[andy]

I think it will be more popular in America, where people are used to the idea that calling mobiles is the same cost as landlines. Other places, where people have contract mobiles with inclusive minutes, it doesn't matter as much that they call a mobile.

The advantage of Maxroam and its similar predecessors is having the possibility to add landlines in the places you visit, if you'll expect loads of incoming calls from there. Frequent or long stay visitors or groups will get a local SIM though, so that will be the dilemma, how much use is expected.

But without getting too complicated and subscribing to loads of DIDs, pbxes etc, there are possibilities like Sipbroker/Voxalot, which means people can set up one VoIP call forward to themselves, then others can reach them via local landlines in 25 countries, eg in France 01(Paris)p*010xxxxxx like a simple callthrough (similar in effect to CBW pin2dest), and costing me a few cents a minute.

That's why I think that Maxroam isn't yet what it suggests, a disruptive approach that has broken through to achieving local calls at local rate; it's still roaming at roaming rates.

This week a product has launched in the UK with inclusive minutes packages for international calls. If that becomes popular and spreads, then perhaps ringing visitors roaming in one's own country or friends on a foreign SIM on their holidays won't be a big deal. And the minutes are free! Don't throw away the Liechtenstein SIM.