What Am I Misssing? Re: Geosim & Other Iom Sims

[MATHA531]

To me, right now, O9 is the best to use as enlinea only charges 10? US/minute to call the USA (its billing system treats it as Iceland not Iceland mobile) but I was in Switzerland extensively in both July and August and O9 would not register on any Swiss network. Unless it has changed since August.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

To me, right now, O9 is the best to use as enlinea only charges 10? US/minute to call the USA (its billing system treats it as Iceland not Iceland mobile) but I was in Switzerland extensively in both July and August and O9 would not register on any Swiss network. Unless it has changed since August.

can you reach your 09 card via elinea without problems?
as written in another thread there are quite some problems reaching the 09 cards if not using the expensive providers...

Chris

[MATHA531]

Chris...

I'm back in the USA now and haven't touched the O9 sim since 28 August...all I can tell you is that during the time I was in Europe which was between 09 August and 28 August, I used O9 extensively to call back to the USA via enlinea and it worked almost flawlessly...except of course when I was in Switzerland; however I used UM to receive calls as I have a plan that allows call forwarding via my landline at the rate of 11?/minute (AT&T ld)...for convenience sake when I am in the UK I use a local UK sim to make and receive calls as I do call locally extensively and I learned a trick from somebody here to cut my ld calls via the mobile to 5p/minute and then 7?/minute using a US calling card....

Also although I don't use it that much, O9 does not seem to support text messaging and voice mail.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

Chris...

I'm back in the USA now and haven't touched the O9 sim since 28 August...all I can tell you is that during the time I was in Europe which was between 09 August and 28 August, I used O9 extensively to call back to the USA via enlinea and it worked almost flawlessly...except of course when I was in Switzerland; however I used UM to receive calls as I have a plan that allows call forwarding via my landline at the rate of 11?/minute (AT&T ld)...for convenience sake when I am in the UK I use a local UK sim to make and receive calls as I do call locally extensively and I learned a trick from somebody here to cut my ld calls via the mobile to 5p/minute and then 7?/minute using a US calling card....

Also although I don't use it that much, O9 does not seem to support text messaging and voice mail.

Yes, the SMS service does not work yet (btw, the SMSC-Number is from Switzerland).

We had problems using the card in Africa some weeks ago. It did not register to the network in Namibia even though it is on their coverage list. In South Africa it worked perfectly as it does here in germany.

Just the incoming calls from the cheap providers (like 10-10 in the US) are not satisfying at the moment. Cheapest working provider charges about 35 Eurocent per minute

Chris

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by MATHA531

Also although I don't use it that much, O9 does not seem to support text messaging and voice mail.

Yes, and UM and Manx SIMs support both. Moreover, Manx SIMs (at least some of them) offer online billing, VM retrieving via website and GPRS. It's really hard to say which is better....

[Bossman]

I went with the globalSim because it was pratically free. I only paid fro the credit. Also, the fact that this particular sim allows free forwarding is a big plus. So, it may not have free incoming in all the countries that say a UM sim has. But, I will just forward the globalsim number to the UM number if I happen to be in one of those countries. As is right now, the number is forwarded to my US mobile so that my family in UK can call me from inclusive minutes on their mobiles.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by Bossman

I went with the globalSim because it was pratically free. I only paid fro the credit. Also, the fact that this particular sim allows free forwarding is a big plus. So, it may not have free incoming in all the countries that say a UM sim has. But, I will just forward the globalsim number to the UM number if I happen to be in one of those countries. As is right now, the number is forwarded to my US mobile so that my family in UK can call me from inclusive minutes on their mobiles.

I can understand that forwarding to US numbers can be done for free. But have you tried forwarding from a Manx SIM to UM and it's really free, too? BTW, I 've checked http://www.freeglobalsim.com/callRates.asp and can't see a Liechtenstein mobile rate at all :P. Moreover, if forwarding were free to any number, why not to forward to Iridium and to have a worldwide coverage with free incoming calls when using a +44 mobile number :whistle: ?

[Bossman]

Yes. It's free to any number. I have tried to UM sim and to UK number. The call history also shows it.

BTW, this sim does not show callerID even though when one receives the VM text it shows the number that left a message. So does the call detail below. Do other IOM sims show caller ID? I guess the caller ID gets to their system and they just do not send it to the sim...I do not know jack about any of the technical details!

Here is an excerpt I just X'ed out the last part of the numbers:

In (SIM) 13-Sep-06 08:09
Forwarded Call Unknown 447624129XXX 447624129XXX 0:00:09 US$ 0.00
To Forwarded Call 423663009XXX 0:00:00 US$ 0.0000
Incoming Call Leg Unknown 447624129XXX 0:00:00 US$ 0.0000

In (SIM) 15-Sep-06 08:08 Forwarded Call 847915XXXX 447624129XXX 447624129XXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.00
To Forwarded Call 1847452XXXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.0000
Incoming Call Leg 847915XXXX 447624129XXX 0:00:01 US$ 0.0000

Originally Posted by Przemolog

I can understand that forwarding to US numbers can be done for free. But have you tried forwarding from a Manx SIM to UM and it's really free, too? BTW, I 've checked http://www.freeglobalsim.com/callRates.asp and can't see a Liechtenstein mobile rate at all :P. Moreover, if forwarding were free to any number, why not to forward to Iridium and to have a worldwide coverage with free incoming calls when using a +44 mobile number? :whistle: ?

[snidely]

Originally Posted by Bossman

PS: Snidely, I would assume you cannot receive incoming calls on your yackie sim either right. Since they deactivated all the US DIDs.

Like everyone else, I can make outgoing. No incoming. No refund.
When I ordered it ($100+) - I remember stating in an email that I would be the first to take a chance.
I knew I was taking a chance - but someone has to be first. Someone was "first" here w. UM, Hop, etc.

When things did look flakey, I did call my credit card in time to cancel. That was before I got my SIM. A week or so later, when I got my SIM, I called and told the credit card company to let the charge go thru.
As we did discover, though, on the test calls we made to each other - technically the Yackie idea does work.

...mike

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snidely

As we did discover, though, on the test calls we made to each other - technically the Yackie idea does work.

my girlfriend just returned from 6 weeks of USA trip using the yackie-card.
During the first 2 weeks the incoming calls still worked and it was like a perfect solution.
Afterwards she just made outgoing calls until we burned the 99$ which had been on the card.
The good thing is that we still saved a lot of money as we sent quite a lot of SMS messages and none of them was charged at all yet.... Seems like the SMS billing does not work yet.