[snaimon]

Sorry, but I do not see much of an advantage on their RATES v an international card like Travelsim (Estonia). True, no call setup fee. True, you don't have the expense of buying a new sim and having a new # from another country. True, the rates might be better than EU roaming rates and direct dial rates from your mobiles.

Please explain the advantages you see with hiboo.

Germany has several interesting prepaid offers that allow decent EU roaming an foreign calling (solomo, sunsim and maybe more) via callback.

I must plead ignorance with dialing in FR. Sorry. It seems that mobile calling with FR is fairly expensive v Germany and Austria (< 10 ecents per minute there). I believe your carriers offer "specials" of various sorts to make calling cheaper at SELECTED times/days etc.

Within Germany one can call most 800 (toll free) numbers without incurring a charge against the prepaid balance. Then using a prepaid card (Telkom or others -- I use ATT or MCI, both of which have 800 service in Germany), I can place calls back to US or actually anywhere for a reasonable price.

Is it the same in FR?

Better yet there are prepaid services (Enjoyprepaid) which maintain local #s in Germany and other places (FR, too). Sunsim charges 8 ecents per minute to reach a landline within Germany and I pay 1.9 US cents per minute to call the US.

I would also suggest you look at MOBIVOX, for which you can signup and test for free. They also have SMS callback and 11 local and 1 national access numbers in FR. The SMS callback is a bit more expensive that direct dial (you are charged for both legs of the call, like to you FR mobile).

Hope this helps,

Stan