Updated List of International GSM Cards/Services

[Bossman]

Can't even believe you mentioned maxroam. You sure you are not affiliated with them? Go back and look at maxroam's rates then modify your post. Maxroam has very high rates in every country that I compared their sim to other sims. I did not see the cost of DID in any country that is less than 4 euro/month.

[flipper9]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Can't even believe you mentioned maxroam. You sure you are not affiliated with them? Go back and look at maxroam's rates then modify your post. Maxroam has very high rates in every country that I compared their sim to other sims. I did not see the cost of DID in any country that is less than 4 euro/month.

I do some occasional travel in the Americas on medical msisions. I just looked up a couple rates for Maxroam and they seemed reasonable compared to many of the other providers where I was finding USD$1.50/min rates. I don't work for any company, I'm a med student. Perhaps each provider has better rates depending on where you are, from what I can find. The two I mentioned seemed to have the best overall price, and I've used Skype before with another International GSM card (estonia based) in the past which worked well, though the GSM provider was expensive. I was excited to see some better prices with providers since I last checked for the Americas.

Any price lower than USD$0.50/min is approaching what I'd call reasonable for dialing out. MaxRoam for calls from the Dominican Republic are USD$0.46/min and incoming are USD$0.24. Global Roaming has better rates from what I can find, but they seem to be a little unstable (like most of the providers).

Just some other stuff I've learned: I've used SIM cards from the GSM provider in various countries, and it always seems to end up costing more compared to the latest low-cost providers due to the cost of the SIM and setup, the per-minute charge, and the inevitable number of minutes you leave behind that end up expiring. Plus, all the time spent hunting down a SIM shot that can sell you a chip (usually from a different shop where you can purchase top-up cards), which can leave you without phone service until that happens. If anyone knows any other providers with sub USD$0.50/min pricing or any problems/good things about the providers I listed or anything you can add that's great.

Response to above: not trying to be disrespecting to the hard work people have put into their posts over the years, but nobody has the time to spend a few days reading through every post and try to separate out the circa 2006-2007 aged posts, and try to figure out what companies are currently in business, and what the current state of the International GSM market is in. Just creating a thread to gather new, timely information so people don't have to go digging.

[FBlack_111]

I don't know how Flipper can make the statement "but their costs are well over USD$1.00/min in many cases.".


With the drop in EU rates, and the new Dual number SIM's , many SIM providers have rates substantially under $1.00 a minute for the most popular and traveled countries. Even Verizon and ATT have lots of locations with minutes under $1.00.

[flipper9]

Originally Posted by FBlack_111

I don't know how Flipper can make the statement "but their costs are well over USD$1.00/min in many cases.".


With the drop in EU rates, and the new Dual number SIM's , many SIM providers have rates substantially under $1.00 a minute for the most popular and traveled countries. Even Verizon and ATT have lots of locations with minutes under $1.00.

That's from my admittedly cursory look at rates from the list of International GSM Cards on this site. Many posts that talk about these great SIM cards, and then when you look at the rates they are like USD$1.50 or more per minute, some way more. I'd rather use my AT&T card from my personal cellphone, and avoid the hassles of callback dialing, Skype forwarding, lost prepaid credit due to industry instability, and lack of coverage in certain areas where there are no agreements.

I've only found a couple cards that seem to have reasonable rates. The rest seem to charge outlandish costs. Granted, some cards used in Europe give free incoming calls, and that's great. But not everyone travels there.'

Just a request: rather than quoting me or saying "flipper" shouldn't say this or that...could we please just talk about the GSM Services provided out there and discuss them rather than personalizing the discussion? Thanks

[flipper9]

Ekit: for example, is USD$1.29 call-in/USD$1.49 call-out, significant higher than the two cards I mentioned when calling from the Caribbean (Dominican Republic specifically). Plus a USD$0.35 connect fee for each call, either way plus a whopping USD$59 just to purchase the card (and hope to God they don't go out of business or require you to purchase another card). This card does, however, look good if you are traveling to Europe with the free incoming call (though you have to include the connect fee, and the USD$0.19/min charge for calls to your US+1 number, which is a great feature btw). But as a general use card world-wide, it's not as good overall.

[highered]

Originally Posted by flipper9

Ekit: for example, is USD$1.29 call-in/USD$1.49 call-out, significant higher than the two cards I mentioned when calling from the Caribbean (Dominican Republic specifically). Plus a USD$0.35 connect fee for each call, either way plus a whopping USD$59 just to purchase the card (and hope to God they don't go out of business or require you to purchase another card). This card does, however, look good if you are traveling to Europe with the free incoming call (though you have to include the connect fee, and the USD$0.19/min charge for calls to your US+1 number, which is a great feature btw). But as a general use card world-wide, it's not as good overall.

-There's no connect fee on incoming calls within zone 1.
-You don't have to use the +1 DID.
-The Passport SIM is available for $20+$3 shipping direct from EKit on ebay:
International World SIM card with free Incoming calls! - eBay (item 130287597538 end time Sep-11-09 03:24:46 PDT)

While not every card is the best for any specific situation, this card isn't bad "overall".

On the Passport SIM, Ekit has 67 countries with free incoming.
http://ekit.com/ekit/MobileInfo/Service/ekpassport_dual

Zone distribution
Country, number of countries
1a 67
1b 7
2 28
3 25
4 12
5 5

[FBlack_111]

Flipper:

For people who rarely travel, or make few calls, ATT and Verizon International cell phone rates are fine. For me, My Passport SIM from Ekit works well and it saves me lots of money. Check a few of ATT's cell phone rates and then compare them to most SIM cards.

I am going to Italy, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Turkey in September. My Ekit Passport Sim charges 49 cents a minute plus a 35 cent connection fee to call back to the U.S. from each of these countries. So if I make a 10 minute call back to the U.S from each place I visit, it will cost me a total of $26.25. Those same 10 minute calls using ATT from a cell phone will cost about $85.50.

[flipper9]

Yes; definitely I wouldn't want to use AT&T's card for long trips...but the high outlay for some cards outweighs the savings if you are only making a couple, short calls. A collection of calls that total 25 minutes (at USD$2/min) through AT&T on my trip would still cost less than an eKit SIM itself. Global Roaming or MaxRoam seem to provide even lower costs to the destinations I goto such as the Americas, with little outlay in the beginning. Even buying a SIM in-country might require an outlay of USD$15 just to get the card, then you can realize some savings. Guess it just depends on where you are going, and if you plan to talk a lot. I'm looking for a SIM card that I can use to travel around the Americas, then toss it over to people in my family that travel to other areas of the world: a SIM card that has a balance of good rates world-wide.

Heck even Searoam is a no-brainer compared to AT&T, but definitely not as good as ekit, global roaming, or maxroam.

[andy]

Originally Posted by flipper9

Any price lower than USD$0.50/min is approaching what I'd call reasonable for dialing out. MaxRoam for calls from the Dominican Republic are USD$0.46/min and incoming are USD$0.24. Global Roaming has better rates from what I can find, but they seem to be a little unstable (like most of the providers).

Response to above: not trying to be disrespecting to the hard work people have put into their posts over the years, but nobody has the time to spend a few days reading through every post and try to separate out the circa 2006-2007 aged posts, and try to figure out what companies are currently in business, and what the current state of the International GSM market is in. Just creating a thread to gather new, timely information so people don't have to go digging.

Originally Posted by flipper9

Heck even Searoam is a no-brainer compared to AT&T, but definitely not as good as ekit, global roaming, or maxroam.

In what way might Global Roaming be more unstable than Maxroam, or Searoam not as good as either of them, when the underlying SIM card and other details are exactly the same?

If you want up to date and accurate information, you'd do well to quit sweeping and inaccurate generalisations, discounting other people's suggestions, and be more objective. And read a bit more of what is already here. At the moment it is a little difficult to understand whether you are more keen on asking other people or telling them.

A decision what card to use will depend on what calls are likely to be made and received, for instance whether these are mostly to and from the user's home country, within the visited country, or out to other countries. As an example, this summer I have been in countries where the incoming cost on either local or roaming SIM is free, and the per minute cost of calling home or within the country could be 9 to 13 eurocents on a local SIM, 7 to 20p with Vodafone UK, 25p with O2 UK, 30 to 50 cents with any European or roaming SIM, and 58 cents to over a euro with Maxroam, and add on that it is more expensive to call the Belgian Maxroam number. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention the cost of using data, which was 6 and 10 euros per month compared to 1.25 to 3 pounds per megabyte or one card's nearly 2 euros per 100kB, which is almost 20 times markup on the EU mandated wholesale rate.

[flipper9]

I'm not discounting anyone's suggestions. In fact, that's what several people here have done about what I've said or found. I feel the warmth and welcoming of this forum to be lacking.

On the contrary, I'm putting out what I've learned, and hopefully either people will learn from it or correct me so that we can put more updated info about the best cards on this site. It looks like we've identified three cards, and one voip service. Anyone have more information or other ways with the best combination of services? Or do we want to continue personalizing the whole thing?