Best practice international GSM setup

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

onesimcard needs a minimum recharge of at least $25 every 10months in order to maintain your credit balance and not loose it...If your balance does expire, it will not be refunded to you.

Yes, they should lower the min recharge requirement to 10$. On the other hand, even if you don't recharge it, the onesimcard stays active for 2 years. And it still accepts incoming calls for free in 154 countries with 0 credit (many other international SIMs cut the service when credit runs out, this can be bothersome if you are in the middle of a call, on the move). Imagine yourself in trouble in an urgent situation in a foreign country. This is top notch service IMHO.

If credit expiry is an issue, Travelsim is the same thing (same backend), also active for 2 years after the last recharge, but the credit doesn't expire. The SIM itself is more expensive to purchase though, and Travelsim doesn't have free email-to-SMS.

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by MBK

Yes, they should lower the min recharge requirement to 10$. On the other hand, even if you don't recharge it, the onesimcard stays active for 2 years. And it still accepts incoming calls for free in 154 countries with 0 credit (many other international SIMs cut the service when credit runs out, this can be bothersome if you are in the middle of a call, on the move). Imagine yourself in trouble in an urgent situation in a foreign country. This is top notch service IMHO.

If credit expiry is an issue, Travelsim is the same thing (same backend), also active for 2 years after the last recharge, but the credit doesn't expire. The SIM itself is more expensive to purchase though, and Travelsim doesn't have free email-to-SMS.

Only major downside is that it costs silly money for caller to call you on the free incoming +372 number, BT charge a one off £0.14 and £0.88 per minute thereafter and mobile operators charge anything between £0.50 and £1.00, which seems to defeat the object of free roaming, especially if its my family calling me, as i am picking up the callers bill . Does anyone know of a cheaper way for the caller to call +372 numbers. All options welcome.

[MBK]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

Does anyone know of a cheaper way for the caller to call +372 numbers. All options welcome.

Yes, currently £0.06 with hotvoip.com

They allow several ways to call: hotvoip.com/ways_to_call

(Local access numbers, phone-to-phone (callback), computer, SIP, MobileVOIP application on iphone and android (direct & callback & local access numbers).

It also works beautifully with IP phones like the Gigaset C610 IP (which supports 1 analog phone line + 7 SIP providers).

You also get a SIP address you@sip.hotvoip.com , and in the windows Hotvoip desktop application settings you can setup auto incoming call forwarding to any number (i. ex: your +372). So anyone who is calling your sip address lands on your +372 and your are charged £0.06 per minute.

Possibilities are endless. For example, with callcentric.com you get a free US number. You setup all incoming calls on this US number to be forwarded to you@sip.hotvoip.com -> this lands on your +372, you pay only £0.06 per minute.

(Then if you want you can also setup callcentric to transfer the calls to your callcentric voicemail if you are not reachable on your +372 (assuming you are not using the +372 voicemail). And you can also setup callcentric to send an email to inform you of the new voicemails; so you have it send them to your 372xxxxxx@sms.onesimcard.com so you get an SMS on your +372 phone for free everytime someone leave a callcentric voicemail.)

This was just one example.

Some other cheap providers to mobile +372 from the same group of companies are: cheapbuzzer.com , megavoip.com.

[MBK]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

Only major downside is that it costs silly money for caller to call you on the free incoming +372 number, BT charge a one off £0.14 and £0.88 per minute thereafter and mobile operators charge anything between £0.50 and £1.00, which seems to defeat the object of free roaming, especially if its my family calling me, as i am picking up the callers bill . Does anyone know of a cheaper way for the caller to call +372 numbers. All options welcome.

Oh, and I forgot the other Onesimcard options:

• Your friends/family can call you for free via the Toll free 0800 access numbers. It costs you $0.20 to receive the calls, see below
• In your onesimcard.com account you can order a local UK landline number (35 countries are available). People can call you on that landline number and it costs you $0.20 to receive the calls on your +372.
• They can also call your +372 with Skype (free for them, you are charged $0.20 to receive the calls - see the onesimcard.com FAQ for how to call you for free with skype)
• OneSimCard Connect, lets people call and text you for free from their Android device! (iOS app coming soon) onesimcard.com/faq/?text=onesimcard+connect

when somebody is calling to your OneSimCard phone there is an option for them to call you through a Toll Free or local number rather than dialing your European mobile number directly, which could be expensive for them. This call will instead be charged to your OneSimCard account at an additional 20c/min to the incoming rate in the country where you are receiving the call.

Whem someone calls you through a Common Access Number they receive a prompt where they then enter your primary European number starting with 372 to reach you. For a direct connection, we recommend adding a Personal Extra Number (PEN) instead.

At this time we have Toll Free and/or Local Common Access Numbers in the following countries:

• Australia
• Austria
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Canada
• Cyprus
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hong Kong
• Israel
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Russia
• Spain
• UK
• USA - Toll Free as well as local Common Access Numbers in New York City, Washington DC and Los Angeles

You can find these numbers in the User Guide or while logged in to your OneSimCard web account portal.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by MBK

Yes, they should lower the min recharge requirement to 10$. On the other hand, even if you don't recharge it, the onesimcard stays active for 2 years. And it still accepts incoming calls for free in 154 countries with 0 credit (many other international SIMs cut the service when credit runs out, this can be bothersome if you are in the middle of a call, on the move). Imagine yourself in trouble in an urgent situation in a foreign country. This is top notch service IMHO.

If credit expiry is an issue, Travelsim is the same thing (same backend), also active for 2 years after the last recharge, but the credit doesn't expire. The SIM itself is more expensive to purchase though, and Travelsim doesn't have free email-to-SMS.

airbalticcard (travelsim backend) does NOT expire both the credit+number for 2years of last usage (not recharge!)... onesimcard expire the credit after of just 10months of the last recharge! they also require the ridicilus amount of $25 for minimum recharge

plus airbalticcard offer free uk mobile number prefix +4475207xxxx ,just eur.0,15per call (not per minute) surcharge when receive calls through this uk number.
plus they charge per second for EU-EU calls...onesimcard+xxsim charge EU-EU calls per minute..
also airbalticcard charge data within EU per just 1kb per data session...

all these years i have used all availiable travelsim backend simcards , for EU travellers airbalticcard is much better than both onesimcard & xxsim, but i still prefer Piranha-mobile even for EU roaming. my 2nd backup choice is Mysims2go http://www.mysims2go.com/tariffcalcu...iid=23&lang=en , very cheap and stable http://www.mysims2go.com/document.aspx?iid=1060&lang=en plus they now offer direct through calls (not callback!)