global sim advice please
 

Hi PrepaidGSM members,

I have been going round and round in circles for a week now trying to find a good global sim to suit me... but alas, nothing yet. The whole concept of making/receiving calls abroad seems needlessly complicated... or maybe it's just me?!

Anywho...i went travelling last year to central/south america and bought local sim cards - fantastic option and worked really well. however, during my time there i had a very serious problem (wont go into details) and suffice to say my family were very worried. i agreed to take a global sim on all future travels to ensure i was always contactable to keep their nerves at ease.

i basically need a global sim which operates in all the south america countries (and as many others as possible) and offers free received calls. i dont intend on making outgoing calls/data, just simply for receiving.

i found travelsim - TravelSIM - cheap international calls in 192 countries
but doesnt offer free calls to Brazil, is there anything better? any suggestions/warnings?

many thanks,

infamous

If you've investigated international SIMs and don't find a SIM that gives you free incoming calls in Brazil it may mean that it doesn't exist. Your alternative may then be to get an international SIM which provides service but not free incoming or get a local SIM in each country and just keep those people who need to know what your number is either by calling them, sending them a text message or an email with your current number.

zeromobile has free incoming calls in Brasil
http://www.zeromobile.it/it/rates/compare?type=privati

If you have skype on your phone you can get a online number that your family can call you on. You can have it forward to your cell phone in any country, or they can call you free if you both have skype on your computer.

Kall8 is another option. You get a toll free number for the UK and forward to any phone in the world. I have used this for Dubai, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the UK. Calls to mobiles can be expensive so you might want to see what total cost is before you buy.

IF you have a Blackberry, you might be able to get a plan that allows you to recv./send unlimited emails in all the countries you mentioned (and most lst and 2nd world countries) for very few pounds. Carriers in the U.S. and other countries offer such plans.
That's not what you asked<G>.
The Skype suggestion is good. That would entail you getting a prepaid in each country to receive calls and using a computer to reprogram the Skype fwd. to number.

I have the Ekit Simple calling sim card that I bought on ebay a while back and it supposedly offers free incoming calls in Brazil (and a lot of other countries) as long as it's called on the UK number. Calls can also be received on the USA number

http://www.ekit.com/ekit/MobileInfo/.../ekusplus_dual

I agree with "Telekom": if possible (and you said you already did this) just buy local cards and communicate the number to somebody "home". It is usually the cheapest option by far (especially if you need local calls or data as well) and also one of the most reliable (as opposed to the "global sims" which usually don't work just when you need them the most).

Having lost a few hundred dollars in credit over the years when various global prepaids (e.g. EasyRoam, UM, 09) were discontinued, went bankrupt, expired, etc. I've also come to question the advisability of investing in prepaid roaming solutions. I now have my local SIMs plus the TelnaMobile and Mobal SIMs, both of which are postpaid with only a small annual outlay. Of course, I'm also not traveling nearly as much as I used to.

Indeed, the combination of a travel-SIM and a postpaid-SIM of your own country or a reliable operator prooved to be the most reliable solution.
We usually travel with a german Vodafone contract and either airbalticcard or local SIm cards. In any case of failure or difficulty we can still rely that the vodafone card will work (for tremendous costs but...).

Chris

Like most others here I've lost a good few $$$$ on European SIM cards...

Now I just grab a local country SIM card and, if I'm not planning another visit in 12 months, sell the SIM card on eBay - there's a ready market on the UK eBay site...

I also use the Skype WiFi Connect service - costs about 10 cents a minute on most public networks around the world and allows outbound calls to most destinations for peanuts...

Hope this info helps... Steve :)

PS - if anyone wants UK SIM cards, just ask... :)