2017 Piranha Mobile Sim Card 2017 thread

[Bossman]

Honestly, until you have the new sim in your hands, I'd suggest that you not believe anything. And if the sim does show up, being a new product, it will likely have its own hiccups in the beginning.

Originally Posted by kctopitz

We're now about a week away from the stated June 30th deadline for the new Piranha SIMs to be shipped. Has anyone heard anything? (Nothing here.)

[GadgetKen]

I leave for Bermuda tomorrow and will use KoKo Mobile as my primary prepaid roaming sim card for voice and text since the replacement Piranha cards have not shown. Data will be via a SkyRoam mifi device. Also have a lot of prepaid airtime on an Inmarsat isatphone, so will try to use some of that up. Plus there's always VOIP...

[svenn]

Koko also looks interesting

[kctopitz]

So Koko appears to be a Naka SIM (bottom of their website lists NAKA AG). There's a whole section on them at the prepaid data wiki, though it's not listed there. The most interesting within that family though is DrimSim, which has €0.01/MB data rates for Europe, the US, Australia and NZ, and lower rates than Koko for other countries I looked at. It's €10 for the SIM card delivered (no credit) vs. 20 Swiss Francs (€17.34 today) for the Koko SIM (no credit). Some of the screenshots of the DrimSim app show a top-up option of €10 which is nice.

One thing that's not clear is the phone numbers included with each. I think it's a UK Isle of Mann # for the DrimSim. GadgetKen, maybe you can answer what number came with your Koko SIM?

[bourbonkiller]

I have started a new thread for Koko mobile with a quick review / overview of the services. Maybe we should head over to that thread to discuss Koko and leave space here for Piranha Mobile...

[bourbonkiller]

Originally Posted by kctopitz

So Koko appears to be a Naka SIM (bottom of their website lists NAKA AG). There's a whole section on them at the prepaid data wiki, though it's not listed there. The most interesting within that family though is DrimSim, which has €0.01/MB data rates for Europe, the US, Australia and NZ, and lower rates than Koko for other countries I looked at. It's €10 for the SIM card delivered (no credit) vs. 20 Swiss Francs (€17.34 today) for the Koko SIM (no credit). Some of the screenshots of the DrimSim app show a top-up option of €10 which is nice.

One thing that's not clear is the phone numbers included with each. I think it's a UK Isle of Mann # for the DrimSim. GadgetKen, maybe you can answer what number came with your Koko SIM?

My phone number comes in the format +44 7937 XXXXX which should be Jersey Telekom. So it's Jersey not IoM. At the end, it will not differ much, as the numbers are higher priced then common UK mobile numbers. My VoIP provider local phone charges 13.9 Euro cent to call this number.

See my initial post in the new Koko Mobile thread, most of the NAKA brands offer several other mobile numbers from different countries. The German number issued to me comes in the format +49 1577 xxxx.

[kctopitz]

Originally Posted by Bossman

Honestly, until you have the new sim in your hands, I'd suggest that you not believe anything. And if the sim does show up, being a new product, it will likely have its own hiccups in the beginning.

Too true. We've now passed the June 30th "ship by" date and I've received no word of a new SIM being shipped, or any sign of life from Piranha for that matter. I'm guessing no one else has either.

[davidtheprof]

yep, Piranha's VOIP "softphone" stopped working, and now the SIM won't register on US or Israeli networks. I'm going to be in the UK, and might use Truphone as backup. Any other recommendations for virtual numbers for UK or Israel, or softphone like Skype?

[kctopitz]

Originally Posted by davidtheprof

yep, Piranha's VOIP "softphone" stopped working, and now the SIM won't register on US or Israeli networks. I'm going to be in the UK, and might use Truphone as backup. Any other recommendations for virtual numbers for UK or Israel, or softphone like Skype?

Toggle Mobile comes with a UK number and allows you to have virtual numbers for the US, Australia, and 10 European countries. They're free for a month, or you can pay an annual fee to keep each number.

That said, if you're ok with softphones and a virtual # tied to an app, I would imagine there are free or at least cheaper options.

[Bossman]

Though no communication from Piranha, I noticed they have updated their call calculator with the new rates, and there someone info about the new SIM card on the website and faq.On logging in, one can choose between US/Canada/UK(what type???) number during SIM activation. Also there is now a monthly charge of $0.50 for a US/Canada number. I suspect it may be one of those expensive UK numbers.