eKit 'SIMple Calling' US/Canada SIM w/ pretty low rates?

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

{I might have been able to use one or both of them to send SMS while in Mexico last December--but the details are too fuzzy so remember I said 'MIGHT']

Yes, it does indeed work (for SMS) in Mexico.

I just activated one of these (the 323 ebay sim, with the higher first-minute charge) a few days ago in the US. Got back to Mexico today, popped the SIM in and it (surprisingly!) registered OK, on Movistar. Sent and received SMS to/from Google Voice fine (in under ten seconds), and the billing shows the US rates (10c receive, 15c domestic send).

Outbound calls with it (in Mexico) tell me I have outgoing calls barred (which is reasonable, it's not supposed to even register here).

Incoming calls get intercepted with a voice message that says I'm unavailable and gives the option to send your caller-id phone number (or another number) as a text message to the phone - this works great, I get an SMS like "Please call +52... as they tried calling you on +132327..." a few seconds later.

Very useful for me, a single SMS contact number that works across US, Canada and Mexico - with voice calls in two of those countries.

Has anybody tried this US/Canada sim in any other countries? Maybe the SMS feature is enabled in a any roaming location?

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by RTuesday

Yes, it does indeed work (for SMS) in Mexico.

Thanks for verifying that. What I like is the free voice mail retreval. One could use it as a voice paging system and not be charged for any calls.

In December, I will be on the Rhine River so I will have to try you SMS question out.

As I live in the 562 area code and less than a mile from 323 [and not all that far from 213], the area codes are not an issue for me.