Best practice international GSM setup

[ckh]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Cost and ease of use. [in this example onesimcard] If someone calls Estonia, it will cost them. If you pay for a US number it will cost you for the number and the time. If you have them call the provided numbers it will cost you money and them ease of use.[double dialing] If you are using it 'enough' it can be easily justified. but take the total cost of ownership and setup and usage to compare cost with other providers. And if it works and works well it will have been a good investment of your time for research and value for your money.

You will have other SIMs but too much dependence on one provider has burned many of the people in the forum.

What do you mean with "double dialing" in your reply above?

With xxsim the additional numbers are free; so no monthly cost like at onesimcard. And the rates are just a low as onesimcard, or lower.

For example: mysims2go, a provider that was suggested asks extreme high rates in Chili (just for example); 1,5 for receiving calls and almost 2 euro for calling, where xxsim costs 0,20 for receiving and 0,55 for calling.

But let me first give them a try, before judging completely.

[MBK]

Originally Posted by ckh

What do you mean with "double dialing" in your reply above?

I think what he means is when people call a toll free 0800 number to call you. They have to dial twice.

Originally Posted by ckh

With xxsim the additional numbers are free; so no monthly cost like at onesimcard. And the rates are just a low as onesimcard, or lower.

For example: mysims2go, a provider that was suggested asks extreme high rates in Chili (just for example); 1,5 for receiving calls and almost 2 euro for calling, where xxsim costs 0,20 for receiving and 0,55 for calling.

Onesimcard is free to receive calls in Chile. (outgoing is about the same as XXSIm charges in euros, Onesimcard in $).

I have been following them both (Onesimcard & XXSIM = same backend) for over a year. Onesimcard has lower rates overall. Every couple months Onesimcard is announcing lower rates in some countries and free incoming countries on their facebook. They are giving us new rates as soon as the backend (Travelsim) sets new rates; this happens very often.

On the other hand, XXSIM is slower to lower the rates and add new free incoming countires. Onesimcard is more proactive.

To sum up:

XXSIM advantage: free US number (but, given the incoming rate, is this really an advantage as you can setup a US number with cheaper forwarding yourself AND you can keep the number you setup yourself should you ever move to another SIM card).

Onesimcard advantage: free email-to-SMS & more proactive = lower rates + free countries sooner. (+ I don't know if XXSIM also has online voicemail? And the 3 Android/Iphone applications, i.ex: cheap VOIP with free incoming when on WIFI/3G with autoswitch from WIFI/3G to your +372 when not reachable on WIFI/3G , etc...)


edit: as an alternative to Onesimcard I would prefer Airbaltic card to XXSIM, as someone posted above it's also the same backend but their credit doesn't expire during 2 years. Airbaltic is still less proactive than Onesimcard with the rates and free incoming countries though (but not much?) , and it doesn't offer free email-to-SMS (+ what about the 3 Android/iphone applications?).

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by ckh

What do you mean with "double dialing" in your reply above?

Yes, MBK is right.
Further explanied:
Using 'Common Access Numbers' LA, Washington,DC, New York or toll free USA you callers would call the phone and then need to dial your number.
All these cost you $0.20/minute.

Apparently, they are now providing a 'free' US number for one month and $11.99 to keep it for a year [with no setup fee].
Calls direct to you cost $0.20/minute.

The 'Personal Extra Number' the 'PEN' can be a US area code or a toll free number [same price!] forwarding to you.
$4.99 setup fee. $19.99 for a year and $0.20/minute.

Everything is $0.20/minute.

If these terms are agreeable/flexible for someone, great!
If not there are other options. [This might be the easiest setup for technophobes.]
No SIP. No VOIP. No setting up other call forwarding through multiple entities.

[MBK]

Originally Posted by ckh

At the end paying 17 cpm for a good global reach with one sim provider seems a good deal to me. But offcourse we'll also work with local prepaid sims.

Why pay so much when, as posted above, it costs 7 cpm to forward to +372 (and there are several other alternatives that call/forward for 8 to 11 cpm).

Especially since you are talking about forwarding your home VOIP, this is so easy to do if you have a half decent VOIP provider (= that allows forwarding to sip addresses - for more flexibility and cheap providers in the chain).

-------

Regarding Anveo and SMS: It's nice with onesimcard as you can forward the SMS for free via email. If you don't use onesimcard you will have to pay for the SMS forwarding.


If you need voice + SMS forwarding for world travel on a single US incoming number this is what I would do:


Voice: Anveo incoming -> you@sip.hotvoip.com -> +372 (= 7 cpm)

SMS: Anveo incoming -> 372xxxxx@sms.onesimcard.com (= free)


OR with Google Voice (= free incoming number):

Voice: Google Voice -> callcentric -> you@sip.hotvoip.com -> +372 (= 7 cpm)

Quality will not be degraded as there is no audio transcoding between callcentric and hotvoip (of course hotvoip quality is lower than a direct call, but for friends and family calls it is more than enough considering the price).

SMS: Google Voice -> 372xxxxx@sms.onesimcard.com (= free)

[HappyCamp]

Originally Posted by HappyCamp

I went with Piranha Mobile and TruPhone as my two SIM cards for my trip to Europe. I also purchased a cheap dual SIM Samsung phone on Amazon for $28.

In addition I also am getting a Toggle Mobile SIM card as four of the countries in Europe that I am going to they offer "local numbers", which allows very low rates in those countries.

I decided to stay away from the SIM cards with Estonian or Isle of Man phone numbers, as I wanted people who called or texted me would have low rates.

I didn't make it within the 60 minute time frame to edit my message. So I'll repost.

I went with Piranha Mobile and TruPhone as my two SIM cards for my trip to Europe. I also purchased a cheap dual SIM Samsung GT-E1182L phone (voice/text only) on Amazon for $28 that I will put these SIMs into. I will only be using the Piranha and TruPhone for voice and text. I will give out the US phone numbers to these SIM cards to friends and family.

I also am getting a Toggle Mobile SIM card as four of the countries in Europe that I am going to they offer "local numbers", which allows very low rates in those countries. Plus the data rates are pretty competitive.

I have a couple of unlocked Android phones. So the Toggle Mobile SIM will go in one of them. And then in the local countries I may be buying SIMs with data plans to go in the other Android phone, as I will be spending around two weeks in each country. Likely I will stick to using the Toggle Mobile SIM in the countries that they offer the "local number" service as the rate is about 15 UK pence ( $0.232 US ) per megabyte of data.

I decided to stay away from the SIM cards with Estonian or Isle of Man phone numbers, as I wanted people who called or texted me would have low rates.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by HappyCamp

I went with Piranha Mobile and TruPhone as my two SIM cards for my trip to Europe.

I think you will be happy with these choices. Please remember to tell us how things went==what went wrong!

Have a good trip.

[rfranzq]

OK, I can't help myself. I almost started a new thread but decided not to. I am curious about the SIMs on the 'Travelsim platform'.
TravelSim
airbalticcard
xxsim.com
OneSimCard
Is this all of them?

OK. What are the differences? Only Onesimcard is in US dollars[& based in the US], everything else in Euros?
They all seem to have a way to get decent US rates.
Do all use both AT&T and T-Mobile for US networks?

What have been your experience if you are a user?
Any one that should be avoided at all cost??--what happened?

How well do they work in Europe?
Where do they not work?

[MBK]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

OK, I can't help myself. I almost started a new thread but decided not to. I am curious about the SIMs on the 'Travelsim platform'.
TravelSim
airbalticcard
xxsim.com
OneSimCard
Is this all of them?

I think, yes.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

OK. What are the differences? Only Onesimcard is in US dollars[& based in the US], everything else in Euros?

Yes.

XXSIM is based in Switzerland, but charges in Euros.

Validity:

• Travelsim: no credit expiry, active 2 years after last recharge
• Airbaltic: no credit expiry, active 2 years after last recharge
• Onesimcard: credit expires if not recharged after 10 months, the SIM remains active for 2 years even if not recharged. Accepts incoming calls for free even with 0 credit.
• XXSIM: expires 12 months after last reload (credit and number is lost).

So, the worst regarding validity seems to be XXSIM.


There are several other differences (too many to list?). Example:

• I think XXSIM is the only one of the bunch to offer a 0800 toll free access number in Switzerland.
• onesimcard is the only one with US based support.
• email-to-SMS is onesimcard only (You can send SMS for free to a onsimcard by email at 372xxxx@sms.onesimcard.com)
• XXSIM offers the US PEN for free (the others charge a yearly fee, not sure if Travelsim and airbalic charge for it or not)
• Onesimcard offers 3 android/iphone apps (VOIP, etc...). Travelsim does too (they are the ones that make them in the 1st place). Not sure about airbaltic and XXSIM.
• Travelsim as the backend sets the new rates and new free incoming countries first. Onsimcard is the 2nd to get them right behind (usually on the same day as Travelsim as they announce them in advance). XXSIM and airbaltic are slower to activate new rates / free countires.
• Travelsim has worldwide WIFI support (charged from SIM credit)

This is what I can remember right now, there's probably more...

Originally Posted by rfranzq

They all seem to have a way to get decent US rates.
Do all use both AT&T and T-Mobile for US networks?

I think yes, as they are using the same backend.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

What have been your experience if you are a user?

My worldwide roaming experience has been excellent with onesimcard ( Europe, Asia, Middle East). Network roaming switching is seamless when crossing borders (compared to EKIT which can sometimes take 30 minutes) and stable (compared to EKIT which sometimes loses the signal on the same networks using the same phone - this was also tested driving on highways with the 2 SIMs side by side in a dual-sim phone).

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Any one that should be avoided at all cost??--what happened?

Other than the above differences, I think you should expect the same network quality from all of them, considering they are all using the same backend.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

How well do they work in Europe?

Excellent seamless roaming for 2 years now.

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Where do they not work?

travelsim.com/cost-and-coverage/

Click on the continents to see where they don't have coverage.

Roaming in Europe, Asia and the Middle East I never had any issues with the Onesimcard (It works a lot better than EKIT). Network stability is as good as the local SIMs (I have local SIMs next to the Onesimcard in a dual-SIM phone), with the added benefit of complete seamless roaming / network switching.

Actually, with the Onesimcard I have better availability than the local SIMs, as it is most of the time roaming on several of the networks that are available within a given country (vs the local SIMs only having access to 1 network).

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

OK, I can't help myself. I almost started a new thread but decided not to. I am curious about the SIMs on the 'Travelsim platform'.
TravelSim
airbalticcard
xxsim.com
OneSimCard
Is this all of them?

OK. What are the differences? Only Onesimcard is in US dollars[& based in the US], everything else in Euros?
They all seem to have a way to get decent US rates.
Do all use both AT&T and T-Mobile for US networks?

What have been your experience if you are a user?
Any one that should be avoided at all cost??--what happened?

How well do they work in Europe?
Where do they not work?

If you need USD billing consider EUROSIM http://eng.eurosim.travel/ of the CAMEL platform, their rates (both calls and data) are much cheaper than the ones of onesimcard (TRAVELSIM platform).
plus billing per second for outgoing calls with EU (onesimcard per minute)..plus data billing per 1kb within EU (onesimcard per 10kb)
plus minimum topoup just $10 .while for onesimcard minimum topup $25
plus unlimited validity of the simcard and the credit (never expire), when onesimcard's credit expire after just 10months from the last topup

buying EUROSIM simcards costs half the price of onesimcard. search e bay for seller igorzzz

in USA Camel platform simcards work very good on both AT&T and T-MOBILE. tested personally.
Since the last 2years I have used camel-platform simcards within almost all European countries, their simcards worked at all times without any problem. their simcards are preset to register to "prefered" vodafone brand networks, but you can switch to other networks (non-Vodafone) manually.

when roaming in US calling to other countries with EUROSIM: $0,45/min... ONESIMCARD calling to other countries from US: $0,49/min. incoming calls free at both cases.


EUROSIM and all other based Camel-platform simcards have special data rates of 0,99 USD (0,69EUR. for euro billing simcards) per 1MB in the following countries: Australia, Azerbaijan, Albania, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Jersey, Egypt, India, Iceland, China, Liechtenstein, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, USA, Turkey, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan.

But from my experience as a world traveller with almost all internetional simcards in the market used all these years, for non-EU based customers or without an EU mobile, for roaming within EU countries I recommend PIRANHA http://www.piranha-mobile.com/index....tegory&path=20 . http://www.eurekago.com/en/tariffs/ for roaming withinin EU countries.
Piranha has significantly lower data rates but with data billing per 128kb (Eureka billing per 10kb. 0,25eur./mb within Europe)
Eureka offers free incoming calls to 70countries (including all European countries and most of Asian countries)...and the most important? the rate to call their number prefix (+4207910) is very low! Eureka I think also accept USD payments (but not 100% sure)


My above recommendation is only for non-EU based customers or without an EU mobile, for roaming within EU countries.:
For customers seeking reliability (usually bussiness customers) I recommend Camel-platform simcards
For customers seeking lower possible rates (usually private customers) I recommend: Piranha or EUREKA . (Eureka is a bit better, only because they don't charge for unaswered outgoing calls-MTC -Mobile Termination Charge- as Piranha does).

PAY ATTENTION: for roaming within EU countries the first and only you first have to consider is "HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO CALL THE NUMBER ATTACHED TO EACH INTERNATIONAL SIMCARD"

[Bossman]

Wow! This thread seems to have more mention of onesimcard than all the other onesimcard related threads combined. It seems onesimcard works well for you. However, their sim is just not attractive to most folks here. Mainly due to the already mentioned reason.