I had a simular problem with Travelsim (+372), but is was solved online by the TravelSIM Shop - Help Desk. Click on LIVE SUPPORT ONLINE.

But, Don't Take them up on Their Offer if you Intend to Use a Callback Service
 

From the Travelsim ordering page:

The use of the Travel Sim card is expected to be a fair balance between free incoming calls and chargeable outgoing calls. Excessive use of free incoming calls will constitute abuse.

Found at: Travel Sim Card - 100% Free Roaming .

BTW, I'm not criticizing the operator for that condition - I assume margins are thin, and I assume from this proviso that the margin is thinner (or perhaps even negative) on free incoming calls.

Things change fast.
 

I just looked and it now says July 20th.

Well,

I understand the reason behind it, however, I very seldom initiate calls (even at home, even more so when roaming), but I do receive calls as people call me from time to time. OK, I can call chargeable numbers just to make my credit go lower but what percentage?

Actually, it would be interesting to know the economics of the incoming calls.

While Travlsim are technically correct when they say they give you a UK mobile number, it is from a special range - 07924. That range has a much higher charge paid to the cell carrier by whoever is delivering the call. Thus, Voipjet (a wholesale VOIP carrier) charges 27 US cents a minute to Travelsim numbers, while only charging 11 cents per minute to Vodafone UK mobile numbers (VoipJet VOIP termination :: IAX (Asterisk) protocol :: Pricing).

Most carriers charge a blended rate (e.g. Betamax carriers), and don't differentiate between the different UK mobile carriers. However, the Voipjet pricelist indicates that the Travelsim carrier is receiving more than the average fee from inbound carriers, regardless of what the customer initiating the call is actually charged.

So, why the limit on inbound calls? Does the fee paid to the Jersey mobile phone operator by the carrier carrying the inbound call not cover the cost of the forwarded call?

The Voipjet pricelist indicates two-thirds of not much at all

I don't think you can make broad assumptions based on the tariffs of just one carrier, especially when they are incompetent enough to also list prices for UK numbers that simply do not even exist, or have revenue-share and premium rate landlines of 5 to 150 pence listed at 1.58 cents

If companies did indeed connect calls at some of the daft tariffs they claim, it might be possible to call anywhere in the world for a couple of cents by judicious use of callthrough providers on mis-tariffs

And I appreciate that geography of the British Isles may not be a strong point at that distance, but you'll find if you check that 07924 is the Isle of Man, not Jersey. Though they are closer together in miles, in proportion to the whole area, that's like me suggesting that Baltimore is on the Gulf of Mexico, or Seattle in California

OK, I'm wrong about the Jersey part (I believe some of the other international SIM carriers were based there, and it's not like Travelsim exactly highlights there location on their website), but my point was that the number is out of the typical range of UK cell numbers. In fact, given that the Isle of Man is not in the EU or the UK, the carriers there are presumably subject to different regulations (e.g., the roaming rules likely do not apply.) External Relations - Isle of Man Government -

I have used Voipjet for years, and they do indeed bill calls at the rates stated. Because they are wholesalers, their rate charts are more detailed - you will note that they charge different amounts for various different mobile carriers in different countries, based on the different charges paid by the carrier. We know that the charges do differ, and as a primarily wholesale carrier they have made a choice not to offer blended rates. As a result of the rates not being blended, their rates to most UK mobiles, for example, are unusually low. I suppose because I have done business with them for years I am assuming that the high rate for the Isle of Man number is based on some reality based to what they pay, and not whim.

I suppose the thing to do would be to look at the rates of another carrier that does not blend rates, but I haven't found one in my quick search.

Does anyone know whether the call rates for the new Easyroam dual-number (US + UK) SIM will be the same as for their existing UK SIM? Higher? Will they extend their offer to exchange a SIM from the (defunct) United Mobile for one of these new dual number SIMs?

Usa/uk sim card
 

The dual UK & USA sim card will have different call & sms rates, plus more free roaming countries. See my profile photo with the new dual sim card.

Anyone else got there dual sim card :p

Are you going to continue to carry and maintain both the UK and the dual (UK/US) sim cards, also what are your plans for current customers like myself, that may want to migrate to the dual sim card?

Adding to My Previous Post....
 

Localphone, which has very good rates to UK mobiles in general, has much higher rates to Jersey and Manx mobiles - 12.3 US cents to ordinary UK mobiles, 28 cents to Jersey mobiles, and 24 cents to Manx Telecom. I suppose it might be a trade secret, but I would be interested in knowing whether the incoming calls are a losing proposition such that Easyroam needs to limit the ratio of incoming calls as their website states they do.

The rates I referred to are here: Cheap Calls to the UK From Only 1.2¢ / 0.9p with Localphone

Localphone untill very recently had the same rate to most uk mobiles (including jersey and MAnx) approximately 0,12 euros/min.
They have very recently changed their tactic, and have also increased their rates to 0844 and 0871 numbers.....

Actually, until yesterday they had the same rates.

Obviously they woke up and found out that they were not paying the same price for Jersey, Manx, etc. as for the standard +44 mobile numbers. Or, they always knew it, and realized that they were losing money by not charging more for those exchanges.

So far, the Betamax carriers are still very cheap to all +44 cell numbers (e.g., Poivy is 7 Euro cents per minute.)

Back to the original topic, Travel Sim's webpage now says the dual-sims will be available "very soon". This launch date keeps getting pushed back further and further. At the moment, I really just want to know if the dual-sims will be available for United Mobile trade-in. Easyroam?

Reduction of the # of free incoming countries and rate increase
 

I saw the following on the easyroam rate page. I checked a number of countries that I am likely to visit, and the rate has increased. Not soo surprised though. It's a very dynamic market and one just to adjust to these changes and use the best sim card for the time and country.

Due to the new E.U call & sms price capping - some countries have been removed as free roaming

Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Isle of man, Jersey, Guernsey, Romania Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland & U.A.E.

I think they're confusing "at most" with "at least" :eek:

GeoSIM is offering UM trade ins for non operational SIMs

U.A.E was removed due to very heavy abuse - E.U call & sms rates have been reduced.

Getting back to the main questions?

All sim cards will stay operational
There are not plans to stop any of the single numbered sim cards.

All new 07924 sim cards will have the new dual numbered technology allowing them to be updated over the air. This will allow us to switch on the USA number and any new numbers that are planed.

As for exchanging old U-M sim cards for the new dual sim. We have no plans at this time to offer the dual sim.
This may change at a later date.

Note that in the current version of the prior post, there is no explanation of the "very heavy abuse" regarding the U.A.E. However, if anyone is interested in what constitutes "very heavy abuse" in the eyes of Easyroam, the original post (before it was modified by the poster) stated:

U.A.E was removed due to very heavy abuse. _All_ inbound call traffic, with no outbound.

(I have a copy of the original post because I received it by email as a subscriber to the thread.)

Ronwi.
I edit most of my new posts all the time.

U.A.E was removed due to very heavy abuse and yes it was due to all inbound call traffic, with no or very little outbound usage. We are not talking about 30 minutes a day, more like 6 hours+ a day.

Any of our customers who abuse the system now get blocked and disconnected. Genuine customers are not affected.

This is why most operators have started charging a daily fee or connection charge and removing countries as free roaming.

Easyroam-

And, I edit mine. I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong in editing your post.

I think it is very good that you don't hide the ball on your signup/order page. You state very clearly that not keeping the proper ratio of incoming/outgoing calls is required, and that not doing so is considered abuse.

However, I wanted to highlight that point, and thought that the fact that you were required to start charging for incoming UAE calls would be interesting to those on this board. I think that that a majority of people, even those on this board, are not aware that a large percentage of incoming calls can be considered abuse. For example, I have read discussions of callback services on this site, and don't recall any discussion that callback was frowned upon by the service provider.

Until I saw the caveat on your site, I had always assumed that the cost of delivering the incoming calls to the customer was covered by the amount paid to the mobile service provider by the carrier that delivered the incoming call. I suspect that most on this site had the same assumption.

I assume that it is competitive forces that cause you to have the free incoming calls. A more transparent pricing model would be to charge a reasonable fee for the incoming calls, which might then allow you to lower the price of the outgoing calls, which presumably are now subsidizing the free incoming calls.

This is exactly what I wondered about when it comes to these global SIMs. They come with a number that costs more than standard numbers to call (though, the numbers they come with are from countries/regions that use the Calling Party Pays model, right?), plus it often costs more to place calls even locally with them, data costs are something I at times find even higher than roaming with my US SIM in plenty of places, so I would expect that _something_ would end up better than at least getting several SIMs and roaming within a few general regions (like a European SIM for roaming within Europe, etc.). Otherwise, wouldn't there be no incentive to buy a global SIM?

I do not see too many of these global sims offering data any longer. They just cannot compete with most of the local sims. Most of the localk sims have better rates for data even while roaming than the rates for the global sims I checked. The UK sims for example, have reasonable data roaming rates, so I do not see anyone in the EU buying these global sims for data. For us on the US side, the data roaming rates, while expensive, are even better than what some of these global sims are charging.

Again, I just do not see how all these global sim companies in this market that continues to dwindle.

I actually wonder about this. What is it that causes such high fluctuations with data roaming prices? Why for instance a UK user could pay as little as £3/MB when roaming outside the EU while a US user pays $10--$20/MB anywhere outside the US & a Canadian about $30/MB? Are users really paying what the operators are being charged by the foreign operator or are they perhaps paying an order or two of magnitude higher? I find it hard to believe for instance that T-Mobile USA charges exactly the same rates when roaming on a T-Mobile sister operator as they do competitors when abroad.

Data rates are not regulated or capped, So the main operators can charge what ever they like.

All this price capping for calls and sms are well and good, If your not in a E.U country calling an other E.U country, Then you will still pay higher charges.

If the likes of Vodafone and other main operators are having there profits cut, They could then add a little more to the cost of data or other roaming services. If your outside of the E.U, then your going to pay more as they can charge what ever they like.

Local sims are always a better option. If you visit a county on a regular basis, then buy a local sim.
If your only going there for short time, You then have to look at the price of the sim card, The cost of call credit and if you don't use your credit, Does the credit expire.

Sim now showing inactive - anyone else
 

Via this offer, I got a sim in the April, and I used it quite a lot in June when I traveled. Now, I tried to check my balance and it's reporting back with callkey.callcontroller.Inactive sim. Also, I can no longer log into the account. I believe the topup policy is once a year or so. So, it should still be valid. Heck, I have not even had the thing for 5 months.

Anyone else having issues? I have emailed easyroam and will report back with their response.


EDIT: Here is the travel life blurb.
Service life
The travel sim card has a fixed service life of 365 days. However to keep your travel sim card working for the following year.
You will need to Top-up / Add credit on to your account. This will keep your number working for the next 365 days.
There is no expiry of call credit.

Response from easyroam.
 

Here is the response: It was a very quick one too...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sim cards that are not used for 30 days go in to standby mode. Just give us a call or send a email to reactivate your card.

Call credit no longer expire. You will need to top-up/Add credit at least once a year.

Your sim card is now working.


UK Customer Services

easyroam - 100% Free roaming - No Daily Fee - No connetion charge !

Bossman.
Are you happy with our customer service response?

Call credit do not expire anymore. You will need to top-up/Add credit at least once a year.

Absolutely!

good to know I have one of their sim, not long ago.

But it really sucks that the card has to be reactivated and you have to take action to do this. Lot of customers don't read this forum and if they not use their sim and want to use they find themselfs somewhere in europe and the sim is not working. How should they know it has to be reactivated.

Why is this not mentioned on your website, I could not find it or is it hidden in some small print ?

Might the reason be saving cost and deactivation means you will not have to pay charges to keep the sim active ?

Why don't you announce these new rules so customers that do check the website will know.
I had the same problem with your new terms that all of a sudden uses fair use, also hidden in the terms but fair use does make a lot of difference.

Knowing this 1 month limitation, fair use and not mentioning this does give me the impression that what used to be a great service is now going down the drain by limiting it's use.


just checked your website and I read this:

No expiry time for the sim card & call credit.
We do not charge a $20 yearly network fee
unlike other operators.

above you are saying Call credit do not expire anymore. You will need to top-up/Add credit at least once a year.

your above answer and text on the website do not match. On the website you do not mention a top up once a year.

Please change your website to reflect what the costs really are, that you disable the sim after 1 month non use and that it need reactivation that is free. Don't you think that this should be part of the information you give to customers ?

I agree. easyroam should mention this very important information on their website. Most folks will not be aware of it otherwise. I found out only because I was about to loan my sim to someone traveling in October. Since it will not be used till then, I will have to call/email easyroam again to activate it. Very inconvenient to say the least.

Am am wondering if this is also done by other companies or only by easyroam.

They do answer questions fast but things change in policy and not informating your customers is not very positive and many non frequent users will wonder why their sim is not working when not used for 30 days.

This new rul makes easyroams sim not very attractive for non frequent users and combined with fair use makes it even less attractive.

What's really disappointing is that the supplier we are talking about here is reading this forum daily but looks like he does not want to respond about the point that we made.

His customer service answers that are fast but not here it looks like ;-)

At a minimum, easyroam should mention this very important information on their website. Yes, you may have valid reasons for doing it, just mention it on your website. It will likely make some think twice before purchasing your sim. But, you need to mention it, period!

bossman your last point will be the big point. If they mention fair use and deactivation after 30 days on their website not hidden in the terms it will make some customers think twice buying this sim.

The fair use is hidden in the terms so if you look but who does, you will find it. The 30 day deativation is new for me and I did not see it on their site.

As you say whatever these reason are mention them but even here on the forum it seems that they are not willing to give an answer on why and why they hide it.

I have always supported their sim but given the fairuse and deactivation I can't support it any longer.

I've sent my um+ to Poland, I'm waiting for a new Travelsim. How many days does it take the sim to arrive?

I did it with my UM 423 (Riiing) SIM and it took about 1 week within the same country (I live about 180 km away from Mr. Wosztyl's office :-)).

In Poland it's better, but some of my friends have waited for 1 month (in Italy)