Trip Report - Riiing/um (voice) Wind (gprs) - Page 2

kaydee · 23-04-2006, 02:59

I wasn't sure if this would interest anyone, but I thought I would post it anyway.

I recently traveled through Germany, Czech, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland using a WIND card with the "Mega No Limit" option for GPRS (see this thread for info on how to get one - http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=88

and an "Eco-Sim" card for voice (which is really a RIIING card, now United Mobile.)

Once I figured out that I couldn't use the RIIING card to call directly on my Sony Ericcson T200, but had to go to Extras - Dial and then enter the number, it worked very well in Germany at the beginning of my trip. I was also using Call Back World (CBW) and it also worked well in Germany. My only complaint is that using the Extras - Dial menu option meant that I couldn't use my phonebook entries.

Unfortunately, my positive experiences with RIIING ended in Czech republic. I spent an hour at the train station in Prague trying to make a single phone call! RIING uses a call back system - you dial the number you want, and then it calls you back. If you use CBW like I did, then you have to deal with two call backs, as CBW calls back after the first call back from RIIING. Throughout my week in Czech, it seemed that RIIING would only call me back 1 out of 5 times, no matter which network I used. I don't know if this was a problem for just the period of time I was there, but it was very frustrating. Not only was there a problem with RIIING calling me back so I could place a call, but it also didn't work very well with CBW when it finally would work. Usually the call from CBW came too quickly and went to voice mail. I confirmed with CBW that they didn't make any changes since I was in Germany (where it worked perfectly.) I finally discovered that on the rare occasion where the RIIING service would call me back, if I waited precisely 4 seconds after calling CBW before hanging up, I could get it to work. (It wasn't just regular calls that had a problem in Czech - I had a very hard time checking my balance as well.)

Hungary, Austria and Switzerland all worked fine with RIIING and CBW, so it seemed the only problem was in Czech. However, when I returned from my trip, I discovered that no one was able to call me the last few days I was in Germany - everyone who tried got a recording about a problem with their call. The strange thing is that I was able to make calls out myself.

My conclusion for anyone interested in the Riiing/UM solution is that it acceptable, given the low price, if you don't care if it doesn't always work. However, if you must always be reachable, and you must always be able to place an outgoing call, it might not be the solution for you.

As for the WIND card, once I finally figured out how to get the GRPS to work on my laptop, it worked great most of the time in all of the countries I visited, plus it worked very well back home in Canada. In Austria I found that I had to force my phone onto the T-Mobile network, and in Switzerland it worked on all networks, but was best on CH Swiss - other networks were slow and/or would drop the connection frequently. Even with CH Swiss selected, it seemed the slowest in Switzerland, but perhaps it is because I was in the mountains the signal wasn't as strong as elsewhere.

I thought I would have to be very careful with my data usage with the WIND card, but it turns out that in 3 weeks I only used 1000 of the 3000 Euros of credit the Mega No Limit plan provides. I would have to do the math, but it seems that the monthly charge with WIND is a better deal than the two GRPS offerings here in Canada from Bell and Rogers. (I don't actually use GSM/GRPS in Canada, as the coverage in rural areas is very poor. My CDMA provider (MTS) actually offers unlimited data, charging based on the speed of the service (I pay $50 CAD per month for unlimited service at around 56k speeds.)

Hopefully this helps someone!

Kelly.

	(#1)
kaydee (Offline) Junior Member Amateur Member Posts: 27 Join Date: 09 Feb 2006 Country:	23-04-2006, 02:59 I wasn't sure if this would interest anyone, but I thought I would post it anyway. I recently traveled through Germany, Czech, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland using a WIND card with the "Mega No Limit" option for GPRS (see this thread for info on how to get one - http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=88 and an "Eco-Sim" card for voice (which is really a RIIING card, now United Mobile.) Once I figured out that I couldn't use the RIIING card to call directly on my Sony Ericcson T200, but had to go to Extras - Dial and then enter the number, it worked very well in Germany at the beginning of my trip. I was also using Call Back World (CBW) and it also worked well in Germany. My only complaint is that using the Extras - Dial menu option meant that I couldn't use my phonebook entries. Unfortunately, my positive experiences with RIIING ended in Czech republic. I spent an hour at the train station in Prague trying to make a single phone call! RIING uses a call back system - you dial the number you want, and then it calls you back. If you use CBW like I did, then you have to deal with two call backs, as CBW calls back after the first call back from RIIING. Throughout my week in Czech, it seemed that RIIING would only call me back 1 out of 5 times, no matter which network I used. I don't know if this was a problem for just the period of time I was there, but it was very frustrating. Not only was there a problem with RIIING calling me back so I could place a call, but it also didn't work very well with CBW when it finally would work. Usually the call from CBW came too quickly and went to voice mail. I confirmed with CBW that they didn't make any changes since I was in Germany (where it worked perfectly.) I finally discovered that on the rare occasion where the RIIING service would call me back, if I waited precisely 4 seconds after calling CBW before hanging up, I could get it to work. (It wasn't just regular calls that had a problem in Czech - I had a very hard time checking my balance as well.) Hungary, Austria and Switzerland all worked fine with RIIING and CBW, so it seemed the only problem was in Czech. However, when I returned from my trip, I discovered that no one was able to call me the last few days I was in Germany - everyone who tried got a recording about a problem with their call. The strange thing is that I was able to make calls out myself. My conclusion for anyone interested in the Riiing/UM solution is that it acceptable, given the low price, if you don't care if it doesn't always work. However, if you must always be reachable, and you must always be able to place an outgoing call, it might not be the solution for you. As for the WIND card, once I finally figured out how to get the GRPS to work on my laptop, it worked great most of the time in all of the countries I visited, plus it worked very well back home in Canada. In Austria I found that I had to force my phone onto the T-Mobile network, and in Switzerland it worked on all networks, but was best on CH Swiss - other networks were slow and/or would drop the connection frequently. Even with CH Swiss selected, it seemed the slowest in Switzerland, but perhaps it is because I was in the mountains the signal wasn't as strong as elsewhere. I thought I would have to be very careful with my data usage with the WIND card, but it turns out that in 3 weeks I only used 1000 of the 3000 Euros of credit the Mega No Limit plan provides. I would have to do the math, but it seems that the monthly charge with WIND is a better deal than the two GRPS offerings here in Canada from Bell and Rogers. (I don't actually use GSM/GRPS in Canada, as the coverage in rural areas is very poor. My CDMA provider (MTS) actually offers unlimited data, charging based on the speed of the service (I pay $50 CAD per month for unlimited service at around 56k speeds.) Hopefully this helps someone! Kelly.