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Originally Posted by DRNewcomb
The problem is that it is already drying up. The competition is on and travelers are finding ways around sky-high roaming costs. The question is, "Do the carriers want to keep a small profit and keep the roaming business or give the entire business to companies like UM & 09?"
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Once again, UM/09/Callkey incarnations and whatever you want can't push "regular" roaming services out of business because of several reasons:
1) Expensive starter packs
2) Handset compatibility issues
3) Due to sophisticated callback techniques used, limited access to SIM/phone number lists
4) Being available on a foreign (to most potential callers) number (or at least "semi-foreign" in case of UK->IoM calls)
5) Necessity of unlocking the handset
The disadvantages below are valid for some SIMs only
6) Possible problems with topping up when out of credit - not each of them allows to charge a credit directly from the phone
7) No caller ID
No data transfer
9) No voicemail
I'm almost sure that I forgot something but I feel justified - it's late here
Half OT. I can tell you a few words about reactions on releasing Riiing on the Polish GSM
newsgroups (I recall that Poland is a poor CPP country where roaming rates offered from local operators, especially for incoming calls are considered much too high). Of course there were many enthusiasts who were happy for CPP in roaming. But some opinions were like those: "calling to Liechtenstein is so expensive so who will call me at all?" or "the SIM is too expensive - no real savings"