KnowRoaming
 

I pass on this new website without any opinion:

https://www.knowroaming.com

It's been a recent topic on HoFo. Seems that you apply a SIM "sticker" on the bottom of your regular SIM and when you are outside your home country or network it takes over as a multi-IMSI roaming SIM. Strange concept to me. I'd need to know a lot more details on how, when and where it takes over. IMHO, it's just too easy to swap SIMs on the plane before you land. No real need for this product.

I have to agree with you. As soon as we are airborne I switch sims to the country I am going to. If I don't have a local sim I drop in my UK sim card.

http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/10/11/kn...e-sim-sticker/
http://www.howardforums.com/content....oesn-t-Know-Me

Where I think Knowroaming's technology would be helpful would be in a cross-border situation where you cross the border regularly. For example, the US/Canadian border. There are places around the border where you really have to cut through the other country to get where you want to go. For example, imagine if you lived in Windsor, Ontario and worked in Sarnia, Ontario. Cutting through the US, your commute time is a little over an hour. Staying in Canada, your commute time is like 2.5 hours. I can give you tons of examples both ways.

I was in a border community in upstate Washington where we wound up crossing the border five times in one day and it was so common that Customs was used to it. Because of a really screwy border arrangement, even the US mail went through Canada to get delivered.

I have a Jewish friend in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan who sends her son to religious school in Sault Canada and drops him off/picks him up three times a week in another country. SIM swapping probably isn't a great option for a soccer mom with a minivan full of kids. I helped her with a dual SIM phone, but TMobile's new plan would be perfect for her (if TMobile had native coverage in her area).

When I lived in the UAE we had an open border with Oman (which has been somewhat closed in the intervening years). There were a number of routes that we took where we cut through the other country to get to our destination. If you went from Dubai to Hatta on Emirates 44 you drove for thirty miles through Oman to get to your destination. We had Omani enclaves with UAE exclaves in their enclaves. Having a seamless solution would make perfect sense in both cases where the roaming deals aren't very good.

In both situations, it is not where you can easily swap sims, reprogram call forwarding back and forth, as you do it. Canadian/US roaming is somewhat better than the UAE/Omani deals, but Canadians get hosed by their carriers. On the US side, we can get Canadian packages with Verizon and ATT, but voice, data, and text packages are all separate and you'll wind up spending $50 extra per phone (per month) if you go that way.

Just dropped in to this thread, as a friend asked me about it (he doesn't understand english) .

After reading this thread and the linked pages the main question is stil unanswered for me. Which countries and Networks will "knowroaming" use for their ownIMSI or multi IMSIs?
How stable will this solution be?
(especially "new" or "Island-based" carriers have Problems with routing and accessibility, we remember Isle of Man SIMs or "new" british area/Network prefix codes etc.

Which number will you get for this SIM and what does your conventional carrier charge you for call forwarding to this number?

KnowRoaming is now open to the general public.

Reduce Roaming Fees with KnowRoaming

Canadian startup to offer technology aimed at cutting roaming rates

KnowRoaming sticker SIMs can now help more people avoid roaming charges

From what I can tell it's $30 for the SIM sticker and then fixed costs for voice calls, SMS, data, etc. It seems like a reasonable option for people who stay in a country for short periods that don't justify the cost and hassle of getting a local SIM card. The convenience of not needing to swap SIMs is a great feature. Also "Balance Expires after 15 months of no activity."

Hello,

Do I understand it right, you fix a sticker on your existing SIM-Card.
This "piggypack" would be a little bit "thicker" than the original SIM-Card. How Do you insert this in state of the art smartphones with Micro or Nano-SIM-Cards?

e.g. Apple denies any warranty, if the SIM-card-holder is damaged by home designed or Piggy-Pack SIM-cards.

Indeed it's a sticker that intercepts electrical signals before they go to the regular SIM. If you're in your "home" country it passes everything through. Otherwise it "takes over" and functions as a second SIM.

Knowroaming claims that this sticker will fit over regular, micro and nano SIMs. They also claim that their latest sticker is 30% thinner than previous versions and was designed to fit into SIM card holders and frames. (See KnowRoaming announces unlimited data plans in 55 countries, 30% thinner sticker.)

I don't have any trips planned outside Canada for the rest of the year so I'm in no hurry to buy and test their SIM. But unless I see bad reviews I intend to buy one next year.

Hello again,

I've got one.

Its really thin like a sticker and is "pressed" with an included Kit on the existing SIM card.

I plugged it very carefully in the slot of and low cost Android (4.2.2) device and it fit. But be very careful!

You can activate the SIM-Package by a onboard SIM Tool Kit Application - even with a pre Smartphone-aera Phone - plus an app available for Android or iOS or via the web.

After registering it, I've got to international numbers for it

+44 7418 5xxxxx which belongs to Telecoms North America Mobile (says british OFCOM)

+1 304 275 xxxx

Both numbers cannot be reached from Germany. (Tested various Carriers and networks)

So I contacted the support.

They told me to top it up (minimum 25 US$), but numbers remain unavailable.

Support advised me to change manually from "Home SIM" to "Germany".
The SIM-Cards changes its name from "E-Plus" (this is my home sime, to be exact "Simyo") to "260060".

If I understand it right 260-06(0) is the Network Code of Poland "Play/P4" a 3G-only Provider with national roaming with 2G networks inside of Poland.

If switched in the "Play" mode, my Phone sees 4 german networks (Telekom D1, Vodafone D2, E-Plus, o2) but no network allows me to enter it.

I'm not sure, if "Play" has full roaming agreements in Germany or if there is problem in the HLR /"Switch" of Play in Poland or Knowroaming in CDN or if german networks alltogether do not want this creative idea.

Or I have really to login in a foreign network (to france it would be 100 kms from here) before the SIM cards get active? I could check this out earliest at weekend.

sounds very much that this solution is not yet mature enough to be sold to non-tech users...

Hello,

maybe there some children-disease ("Kinderkrankheiten") problems, but the main principle is allways the same.

You need a small (GSM)-SIM-Provider who needs more traffic in his networks and gives you affordable rates. This Provider could not have the necessary good interconnections like a T1 Carrier like BT, DT, FT etc.

You need a numbering provider in let's say the UK, there are a lot of it, as Ofcom gives numbering codes to all companies who whant numbers.Then you need interconnect regime (routing, tariffs etc.) to those "unknown" numbers.
If the mainstream providers do not know the exat destination or the tariff is not convenient... they don't connect or route to Nirvana.

Remember the "good old days" of United Mobile. They lived of very high interconnection tariffs to +421 663 ("Premium Rate"). But one day these tariffs were reduced... The rest is history.

Yes the principle is always the same, and always has some drawbacks as too many parties are involved.
Only for outside EU travel these contructions might still have a sense, within Europe fortunately there are much more reliable solutions for affordable prices.

Their web site says: "The sticker is dormant while at home".
Maybe you should try it with your Swisscom SIM. Then you are not at home ;)

I don't see any good reason for using this offer inside EU/EWR/Switzerland. E+/O2 roaming offerings exist (Aldi, Blau, Ortel, Lidl,...) that give much lower voice tariffs and good number reachability. Data tariffs are much too high for any serious use. About 35 Euros for 7 day trip. Ortel gives 750 MB plus 300 Munutes for 20 Euros per 30 days. 31 countries incl. Germany. Outside of these countries KnowRoaming could have some advantage.

Peter Support showed me to switch to the 260060 Identity.

The question of Tariff/Usage inside the EU is another topic.

At this time the Sticker technology looks interesting for me :-)

Any body knows the roaming agreements of the network operator/provider "Play" and has own experience?

This is their roaming list:
http://www.play.pl/resources/pdf/Lista_krajow.pdf

tak means YES. nie is NO. The last two columns are Voice and Data respectively.

They could however have totally different limitations for KnowRoaming customers. Just like Toggle Mobile while using Vodafone NL IMSI does not always allow to use all networks that Vodafone customers are allowed to use.

Hello again,

today for the first time the 260-060 SIM logged in to Vodafone.de

If I start a call from the Know-Roaming "Play" SIM my calledparty sees my english +44 7148 5 xxxxxx Number.

The outgoing call is made as "callback", i.e. I dial normally and then get an "End of Call" and "starting USSD Procedure".
After 2-3 seconds I get the Callback showing me the dialled number as caller id.

Speech is very clear but has a delay of lets say half a second, if both parties in the same room, which normally never would be the case :-)

If I call the UK or the US number from another phone, I will be transferred to the E-Plus-Mailbox as the E-Plus SIM is offline at this time.

I think I have to find out all the configuration details to get it working at least :-)

After more testing, the Kwowroaming Sticker told me "invalid SIM" and so I fiddled it out of my DUAL-SIM Androide and checked it with another Mobile Phone (good old original Nokia) same error. So I had to peel of the Sticker, the original SIM (Simyo) works fine.

I've informed KnowRoaming about my experiences. I'll keep you informed.

N.B. From the technological aspect, the idea of the sticker is
smart, but you have to be very careful not to damage the SIM-card Slot of your phone.

If this kind of SIM-card is useful or necessary for Europeans with european tariff-regime is another story - it still could be interesting for roaming around the world or far away at Russia, China, Americas (North/South), Australia etc. if you do not want to buy a local SIM card. But thats is another story.

Hmm, knowroaming? Haven't heard of this :/

Relatively New Operator. See www.knowroaming.com for details.


73 & 55 Henning
Gesendet von meinem iPhone 4 mit Tapatalk

Hmm, yes. Some older phones have an arrangement where the SIM loads in flat and a thin metal or plastic clamp swings round on to it, but most I've seen recently have it loaded edgeways in a tight slot.

I might use my old Nokia 6120 or 3120 if I decide to get one of these.

Hello,

sorry for interruption

just received the Message, Maxroam (not knowroaming) will stop their service from September, 10th, 2018.

sorry Again.