Any opinions on eKit SIMs?

[petkow]

Just decided to re-open this thread, and wondering if someone knows more about these.

I have also just noticed a whole bunch of these for sale on ebay, and in fact bought one of the cheaper types for only £5 (which includes $10 credit). It is the one that Prion mentioned above giving only UK, Spain, Italy, France and Mexico as free incoming. This is called the "Global Premium Service".

They also are selling two further rebrands for £18.00. One is called the "International Mobile Service" and the other is called the "Travel and Domestic UK and Ireland SIM card". Both appear to do the same incoming countries (over 50...many more than the Global Premium), and the same rates though the latter seems to also give you cheaper UK and Ireland calls as well.

Is there another subtle difference between these two types of cards that I am missing? I need to buy one of these 2.

[GadgetKen]

Not sure of the difference between the 2 ekit international sims you mentioned, but can comment on Ekit. Bought a single country Canadian Fido sim card directly from them about a year ago, and they shipped quickly with documentation (needed the phone number in advance of a business trip). While their website isn't quite as polished as some other vendors, they do have good deals on some of their sim cards and sim/phone packages. Also they offer discounts if you enter through another website they have an agreement with (used Lonely Planet's link for my order, although from what you've said, it looks like purchasing through ebay offers some of the best deals for their sims).

[RTuesday]

I've also got one of these eKit Global Premium Mobile sims today (6 pounds including post, with $20 of call credit). Note the incoming number is a new Manx Telecom range: +44 7924 04xxxx.

For me, the main feature is free incoming in Mexico (I need an alternative to 09 for there).

Does anybody know the best deal for callback or voip forwarding to +44 7924 04xxxx? voipfone.co.uk charge much more to that than to +44 7624, I expect most others charge "UK mobile" rates.

There is a feature where a caller can call a toll-free number then enter your number to be connected to you free in a free incoming country, but as it's limited to 60 minutes for the life of the card (not per call) it's of limited use.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by RTuesday

I've also got one of these eKit Global Premium
There is a feature where a caller can call a toll-free number then enter your number to be connected to you free in a free incoming country, but as it's limited to 60 minutes for the life of the card (not per call) it's of limited use.

Where did you read this 60min thing? I find it hard finding anything out at all from the T's and C's etc. On the pouch on my card it says 45 mins but I presumed that was per call. It says after the 45 mins the person can still be called toll-free to send a text message notification requesting a call back. (However that may work?).

Does anybody know if the 0800 access numbers also work with the more expensive (18 UKP) Ekit "International" brand??

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by petkow

Where did you read this 60min thing? I find it hard finding anything out at all from the T's and C's etc. On the pouch on my card it says 45 mins but I presumed that was per call.

Sign into the ekit.com/mobile site and select "making calls"/"global premium". Way down the page under family and friends toll free it says "There is a limit of 60 minutes for the life of the service.". I had also assumed the limit was per call.

Providing you have a balance left, it seems that it only requires one phone call per 9 months to keep it active, which is better than most (T&C para 18 ). Being able to call forward (at no charge) is nice as well.

Note there are new rates from 1st March on the same site. Rises in costs to mobiles from some countries, sms increases from a few places, and increases in incoming costs in many (e.g. from 0.39 to 0.59 for Australia). And the dropping of free incoming in Italy, which might affect some here!

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by RTuesday

I've also got one of these eKit Global Premium Mobile sims today (6 pounds including post, with $20 of call credit). Note the incoming number is a new Manx Telecom range: +44 7924 04xxxx.

I have some Geodesa cards as well, and they are in the same range.

Originally Posted by RTuesday

Does anybody know the best deal for callback or voip forwarding to +44 7924 04xxxx? voipfone.co.uk charge much more to that than to +44 7624, I expect most others charge "UK mobile" rates.

I'm using Voipcheap.com (not the .co.uk-site), at €0,07, and its working fine here.

Originally Posted by RTuesday

There is a feature where a caller can call a toll-free number then enter your number to be connected to you free in a free incoming country, but as it's limited to 60 minutes for the life of the card (not per call) it's of limited use.

I already wrote that here on the board, in another message, only I did not know it was limited to the card, I tought it was on a per call basis. But it's still a good deal. US$20 + 60 minutes for free for £5+shipping.

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by ygeffens

I'm using Voipcheap.com (not the .co.uk-site), at €0,07, and its working fine here.

Thanks for that, works great, good price.

My new setup with the ekit Global Premium Mobile, for UK (including IOM) , France, Spain, or Mexico:

1. set up a voipcheap account for this purpose, cost 10 euro (no VAT as I used a non-EU payment).

2. Forward all calls from the voipcheap account to the +44 7924 ekit number (and turn off the voipcheap application on the PC).

3. set up an ipkall.com Washington State number, pointing to myaccountname @ sip.voipcheap.com

4. set up one or more callback services to the ipkall US number.

Result: I can be reached by calling a US number (cheap for most people to call) which costs me Eur 7c/min to receive when in a free incoming country (or can also be reached on the IOM mobile number, free to me). I can also divert my US mobile to the ipkall number, as it's just a domestic divert, when in Mexico. (and 102+ divert the Manx number to my US mobile, when in US).

To make outgoing calls in a free incoming country, using Enlinea Mango it's 5c/min to US/UK, plus the Eur 7c/min incoming (ie. US 15c/min). Couple of cents more on Callbackworld. Gphone can't do a callback to a US number, so I've set that up to callback direct to the Manx number (49c/min) as a backup in case either ipkall or voipcheap fail.

I've just tested this all in IOM, and it works.

But it remains to be seen if incoming is really free in Mexico, or how long it lasts!

[meir]

I have also got today my eKit SIM. I have one query. Did anybody tried to call different toll-free access numbers for eKit SIM. The reason why I am asking is, if I do call let say UK toll-free for 20 minues and then US toll-free for 25 minutes, do I use 45 minutes of free cal connection or just 25?

BTW in User Guide there is just limit of 60 minutes applies, but no reference to life of SIM card.

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by meir

BTW in User Guide there is just limit of 60 minutes applies, but no reference to life of SIM card.

As the 60 minutes is only a one-off per account not per call (see earlier this thread) it probably doesn't matter which number(s) the total minutes come from.

Also as mentioned, the T&C says at least one call per 9 months keeps it active (or the company goes out of business, whichever comes first!).

[andy]

eKit CS also told me the incoming forward from freephone access is 60 minutes aggregate, not per call; they mentioned the 9 months use requirement as well

07924 - I wondered if those new ones would be on it instead - another thing I wonder is if this will come from all UK networks' included minutes for a while (ok not relevant to most of us here)

Originally Posted by RTuesday

Thanks for that, works great, good price.

My new setup with the ekit Global Premium Mobile, for UK (including IOM) , France, Spain, or Mexico:

1. set up a voipcheap account for this purpose, cost 10 euro (no VAT as I used a non-EU payment).

2. Forward all calls from the voipcheap account to the +44 7924 ekit number (and turn off the voipcheap application on the PC).

3. set up an ipkall.com Washington State number, pointing to myaccountname @ sip.voipcheap.com

4. set up one or more callback services to the ipkall US number.

Result: I can be reached by calling a US number (cheap for most people to call) which costs me Eur 7c/min to receive when in a free incoming country (or can also be reached on the IOM mobile number, free to me). I can also divert my US mobile to the ipkall number, as it's just a domestic divert, when in Mexico. (and 102+ divert the Manx number to my US mobile, when in US).

To make outgoing calls in a free incoming country, using Enlinea Mango it's 5c/min to US/UK, plus the Eur 7c/min incoming (ie. US 15c/min). Couple of cents more on Callbackworld. Gphone can't do a callback to a US number, so I've set that up to callback direct to the Manx number (49c/min) as a backup in case either ipkall or voipcheap fail.

I've just tested this all in IOM, and it works.

But it remains to be seen if incoming is really free in Mexico, or how long it lasts!

Yep, I've done all of that, well not in Mexico, but there are cheaper callbacks ...

Voxalot mobile callback can be used with VC for both legs, or any other choice of VoIP providers (I used Babble for my first calls, with 30 free minutes a day). The Voxalot phonebook needs to be set up in advance though and doesn't do ad hoc numbers (but we might use a callthrough or other forward arrangement as the second number).

Voipbuster has a nice Java mobile callback client. I started a thread about this a while back, but at the time didn't have a phone with the required Java version; now I have a N 6070 and have tried it a bit and will add to that thread shortly. VB rates (€): 5c connect, UK landlines 1c, US and many landlines 0c. And yes, the VB callback will go via the IPKall number and back through the same server on the VC account - but note that it won't do this with certain other DIDs pointed at the VC account, like Freedigits or Voiptalk (there are some odd peering features with Betamax; in fact apparently it usually doesn't work at all)

Also, for UK readers, ReturnCall still has interesting rates though I expect them to go up a bit more. At the moment it uses UK p-sms top-up, and needs caller ID, so might be used with a forwarded contract SIM. The caller ID can be got around (use VB callback to trigger the callback!), but we would need to hope for other credit methods to use IoM SIMs directly with this. Again, twice on the same server, its 2p Uk landline rate can be used to callthrough Voipbuster or 18185 for other destinations ...

And as back-up and not quite as cheap, I've used Voipfone and Mywebcalls a bit, but I want to try out Vyke soon, which like VB has a Java mobile client that can make callback between any two numbers, not just the one in the account details; UK mobile to landlines costs US 18.5c/min; it also sends sms for 2c, my only trial use so far

For other backup possibilities, you might ask Enlinea to add another DID to callback direct to the IoM SIM number

So, overall, I use Voxalot/Voipcheap for commonly dialled numbers and will use Voipbuster/Voipcheap for others, and foresee using Vyke a bit as well