About to use a Truphone SIM
 

Between UMA and unlimited email, I've managed without prepaid or an "international" card for the past couple years. I would have bought an abroadband data card, if they didn't restrict sales to EU addresses. I didn't want to take a chance with them sending it to a hotel in Spain - and miss the delivery for one reason or another.
That said, thanks to a member here for posting an alert, I bot a new dumbphone with a Truphone SIM with $15 credit on it for about $23 on Ebay. Truphone is NOT cheap. 51 cents for calling within most countries and 86 cents to call U.S. The latter is no savings at all! Incoming is 21 cents. (These seem to be the rates in most first world countries.) You get a U.S. number. (Can get UK or Aussie as well.) I'll be using it for a couple weeks in Spain and Portugal - for making local calls IF necessary when not near wifi.
The only advantage of Truphone seems to be if you are traveling to U.S., UK, or Australia. They call those "Tru Countries". For a $15/mo fee you can make local calls for about 20 cents/min. Incoming about the same. They say they are adding 6-12 more "home countries" in the next 18 months.

...mike
Before abroadband came on the scene, Truphone seemed to have the best data rates. $2.17/mb.

I'll

If you buy the Tru SIM in the USA, you'll get local rates in USA for free.
And in a couple of months they're going to make available their service in Spain. I've read on their forum that Spain will be a Tru country by April...

That's 2 weeks too late for us. Will be there next week. I know France is on their list to do as well - but it will probably be after we will be there in June.
Obviously I don't need to use them here<G>. Also, to get "local" rates, you have to pay a $15/mo. fee. I mainly got this for insurance just in case the need ever arises to make calls when not on wifi.

...mike
Tux - Thanks, again for your review of abroadband. I wish I could have bought that. They did do a post a response to me on Facebook stating they are new and, for now, just ship to a few countries.
Tru does have killer data rates in their "home" countries. As Tru expands, they would give abroadband serious competition.

I think that Tru compensate their low rates with the monthly fee :)

sweet spot
 

While this is undoubtably true, For some people it will be more convenient and if the 'right' countries are membership when one travels, it could be the best solution currently available for them. The online interface makes it easy to add the membership when you need it and let it lapse when you don't. And local phone numbers [charged monthly] might be something some will find useful.

rates/min. vary but not sure why
 

I've left AT&T and ported my cell phone # to my Truphone SIM. I live in the US and when I use it to call people in the US it seems the rate per minute can vary. The Truphone website does not seem to say anything about this, unless I'm missing something. I've been roaming on T-Mobile.

I also notice that one gets charged (phone off or not) for at least 1 min if the caller hits the VM. So may be a good idea to deactivate VM.

voice mail left charged?
 

I see the voicemails are left in the online accounting of things, but have never seen a charge for leaving a voicemail. Retreiving is another matter. Are you sure?

half minute charged, and then by the second.
 

They seem to charge a minimum of 30 seconds for a call [=9cent charge] and then per second afterword. So you will have calls less than a minute charged between 9 and 17 cents. This is actually a good thing.

Yes. I am certain. Actually I think I get charged even if VM is not left. I have never answered a call on my sim. I believe some people have my number mixed up with someone else's, so I have got a number of VM and got dinged $0.21 for for each.


15712xxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 31/03/2011 11:50:25 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 157xxxxxx
15712xxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 31/03/2011 11:50:09 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 157xxxxxx
1312xxxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 29/03/2011 14:24:43 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 131xxxxxx
1312xxxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 29/03/2011 13:48:17 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 131xxxxxx
1773xxxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 25/03/2011 21:41:31 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 177xxxxxx
1901xxxxxxx 1312xxxxxx 24/03/2011 20:15:52 00:00:30 0.21 Received from 1901xxxxxx