United Mobile--coming back?

[bbob]

Originally Posted by hrgajek

If you understand german language you'll find more details at
Treiben persönliche Streitereien United Mobile in den Konkurs? - teltarif.de News
The article is based on swiss News portal 2lounge which is run by an "insider".

The most interesting part of this article is that +423-663 is also being used for sex hotlines. This being the reason that these numbers get blocked by many provider world-wide. Unless Lichtenstein does something about this the mobile platform will still see these high rates and blocks by my telecom providers.

Is there really a future for +423-663 lichtenstein. Rates to these numbers are still very high and this is the reason most people went to other cards. I doubt that this platform will see any growth if it remains like this.

[prion]

My +423 sim also works for incoming calls, not for outgoing.
I think this has been the case even when the problems started some time ago.

[cizake]

I can officially deny all rumors/statements regarding Cubic acquiring UM.

[snaimon]

If UM is basically defunct, what options, if any, remain, to use our old UM cards?

Travelsim (Estonia) was sending out free SIM cards with a 5 euro balance; I did one of those.

Who else, if anyone, is offering to REPLACE the card, and under what conditions?

I have one more card to either hold or exchange. Holding is looking more dubious every day. I am glad I converted the one UM SIM already.

Stan

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

Who else, if anyone, is offering to REPLACE the card, and under what conditions?

I like: FREE International OneSimCardTM SIM with $10 of talk time

10 plus year old US based company with Estonian phone number SIM.

[MATHA531]

The problem of course remains that Estonian based numbers have almost the same high termination fees that led to the unraveling of what had been a very successful well run United Mobile with its Liechtenstein number.

You just can't win.

[123456]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

The problem of course remains that Estonian based numbers have almost the same high termination fees that led to the unraveling of what had been a very successful well run United Mobile with its Liechtenstein number.

The rate of calling a Estonian phone number from within the EU is not higher then calling any other EU based number. So it is more a problem for calling from outside the EU to Estonia.

[hkr]

Originally Posted by 123456

The rate of calling a Estonian phone number from within the EU is not higher then calling any other EU based number. So it is more a problem for calling from outside the EU to Estonia.

Well, calling a number in Estonia from Hungary is definitely far more expensive than calling a local, Hungarian mobile. Depending on our plan, it can easily be 15 times that expensive. This is a prohibitive factor for many. Should I hand out my UK or Estonia-based number here, sure nobody would call me. That is great on a holiday, but not that fantastic if I expect business calls.

Then it is either normal roaming or forwarding to my roaming SIM using a local DID. I am a geek and I can arrange for a local DID, but most people can not.

[123456]

Well, calling a number in Estonia from Hungary is definitely far more expensive than calling a local, Hungarian mobile.

Same overhere, but i was talking about the Eurotariff which sets limits on the prices mobile operators can charge for mobile calls made or received while roaming within the EU. Same rate now to call a Estonian mobile number while roaming in Spain as calling a French mobile number.

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by 123456

Same overhere, but i was talking about the Eurotariff which sets limits on the prices mobile operators can charge for mobile calls made or received while roaming within the EU. Same rate now to call a Estonian mobile number while roaming in Spain as calling a French mobile number.

Understand your clairification; but then again and we've been beating around this for a while. I believe, and will always believe, that a big reason for the demise of UM, O9 and many of the other international cards are the eurotariffs (while we can argue about degree we surely can't argue this is a big factor).....in the past (pre Eurotariffs) a large segment of clientelle would come from Europe as Europeans cross international frontiers a great deal more than say Americans and the roaming rates when say a Brit went on a short holiday to Spain were large, weren't they. With the advent of very reasonable (and getting more reasonable each year) roaming European rates, the need for the international cards would dramatically decrease.

That of course leads to the people who would want international cards are people perhaps travelling to several different countries such as UAE from North America say or from Australia but then again those people tend not to do a six or seven country trip and for them local sims in the country visited might do the trick. The beauty of the international cards for me as an American who might visit three or four European countries on a trip was one number, no need to acquire three or four local sims (although pre riiing, that's the way I used to do it and still have the French, German and Dutch sims to prove it).....

Now as noted, in its glory days, UM was great and I was fortunate to have found an ld carrier to call forward from my home number at most reasonable rates. But then termination fees, as we know, on +423 skyrocketed. Estonia has the same problem for me at least if I want to call forward although enlinea rates are pretty reasonable but they are a bit unreliable. The +44 rates are okay, nothing great. So at least for most North Americans, Estonia is not really a good option. Yes you could receive for free but when your friends or business associates receive their phone bills, you will probably have one less friend.

Given my pattern of travel (mostly Europe from North America), given the way I like to handle things (call forwarding off my home landline), it is beginning to look like there is really no need for international sim cards any longer...as I said elsewhere this summer during my visits to Germany, France and the UK, I relied on a new vodafone uk sim card because of their roaming free summer rates....how that holds up will go a long way to determine whether I need further international sim cards (although the dual US/UK ekit card looks very viable).