Mobal for 5 usD

[christophe]

I find this offer on the website of
the travel insider called

"Lifetime International SIM Mobal
Only $2.50, with no need to sign up for service or any commitment to anything else at all"
and 2.50 us for shipping !!!! so a total of 3.30 euros price of a glass of Wine!!!

Is that interesting as a alternative security solution? Prices are very high but its advertided that number had no expiration and no maintenance fee //

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/phones/sims.htm

[bylo]

They are a reputable company. I purchased a Mobal SIM from The Travel Insider website a couple of years ago. After you buy the SIM there is no ongoing charge and the card does not expire. You do not have to buy air time in advance. Instead you pay only per-minute when you use the card to make or receive calls. The charges go against your credit card. I have had single charges as low $0.80 (for SMS.)

The phone number that they give you is in the UK. Unlike UM and other such cards you make calls directly. There is no call-back. They also have voicemail and an e-mail to SMS feature. Their website "My Account" pages let you track usage.

Mobal is expensive compared to UM etc. but it is a very good, reliable service. I have never had problems with their SIM. I cannot say the same for UM. I suppose you get what you pay for.

[christophe]

hello Bylo,

its not a callback service ? they also provide a real uk gsm number like 02 or vodafone? so i ll understand the prices like 1,25 usd to call wich is 0.84 euro..Hum...
5 usd for a sim card.. that really cheap for a complete range of phone services

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by christophe

hello Bylo,

its not a callback service ? they also provide a real uk gsm number like 02 or vodafone? so i ll understand the prices like 1,25 usd to call wich is 0.84 euro..Hum...
5 usd for a sim card.. that really cheap for a complete range of phone services

Yes, Mobal is an O2 UK rebranded SIM. And the payment model - charging the assigned credit card after the connection is done is something like Visa Phone/Master Phone calltrough services which were available sometime from 1996 to 2000.

BTW, how does the email2sms feature in Mobal work? Does it mean that each Mobal SIM has a virtual email address (e.g. 447....@mobal.com) and such an email is forwarded to to the phone as an SMS for free?

[bylo]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

BTW, how does the email2sms feature in Mobal work? Does it mean that each Mobal SIM has a virtual email address (e.g. 447....@mobal.com) and such an email is forwarded to to the phone as an SMS for free?

I don't recall if this is on Mobal's website but here is what they e-mailed me a long time ago. (The ***** are the last 5 digits of my Mobal phone number.)

MMail

What is MMail?
MMail allows our GSM phones to send text messages to email addresses, and to receive emails as text messages.

Activating MMail
To activate the MMail service, you just text the word "on" to 212 (refer to your manufacturers user guide for instructions on how to send a text message.) You only need to do this once, which is charged at $0.80. You will receive the following text message:

"Your email service is now on and your address is +4478940*****@mmail.co.uk"

If you don‘t receive this message, you will not be able to receive messages.

Sending a MMail message
To send a text message to an email address, start the message with the email address you are sending it to. Then add a space, and type the message itself. For example:

bozo@fubar.com Hello, Mobal is amazing!

Send the completed message to 212. The message can be as long as you like, but the message will be broken-up into parts of approx 100 characters each. You will be charged at $0.80 per part.

Receiving a MMail message
To receive an email as a text message the sender needs to address their email to: +4478940*****@mmail.co.uk
If the sender's message is longer than 100 characters, it will be broken-up into parts. You will only receive the first message and you will have to retrieve the other parts of the message:
1. In the title of the message you will see Email ? Part 1 of * where ? will be a letter, * is the number of parts the message is split into. For example Email A Part 1 of 5
2. At the end of the first text message you will see "4 nxt part txt ?"
3. Create a new text message with the letter that is indicated by ? above. Send this message to 212, which will be charged at $0.80

De-activating MMail
To de-activate the MMail Service, just text the word "off" to 212, which is charged at $0.80

BTW sending yourself an e-mail costs only $.80 so it's the cheapest way to test that your Mobal SIM is working if you haven't used it in a while. Yes, it's supposed to stay activated permanently but it's better to test it before a trip than to find it doesn't work when you're in a foreign country.

Also, I never deactivate MMail and I've never got spam on it.

[easyroam-]

All 07734, 07738 and 07894 comes back as a 02 (uk) number range and has a cost of FM1
FM1= is 11.063 UK pence (standard mobile cost)

.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by bylo

Receiving a MMail message
To receive an email as a text message the sender needs to address their email to: +4478940*****@mmail.co.uk
If the sender's message is longer than 100 characters, it will be broken-up into parts. You will only receive the first message and you will have to retrieve the other parts of the message:
1. In the title of the message you will see Email ? Part 1 of * where ? will be a letter, * is the number of parts the message is split into. For example Email A Part 1 of 5
2. At the end of the first text message you will see "4 nxt part txt ?"
3. Create a new text message with the letter that is indicated by ? above. Send this message to 212, which will be charged at $0.80

So, here is the catch. If you don't tell people to whom you give the Mobal e-mail address about the 100-character limit, then you have to pay $0.80 to retrieve the part(s) of a long message after the 100th character.... But it you e.g. create a max 100-character text field on your website which after accepting sends an e-mail to a Mobal phone, it might be quite useful. BTW, doesn't "+" character in the e-mail address cause any problems when sending e-mails?

Thank you very much for information .

[bylo]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

So, here is the catch. If you don't tell people to whom you give the Mobal e-mail address about the 100-character limit...

Yes. However I tell people to use this feature very selectively in place of VM, like an old-fashioned pager. If someone needs to reach me they send me a short e-mail with their number and when to call them back. That's always under 100 characters. It's more convenient, more discreet and cheaper than leaving me an actual VM on Mobal.

BTW, doesn't "+" character in the e-mail address cause any problems when sending e-mails?

No. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_address (or http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2822#section-3.2.4 )

Thank you very much for information

Prosze bardzo

[Bossman]

For some people it may be a good option. However, that's what I use my AT&T sim for when I travel. I only use it for calls as the last resort if everything else does not work. AT&T's rate is cheaper than mobal's card, and it works in just about any country that has GSM.

[bylo]

Originally Posted by Bossman

that's what I use my AT&T sim for when I travel.

That's fine if you can get an AT&T SIM and recharge it. I'm not sure how practical that is if one isn't a US resident or frequent visitor.