Review of Truphone

[davidtheprof]

I'm traveling to Europe tomorrow, and was checking out sim card options for my Samsung Vibrant...

Truphone has just reduced their rates, by taking away the monthly $15 "membership" fee, so the low rates are now standard in the US, UK, and Australia. see http://www.truphone.com/en-AU/Produc.../Rate-Checker/

You can also buy a local number in these 3 countries for $8 a month (and cancel as soon as you don't need it).


of course, it's still more than skype, but competitive with locally available sim cards - I've usually used Orange for UK trips.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

Truphone has just reduced their rates, by taking away the monthly $15 "membership" fee, so the low rates are now standard in the US, UK, and Australia. see What you pay - Tru

Good catch! I am a little disappointed I did not catch that first as I check their site almost daily. Of course, the two test SMSs I sent 12 hours ago and now still were charged at the old rate of 12cents instead of the new 10cents.

The PDF rate chart makes absolutely no sense to me.

[cellguru]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Good catch! I am a little disappointed I did not catch that first as I check their site almost daily. Of course, the two test SMSs I sent 12 hours ago and now still were charged at the old rate of 12cents instead of the new 10cents.

The PDF rate chart makes absolutely no sense to me.

The 12c had tax/fees included and the 10c does not. The rate is the same. Personally I like having the tax/fees included so you know the true rate. However adding 2c to all the rates seems to be what they are charging. The PDF does work but it's harder to read than the old rate listed on the web page.

My concerns is that with the elimination of the membership fee, there is some monthly fee to be charged for all. I will be pleased to be proven wrong, guess we have to wait a couple months and see what happens.

[davidtheprof]

no monthly fee, as far I can see from the Truphone forum, but there is possibly a $3/month fee for inactive accounts (which a free balance-check call would avoid). They claim to be checking this, as their policies are unclear.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

no monthly fee, as far I can see from the Truphone forum, but there is possibly a $3/month fee for inactive accounts (which a free balance-check call would avoid). They claim to be checking this, as their policies are unclear.

Especially since the dropping of the 'membership' concept, I suspect the rank and file CS representitives do not know with certainty what it takes to keep the SIM 'alive' without any inactivity fee. It was not all that clear before either. I fear that the

(which a free balance-check call would avoid)

is part of the great uncertainty. Rather than finding out if that is true or not I plan to make short phone calls on the first of the month [9cents instead of 12cents for SMSes] to do a monthly event. Of course some pesky months have 31 days and the last number I saw for activity was '30'. In earlier threads here the numbers 'floating' around were 90 and 120.

If anyone ever does get the inactivity fee could you please tell us the circumstances? I don't recall seeing here or in anyother forum anyone claiming to have been charged it. Perhaps Tru system is not yet programmed to charge it yet? Or correctly?

So far, Tru has proved to be a relatively inexpensive long life SIM for Americans. With the additional benefits of low cost use in UK and Oz; and moderate rates for Europe and the rest of the world when comparied to US carriers. The moderately 'high' initial price of $30 was offset for many of us here by getting a phone with the SIM for less on eBay a while back.

The doubt/frustation of not knowing the 'real' cost is offset by the fact that we have not gotten to that river yet.

[davidtheprof]

though to be honest I'm surprised their business has survived this long, given the excruciatingly slow rollout to more countries. I don't understand if its technical or contractual issues, Abroadband managed to launch with dozens of countries in February (data only).

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

....the excruciatingly slow rollout to more countries.................. Abroadband managed to launch with dozens of countries in February (data only).

My impression of Tru is that they are well capitalized for a company of their size. The 'slow rollout' is of great pain to them also. The no membership fee thing will be nice as more countries come online. As soon as they get some golden countries they will have an amazing product.

Who knows how long it took Abroadband to get their idea out to market?

Starting a telecom company is not for the faint of heart. Waiting for dozens of countries or two before starting is no doubt a terrifying choice when no money is coming in.