Yackie or Hop Mobile?...or another?

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by snidely

I think the general consensus here is that Hop is the most expensive of any of the intl. SIMS. Outgoing, at 95 cents is quite high. In fact, you can roam in many countries w. a U.S. T-Mobile or Cingular/att phone for 99 cents for outgoing.

I think you're wrong - Hop is expensive in Europe or Australia but e.g. not in USA, Cuba ot India to compare with other international SIMs. Their policy of the same rates worldwide that brings such an effect....

Originally Posted by snidely

When you factor in the cost of calling a Monaco mobile, incoming is about 50 cents - again higher than anybody else (intl. SIMS) in most places.

You should count the rate to Monaco mobile only if both participants of the call are using the same budget (family/business). If someone "stranger" calls you, it's his/her problem how much it costs . OK, I know that America is RPP and Europe is CPP and that's affect the way you think...

[snidely]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

I think you're wrong - Hop is expensive in Europe or Australia but e.g. not in USA, Cuba ot India to compare with other international SIMs. Their policy of the same rates worldwide that brings such an effect....


You should count the rate to Monaco mobile only if both participants of the call are using the same budget (family/business). If someone "stranger" calls you, it's his/her problem how much it costs . OK, I know that America is RPP and Europe is CPP and that's affect the way you think...

Of course those of us in the USA would use our regular phone - and, supposedly it is illegal for us to go to Cuba. Travelers have to go hours out of the way via Mexico (or Canada), even though Cuba is only about 150km away! Cingular and T-Mobile, for that reason, don't allow their customers to roam there.

Many of us forward all incoming calls to our cell when we are away from home or office. We don't want people to have to dial an intl. number. Most friends, clients etc. won't do that. The rates charged for intl. calls vary quite a bit. One problem is that a majority local landline companies don't allow you to forward to intl. numbers. I now use VoiceStick to do that. That is one reason Yackie and CelTrek are interesting to U.S. customers.

...mike

[snidely]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

I think you're wrong - Hop is expensive in Europe or Australia but e.g. not in USA, Cuba ot India to compare with other international SIMs. Their policy of the same rates worldwide that brings such an effect....

You should count the rate to Monaco mobile only if both participants of the call are using the same budget (family/business). If someone "stranger" calls you, it's his/her problem how much it costs . OK, I know that America is RPP and Europe is CPP and that's affect the way you think...

Of course those of us in the USA would use our regular phone - and, supposedly it is illegal for us to go to Cuba. Travelers have to go hours out of the way via Mexico (or Canada), even though Cuba is only about 150km away! Cingular and T-Mobile, for that reason, don't allow their customers to roam there.

Many of us forward all incoming calls to our cell when we are away from home or office. We don't want people to have to dial an intl. number. Most friends, clients etc. won't do that. The rates charged for intl. calls vary quite a bit. One problem is that a majority local landline companies don't allow you to forward to intl. numbers. I now use VoiceStick to do that. That is one reason Yackie and CelTrek are interesting to U.S. customers.

...mike

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by snidely

Of course those of us in the USA would use our regular phone - and, supposedly it is illegal for us to go to Cuba. Travelers have to go hours out of the way via Mexico (or Canada), even though Cuba is only about 150km away! Cingular and T-Mobile, for that reason, don't allow their customers to roam there.

Yes, I realise that. But the "thread starter", Teothx is from Italy and is interested in the entire world...

Originally Posted by snidely

Many of us forward all incoming calls to our cell when we are away from home or office. We don't want people to have to dial an intl. number. Most friends, clients etc. won't do that. The rates charged for intl. calls vary quite a bit. One problem is that a majority local landline companies don't allow you to forward to intl. numbers. I now use VoiceStick to do that. That is one reason Yackie and CelTrek are interesting to U.S. customers.

Yes, again I know about that - it has been mentioned by US forumers here. After all, I agree that being accessible under one national number worldwide is one the main ideas (and advantages) of international roaming - the "only" issue is the price for that "pleasure" . But again, the thread was started by a European who may think different (but I don't claim I know what he really thinks ).
Somehow OT - if the Americans don't like int' calls so much, how do they avoid calling to Canada or Carribean/Pacific nations which also use +1 NANP numbering??? Does anybody know "at a glance" that the given 3-digit area code is from USA or not???

[snidely]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Somehow OT - if the Americans don't like int' calls so much, how do they avoid calling to Canada or Carribean/Pacific nations which also use +1 NANP numbering??? Does anybody know "at a glance" that the given 3-digit area code is from USA or not???

We can NOT tell at a glance if an area code is intl. (like Canada). It isn't a problem, usually, because when the old Bell system was broken up, you have to pick a separate carrier to handle LD calls. Calls to Canada are cheaper on some carrier than calls to U.S. numbers - because termination rates are cheaper in Canada.
Egregious exceptions are there. Eg. Our office in the S.Eastern U.S. in Bell South territory has a plan for the landlines with unlimited local and LD (within U.S.) for $50/mo. IF, unknowingly, you dial a Canadian number, you pay over 50 cents/min.
To avoid that happening, we pd. them $5/line extra to block intl. cals. Their own system doesn't recognize calls to Canada as being intl and they show up on the bill. Each month someone has to call them to have the charges removed.

...mike

[Effendi]

If you need a card for the USA buy a US card, not an international one...

[andy]

We realise Hiboo is your favourite, but don't call it cheap. There are callback services around half the price.

[teothx]

Originally Posted by andy

We realise Hiboo is your favourite, but don't call it cheap. There are callback services around half the price.

Now I've visited the Hiboo mobile site, they rate USA to Italy only 0.20€

I think it's cheap...

[snidely]

1. It doesn't pay to use any of the "Int'l" SIM cards in the U.S. Most have to charge $1.00 to $1.50/min. Prepaids here are less than 25 cents and most are under 15 cents/min.
2. Calling an Italy landline would be under 3 cents/min. on most dial up LD carriers like pingo.com and onesuite.com. To call a mobile is less than 25 cents. IOW, all you would spend to call Italy from you U.S. prepaid SIM is the airtime + 3 cents. If there were a payphone handy, you dial a toll free number (no coins needed) and pick up a dial tone, enter your PIN number and call Italy for 4 cents. (You wouldn't need to enter a PIN when calling from your cell once you set up your LD account with most all LD dial around carriers.

...mike

[teothx]

Originally Posted by snidely

1. It doesn't pay to use any of the "Int'l" SIM cards in the U.S. Most have to charge $1.00 to $1.50/min. Prepaids here are less than 25 cents and most are under 15 cents/min.
2. Calling an Italy landline would be under 3 cents/min. on most dial up LD carriers like pingo.com and onesuite.com. To call a mobile is less than 25 cents. IOW, all you would spend to call Italy from you U.S. prepaid SIM is the airtime + 3 cents. If there were a payphone handy, you dial a toll free number (no coins needed) and pick up a dial tone, enter your PIN number and call Italy for 4 cents. (You wouldn't need to enter a PIN when calling from your cell once you set up your LD account with most all LD dial around carriers.

...mike

I see pingo.com and onesuite.com, very good rates...and if I understand also with mobile phone....