Hop to go away

AndreA · 07-02-2008, 21:47

Why? Because a lot of competitors didn't like that agreement... anyway, the dollar is another trouble you're right! Anyway it's a pity

powerlifter · 08-02-2008, 01:56

Here I thought with all the trouble with the Manx sim that Hop would stand alone. Still working
for as long as we needed it. I was wrong it is a pity as it did as Stu pointed out that it had the best rates in the U.S.

bones_boy · **Gone -** 19-02-2008, 23:41

My Hop card appears to no longer work. Calls to it result in a reorder tone (fast busy) and it will not register on AT&T or T-Mobile. What a waste.

Whatever the reason for these companies going out of business - it's pushing me further away from the prepaid market. My main interest in prepaid is to have one number wherever I travel, cost is probably the fourth most important factor to me (behind quality of service, and number of countries). I guess maybe I don't mind paying $4/min for a phone call - maybe that's better than losing an investment with no course to recoup costs. It's kind of like a slap in the face. Anyway that's probably a topic for another thread.

Good-bye Hop.

Bossman · 20-02-2008, 12:03

I know. Unfortunately, we as consumers do not have much protection. The most we can do is to not topup at all until it's time to use the card, and even so, to topup with the minimum possible. At least that may reduce the loss incurred when they go belly up!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

My Hop card appears to no longer work. Calls to it result in a reorder tone (fast busy) and it will not register on AT&T or T-Mobile. What a waste.

Whatever the reason for these companies going out of business - it's pushing me further away from the prepaid market. My main interest in prepaid is to have one number wherever I travel, cost is probably the fourth most important factor to me (behind quality of service, and number of countries). I guess maybe I don't mind paying $4/min for a phone call - maybe that's better than losing an investment with no course to recoup costs. It's kind of like a slap in the face. Anyway that's probably a topic for another thread.

Good-bye Hop.

powerlifter · 26-02-2008, 23:53

I talked to my source at hop. He states that you can use the phone to call out until April. He did not give a date, but that is better than the end of Feb. like it was planed. It looks like I will still lose money. I'm with bones-boy I think I had it with international cards.

Przemolog · 28-02-2008, 10:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

My Hop card appears to no longer work. Calls to it result in a reorder tone (fast busy) and it will not register on AT&T or T-Mobile. What a waste.

Whatever the reason for these companies going out of business - it's pushing me further away from the prepaid market. My main interest in prepaid is to have one number wherever I travel, cost is probably the fourth most important factor to me (behind quality of service, and number of countries). I guess maybe I don't mind paying $4/min for a phone call - maybe that's better than losing an investment with no course to recoup costs. It's kind of like a slap in the face. Anyway that's probably a topic for another thread.

I'm sorry I don't understand what your point is. If you don't mind to pay $4/min (or least the price is not the most impoartant factor to you) why don't you just use roaming with your US SIM? AFAIK both ATT and T-Mo charge about $1, not 4 per minute in roaming and you have one number (a US number, not foreign one, which the Americans wouldn't like to call).

bones_boy · 01-03-2008, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

I'm sorry I don't understand what your point is.

My point is, I'm tired of falling victim of every self-ordained investor with a little bit of capital starting a phone service. It's gotten a bit out of hand. Wouldn't you agree?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

If you don't mind to pay $4/min (or least the price is not the most impoartant factor to you) why don't you just use roaming with your US SIM?

Sounds like a good idea. That is what I'm considering.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

AFAIK both ATT and T-Mo charge about $1, not 4 per minute in roaming

Not for most of the places I go (Angola, Russia, and Chad most often, which is 2.49, 4.99 and 4.99/min. USD respectively)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Przemolog

and you have one number (a US number, not foreign one, which the Americans wouldn't like to call).

Most of my calls come from the local in-country staff I'm supporting. Cost is not a problem for them usually. My costs however are a concern, that is one of the attractions for prepaid SIMs.

FabioG · 02-03-2008, 01:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

I go (Angola, Russia, and Chad most often, which is 2.49, 4.99 and 4.99/min. USD respectively)

Most of my calls come from the local in-country staff I'm supporting. Cost is not a problem for them usually. My costs however are a concern, that is one of the attractions for prepaid SIMs.

Have you thought about scouting for the best offer from a reliable phone company?

Just as an example, BASE (a belgian operator) has the following rates for Angola, Russia and Chad:

€2.25 / €1.25 / €2.25, which is approx. $3.4 / $1.87 / $3.4
local calls are less than $ 1 / min in Angola and Russia and $ 1.95 in Chad

I am sure there are other operators that have similar or even better fees for these countries but provide the sort of reliability you need...

If costs are not really of a concern for those who are calling you, you might even try to get an international premium rate number (eg a satellite number) and have it diverted to yuor belgian number: the part of the fee collected by the IPRN operator and passed on to you would subsidize your roaming fees!

Przemolog · 03-03-2008, 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

My point is, I'm tired of falling victim of every self-ordained investor with a little bit of capital starting a phone service. It's gotten a bit out of hand. Wouldn't you agree?

Sure, I agree. But Hop has had a long history - its first functional version of the website was archived on 27th Sep 2002: http://web.archive.org/web/200209270...hopmobile.com/
so one may have assume it was a reliable product....

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

Quote:
Originally Posted by Przemolog
AFAIK both ATT and T-Mo charge about $1, not 4 per minute in roaming

Not for most of the places I go (Angola, Russia, and Chad most often, which is 2.49, 4.99 and 4.99/min. USD respectively)

Ouch!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bones_boy

Most of my calls come from the local in-country staff I'm supporting. Cost is not a problem for them usually. My costs however are a concern, that is one of the attractions for prepaid SIMs.

OK, so your needs are different that those of many US people here. Since you receive calls mainly from the country you are in, it doesn't matter much to callers whether they call USA, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Estonia, Iceland, "UK-like" islands or whatever - these are just international calls to them

But in fact, you don't need a prepaid SIM

. Prepaid is just a form of payment (but of course, most "international SIMs" are preaids). You need a SIM with low-cost calls - both incoming and outgoing and coverage in many countries, also those "exotic" from North American or European point of view. And, you cannot find an tariff plan matching your need among offers of US mobile operators, right?

bones_boy · **New HOP message -** 23-04-2008, 04:02

Got this text on HOP phone today:

"Effective May 1 2008, the hop INCOMING service will be stopped. The hop OUTGOING calls service will be available until further notice. We regret the inconvenience caused. For any additional information, please contact our customer service by dialling *126"

I find the "until further notice" quite interesting. Also will OUTGOING work without INCOMING - remember HOP is a callback service...

	(#1)
AndreA (Offline) Administrator Prepaid Genius Posts: 1,650 Join Date: 13 Jan 2004 Location: Florence, Italy Country:	07-02-2008, 21:47 Why? Because a lot of competitors didn't like that agreement... anyway, the dollar is another trouble you're right! Anyway it's a pity ANTPEAΣ AΠO THN ΦΛΩPENTIA My Phones: iPhone 2G, E65, N70, P910 DVB-H, A835, 6630, 7600, 6210, S55, T39 "Working" PrePaids: IT: Wind, H3G, Vodafone, Tim, CoopVoce, Poste Mobile, Telepass Mobile, Uno Mobile - CH: OrangeClick - RSM: Prima Easy - UK: O2, H3G - INT: United Mobile, TravelSim, ICQ SIM "Deceased" PrePaids: IT: Blu - AT: H3G - FR: Itineris - ES: Yoigo - GR: Cosmote, Frog - HR: Tele2 - UK: Virgin, Orange TO: UCall - NZ: Vodafone - IN: Hutch - CAN: Fido - USA: T-Mobile - INT: Travelfone, CallKey, Globalsim, HopMobile, GT, 09, Mobal, Yackiemobile ITALIAN TLC BLOG

	(#2)
powerlifter (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 174 Join Date: 06 Jan 2005 Country:	08-02-2008, 01:56 Here I thought with all the trouble with the Manx sim that Hop would stand alone. Still working for as long as we needed it. I was wrong it is a pity as it did as Stu pointed out that it had the best rates in the U.S. [size=1]Prepaid cards, Moldova Tempo, Kyrg Republic BiTel, India Hutch, Bulgaria Mtel, Vodafone, UK. Etisalat. UAE. Afghan Wireless, Afghanistan. Three, UK. T-mobile post-paid. Phones Gsm Iphone6+

	(#3)
bones_boy (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 90 Join Date: 06 Jun 2004 Country:	Gone - 19-02-2008, 23:41 My Hop card appears to no longer work. Calls to it result in a reorder tone (fast busy) and it will not register on AT&T or T-Mobile. What a waste. Whatever the reason for these companies going out of business - it's pushing me further away from the prepaid market. My main interest in prepaid is to have one number wherever I travel, cost is probably the fourth most important factor to me (behind quality of service, and number of countries). I guess maybe I don't mind paying $4/min for a phone call - maybe that's better than losing an investment with no course to recoup costs. It's kind of like a slap in the face. Anyway that's probably a topic for another thread. Good-bye Hop.

	(#5)
powerlifter (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Fan Posts: 174 Join Date: 06 Jan 2005 Country:	26-02-2008, 23:53 I talked to my source at hop. He states that you can use the phone to call out until April. He did not give a date, but that is better than the end of Feb. like it was planed. It looks like I will still lose money. I'm with bones-boy I think I had it with international cards. [size=1]Prepaid cards, Moldova Tempo, Kyrg Republic BiTel, India Hutch, Bulgaria Mtel, Vodafone, UK. Etisalat. UAE. Afghan Wireless, Afghanistan. Three, UK. T-mobile post-paid. Phones Gsm Iphone6+

	(#10)
bones_boy (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 90 Join Date: 06 Jun 2004 Country:	New HOP message - 23-04-2008, 04:02 Got this text on HOP phone today: "Effective May 1 2008, the hop INCOMING service will be stopped. The hop OUTGOING calls service will be available until further notice. We regret the inconvenience caused. For any additional information, please contact our customer service by dialling *126" I find the "until further notice" quite interesting. Also will OUTGOING work without INCOMING - remember HOP is a callback service...