What would it take for an intl. card to be more competitive and successful?

snidely

I think there is a place for this type of service . It would be necessary to have the options business depends on. A service that counts mainly on "consumers" doesn't generate enough revenue to make it profitable. (ARPU). What is necessary is a direct agreement w. a "mainline" carrier, data and/or Blackberry, and, if there is callback required - hide the perception of callback from the user. The ability that Yackie had, and Maxroam and CelTrek has, to add numbers local to the users - is a definite plus
One impediment to being competitive for U.S. customers is that U.S. T-Mobile customers can travel overseas and enable intl Blackberry service while they are traveling for about 70 cents/day. ATT charges more and you have to keep it "on" all the time - not just the days you need it. No intl. SIM has BB service. (Do any have data?)
BB is almost a requirement for business users here. Even our President is addicted.

It would seem this should be feasible. If T-Mobile can let me roam in lots of countries for 29-32 cents a minute (and obviously make money since they haven't canceled those of us on those old plans) - then there is room for some MVNO/intl travel card to offer low rates.
The problem might be that "mainline" carriers might see it as a threat to their own business. Maybe that's why you see most intl. cards tied to obscure countries like Lichtenstein, Estonia, IOM etc.
OTH, MVNO operators "compete" against their own provider in many countries and everyone seems happy (altho in the U.S. several large ones have folded in the last couple years).

...mike

	(#1)
snidely (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 451 Join Date: 09 May 2005 Location: Berkeley, California and Miami Country:	What would it take for an intl. card to be more competitive and successful? - 01-02-2009, 00:51 I think there is a place for this type of service . It would be necessary to have the options business depends on. A service that counts mainly on "consumers" doesn't generate enough revenue to make it profitable. (ARPU). What is necessary is a direct agreement w. a "mainline" carrier, data and/or Blackberry, and, if there is callback required - hide the perception of callback from the user. The ability that Yackie had, and Maxroam and CelTrek has, to add numbers local to the users - is a definite plus One impediment to being competitive for U.S. customers is that U.S. T-Mobile customers can travel overseas and enable intl Blackberry service while they are traveling for about 70 cents/day. ATT charges more and you have to keep it "on" all the time - not just the days you need it. No intl. SIM has BB service. (Do any have data?) BB is almost a requirement for business users here. Even our President is addicted. It would seem this should be feasible. If T-Mobile can let me roam in lots of countries for 29-32 cents a minute (and obviously make money since they haven't canceled those of us on those old plans) - then there is room for some MVNO/intl travel card to offer low rates. The problem might be that "mainline" carriers might see it as a threat to their own business. Maybe that's why you see most intl. cards tied to obscure countries like Lichtenstein, Estonia, IOM etc. OTH, MVNO operators "compete" against their own provider in many countries and everyone seems happy (altho in the U.S. several large ones have folded in the last couple years). ...mike Make use of T-M's UMA/wifi free calling from any place in the world with access to wifi. I use an LG G6, wife an S7) A/o Oct 20, 2013 no need for intl prepaid as T-Mobile U.S. includes voice roaming at 20¢/min (in and out)., unlimited text (in and out), and unlimited data in 140+ countries. My Plan -[6 lines] U.S. T-Mobile unlimited minutes (incoming and outgoing), unlimited text, fast data on each line. that $145/mo. total! . (In U.S. no surcharge for calling a cell.) If a line exceeds 2G of data in a month, pay $10 more for that line. [That only happens a couple times/year.