Jersey, IOM & RSM - Page 2

ygeffens · 08-08-2007, 13:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

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.

Is http://www.yak4ever.com/ an example of that? I was hoping they would offer something similar in my country. Guess not...

prion · 08-08-2007, 13:32

Iowa system applies to calls originating in the US only. So this system benefits the company only if the calls are made from within the USA. All calls outside US do not attract surcharges. So, an international sim with an Iowa number is not possible....

Also most of these companies were shut down (from AT&T I think)

DRNewcomb · 08-08-2007, 14:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by ygeffens

Is http://www.yak4ever.com/ an example of that? I was hoping they would offer something similar in my country. Guess not...

I believe it is. This is similar to some of the schemes/systems I've seen in Europe where you use your included mobile minutes to call a premium-rate access number which then gives you "free" international calling. One thing to keep in mind is that all these services live on a regulatory razor's edge caused by a quirk or loophole in the regulations. They can be shut down in a nonce if they become too much of a bother to the big companies who own the politicians.

DRNewcomb · 10-08-2007, 13:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

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

?

Here's a bit longer discussion about these Iowa rural phone companies.

Przemolog · 12-08-2007, 09:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Here's a bit longer discussion about these Iowa rural phone companies.

Thanks for the link. So, if I understand correctly, the whole Iowa tariff "mess" is caused by the fact that in sparsely populated rural areas the costs of creating the telecom infrastructure (mainly cables, I think) per subscriber are very high, while the expected revenues aren't.

Going back to the subject of the thread - why are international SIMs are "home-based" in small European countries. Of course, the fact they are often a kind of "tax paradises" may play some role but the main reason is that their telecom companies have "no room" to grow on local markets. I suppose that there is similar reason for which GSM-on-ships services are also often provided by companies from small countries (and at least in two cases are the same companies which provide roaming agreements for international SIMs).

I checked roaming partners list of the Polish mobile operators looking for GSM-onships roamings and I found the following

Large countries based
MCP - Norway (an operator "specialised" in "on-ships" roaming)
TIM - Italy
ATT - USA

Small countries based
OceanCell - Landsimmin Iceland
Seanet - Vodafone Malta
P&T Luxembourg
Jersey Telecom
Manx Telecom

Perhaps someone of you knows more examples.

DRNewcomb · 12-08-2007, 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Going back to the subject of the thread - why are international SIMs are "home-based" in small European countries. Of course, the fact they are often a kind of "tax paradises" may play some role but the main reason is that their telecom companies have "no room" to grow on local markets.

I think it may have something to do with the willingness of the telecoms administration to set up a special termination rate for a particular group of mobile numbers, or perhaps that there is already a high termination rate. I believe that this may be the case in both Man and Jersey with the added benefit that most international carriers lump them in with UK so that the impact of the higher rate is diluted.

snidely · 07-08-2007, 22:32

Stu -
Code for St. Pierre is 508. Don't know about French Polynesia - but it isn't 33.

...mike

fedeprovenza · 07-08-2007, 22:50

+689, code for french polynesia

DRNewcomb · 07-08-2007, 23:35

Another possibility would be Åland. They now have their own wireless network.

Effendi · 08-08-2007, 10:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Another possibility would be Åland. They now have their own wireless network.

Well, they always had it... but with very high rates...

	(#2)
prion (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 589 Join Date: 01 May 2006 Location: Greece Country:	08-08-2007, 13:32 Iowa system applies to calls originating in the US only. So this system benefits the company only if the calls are made from within the USA. All calls outside US do not attract surcharges. So, an international sim with an Iowa number is not possible.... Also most of these companies were shut down (from AT&T I think)

	(#7)
snidely (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 451 Join Date: 09 May 2005 Location: Berkeley, California and Miami Country:	07-08-2007, 22:32 Stu - Code for St. Pierre is 508. Don't know about French Polynesia - but it isn't 33. ...mike Make use of T-M's UMA/wifi free calling from any place in the world with access to wifi. I use an LG G6, wife an S7) A/o Oct 20, 2013 no need for intl prepaid as T-Mobile U.S. includes voice roaming at 20¢/min (in and out)., unlimited text (in and out), and unlimited data in 140+ countries. My Plan -[6 lines] U.S. T-Mobile unlimited minutes (incoming and outgoing), unlimited text, fast data on each line. that $145/mo. total! . (In U.S. no surcharge for calling a cell.) If a line exceeds 2G of data in a month, pay $10 more for that line. [That only happens a couple times/year.

	(#8)
fedeprovenza (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 282 Join Date: 28 Jul 2007 Location: Garda lake (south-west) Country:	07-08-2007, 22:50 +689, code for french polynesia [COLOR="Magenta"]"Working" PrePaids: Wind, Vodafone, CoopVoce, , Travelsim (2), 02 Irish (2) My best sim?--> Wind +39-328 My phones: Samsung Galaxy Next S5570

	(#9)
DRNewcomb (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Professionist Posts: 1,465 Join Date: 27 Feb 2004 Location: Mississippi, USA Country:	07-08-2007, 23:35 Another possibility would be Åland. They now have their own wireless network.