Hi all. What a great site! I'm hoping someone can help me clarify some of the things I'm starting to learn here and help me figure out the best choice for my situation - can you help?

I will be traveling in the Czech Rep and Germany for about 3 weeks starting next month. I need cellular service where I can be reached by callers from the US and I need to call out to US phone numbers (landlines and cell). I would like to be responsible for the charges when US callers call me.

From what I am gathering, it seems like I need a UM or Call Blue SIM AND I need a service like CallBackWorld...? The SIM so that I can have cell service and free incoming calls; CBW so that I can make less expensive calls to the US using callback and I was considering getting a direct US 800# from them for US callers' ease of reaching me.

The reason I am confused is because it seems that the UM & Call Blue service indicates that they use Call Back - so do I NOT need CBW? Should I just buy a SIM in Czech when I get there (my 1st stop) since I will be using CBW anyway? Or do I still need the Int'l roaming through UM/Call Blue, etc? If these questions don't make sense, then you see how confused I am...

The vendors I mentioned above are optional - if you have a better suggestion for my situation, please feel free to suggest...

TIA!

Rockhead

In its naitive format, united mobile uses a callback system to achieve its cheap rates for international calling, cheap in comparison to other rates...

With united mobile, using callbackworld involves a double callback..you ring the trigger number via a callback and wait for the 2nd callback....it works fine although you might feel it's inconvenient.

If you get a Czech prepaid, you can still use cbw but it will be with only a single callback..namely you dial the trigger number directly, get the ring tone and then wait for the callback but the catch is your outgoing rate will be far higher...what makes cbw the perfect complement to united mobile is the low rate for calls say to the USA...also I don't know if you set a Czech prepaid up with English voice menus while you can with united mobile.

So, its sounds like the way to go IS to get both UM/CallBlue SIM and CBW? I'm looking for the most cost effective solution - not too worried about having to dial extra numbers, etc - as long as it works.

Thanks

I also suggest a VOIP service called VoiceStick.com. They give you a local virtual number that you can forward anywhere in the world at mostly good rates. If you use local prepaid SIMs this can give you a virtual presence in the US (or UK). Which may not be a good thing if callers don't know your real time zone. You also get vociemail and VOIP service that you can use with WiFi hot spots if you have access to one.

You wrote that you would like to pick up all the charges. How many parties will be calling YOU?

I have a UM card and have asked family, friends and work to leave voice mail messages on my work or home line. I intend to check those messages every day or so and return any calls.

With CBW you can also set up up to 3 lines; so if you have a UM card, you will have 2 other CBW #s. Your two friends or family members can then call your UM # for 14 cents / minute. You will have full visibility of the numbers they call.

Also, you will receive a PIN2DEST PIN which you can give out to friends or whatever. They can also call you at your expense for 14 cents / minute.

There is some risk in this that they would abuse your trust and run up exhorbitant phone bills.

Stan

Thanks for the tips.

I will mostly be having business contacts call me. Maybe a handful call regularly. As far as paying the charges, I was planning to give business contacts a CBW dedicated 800#. I figure they can't abuse it if I don't answer - I'll control the phone bill by how often I pick it up. The only problem is that I understand caller ID doesn't work (is that correct??) which would make it difficult to know when to pick up/when not.

You mentioned voicemail. I am wondering how to overcome that problem. I want people to be able to reach me if needed - but if I can't answer, I don't want them to leave a message on the UM/CallBlue GSM phone because its expensive to get voicemail (right?). I'm guessing the solution is to leave a greeting on the GSM phone that says, 'call my regular phone and leave your message there' type of thing. Anybody have a better solution/idea on making that a cleaner process for callers (maybe with call forwarding or something)?

Can anyone tell me how the SMS works? How do US contacts send SMS messages to a GSM phone? In effect, what phone #/address to they send it to? And how do I address/send SMS to a US phone from abroad?

I don't know about call blue, but as for riiing/UM:

You are correct, callerID will not show if they are calling you throught the 800#. I believe you can disable the VM/call divert by dialing 066. It's enabled by default.

As for SMS, just navigate to sending SMS on the phone, and then either choose or enter the number by preceeding it with a +(Int'l dialing code) and the country code. It's best to store all the numbers on the phone in this format anyway. So, to call/SMS UK it will be +44number, US will be +1555112222

The phone's manual will give you more info regarding sending SMS.

Bossman - thanks for the info. I've ordered CBW and I'm putting in orders for the GSM card and a phone today. This site and forum have been a huge help so far in figuring out how this all works.

voicestick was a very valuable hint for me :)
They offer numbers from the area code where my girlfriend will be in the US - so local calls to me...

And they have quite nice rates for our main destinations.
germany 0.99 us-cent and bangkok 2 us-cent.

Voice quality was excellent in the first tries - and 5$ starting balance is free.

thanks.
Chris

Can someone please explain how to use the voicestick service (i2bridge function);

Can I forward all calls received to this number to a regular phone;