extremely low and competitive rates. I only hope they can deliver. As I said I wish you luck, and hope it works out with them.

Once again, apologies for any misunderstanding or offence caused.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'll post back after using the card and what results I get.

Well, the good news is that the card arrived quite quickly. I ordered on a Friday afternoon here, which was indeed Saturday in Ireland. It seems to have shipped on Monday, and it arrived on Friday in CA. So, par for the course for transatlantic shipping. I just ordered with the normal shipping.

The current hickup is, that the card isn't working probably because there is no balance on the card - which was to be included in the purchase price. So, calls to Searoam (they DO seem to have a 24/7 person on the other end of the line, but they may not be able to address issues.) have been made and emails, and I guess I am now in a holding pattern to hear WHEN they are going to put the initial 20$ credit on the card so I can at least TEST it out. I am leaving on a trip in a few days, was hoping to be able to use this card while abroad.

Second hickup seems to be, at least for now (I haven't heard back from Searoam customer service yet) that even though the PRICES are quoted in USD$, and the INVOICES are presented in USD$, and the CONFIRMATION is quoted in USD$, and the PAYMENT is apparently made in USD$, the BILL that comes through is some wonky conversion from EURO to USD$, so there is going to be a premium based on exchange rate and also and FOREIGN CURRENCY CHARGES which your credit card company or paypal may bill you. Bummer, hopefully, the .50$, is indeed done in ONE CURRENCY for call billing and not some conversion.

So, what I thought was going to be 44$ (card plus normal shipping) turned out to be 10% MORE based on the factors listed above. :-(

Somewhat rough start at the moment.

tivoboy:

I hope this works out for you. I don't see how their "they DO seem to have a 24/7 person on the other end of the line" is not available to correct the problem immediately.

One thing I like about Ekit is their real 24/7 live customer service. Whenever I need call them they answer in less than 3 minutes. And that's whether I am in the US or Europe or even from a cruise ship once.

I guess you did activate your Searoam SIM card on the website?

yes, there is now a balance, although I never received information about it, and I still cannot create a USA or any other country 2nd number for that matter. "this will be fixed soon"

I'll report more later.

That's a relief! Everything you said so far, seems to suggest this product works just like MaxRoam.

I am surprised these folks are able to offer forwarding of their sim card to some countries for free. It's no longer an option on maxroam's website. Is forwarding an option when you log into your account, and does it actually work?

couple updates. The card is working, but I haven't actually connected any calls from it. Yet, my balance goes down? Not sure what that is about. I HOPE it isn't for checking balance from the phone, which is an SMS and is currently the ONLY way to check balance. Even though the FAQ says, check balance online, there is no facility for it.

I am still waiting for a USA number, there is currently NO FACILITY for getting DID's I have tried for over a week. I DO get calls backs from their 24/7 support, but there is no information or success to it. MAYBE this week, hopefully, it will happen.

I also haven't received any responses about the billing issue listed above from anyone, that was about a week ago I requested some confirmation of what/why I was charged what.

Haven't tried call quality, I'll be on the continent tomorrow now and will test a few calls.

Did you answer any of the callbacks by any chance? Maxroam charges as soon as the callback is answered. It does not matter if you call a totally invalid number or even a busy number. Since this sim is just a maxroam rebrand, that may well be what is happenng. If eh callback was answered.

no, i don't think so
 

No, I don't think I answered any. At least I know I didn't answer them, but not sure if the system thinks I did. There is nothing showing up in the call activity, so I hope that means it would register calls.

Same thing with my maxroam sim. Nothing shows in call activity for answered callbacks. But you do get charged for them. I read in some thread that maxroam plans on doing away with the charge though.

Bossman:

So with a Maxroam or Searoam SIM you cannot change your mind after dialing a call and you still get charged at the callback?

With my Ekit SIM after you dial you can accept or reject the callback. And if you accept the callback, a voice tells you how long you can talk. And you can still then cancel and pay nothing.

No. With maxroam (same as celtrek), once you answer the callack you will be charged. So, for example, if you call a totally invald number that does not even exist, a number that is busy, or you hangup after answering the callback, you will still get charged.

I wonder if this is because the "call" is actually triggered with an SMS SEND, and they need to charge for that? I seem to be charge between .25 and .30$ for an answered call back, but no answer or pickup at all on the other end.