Updated List of International GSM Cards/Services

[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?

[adam917]

Originally Posted by 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?

I have to say I would agree. It would be nice to for instance make a wiki and put advice for various scenarios that come up, like places where people travel to, where they call/who calls them, etc. and then receive the best current advice based on information that we keep up to date. I personally am still wondering about a good method of receiving calls in Europe from people who are in the US. Ekit's rates sound nice but how much do callback services cost and how reliable are those? Basically, I want to forward calls from my standard US post-paid line to another US number which then forwards calls to whatever SIM I am using. The question is, assuming I already have the desired SIMs, how much do these forwarding services usually cost for someone in my situation? Also things like am I charged extra for unanswered calls, voicemail reception, etc.?

[Bossman]

Have you looked at Telna Mobile? It gives you a US number and the rates are not too bad. I used it on a recent trip and was quite satisfied.

As for the 3rd party number that will forward to your international sim, the cost and reliability vary. You just have to look at their website and test them out. I have used voicestick and les.net in the past. And in both cases I have sometimes been charged for incomplete calls, etc.

Originally Posted by adam917

Basically, I want to forward calls from my standard US post-paid line to another US number which then forwards calls to whatever SIM I am using. The question is, assuming I already have the desired SIMs, how much do these forwarding services usually cost for someone in my situation? Also things like am I charged extra for unanswered calls, voicemail reception, etc.?

[adam917]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Have you looked at Telna Mobile? It gives you a US number and the rates are not too bad. I used it on a recent trip and was quite satisfied.

As for the 3rd party number that will forward to your international sim, the cost and reliability vary. You just have to look at their website and test them out. I have used voicestick and les.net in the past. And in both cases I have sometimes been charged for incomplete calls, etc.

The only problem with Telna is the high annual fee if you don't travel often. This is on top of it not being pre-paid.

[bones_boy]

Originally Posted by flipper9

I feel the warmth and welcoming of this forum to be lacking.

I generally have found the opposite to be true. Proud to say - this is one of the FEW places that I visit on the Net that people are generally warm and willing to help. And I'm probably one of the biggest cry-babies around!

My thoughts on your OP - when you use subjective terms like "Appears to be" or "You run the risk of" or "Seems to be" or "seem to understand" you would probably garner some sort of ridicule or at the very least, skepticism. It's the nature of every subjective "list" ever created - people just don't agree.

Basically, I think you set yourself up for this type of response. Good luck with your compilation.