PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post - Cheapest sms with an international sim card?

kctopitz · 18-09-2008, 16:57

Great thread here: If you really want cheap international SMS, either while roaming abroad or from your home country to a friend abroad, you need to use GPRS data and one of the mentioned services.

Like Andy, I too was a Vyke proponent until their recent changes. The move to a Java client means that you can no longer select the recipient from your phone's contact list, and now have to enter the number from memory. (Who wants to do that each time they send an SMS?) 6 US cents per SMS is still competitive though. I've switched to using their service with the goText client instead of the native Vyke client because with goText you can store contacts (though you still have to manually enter them in).

You can get a €1 free trial credit per phone number with Vyke, depending on where the number is based, which can be handy for short travel and experimenting. They don't accept US mobile numbers and they won't take US credit cards to add credit. You can have a friend with a European credit card pay to top up your account, but expect a lot of hassle: they made me fax in copies of my friend's credit card, his ID and my ID for security verification.

I also use Voipcheap (one of the many rebranded Betamax VoIP services) with the goText Java client, simply because I have an account with them. Here's a pricelist for the range of Betamax services. Note that the rates of these services tend to change often, sometimes drastically. Some offer free SMS to certain countries, but there's a limit on this in the fine print and only applies to SMS sent from their PC VoIP client and doesn't apply to SMS sent using goText.

You can also supposedly use Wadja with goText, which would allow free SMS (minus your GPRS data charges). I haven't had success with it from goText, but I haven't played with it much. If an SMS does go through, you can expect it to be limited to something like 80 characters with a Wadja endorsement at the end. At least, that's how the free SMS sent from their website show up. WARNING to US users: I sent a test SMS to my US mobile from the Wadja website, and it ended up sending the message over 20 times (at a cost of $.05 per SMS received). I didn't have this problem with test messages to my Germany mobile, though it's not as big of a concern in Europe where incoming SMS are free anyway.

So far it looks as if a UK prepaid SIM at £.005/1kb ($.009/1kb) combined with FishText may be the best deal, though obviously it depends where you're going and what country you'll be sending SMS to.

	(#14)
kctopitz (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 94 Join Date: 05 Jan 2008 Country:	18-09-2008, 16:57 Great thread here: If you really want cheap international SMS, either while roaming abroad or from your home country to a friend abroad, you need to use GPRS data and one of the mentioned services. Like Andy, I too was a Vyke proponent until their recent changes. The move to a Java client means that you can no longer select the recipient from your phone's contact list, and now have to enter the number from memory. (Who wants to do that each time they send an SMS?) 6 US cents per SMS is still competitive though. I've switched to using their service with the goText client instead of the native Vyke client because with goText you can store contacts (though you still have to manually enter them in). You can get a €1 free trial credit per phone number with Vyke, depending on where the number is based, which can be handy for short travel and experimenting. They don't accept US mobile numbers and they won't take US credit cards to add credit. You can have a friend with a European credit card pay to top up your account, but expect a lot of hassle: they made me fax in copies of my friend's credit card, his ID and my ID for security verification. I also use Voipcheap (one of the many rebranded Betamax VoIP services) with the goText Java client, simply because I have an account with them. Here's a pricelist for the range of Betamax services. Note that the rates of these services tend to change often, sometimes drastically. Some offer free SMS to certain countries, but there's a limit on this in the fine print and only applies to SMS sent from their PC VoIP client and doesn't apply to SMS sent using goText. You can also supposedly use Wadja with goText, which would allow free SMS (minus your GPRS data charges). I haven't had success with it from goText, but I haven't played with it much. If an SMS does go through, you can expect it to be limited to something like 80 characters with a Wadja endorsement at the end. At least, that's how the free SMS sent from their website show up. WARNING to US users: I sent a test SMS to my US mobile from the Wadja website, and it ended up sending the message over 20 times (at a cost of $.05 per SMS received). I didn't have this problem with test messages to my Germany mobile, though it's not as big of a concern in Europe where incoming SMS are free anyway. So far it looks as if a UK prepaid SIM at £.005/1kb ($.009/1kb) combined with FishText may be the best deal, though obviously it depends where you're going and what country you'll be sending SMS to.