Maxroam (aka Roam4Free V2)

[Grampa]

There's no doubt that Maxroam rushed to get this product out, and the website has had one problem after another. This is at least the third rate sheet they have posted. However, this does appear to be an honest mistake -- the rates shown are indeed the same as they were, only expressed in dollars. I should have seen that when I noted that the rates were about one-third higher than they had been.

Comparing Maxroam to UM (which also rushed to get the UM+ rate out before it was ready), it looks like the Europe rates are pretty comparable. Maxroam might be a penny or two higher, but there is no setup charge. Maxroam has a substantial price advantage when roaming in some parts of the world (e.g., China, Russia, Central America), but a disadvantage when roaming in others (e.g., the Middle East). Maxroam's rates to mobile phones are the same as its rates to landlines, which is nice. Maxroam does charge for incoming calls, but it provides local telephone numbers for some countries. I realize that I could set up my own DID, but I prefer not to do that.

I was pretty upset when I thought they had changed their rates after only three days. With that issue resolved, I think Maxroam is a pretty decent value.

[bbob]

Originally Posted by Grampa

Maxroam's rates to mobile phones are the same as its rates to landlines, which is nice. Maxroam does charge for incoming calls, but it provides local telephone numbers for some countries. I realize that I could set up my own DID, but I prefer not to do that.

mobile and landlines same rate. In countries like USA this is normal but most ofther contries do have different rates. It does not make sense to offer same rates as it does mean that you are paying to much for calls to landlines as calls to mobiles are at least 9 eurocents per minute more expensive (on average in europe)

The DID number is nice but I still don't know how the phone can be reached directly. Are they using a +44 number, iceland or what ?

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by bbob

mobile and landlines same rate. In countries like USA this is normal but most ofther contries do have different rates. It does not make sense to offer same rates as it does mean that you are paying to much for calls to landlines as calls to mobiles are at least 9 eurocents per minute more expensive (on average in europe)

I think it is (for the moment) a way to make it easy for them. I think there was not time enough to create a more complex pricing structure.

When I read this http://www.goebel.net/technews/labels/Maxroam.html
I'm convinced they have a lot of work to do, and that they just wanted to establish a place in this difficult market in time.

Originally Posted by bbob

The DID number is nice but I still don't know how the phone can be reached directly. Are they using a +44 number, iceland or what ?

AFAIK a phonenumber (allocated in the GSM-numbering space, whatever country - it doens't matter) for a SIM-card, is more or less the same like an internet domainname for a website. They both are "aliases" for numbers. The phonenumber for the Simcard#, the domainname for the IP-address.

So whay they do is simply pointing different DID's directly to the SIM-card, and not a phonenumber.

This doesn't answer these questions:

• To what number can I sent an SMS ?
• What's the CLIP when I make a call from a card that has more than one number assigned to it?

But I'm sure these things will be answered in the FAQ the coming days.

BTW: just minutes ago (12.10 PM) they corrected the rate-table again. Now with a different pricing for Mobiles and fixed lines.

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by Grampa

There's no doubt that Maxroam rushed to get this product out, and the website has had one problem after another. This is at least the third rate sheet they have posted. However, this does appear to be an honest mistake -- the rates shown are indeed the same as they were, only expressed in dollars. I should have seen that when I noted that the rates were about one-third higher than they had been.

I don't mind such mistakes. If the service (call quality, features, support) is good, then I consider this an 'oops'-moment.

Originally Posted by Grampa

Maxroam's rates to mobile phones are the same as its rates to landlines, which is nice. Maxroam does charge for incoming calls, but it provides local telephone numbers for some countries. I realize that I could set up my own DID, but I prefer not to do that.

Setting up your own system with PBXes, and my own DIDs and Routes is nice, but in the end, these are all extra hops which have an impact on call-quality, and there are too much possible points of failure. With an integrated system like MAXroam, I think that the chance of running into problems is much smaller.