Article about UM

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by andy

He means the charges levied on visitors by the US network roamed upon.

That's why they need an arrangement with a US number instead

Thanks, Andy.

So ATT and TMO-USA (et al US GSM carriers) have roaming arrangements for US and possibly Canadian SIMs (not sure my old FIDO CA SIM would even register in US), BUT Voda, T-MO (UK, DE), O2, TIM, etc have NO roaming arrangements with US GSM carriers and the termination costs are exhorbitant.

Strange that telco calling card companies can provide cheap access TO US mobiles. Doesn't that involve high TERMINATION costs at the mobile end? I guess since in the US, the mobile customer has inbound minutes deducted from his/her balance or calling buckets, that is sufficient for the US mobile providers as a "termination fee."

OTOH, since the US GSM provider is providing network access to the ROAMER from abroad, it must exact its pound of flesh. So far, the pound of flesh has been quite exhorbitant for these international roamers..... if roaming is even allowed. My SIMYO (E+ DE) allows SMS but I believe they do not allow either outbound or inbound calling. At least it WAS that way in the past. And as I noted, my FIDO CA prepaid, when I had it, would not even register here.

Stan

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

....
But when you call a non-US mobile phone roaming in the USA, you pay the rate to the mobile phone in its "home country" and the receiving party pays the cost of forwarding the call to the US and the cost of receiving the call in the US mobile network. I think that "mobile termination charges" means the money you pay for receiving calls due to RPP rules....

Do US operators charge roaming SIMs for receiving calls much more than US SIMs?

I can't see any other explanation for the current pricing...

When someone in Germany calls my German mobile and I am roaming in the US, the caller pays for his "national" call, regular rate. Caller does not care where I am. Since I am roaming in US, my home provider is charged with a fee to forward the call to the US. That portion has a minimal charge. Since the network interconnect inside US is provided by ATT mobile or TMO, they want to be paid for their service. High fees result from

1) high fees demanded by US companies on receiving end
2) high fees imposed by home provider trying to pad the bottom line

AFAIK, the 2 US GSM carriers with which I am familiar, do not GENERALLY charge roaming fees for US SIMS. This may not be true for other technologies present in US. I had Suncom REGIONAL CDMA and was dinged a hefty roaming fee once when I made a call while I was out-of-region. I think that was like 99 cents per minute. Long time ago.

I think the answer to your second question in line with my answer 1 above is YES!

Stan

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

1) high fees demanded by US companies on receiving end
2) high fees imposed by home provider trying to pad the bottom line

Stan

The main providers in germany charge you the roaming fee of the foreign network +25%. Service providers and virtual operators sometimes charge a different surcharge.

Chris

[bylo]

Originally Posted by snaimon

not sure my old FIDO CA SIM would even register in US

It should, but you won't like paying $2.50/min coming or going

Fido's Prepaid U.S. roaming rates

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by dg7feq

The main providers in germany charge you the roaming fee of the foreign network +25%. Service providers and virtual operators sometimes charge a different surcharge.

Chris

If that is TRUE, I see from

http://www.t-mobile.de/xtraroaming/0...3397-_,00.html

that the rate in the US is 1,49 €/Minute. That means the fee (before the +25%) to roam within US (and it could be on T-MO US!?) is ~ 1,19 €/Minute or $1.80 US per minute (using 1.5 $ / 1 €).

We have said that the EU national carrier is going to pay for the "dirt cheap" call forward to the US (5 US cents per minute, my estimate).

What is contained in the roaming fee within US?

1. The US carrier is going to ACCEPT the inbound call (as any other inbound call - estimated COST without profit under 10 US cents per minute - TMO US is taking that from its gold rewards prepaid customer AND MAKING A PROFIT).

2. The US carrier is then going to call back to the national EU caller. Now, at one time TMO had international rates of 49 US cents FROM and possibly TO on its network with many EU countries; those rates are now GRANDFATHERED and no longer available to new customers. DRN has this favorable old rate - please correct me if I am wrong. I bet TMO US is still making a bundle at that price. I would guess the COST without profit to TMO for a call US to DE is < 5 cents landline and < 23 cents mobile. Calling card companies are charging such rates to normal customers AND STILL MAKING PROFITS.

So we have 10 cents to receive and 5 - 23 cents to transmit back. A total of 15 - 33 cents of "costs" which include some profit margin.

I can only conclude that roaming rates while in US are akin to "highway robbery."

Stan

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Where does it work? What rates? What settings?

I'll also be interested in learning the details when it becomes available.