Can we trust callblue again??

[ls129]

Originally Posted by snidely

There is no such thing as "free roaming". Either the cost shows up on your home or office phone when the premium number is dialed to reach the SIM - or a local number is dialed and you incur a (hopefully) small charge against the credit on your SIM.

...mike

To my understanding, the phone number provided by UM+ is +4479...
I dont have to pay anything when I receive a call in Europe even if the call is 45 minutes long.
Calling this number costs as low as 2-3p/min in the UK or 8p/min with Betamax SIP service (http://backsla.sh/betamax)


The ideal free-incoming-call-when-roaming SIM card would have a country code such as +1 (USA), +65 (Singapore), +852 (Hong Kong)
Because these prefixes are currently free with Betamax.

This would allow me to have a landline number anywhere and forward it to this mobile phone for free..

[bbob]

Originally Posted by ls129

This would allow me to have a landline number anywhere and forward it to this mobile phone for free..

I do have such an option and yackie knows which one . There is a way to do this but it's due to a mistake in one of the sim card providers here. I don't really use it because the forward quality suck and it takes up to 30 seconds before the forward gets thru. Most people have hung up by than. But it is due to a mistake so it's not a solution.

I have writen a review on yackie and their $ 0.29 incoming rate on a fixed number is fair. I also explained that it can be done cheaper using betamax and pbxes but this is really a do it yourself solution, not suitable for most people.

But the thread is about callblue, the above can also be found by searching the forum.

[ls129]

I realize the world is not free but i love finding new tricks to save a few cents. And I hate being a sucker of FALSE advertisement practiced by Callblue.

I don't understand exactly how UM+ (or the defunct Freeglobalsim) can offer free roaming.

My guess is that Jersey and Lichtenstein have reciprocal free roaming agreements with 80 or so operators around the world. And these 80 operators assume that there are only a handful of Lichtenstein sim cards that are ever going to show up on their network.

With this line of thought, I imagine that once UM+ subscribers pass a certain volume of subscribers, the magic will be over.

Is that why the Isle-of-Mann free roaming sim cards have magically disappeared a month or so ago?
were there too many IOM sim card owners ?

[snaimon]

An interesting idea, but don't the ESTONIAN cards offer FREE INBOUND, too? Now I admit Estonia does not have as many mobile users as say Germany.

Wonder what others think? I am guessing the OUTBOUND payoff to the host networks are lucrative.

Stan

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

An interesting idea, but don't the ESTONIAN cards offer FREE INBOUND, too? Now I admit Estonia does not have as many mobile users as say Germany.

Wonder what others think? I am guessing the OUTBOUND payoff to the host networks are lucrative.

Stan

Well, its a mixture of inbound call fees and outbound revenues.
German mobile carriers take about 10cent/min for calls that are placed to their subscribers. So they could offer free inbound calls for countries that charge 10ct/min or less for incoming roaming calls. Combined with the revenues of outbound calls (which can be very high...) you can make a nice marketing mix.

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

Well, its a mixture of inbound call fees and outbound revenues.
German mobile carriers take about 10cent/min for calls that are placed to their subscribers. So they could offer free inbound calls for countries that charge 10ct/min or less for incoming roaming calls. Combined with the revenues of outbound calls (which can be very high...) you can make a nice marketing mix.

Slightly off topic, but do you know some rates that carriers in other countries take (minimum) to connect to their networks? eg. for Belgium, UK, Iceland, ...

Voicetrading charges 10c to Germany, so they hardly make money on that, do they?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by ygeffens

Slightly off topic, but do you know some rates that carriers in other countries take (minimum) to connect to their networks? eg. for Belgium, UK, Iceland, ...

Voicetrading charges 10c to Germany, so they hardly make money on that, do they?

Poland: "the Big Three" i.e. Era, Plus and Orange and their MVNO's take 0.40 PLN and Play takes 0.65 PLN. At the current exchange rate it makes about 0.11 and 0.18 EUR, respectively. The rates above are exclusive of VAT, of course.

Have you found better rates to Poland mobile? Probably yes. How do they do this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_cellular_terminal
Of course, it's illegal here, not by the national telecom law, but by the operators' ownership rights - Polish SIMs are formally properties of the operators and FCT usage is a violating of T&C's of someone's property .
The same trick applies to many other countries .

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

Well, its a mixture of inbound call fees and outbound revenues.
German mobile carriers take about 10cent/min for calls that are placed to their subscribers. So they could offer free inbound calls for countries that charge 10ct/min or less for incoming roaming calls.

Not necessarily. The essential value is what is average rate which any specific operator receives per minute. I mean, what if a large part of the overall traffic are cheap on-net calls (=much cheaper than 10 ct/min). As long as the whole thing remains within the home network, that's OK. But what should happen when the SIM is roaming in a foreign network with the termination rate 8 ct/min.? If the call to that SIM comes not from the home network, the operator receives 10 cents which is probably enough to cover forwarding abroad including the termination fee of the roaming partner. But if not, i.e. the call comes from the home network at the on-net rate, let's say 5 ct/min who will pay the difference? Differing the inbound rates depending on the origin of the call is technically possible, but would it be acceptable by customers? Of course, my example doesn't exclude free incomig calls since losses on the inbound calls may be compesated by profits from outbound calls. But such pricing may force some "fair use policies" like limiting the volume of incoming calls or the inboung/outbound ratio...