telna Mobile [split thread]

[DRNewcomb]

Update: I received my telnamobile SIM yesterday. This morning I tested it and it does register on T-Mobile. When I attempted to call the number, the call went right to generic voicemail. (I then received a SMS saying I had voicemail.) Calls to the SIP address were picked up but the phone did not ring. An attempt to send a SMS failed with a reply SMS saying that SMS was not yet supported. I could not log onto the account management at mytelna.com. I called their very friendly and courteous customer service and they are working on getting the issues resolved. Bottom line, it's still a Beta product. Don't expect out-of-the-box perfection.

[telnamobile]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Update: I received my telnamobile SIM yesterday. This morning I tested it and it does register on T-Mobile. When I attempted to call the number, the call went right to generic voicemail. (I then received a SMS saying I had voicemail.) Calls to the SIP address were picked up but the phone did not ring. An attempt to send a SMS failed with a reply SMS saying that SMS was not yet supported. I could not log onto the account management at mytelna.com. I called their very friendly and courteous customer service and they are working on getting the issues resolved. Bottom line, it's still a Beta product. Don't expect out-of-the-box perfection.

Sorry about that DRNewcomb. The activation glitch on the website has been fixed during the day. So far most customers for the service are already telna customers, so they had not encountered this issue.

By default you can't receive/place calls with the SIM card as long as it has not been activated.

Outbound SMS is not yet active as mentionned on our website, but we work on it

For info, by default we block incoming and outgoing calls in the USA because of the high rate of the card. We wouldn't want someone to put the card in their phone without paying attention to the rates. If you want to receive/place calls from the USA, you need to change your country blockings option from within your mytelna once you activated your card.

[DRNewcomb]

Since this morning the website problem has been solved and the card activated.

They have a country-by-country activate/deactivate list which seems pretty handy. If your kid tells you he's going to UK you can make sure it won't work when he makes a side trip to Amsterdam.

There are a number of configuration options, including voicemail delivery by e-mail and ring-time before voicemail. You can also configure what shows for your caller ID when you make outgoing calls. When you call the number you get a recording which says, "Wait while we locate..." There's a configuration to turn this off and on, but I don't understand why one setting is better than the other.

Once you get the account, you also get access to their dial-through long-distance/international calling service. I've configured all our phones in case I decide to use it.

Still no SMS. It does not send and does not receive on the the US number. I have no idea about the Israeli number (which I was not provided). I have also not been able to get the inbound SIP address to work. I'm calling 1786363XXXX@voip.telnamobile.com. I'll talk with them about that another day.

[FBlack_111]

Maybe I am missing something about this SIM. Except for a free year if you send them a dead SIM from a competitor, they charge $49 a year. Is the first annual fee charged from day one or day 365? So if you send in a dead SIM, do you get 12 months or 24 months free?

Their incoming rates to Europe are higher than most other SIM providers. IE: NO free incoming calls at all. (The outgoing rates are very good though).

You do get a U.S. number which makes calls from associates cheaper for them, but you must pay about 29 cents a minute.

Their Post Paid service is nice if you don't mind them having a credit card and you with the potential for unlimited charges. With Pre Paid service , your liability for a lost phone is limited.

I like a company with 24/7 customer service. Telna has customer service located in the U.S. from Monday through Friday from 6AM to 5PM Pacific Time. Just don't have problems making calls or lose the phone in their off hours.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

I have also not been able to get the inbound SIP address to work. I'm calling 1786363XXXX@voip.telnamobile.com. I'll talk with them about that another day.

Turns out that it does not work exactly according to the instructions:

Just send your incoming call via SIP protocol to 12345678900@voip.telnamobile.com where 12345678900 is your telna Mobile phone number in E164 format, and your call should ring through to your telna Mobile phone.

I was using the 11-digit international number, as shown above. When I tried the 10-digit format, the phone rang. No intermediate, "Wait while we locate.." message.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by hkr

As for me, I do not really need SMS, but a nice feature would be to be able to send SMS as if they would come from my main home number. Receiving SMS is free in most countries I visit, so I would be able to send SMS from one card, and receive SMS on another.

What I would appreciate is SMS delivery by eMail or web and SMS forwarding. As I discussed recently with a GSM specialist, it should be possible to modify the HLR, so all SMS (including those from third-party networks) would be first delivered to some SMS-proxy. Depending on user preferences that SMS-proxy would then

1. deliver messages to the phone and/or
2. forward messages to another number (subject to charge) and/or
3. forward message to an eMail address and
4. show all sent and incoming messages on the web.

That would be a very innovative and convinient service, that would open a lot of new possibilites.

Another innovative service would be call delivery including parallel call by SIP, as Austria's A1 (A1 over IP) and Germany's solomo offer. So users could also receive calls for free if received by VoIP (VoIP and GSM would ring simultaneously). That of course will decrease your revenue at first sight, but users would of course use that VoIP-account also for their outgoing calls, which would bypass Israel and so a higher margin could be left for you.

[telnamobile]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

What I would appreciate is SMS delivery by eMail or web and SMS forwarding. As I discussed recently with a GSM specialist, it should be possible to modify the HLR, so all SMS (including those from third-party networks) would be first delivered to some SMS-proxy. Depending on user preferences that SMS-proxy would then

1. deliver messages to the phone and/or
2. forward messages to another number (subject to charge) and/or
3. forward message to an eMail address and
4. show all sent and incoming messages on the web.

That would be a very innovative and convinient service, that would open a lot of new possibilites.

Those are actually features we intend to provide once we have the SMS feature with our service. We were going to store all incoming text messages in a mailbox on our website and then you would have the choice to let them go to your telna Mobile phone or forwarded via email or both. We could also store outgoing messages.

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Another innovative service would be call delivery including parallel call by SIP, as Austria's A1 (A1 over IP) and Germany's solomo offer. So users could also receive calls for free if received by VoIP (VoIP and GSM would ring simultaneously). That of course will decrease your revenue at first sight, but users would of course use that VoIP-account also for their outgoing calls, which would bypass Israel and so a higher margin could be left for you.

This makes sense, but that requires we develop a whole new product. It will be a little bit later as we have to do things in order.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Another innovative service would be call delivery including parallel call by SIP, ... So users could also receive calls for free if received by VoIP (VoIP and GSM would ring simultaneously). That of course will decrease your revenue at first sight, but users would of course use that VoIP-account also for their outgoing calls, which would bypass Israel and so a higher margin could be left for you.

What it looks like we are building here is a combination of features from Google Voice, Truphone, Gizmo and an international SIM. Google Voice has a virtual SMS number which forwards SMS to a US cell phone. It also has online voicemail. Truphone forwards calls to VOIP or mobile based on if the VOIP is connected or not. Gizmo provides VOIP connections to all sorts of places. I've often wished I could get them to work with each other better.

[VladS]

TelnaMobile looks like a pretty promissing service, but I for one will pass as for all international customers they ask for a copy of the national ID.

Just like I wouldn't give service providers my SSN (or canadian SIN), I don't distribute copies of my ID(s).

[DRNewcomb]

SIP would be very handy indeed. I could be called directly from a PC or even smartphone at any WiFi hotspot. It would also be handy to have options to call voicemail via SIP and/or receive voicemail as an attachment to an e-mail. The latter was a feature of Celtrek's initial offering which I used frequently, as I would travel out of cellular service for long periods of time but still have good e-mail access. I could receive my voicemails and then either e-mail the caller back or return the call via satellite phone.