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MATHA531 · 25-05-2006, 08:54

Last year I bought a vodafone DE sim card and actually inserted it for the first time while I was in the US and it seemed to be active from the moment it went into the phone...no special activation was necessary....I exchanged e mails with them to set the voice prompts (as opposed simply the phone) to English so the phone could be active in France from the moment you get off the plane.

Vodafone DE also is participating in Vodafone Passport (although they use a long German word instead of passport starting with an R)...I was able to activate it from the USA by figuring out from the web site (even though I don't speak a word of German) how to do it...nice thing about Vodafone passport is that you simply pay at 0,75? surcharge (not per minute) on receiving calls so if somebody calls you on the Vodafone DE sim while you are in France and you speak for 20 minutes you only pay 0,75? for the entire call! Calls to Germany while in France are billed at local German rates (with the 0,75? surcharge)...now the Italian web site for Vodafone IT says vodafone passport is scheduled to end on June 1, don't know if that's a local Italian decision or throughout the vodafone system but you can check with them....also you have to be roaming in France on SFR and SFR only to get the vodafone passport rate...but the nice thing is you can top up while in France using SFR vouchers (one of the reasons I desperately needed and got the English voice prompts)

As far as callback world here is how it works. They give you a US direct dial number which you dial in the usual manner (if on say UM that would mean via a callback, you know you dial the number, get a message call barred or something like that and then get a callback)...anyway upon dialing the US number it rings...let it ring once or twice and you hang up. No charge from your sim as the call has not been completed...second later the computer calls you back on the number it is keyed to, in this case your international sim, and you hear a pleasant female voice saying to enter the number you are calling followed by the number sign key(#) now and voila the call goes through. Remember at this point you are receiving presumably in a no roaming zone so there is no charge from the sim. If you are using callback world on united mobile, at present, the charge is 14? US billed in 6 second increments not raised to the highest minute. It is our hope here that unlike others (such as enlinea) this rate will hold...as you are probably aware of many companies have dramatically raised rate to Liechtenstein mobiles for what reason nobody knows (but of course we can all guess)...also callbackworld will give you for free something called pin2dest where they give you a US toll free number which you or any of your friends can dial and then you enter a pin and the call goes through to the mobile it is keyed to (presumably United Mobile) at the stated rate (14?/minute billed in 6 second intervals).

For the most part, at least for me, it has worked well recently but others have reported sporadic problems with united mobile...other international cards like those in the Isle of Man also are possibilities although callback world rates to UK numbers is in the vicinity of 30?/minute but calls to UK mobiles are, of course, probably more likely to be trouble free...then there's O9 in Iceland where enlinea (a competitor of callbackworld) is only charging 10?/minute.

Another problem that has popped up with any of the callback services is sometimes the callback comes so quickly before the system has had a chance to reset the callback is never heard by you but goes into voicemail; CBW has worked to alleviate this problem by delaying the callback and for the most part it works fine on UM; O9 has had this problem on enlinea....a way around this is to trigger the callback with another phone...even if you are roaming say on T Mobile US or Cingular, so what, the triggering call is never completed so youdon't have to pay their absurd roaming charges.

Finally, for some weird reason, even though most of the ld carriers at least in the US have dramatically increased their charges to Liechtenstein mobiles (if the call goes through at all), AT&T on its $1/month international plan, still only charges 11?/minute to call Liechtenstein mobiles and service has been excellent and AT&T connections are very reliable and clear....so, for example, if you are interested in call forwarding to a United Mobile sim from your US landline, if AT&T is your ld carrier, it can be set up. I know my US landline provider is Verizon which does allow international call forwarding (via AT&T) and even allows me to set it up remotely so when I am in Europe, I can have calls forwarded to me from my home US number to my UM mobile for only 11?/minute.

Do remember the situation right now is very much in disorder as the eu is poking its nose into international romaing within Europe and to try to keep from having international roaming rates dismantled completely, companies are rushing out new plans almost daily to try to show how much better the free market of ripping people off is better than eu regulation.

By next summer, there is a chance, there will be no roaming charges at all by European carriers while anyplace in Europe so keep in touch.

	(#9)
MATHA531 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Specialist Posts: 869 Join Date: 15 Oct 2004 Country:	25-05-2006, 08:54 Last year I bought a vodafone DE sim card and actually inserted it for the first time while I was in the US and it seemed to be active from the moment it went into the phone...no special activation was necessary....I exchanged e mails with them to set the voice prompts (as opposed simply the phone) to English so the phone could be active in France from the moment you get off the plane. Vodafone DE also is participating in Vodafone Passport (although they use a long German word instead of passport starting with an R)...I was able to activate it from the USA by figuring out from the web site (even though I don't speak a word of German) how to do it...nice thing about Vodafone passport is that you simply pay at 0,75? surcharge (not per minute) on receiving calls so if somebody calls you on the Vodafone DE sim while you are in France and you speak for 20 minutes you only pay 0,75? for the entire call! Calls to Germany while in France are billed at local German rates (with the 0,75? surcharge)...now the Italian web site for Vodafone IT says vodafone passport is scheduled to end on June 1, don't know if that's a local Italian decision or throughout the vodafone system but you can check with them....also you have to be roaming in France on SFR and SFR only to get the vodafone passport rate...but the nice thing is you can top up while in France using SFR vouchers (one of the reasons I desperately needed and got the English voice prompts) As far as callback world here is how it works. They give you a US direct dial number which you dial in the usual manner (if on say UM that would mean via a callback, you know you dial the number, get a message call barred or something like that and then get a callback)...anyway upon dialing the US number it rings...let it ring once or twice and you hang up. No charge from your sim as the call has not been completed...second later the computer calls you back on the number it is keyed to, in this case your international sim, and you hear a pleasant female voice saying to enter the number you are calling followed by the number sign key(#) now and voila the call goes through. Remember at this point you are receiving presumably in a no roaming zone so there is no charge from the sim. If you are using callback world on united mobile, at present, the charge is 14? US billed in 6 second increments not raised to the highest minute. It is our hope here that unlike others (such as enlinea) this rate will hold...as you are probably aware of many companies have dramatically raised rate to Liechtenstein mobiles for what reason nobody knows (but of course we can all guess)...also callbackworld will give you for free something called pin2dest where they give you a US toll free number which you or any of your friends can dial and then you enter a pin and the call goes through to the mobile it is keyed to (presumably United Mobile) at the stated rate (14?/minute billed in 6 second intervals). For the most part, at least for me, it has worked well recently but others have reported sporadic problems with united mobile...other international cards like those in the Isle of Man also are possibilities although callback world rates to UK numbers is in the vicinity of 30?/minute but calls to UK mobiles are, of course, probably more likely to be trouble free...then there's O9 in Iceland where enlinea (a competitor of callbackworld) is only charging 10?/minute. Another problem that has popped up with any of the callback services is sometimes the callback comes so quickly before the system has had a chance to reset the callback is never heard by you but goes into voicemail; CBW has worked to alleviate this problem by delaying the callback and for the most part it works fine on UM; O9 has had this problem on enlinea....a way around this is to trigger the callback with another phone...even if you are roaming say on T Mobile US or Cingular, so what, the triggering call is never completed so youdon't have to pay their absurd roaming charges. Finally, for some weird reason, even though most of the ld carriers at least in the US have dramatically increased their charges to Liechtenstein mobiles (if the call goes through at all), AT&T on its $1/month international plan, still only charges 11?/minute to call Liechtenstein mobiles and service has been excellent and AT&T connections are very reliable and clear....so, for example, if you are interested in call forwarding to a United Mobile sim from your US landline, if AT&T is your ld carrier, it can be set up. I know my US landline provider is Verizon which does allow international call forwarding (via AT&T) and even allows me to set it up remotely so when I am in Europe, I can have calls forwarded to me from my home US number to my UM mobile for only 11?/minute. Do remember the situation right now is very much in disorder as the eu is poking its nose into international romaing within Europe and to try to keep from having international roaming rates dismantled completely, companies are rushing out new plans almost daily to try to show how much better the free market of ripping people off is better than eu regulation. By next summer, there is a chance, there will be no roaming charges at all by European carriers while anyplace in Europe so keep in touch.