ekit dual number [US & UK] SIMs

[meir]

I can confirm eKit works well in Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Czech Republic. I used to have problems in Hungary with other SIM cards, but eKit was fine there. Even voice quality was good to very good even when calling via Betamax.

[FBlack_111]

Something odd happened with my new Ekit Dual SIM.

As per the User Guide, the U.S. SIM deactivated after 7 days of non use. The guide says you can reactivate it by going online, or over the phone, or with customer service.

But in addition to the U.S. number being deactivated, the U.K number was deactivated too. The phone would not take the UK. Pin code at all. It was as if the whole SIM was deactivated. I had to activate it via my computer at Recharge Minutes.

Has anyone else had their US number shut down after the 7 days? What about their global number? How did you get it all reactivated?

[glhs509]

Well I just got back and either I have a glitchy SIM card or the service is not living up to my expectations.

eKit did not work well for me in: Czech Rep., Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. I received a call back about 1 in 6 times in the Czech Rep....never in Austria/Slovenia and about 1 in 10 times in Croatia. I was too busy zipping through Slovakia, so I never bothered to check there. ALL incoming calls to the +44 number all went to voicemail (i.e. the phone never rang). Calls to the local +1 number came through fine (albeit with ~4sec lag in voice quality).

In one instance, I was asked for the PUK since it said I had incorrectly entered the PIN 3 times (which I hadn't). After turning the phone off/on it accepted my PIN fine. Unclear if this is carrier related since I attempted to manually search for networks when I was unable to place calls.

I'm going to have to pass on eKit...it's too bad since the rates were fairly reasonable. The headache with trying to make a simple call outweighs the decent rates.

-Ken

[FBlack_111]

glhs509:

I am curious what type of phone you were using. I had ring back problems a year ago on one of my phones. I took 2 phones with me then. Seems on one phone I had to send a text message to get a ring back. The trick is to send an SMS with just the phone number you want to call in it to 1234. No charge for the SMS. The SIM worked fine in my other phone.

[glhs509]

Originally Posted by FBlack_111

glhs509:

I am curious what type of phone you were using. I had ring back problems a year ago on one of my phones. I took 2 phones with me then. Seems on one phone I had to send a text message to get a ring back. The trick is to send an SMS with just the phone number you want to call in it to 1234. No charge for the SMS. The SIM worked fine in my other phone.

My main phone/PDA is an iMate K-Jam which has been solid for almost 5 yrs now. Ring backs have worked in the past on other SIMs, including most recently Yackie.
The eKit in USA mode (while in the USA) worked fine before leaving. I had also tried the eKit SIM on my wife's Nokia while abroad with similar results.

Unfortunately I had to make several calls in a jam (non-casual) and thus had to resort to my T-Mo USA SIM...waiting to pour myself a stiff drink before I look at the billings (although I'm on the grandfathered [pre-worldclass] and may not be so bad off)...

[Bossman]

Very true that a lot of newer phones, especially smartphones tend to not work well with some of these callback sims. However, that does not explain why all incoming calls to the UK number went straight to VM.

Originally Posted by FBlack_111

glhs509:

I am curious what type of phone you were using. I had ring back problems a year ago on one of my phones. I took 2 phones with me then. Seems on one phone I had to send a text message to get a ring back. The trick is to send an SMS with just the phone number you want to call in it to 1234. No charge for the SMS. The SIM worked fine in my other phone.

[littleyip]

Well, I gave up on Travel Sim UK as they aren't going to offer dual-sim to United Mobile customers and they no longer have free inbound in Brazil, which is 1 of the 3 countries I will be traveling to soon. I had considered Geo-Sim but their dual-sims aren't out yet and their rate for people calling the US number will be 35cents/min compared to Ekit's 19cents/min.

To add my data points:
1) My Ekit US area code is 508, a Massachusetts number. Would have liked a NY number as that is where I'm from, but it doesn't really matter.

2) All of my test calls have been working to and from US numbers.

3) The rate being charged is definitely 19cents/min with no 35cent connection.

4) I deactivated my voicemail and turned off my phone and tried to call the phone, and got that option to send SMS. But, I was not charged for this. Since I will only give my US number to people in the US, they will not be charged anything either. However, it would be nice to turn this option off and make it appear to ring, though the only reason I turned off voicemail is because I am using Google Voice for call forwarding to this phone and voicemail. When Ekit implements free voicemail access from the website, I will probably change my setup.

5) All of the quick 3 digit access numbers I tried worked without any *. Using * did not work, even though the Telestial website for the Passport card says to use *869* for disabling voicemail. Are the * necessary when abroad?

6) I have not tested calling abroad and will not.

I'm going to Paris and worried about Kupe's experience there. Kupe, you said you would go again in early July. Did you go? Did you have problems? =/

[rfranzq]

Ekit has two different SIMple Calling SIMs available on eBay. Both have free voicemail retreval in the US and Canada. The US and UK ekit eBay sellers have different SIMple Calling SIMs. They both have a US and UK number and the non US/Canada rates are each different but comparable to one of the other original UK [IOM] SIM plans. UPDATE: ekit has both SIMple calling SIMs on their website now. Just noticed seconds ago! EBay is the inexpensive place to get these.

[littleyip]

*sigh* I saw this too late. And I am a little confused. Is it almost exactly the same as the Passport dual-sim but... better??? And for only $12 shipped? Why is the pricing so different? I just paid $34 for the Passport on Telestial =/

[schuster]

Originally Posted by glhs509

Well I just got back and either I have a glitchy SIM card or the service is not living up to my expectations.

eKit did not work well for me in: Czech Rep., Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia. I received a call back about 1 in 6 times in the Czech Rep....never in Austria/Slovenia and about 1 in 10 times in Croatia. I was too busy zipping through Slovakia, so I never bothered to check there. ALL incoming calls to the +44 number all went to voicemail (i.e. the phone never rang). Calls to the local +1 number came through fine (albeit with ~4sec lag in voice quality).

In one instance, I was asked for the PUK since it said I had incorrectly entered the PIN 3 times (which I hadn't). After turning the phone off/on it accepted my PIN fine. Unclear if this is carrier related since I attempted to manually search for networks when I was unable to place calls.

I'm going to have to pass on eKit...it's too bad since the rates were fairly reasonable. The headache with trying to make a simple call outweighs the decent rates.

-Ken

In June, we used eKit cards (both the old UK number and the newer dual SIM) in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. No problems whatsoever.