Cloud 9 Launches in Isle of Man

RTuesday · **Cloud 9 Launches in Isle of Man -** 21-06-2007, 19:58

Cloud 9 (www.cloud9.im) launched their Isle of Man mobile network today, including prepaid.

They're the second network to launch here, after Manx Telecom, but Sure Mobile (www.surething.im) should be following within days.

Personally I think Cloud9 are going to be the number three player, if they survive. There's really very little in their offer to attract most local customers, although for me some of their roaming could be interesting - so I got a sim.

The sims are "free", although need a GBP 10.00 initial recharge to activate, but if the initial recharge is 20.00 there is a startup offer of 1000 free texts (doesn't say if the offer applies to texting while roaming).

The expiry times on the recharges are debatable. The dealer claims they don't expire, and I checked with the call centre and they agreed. But printed on the voucher is a "90 days from first use" expiry, and a second call to the call centre claimed that was accurate. I'll be chasing this up!

The number range is +44 7924 5xx xxx. This is where they've made a serious blunder (or been unable to find a work-around) - here people are used to dialling just 6 digits for both landline (6xx xxx, 7xx xxx, 8xx xxx) or Manx Telecom mobile (3xx xxx, 4xx xxx). But the short dialling doesn't work for Cloud 9. It's going to take a lot of education and marketing to get people to dial longer numbers, can't see them getting around this major disadvantage unless their deals are fantastic, and they're not.

The rates are really complex (lots of exceptions by carrier etc), very hard to work out. The normal roaming rates are literally unpublished, i.e. random based on what the carrier passes on (so unusable). Free incoming in "all of Europe" (no country list shown - reading the small print it looks like it may be free some other places as well, such as Australia, but unclear).

But, they do have built-in callback - enter a number with a # after it and it initiates a callback, with charges of 10p/min (US20c) on each leg for most local/EU calls (higher outbound to mobiles and some carriers/countries). Haven't tried this yet (as I'm not roaming).

Incoming calls can also be forwarded (and calls made from) a VOIP client, seems a bit expensive for that but VOIP outbound to most European mobiles (jncluding Liechtenstein!) for 20p (40c/Eu28c) is sort of usable.

All in all WAY too complex for most local users, it'll flop locally (mainly because of numbering and poor marketing).

But it could have limited use as an international sim with outbound calls to/from most of Europe around 20p/US40c/Eu28c/min (50% more to call mobile). At least being a "real" carrier the rates should hopefully change less often than most of the Manx SIMs.

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RTuesday (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 344 Join Date: 28 Mar 2005 Location: See flag Country:	Cloud 9 Launches in Isle of Man - 21-06-2007, 19:58 Cloud 9 (www.cloud9.im) launched their Isle of Man mobile network today, including prepaid. They're the second network to launch here, after Manx Telecom, but Sure Mobile (www.surething.im) should be following within days. Personally I think Cloud9 are going to be the number three player, if they survive. There's really very little in their offer to attract most local customers, although for me some of their roaming could be interesting - so I got a sim. The sims are "free", although need a GBP 10.00 initial recharge to activate, but if the initial recharge is 20.00 there is a startup offer of 1000 free texts (doesn't say if the offer applies to texting while roaming). The expiry times on the recharges are debatable. The dealer claims they don't expire, and I checked with the call centre and they agreed. But printed on the voucher is a "90 days from first use" expiry, and a second call to the call centre claimed that was accurate. I'll be chasing this up! The number range is +44 7924 5xx xxx. This is where they've made a serious blunder (or been unable to find a work-around) - here people are used to dialling just 6 digits for both landline (6xx xxx, 7xx xxx, 8xx xxx) or Manx Telecom mobile (3xx xxx, 4xx xxx). But the short dialling doesn't work for Cloud 9. It's going to take a lot of education and marketing to get people to dial longer numbers, can't see them getting around this major disadvantage unless their deals are fantastic, and they're not. The rates are really complex (lots of exceptions by carrier etc), very hard to work out. The normal roaming rates are literally unpublished, i.e. random based on what the carrier passes on (so unusable). Free incoming in "all of Europe" (no country list shown - reading the small print it looks like it may be free some other places as well, such as Australia, but unclear). But, they do have built-in callback - enter a number with a # after it and it initiates a callback, with charges of 10p/min (US20c) on each leg for most local/EU calls (higher outbound to mobiles and some carriers/countries). Haven't tried this yet (as I'm not roaming). Incoming calls can also be forwarded (and calls made from) a VOIP client, seems a bit expensive for that but VOIP outbound to most European mobiles (jncluding Liechtenstein!) for 20p (40c/Eu28c) is sort of usable. All in all WAY too complex for most local users, it'll flop locally (mainly because of numbering and poor marketing). But it could have limited use as an international sim with outbound calls to/from most of Europe around 20p/US40c/Eu28c/min (50% more to call mobile). At least being a "real" carrier the rates should hopefully change less often than most of the Manx SIMs.