United Mobile+ (new service with +44 Jersey number)

[meir]

As I wrote some time ago. UM+ works fine in Turkey. I am calling to friend of mine currently in Alanya everyday. No problems at all.

Originally Posted by Stu

It doesn't sound like it for you. I'm going to Dubai and to Turkey in ten days. Using TMobile US's roaming roaming rates, I'd be paying $US1.99 a minute to use my phone in both countries.

In Dubai, with UM+ my rates are free inbound and 40 cents a minute outbound. With the state phone company and a prepaid SIM, I get free inbound and 60 cents a minute (prime) 36 cents a minute off prime (or to one favourite number). If I had to buy a new SIM, I'd be paying US$50 for the new SIM. In Turkey, I get the same offer and there is no way that I could get a prepaid SIM until roughly four to five days into my week trip.

I'm concerned about what I am hearing here about the reliability of the SIM, but even if I pick up the call forwarding from the US to the SIM I am significantly ahead. Given what is happening in the UK with roaming rates, I might make the same choice that you are, but it seems like if you take one step out of the EU, you are screwed.

Just curious what is 02 doing with roaming in Switzerland?

[UKSTEVE]

As a postscript to my Paris trip with UM+, the UM customer service team finally replied to my email last night. The email had a lot of information in it, but failed to address the root cause of the problem

Here's the reply just out of interest / Steve


Dear Customer,

Your case with United Mobile Customer Service has been updated.

CASE NOTES
-----------
[16/8/2007 06:41:37 - 1stlevel_deu]
Dear Mr Gold,

Thank you very much for your inquiry.

We are sorry to hear that you cannot make or receive calls.

Well, in many cases the best method to enable your mobile phone to make and receive calls is that you choose another network manually in the menu of your mobile phone (Settings> Phone Settings> Network selection).

The coverage of the different network operators is of different quality in some regions. Although you have full strength of an operator you could try to choose another network manually to see if it would operate better then.

You will need to use Menu Based Calling if you are experiencing problems trying to connect your call using your United Mobile SimCard. Some specific error messages are:

'Call Barred'
'Restricted Number'
'Call Not Allowed'
'Check Operator Service'

It also can happen that your mobile phone reboots.

IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THESE MESSAGES OR SITUATIONS TRY MENU BASED CALLING

To use this feature you will need to access a new menu item: 'United Mobile'. The location of this menu will vary depending upon the make of your phone:

Nokia: Last item on the 'Main' menu
Sony Ericsson: In the 'Connectivity' menu
Motorola: Under the 'Office Tools' menu
Samsung: In the 'Application' menu
Siemens: In the 'Main' or 'Extras' menu

If all else fails than you can try to make telephone calls using an USSD-command: Please dial *137*Countrycodes without "00", Areacode without "0", phone number and at last the pound sign (#).

Example for London/UK: *137*442072xxxxx#

If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us again.

Yours sincerely

Ferdinand Creutz
United Mobile Customer Service

You can now contact United Mobile around the clock. Our Customer Service Team is now available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.



CASE DETAILS
------------
ID : 18933
Customer: Steve Gold
Title : um+ call problems

DESCRIPTION
-----------
Type of problem:
It is not possible to make calls

Email:
sg@mail.com

First and last name:
Steve Gold

Country code:
+44 7937

Your United Mobile number:
032111

Date and time of problem:
ALLWEEK SINCE SUNDAY

Country where the problem occured:
FRANCE

Region where the problem occured:
PARIS

Your mobile phone model:
SIEMEN A65, LG CHOCOLATE, MOTO V3

Number of the person your were calling:
ASSORTED UK AND FRENCH NUMBERS

Further information:
Hello - long standing UM423 user here - New SIM worked in UK when activated - here in France 089 bal check works, but calls trigger SIM not acticated yet...

Called customer services 7ral times. Timed out.

Not at all happy with your new service one bit.

Steve((((((((






Best regards

United Mobile
Customer Service






[QUOTE=UKSTEVE;16841]Just back from 10 days in Paris - customer services eventually unravelled the SIM authentication issue. I'd suggest all users of UM+ call customer services to activate their new SIM and avoid using the Web interface - it clearly doesn't work reliably.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by UKSTEVE

If all else fails than you can try to make telephone calls using an USSD-command: Please dial *137*Countrycodes without "00", Areacode without "0", phone number and at last the pound sign (#).

Example for London/UK: *137*442072xxxxx#

If you have further questions, do not hesitate to contact us again.

That's great that they revealed the USSD code behind the callback SIM application

It helped with the lack of callback when roaming on Era Poland - with the code above it works!

[tivoboy]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

The landline systems in most European countries are way better than in the US. As a result of intensive investments after reunification especially Germany has one of the most advanced telecommunication systems in the world. 100% of German switches are digital and as you can see below we have the highest ISDN penetration in the world and also ADSL is available to 92% of German households (most of the remaining 8% can't get ADSL as they are conencted through optic fibres):

Switzerland, Austria, the Benelux countries and Northern Europe have comparable developed landline networks.
In the US only the highly populated areas have modern landline infrastructure - in other areas the system is ramshackle. That's why cable internet is so wide spread in the US.
So maybe in Southern and Eastern Europe people use mobile phones because of the lacking landline availabilty, but certainly not in the Northern countries.
However we should get back to topic.

all I need to say about this is, who cares about ISDN. ISDN is such an old implimentation of broadband, or ip technology and is often erroneous in describing broadband connectivy. Germany has actually been lagging the EU for BB uptake for the past three years. Granted, 2 years ago they had a 10% penetration, but today it is only 15% at best. UK is now close to 25% and the Scandinavian countries are 30%+. US has been 20%+ for the past three years But ISDN, it sure ain't the future. As for the data, this data is AT LEAST three years old, FOTH, DSL, cable, wimax and EOP have all made huge changes in places like north america, where it will TRULY be fiber to the home.

[tivoboy]

To anyone who has done the upgrade to UM+ recently, how is the process? I find, if I click on the link which still shows upgrade for free, I get to a 25E page for purchase?

[Bossman]

Sounds like the free upgrade is no longer offered. When I upgrade it just displays a confirmation page and that's it.

Originally Posted by tivoboy

To anyone who has done the upgrade to UM+ recently, how is the process? I find, if I click on the link which still shows upgrade for free, I get to a 25E page for purchase?

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by tivoboy

To anyone who has done the upgrade to UM+ recently, how is the process? I find, if I click on the link which still shows upgrade for free, I get to a 25E page for purchase?

I don't know if they are still doing free upgrades or not but when they were it was kind of confusing. On the page where it lists the SIMs on your account you could click a link to "upgrade this SIM" and that's all I had to do. There were other links around the site that looked like you were supposed to click them to upgrade but which actually lead to a page to order a SIM. Also, once the new SIM arrived it wasn't patently clear what I was supposed to do to activate it. Trying to add it to my account didn't work. It was shown on another page.

[herkdrvr]

Okay, it's been 18 days since I orderd my UM+ free upgrade. Nothing received yet. Didn't sound like it took most of you this long to get the card. Any word that they've stopped shipping or are backlogged or any other problem? Thanks.

[prion]

I think you should contact them. Call them in the CS. Its faster.

[Bossman]

First, go and verify the address in your profile. That's where they sent it to. And, they screwed up most of the US addresses but most still got here. Took a couple of days extra for mine, but still got it in about 6 days. I will not be surprised if your address was missing pertinent information and the USPS could not deliver it, and they sent it back. As mentioned above, you need to contact them

Originally Posted by herkdrvr

Okay, it's been 18 days since I orderd my UM+ free upgrade. Nothing received yet. Didn't sound like it took most of you this long to get the card. Any word that they've stopped shipping or are backlogged or any other problem? Thanks.