New World Sim Company truphone.com

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by petkow

they are now giving away free SIM's which come loaded with 5 GBP or 7.50 US$ of call credit.

I've just received the free sim, with $7.50 in calling credit on it (sent to a US address). (thanks for mentioning the offer).

Activated it OK on the website. I could choose a US number for it at activation time. Pick a state and you're given a number to either accept or roll the dice again. After a few tries I got a reasonable 213 Los Angeles number (appears to be from a T-mobile block).

Prices look excellent in the US, but in Mexico it only roams on Movistar (not Telcel) and the prices are too high for any use (as I knew, it's for other countries). Roaming doesn't seem to be seamless, had to manually select a network each time, wasn't picked up on an automatic search. Received a test SMS from Google Voice OK (free), sent a reply OK - but the outgoing sms was billed 15% higher than the website prices. (they do say the prices exclude tax, but it is unclear what taxes if any would apply in this case).

I noticed there was no email address, online chat, or web form ticket system when I went to the web site to ask about the rate difference. Seems it's phone calls only (which is a bit tricky if your support request involves not being able to phone!). I haven't tried a support call as it's unclear whether that is chargable.

Next time I'm in the US I'll test it properly. That's if sending one sms a month will avoid the (undefined) inactivity fee, the terms do say it has to be a "call" each month.

Rob