Jersey, IOM & RSM

[DRNewcomb]

I'm wondering to what extent the legal positions of IOM & Jersey wrt Europe have to do with the decisions to base international SIMs on those islands? Also, I think (but others would know better) that RSM is similarly positioned. Should we be expecting an international SIM to come out of RSM before long?

[Nokia1610]

Probably in those islands there are facilities about taxes and easier regulations for societies. The same happens in Liechtenstein (UM) and in Monaco (Hop). In S.Marino there is a similar situation as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see an international sim to come out of S.Marino. Probably, "Prima" itself may consider to offer an international sim: this could turn out to be interesting, but first of all we have to wait for it to start completely with their first services

[Keighleyboy]

Just need the islands of Guernsey to join the list of +44 based numbers to provide international SIMs

[MATHA531]

...but where do Estonia and Iceland fit into this?

[Keighleyboy]

Might aswell add Gibraltar to this list even though it would have a +350 prefix, the calls to destination are cheap and some carriers (like www.mobileworld.co.uk) i use charge the same weather landline or mobile, like is usually the case with calling USA or Canada

[bbob]

Originally Posted by Keighleyboy

Might aswell add Gibraltar to this list even though it would have a +350 prefix, the calls to destination are cheap and some carriers (like www.mobileworld.co.uk) i use charge the same weather landline or mobile, like is usually the case with calling USA or Canada

The charge the same because there is little traffic to these destinations. KNP is Holland charged the same for UM lichtenstein till some time ago when they increased the rate from 0,10 euro to 0,90 euro.
Whenever a non popular destination becomes more popular they will look at the rates because you can bet 1 thing, they don't want to loose money.

For this reason I think a +44 number is perfect as in the end there will always be carriers that offer good rates because of volume to these destinations. Also for business use it looks better to have a +44 number thatn some etsonian, gibraltar or some small country number.

[Stu]

Do any French overseas holdings still use country code 33? (e.g. St Pierre, etc). Or better yet, what about a US based roaming SIM with an Iowa rural exchange number?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Stu

Or better yet, what about a US based roaming SIM with an Iowa rural exchange number?

Is it a joke or have I missed something important about Iowa rural telephony ?

[VladS]

Iowa's the Liechtenstein, IoM and Jersey combined of the US telecom.

The standard interconnect rules don't apply there.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Is it a joke or have I missed something important about Iowa rural telephony ?

For some strange reason, a few local rural phone companies in Iowa are allowed to charge much higher termination fees that anyone else in the USA. This has brought about a number of services based in Iowa which take advantage of flat-rate long distance calling. You can call a number and get a free conference line, international dialing, etc. Your LD carrier eats the charge because they've sold a one-price-fits-all domestic LD plan based on the idea that no one ever called those Iowa farmers anyway.

I think we'll start seing a bunch of asterixes and footnotes on LD service plans regarding calls to Iowa.