Best practice international GSM setup

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by MBK

I went to the airbaltic website to check it out:

Free incoming/forwarding countries:

Airbaltic: 134 (they say more than 140 but I could count only 134)
Onesimcard: 154

Furthermore, many of the regions Onesimcard provides free service in aren't even in the Airbaltic rates list.

Of course, most of these regions are considered overseas territories of some countries, but many companies still charge them differently.

The list below of 20 + 134 = 154 which equals the number of free regions served by Onesimcard could have us think that they are considering these regions as parts of other countires.

The question is, does Airbaltic offer service in these regions or not? And are these regions free (as with Onesimcard)?

I have sent them an email to inquire about this. We'll see.


Regions:

Aland Islands
Azores
Bonaire
Canary Islands
Christmas Isl.
Curacao
Easter Island
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Reunion Island
Saba
St. Barts
St. Eustatius
St. Maarten
St. Martin
Svalbard
Tibet
US Virgin Isl.
Zanzibar

the free incoming countries are same for onesimard and airbalticcard. airbaltic also offer free uk mobile number +4475207prefix with surcharge of only 0.15eur.per call!

from airbalticcard website for credit expiry:

What are the expiration terms of airBalticcard mobile and my balance?
There are no expiration terms imposed. The card is blocked if 2 years pass without activity on the card (phone call, SMS, credit refill). Left-over balance is returned at the customer's request within 2 years of the last activity from the card (call, SMS, balance refill) in accordance with the "General Terms and conditions".


a very good UK +44 alternative roaming simcard is mysims2go http://www.mysims2go.com/document.aspx?iid=1060&lang=en very cheap rates and stable service based on cloud9 service http://www.cloud9mobile.co.uk/.
free incoming calls in 101countries

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

airbaltic also offer free uk mobile number +4475207prefix with surcharge of only 0.15eur.per call!

I can't find any mention of this on the website. Are you sure this is still valid?

Originally Posted by MBK

Validity:

• Travelsim: no credit expiry, active 2 years after last recharge
• Airbaltic: no credit expiry, active 2 years after last recharge
• Onesimcard: credit expires if not recharged after 10 months, the SIM remains active for 2 years even if not recharged. Accepts incoming calls for free even with 0 credit.
• XXSIM: expires 12 months after last reload (credit and number is lost).

So, the worst regarding validity seems to be XXSIM.


There are several other differences (too many to list?). Example:

• I think XXSIM is the only one of the bunch to offer a 0800 toll free access number in Switzerland.
• onesimcard is the only one with US based support.
• email-to-SMS is onesimcard only (You can send SMS for free to a onsimcard by email at 372xxxx@sms.onesimcard.com)
• XXSIM offers the US PEN for free (the others charge a yearly fee, not sure if Travelsim and airbalic charge for it or not)
• Onesimcard offers 3 android/iphone apps (VOIP, etc...). Travelsim does too (they are the ones that make them in the 1st place). Not sure about airbaltic and XXSIM.
• Travelsim as the backend sets the new rates and new free incoming countries first. Onsimcard is the 2nd to get them right behind (usually on the same day as Travelsim as they announce them in advance). XXSIM and airbaltic are slower to activate new rates / free countires.
• Travelsim has worldwide WIFI support (charged from SIM credit)

Update:

• Airbaltic: free UK number +4475207prefix
• XXSIM: free US number (30 days only or no expiry?)
• Onesimcard: free US number 30 days only (can pay to keep the same number)
• Onesimcard: is the only one to offer local numbers in 35+ countries
• Travelsim & Onesimcard are the only ones to offer EU data packages (10Mb, 100MB, 200/250MB, 500MB) The travelsim packages seem to be a little cheaper.