I've finally got a 09 sim (sent from Orate in the UK, who took weeks and still sent it "small packet" rate to save themselves a few pennies - avoid them if you can).

For me, the key selling point is the rate in Mexico. The inbound cost (zero) beats even the local sims, and the outbound isn't too bad (plus, with callback I could get the rate to the UK from Mexico down to US$0.15/min). The US rates though are obscene, have to make sure I turn it off near the border!

But, first impressions are not good. Although it can receive a test call (roaming in US, so I didn't pick up!), it doesn't make a call on either of the two networks nor two phones I tried, not even the "check balance" number. So I'm now testing the online support...

A test sms from US Cingular to the 09 didn't work either, and message sending (anywhere) simply fails.

Does anybody else have one of these? They seem very unclear about which phones they support, but my phones work fine with other global sims.

Hi again RT,

Hmm. Maybe I've spoken too soon about how grateful I am for advice received. On the basis of things I read, I decided to go with 09 Mobile. They passed me to Orate, with whom I have had very pleasant e-mail correspondence and nice promises that they can get me the SIM in time for mt departure. We'll see if they deliver; and we'll see what 09 Mobile delivers in terms of reception and service.

I should note that ordering the 09 SIM for delivery to the States brought Orate's charge for the starter package back to 09 Mobile's base price of 43 euro because no VAT was charged.

When I receive the SIM and get to try it, I'll report back.

Marc

Hi Marc,

I'm physically in the States (AZ) at the moment, so that's where the card was delivered to.

My initial ordering problems were mentioned in the 09 thread - ordered from 09 on early Nov, order passed to Orate on Nov 30th. The update: Email back/forth to Orate confirming they were available, active, and in stock for immediate despatch, order paid (paypal) on 1st dec, despatched ten days later (didn't respond to my email query before that), received 9 days after that.

They sent it the "small packet" rate (saves them about 60p), which requires a customs declaration to be attached to the envelope, which they didn't do, so that probably slowed it down for extra customs processing (has an LAX sticker on it).

I really hate dealing with mail order companies in the UK, no idea of customer service. Which is why I tried ordering it direct from Iceland.

No response from the 09 online customer service after one full business day at their location.

I'm still waiting for Orate to reply to 2 emails forwarded from United Mobile a year ago, and another from a few weeks ago about the 09 SIM.

By "this" do you mean ordering the sim, or have you now got one and are having the same problems as me?

Just tried it on the Mexico networks (by walking over to a nearby hill, which is within sight of Mexico).

Roams on Telcel, but not Movistar. But still the same: the 092 "check balance" doesn't work, can't make any calls, can receive. So in theory I could trigger a callback (CBW etc) from another phone, as there is free incoming in Mexico, although I've no way to check the incoming is not charged. I'll set this up and try it next time I'm in Mexico proper.

I had no reply to my email to 09, so I called them - the support number is a landline number, they answer in Icelandic (I assume...) but are happy to speak English. He took the details and will pass it on to techs, but I can't see it being resolved this year.

no, I just made an interested enquiry about the SIM, and sent a bit more info about things I'd said in the earlier phone call - no email reply

My experiences with the Icelandic SIM have been similarly bad and I own several of them unfortunately. I can receive calls in the States. I will be in Southern Mexico next week and will report back. I will report next month on Amsterdam, the UAE, and Oman. I have a Riiing SIM which I like, but the Icelandic SIM is "free incoming" throughout the Middle East.

O9 started working again. It seems the problem was that most Icelandic phone numbers (including country and area code) are 10 digits (like the number 09 gives for their support center) while the 09 Mobile has 12 digits. Some international operators did not accept the 12 digits numbers for Iceland and the CallBack did not passthrough.

It seems 09 sorted the issue and callbacks started reaching me. I have operated it succesfully in Israel and I recieved a call from another 09 user who is currently in Saudi Arabia.

If it were true about those 12-digit numbers, incoming calls couldn't be successful either.
OTOH, if routings for incoming calls and callbacks initiating the outgoing calls were different, you might be right....

12 digits is outside the ITU recommendations for international numbering, but only by one digit. The recommendations were dispensed with in 2001 (if memory serves) so my guess is that it's a routing code omission somewhere along the line.

Steve :)

I thought the limit was 15 digits.

Does this 11-digit number limit include the country code?
If it does, what about Riiing/UM numbers 423 663 xx xx xx? :)

any developments with the iceland card?

thanks ;)

If you include the country code, I guess it is...

:D

I used the 09 SIM in Mexico. With my Motorola v600, it worked fine with Callbackworld, but I could not get it work with its own commands. The card also worked in a similar fashion in Belize which was a shocker since Belize is not a listed country of service. The card registered on Cubacell, but I didn't place any calls. I was in a boat just off Cuban waters and the signal wasn't stable enough.

What do you mean? Did you trigger callbacks from CBW by using another phone?

I just get a 09 sim card too... also I can see a strange thing, the home network is Swisscom!

then I have boring troubles with SMS... in fact, i can't reach 09 from any italian network :( And I can't call that prefix from vodafone italy too... not so good, I'll contact the Customer care very soon.

What do you mean by "home network"? Something like FL1 for UM or Areeba Ghana for Hop?

If so, I "smell" SMS troubles (like in Hop) :P

Not exactly... inside the sim card you can find the list of favourite networks and the "home network" is Swisscom. But the sim card has a correct serial number 8935402xxx. of Iceland and not a swiss one as FL1 for UM or Areeba Ghana for Hop... really strange ;)

I've also just got back from Mexico.

Last wednesday, the 092 "balance" command started working, and it confirmed that incoming calls in Mexico are free (however, the account is debited 2 or 4c each time the balance is checked, which looks like a bug).

Still can't make outgoing calls, nor send or receive sms. But, using a second phone I could trigger callbacks, so using callbackworld or (more reliably) gphone I could call the UK and US for around 15c/min, which for Mexico is an excellent rate. (with the local sims, it mostly costs more than that to make local calls, or to receive calls from outside the local area).

So for my extremely limited case it was a success (far cheaper than any other solution for making international calls from a gsm phone in Mexico).

Note: the 092 balance enquiry isn't working now I'm back the US, I don't know if that's because it doesn't work here yet or if it has stopped working again in the last few days.

I saw some comments on here about the length of the number: it's a perfectly normal 12 digits as those digits include the country code. Exactly the same length as most UK numbers.

it seems all has gone downhill for 09 iceland :(

any info guys ? any luck recently

It hasn't even got up the hill yet so can't go downhill: it has never worked for anybody anywhere for outgoing calls, as far as I'm aware.

Despite that, I did find it useful and it saves me a LOT of money in Mexico - US 15c/min to US/UK (with callback) compared to Eur 1.59/min for United Mobile, 99p/min for the cheapest UK sim, etc. Under 10% of the cost of the nearest alternatives!

(Actually CBW has only billed me at the rate from Iceland landline, rather than mobile, so it's only 11.3c/min to UK).

well yes you are technically right mate... i at least hope it has saved you enough money to OFFSET the price of the sim card pack!

have you tried returning it or ... uh.. threatening orate or 09? :clap:

On the initial 90 minutes of calls it's saved me around a hundred pounds so far (although without it I wouldn't call as much). And I'll be using it again every few weeks this winter - it's the only sim card in the world with completly free incoming in Mexico.

I'll chase up getting other features of it (like dialling out...) fixed when I get back to Europe, although as the problem is so widespread it's not likely my calling more would make a difference. For me, it does what I need already.

(update)

According to somebody over at HoFo, 09 is now working fine in Greece and Uganda, it's just a North American problem that outgoing doesn't work. Has anybody here tried one in Europe?

My wife will have it in the Netherlands on Thursday and in Dubai on Friday. I will report her experiences. I know Andrea has been playing with an 09 SIM in Italy as well.

I was in Switzerland last week and for some reason the o( sim could not register on a Swiss network; don't know as I haven't checked whether Switzerland is not a roaming partner of o9.

It would be extremely strange if 09 had no roaming agreements in Switzerland :whistle:

The following show that it should be all OK:
http://www.09.is/products_callcharges.php
http://www.orate.co.uk/Roaming/countries.html
http://www.orate.co.uk/Roaming/09tariff.html

...but here:
http://www.09.is/products_coverage.php

Switzerland is missing!!! :unsure:

Well...it doesn't matter what it says on various web sites. Trust me on this, O9 would not register while I was in Switzerland (Lucerene and Zurich) 10 days ago.

Yes, any problem here in Italy.

Also now I'm very curious to test it in Switzerland :construction:

Have you been able to make calls with the iceland sim ?

My wife has now used the o9 SIM for two weeks in Dubai without incident. We have also used it in Mexico and the Netherlands without incidence. I think we have used it in Oman as well. She was in a border town, but forgot to check which carrier she used.


Stu

No, I did't have yet 09 when I was in Switzerland in December. :bye2:

The 09 now works fine for outgoing calls in Mexico (so doesn't need a second phone to trigger callbacks), I've been using it there this week. Still only incoming in USA.

well it seems to be getting better! incoming and outgoing functionality
in one place at least :P .. please test it in the UK/IOM when you return,
im anxious to find out if it will work

Did you ever recieve the O9 SIM and have you tried it?

Heading to Germany and Malta this summer and seem to be one SIM short in Malta. Debating whether to just let someone use German SIM or SMSing or purchase another. I am not thrilled about the GT-SIM with only one FREE inbound country.

Wondering if O9 is a good choice or whether I should buy another UM card or do nothing.

Stan

Hi Stan,

Sorry not to have reported earlier. I didn't really have anything to report. The 09 SIM didn't arrive in time for my trip, so I wound up buying a local SIM (Bouygues; worked fine). The 09 SIM did arrive only a few days after I left, so Orate's estimate wasn't that far off, and maybe would have been acccurate but for the holidays.

But I haven't activated the SIM yet, so I can't report how it worked. I'm on my way back to Europe in three weeks, though, and I figure I'll be taking it, so I should be able to give you a report in enough time for it to factor into your decision.

Cheers,

Marc

Well I'll tell you...I used O9 the past 5 days while in the UK....my enlinea bill shows the charges to be 10?/minute with the usual 6 second billing intervals...but it doesn't seem there is voice mail available for this sim...calls made while the phone is off are not completed....and I couldn't access calls from O2-UK.....

The plot thickens and I just can't make heads or tails of it...

Riiing...we know what enlinea just pulled. On my last trip I did not use riiing but I did make one call via the 800 number they gave me and was charged 58? for a 1 minute call to United Mobile....scratch them.

Yet AT&T on its $1/month plan still only charges 11?/minute to call Liechtenstein mobiles including the 1? surcharge.

CBW is still 14?/minute to call Liechtenstein mobiles but their 800 service is tied to a pin so my call forwarding goes through AT&T..fine and dandy.

Now with O9, well it indeed looks like no voice mail..voice mail is not on the O9 phone menu nor anywhere mentioned on its web site. Yet enlinea only charges 10?/minute and presumably if I keyed my enlinea 800 number to them, I would pay the 10?/minute to forward calls if I made this my prime European roaming phone carrier. But so I figured AT&T on the $1 plan would have a good rate...wrong....they charge 49?/minute to call Iceland with a 15?/minute surcharge to Iceland mobile making it 64?/minute...ouch ouch ouch.

Incidentally o9 functioned pretty well on enlinea out of the UK roaming on both Vodafone UK and Orange (I manually set it to orange as I desire to deprive vodafone of every cent I can). I also used my 15p bundle on O2 to call North America but wasn't there long enough to make it worth my while at least this time to top up with 10 quid to get the 100 free minutes to other UK networks (which included a service Andy gave me to call North America)...my friend got a Mobile World card with the 5p calls to the US...worked okay but was a pain to set up voice mail and wasted a bunch of 15p calls to voice mail (set up now though) and of course the working life time of the card has been increased apparently by reading the fine print to 90 days..also by reading the fine print they de-activate voice mail every 21 days so the plan to call into voice mail to try to get a billable event to step away from the 90 (or is it 60) day rule went down the drain...

In addition was unable to make or receive sms on O9 if that's important again unless I am messing up...so would rate O9 pretty good for calling out as long as enlinea keeps the 10?/minute rate (didn't check cbw) but almost useless for having calls forwarded to it (unless via the 800 enlinea number) and of course the lack of voice mail is a problem.

Arrrghhhh :ranting2:

You mean Papaya CallMe plan?

To top up your last reports - my friend just returned and said it worked fine in the UK and in the Netherlands. I'll be in Mexico soon - we'll see how it does there.