Updated List of International GSM Cards/Services

[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.