Best practice international GSM setup

[MBK]

Originally Posted by ckh

What do you mean with "double dialing" in your reply above?

I think what he means is when people call a toll free 0800 number to call you. They have to dial twice.

Originally Posted by ckh

With xxsim the additional numbers are free; so no monthly cost like at onesimcard. And the rates are just a low as onesimcard, or lower.

For example: mysims2go, a provider that was suggested asks extreme high rates in Chili (just for example); 1,5 for receiving calls and almost 2 euro for calling, where xxsim costs 0,20 for receiving and 0,55 for calling.

Onesimcard is free to receive calls in Chile. (outgoing is about the same as XXSIm charges in euros, Onesimcard in $).

I have been following them both (Onesimcard & XXSIM = same backend) for over a year. Onesimcard has lower rates overall. Every couple months Onesimcard is announcing lower rates in some countries and free incoming countries on their facebook. They are giving us new rates as soon as the backend (Travelsim) sets new rates; this happens very often.

On the other hand, XXSIM is slower to lower the rates and add new free incoming countires. Onesimcard is more proactive.

To sum up:

XXSIM advantage: free US number (but, given the incoming rate, is this really an advantage as you can setup a US number with cheaper forwarding yourself AND you can keep the number you setup yourself should you ever move to another SIM card).

Onesimcard advantage: free email-to-SMS & more proactive = lower rates + free countries sooner. (+ I don't know if XXSIM also has online voicemail? And the 3 Android/Iphone applications, i.ex: cheap VOIP with free incoming when on WIFI/3G with autoswitch from WIFI/3G to your +372 when not reachable on WIFI/3G , etc...)


edit: as an alternative to Onesimcard I would prefer Airbaltic card to XXSIM, as someone posted above it's also the same backend but their credit doesn't expire during 2 years. Airbaltic is still less proactive than Onesimcard with the rates and free incoming countries though (but not much?) , and it doesn't offer free email-to-SMS (+ what about the 3 Android/iphone applications?).

[ckh]

Thank you MBK. I actually agree with you about proactivity of onesimcard vs xxsim. It also costed me multiple emails to get to all the required information.

But now I already order xxsim and its in euro; that is a plus for me. And offcourse I can setup a better rate myself, so 15 cpm is just the start

Piranha mobile btw seems also a good deal. I think I might consider them for my second pair of sims. I'll for sure research them; only too bad their rates tool is so complicated; the rates seem to be low but not as simply structured as xxsim

[MBK]

Originally Posted by ckh

But now I already order xxsim and its in euro; that is a plus for me. And offcourse I can setup a better rate myself, so 15 cpm is just the start

I'm sure you will be happy with the XXSIM. It's still a very good sim, and the difference is not much as they all use the same backend.

Talking about this, could someone advise why not to go with Travelsim (the backend) directly?

Advantages:

• Travelsim has recently added worldwide WIFI access to the SIM (paid for with SIM credit): travelsim.com/trustive/
• With travelsim you get new rates and free countries the soonest (they are the backend).
• It is more expensive to purchase as you have to pay for 50€ credit, but credit never expires and the SIM remains active for 2 years with no recharge.

Disadvantages:

• no email-to-SMS compared to Onesimcard

Originally Posted by ckh

Piranha mobile btw seems also a good deal. I think I might consider them for my second pair of sims. I'll for sure research them; only too bad their rates tool is so complicated; the rates seem to be low but not as simply structured as xxsim

I didn't go with piranha because they always charge for incoming and they are expensive in some countries. But to call out they are of course interesting in some countries. I would take EKIT Passport as 2nd world sim backup (80+ countries free incoming), but Piranha deserves some consideration too due to the cheap outgoing calls in some areas.

In Europe my 2nd SIM is Toggle Mobile and elsewhere local sims (coupled with the MobileVOIP android/iphone app and the dozens of voip providers it supports (all the betamax voip clones) you often get extremely cheap/free callback and the lowest outgoing calls worldwide (free calls to many countries landlines and mobiles). + you can set any callerid you want).

i.ex with this dual-sim setup: if you set +372 as caller id you have free incoming in 154 countries and the worldwide cheapest outgoing calls showing the same callerid.

Nothing can beat this.


edit: if you don't use the local sim for the data, the onesimcard charges data in 1k increments, so triggering the callback costs less than $0.01