Gymsim

[albino]

I actually met the people behind Gymsim a while ago and know them pretty well now. Its a Family team who operate the core of the business, and you see them all over the world in the yachting hot spots so many crew also know them. They have a pretty loyal bunch of customers like me.

So yeah I guess I am pretty biased as I think they are really great people and I cant say enough good things about them. Its wonderful to give them a call and know you have someone on the other end of the line you can trust, so I am going to give them a bit of a plug )

I remember when they used to be with Callkey, it was a nightmare when Callkey collapsed, but they immediately gave everyone the money back that they had on their Sim cards and then had a team of people walking the docks from Viarregio in Italy to Fort Lauderdale in Florida giving all crew whos Sims had stopped working free +423 Sim cards! I managed to loose my phone in the water near Dubrovnik last year and they found a yacht close by who had a spare Sim and organised a transfer for me! Gymsim Sonia found my girlfriend a Job on a yacht based in Antigua! Not bad.

Yes I am charged 0.09 Euros for incoming calls but I already new that. When I first went with them it used to be 0.15 as it was part of the general 0.15 connection fee. But They reduced it down to 0.09 late last year, they sent out a newsletter about a month ago saying they are looking to remove the incoming fee but not sure when. The newsletter also said that their current website is out of date as they have been building a new one which was supposed to have been launched last week! I guess its delayed a bit ;o)

I was told that the Plan A and Plan B was part of the original system to have a kind of "standard user" and "high volume user", but they said it started complicating things for clients and so stopped it.

Anyway, I like the system, and I like the Gymsim family. I do have some problems with texting but I prefer calling anyway and anytime there are general issues or I need help the guys are usually quick to get back to me.

[petkow]

Originally Posted by albino

I was told that the Plan A and Plan B was part of the original system to have a kind of "standard user" and "high volume user", but they said it started complicating things for clients and so stopped it.

I thought they still have plan A, B and C. Doesn't the 9c you refer to only apply to Plan A? For paying 5 euros a month (as on plan C) you do not pay the 9c. Is this no longer the case?
GYMsim - International mobile phone sim cards - Price Comparison still shows Plans A, B and C.

[albino]

They said the Plan B isn't available, you just have the default Plan A. That link cant be up to date. I Just checked out the rates list I received and it is slightly different to the one online, the rates are the same but the connection fee says 0.15 Euros for calls made and received. (but incoming calls are actually 0.09 Euros for per connection at the moment) It doesn't mention a plan A or B scheme. I will write to Sonia and ask her if she will email me the latest rates list to see if the one I have is up to date. They should sign up here so everyone could chat to them.

There was also a surcharge list they sent me last month - it was due to a change in provider they had late last year which made calling more reliable (It wasn't so good before) so now they are using the TIM network for most of all the complicated calling stuff, I guess its now more or less a TIM Sim card with a callback mechanism attached to it. (When you go to Italy you need to quickly change a menu function which allows the system to work in Italy). But the change to using TIM messed up their rates a bit to some countries, (they talk about IOT increases), but they sorted it out via a separate surcharge list which they say is not supposed to be permanent but only until things have stabilised (The USA is super expensive at the moment)

[petkow]

Isn't it an Isle of Man SIM rather than a TIM? Sorry if I am missing something blindingly obvious here?

I am actually seriously interested in this card, as it is one of the few that does India incoming for free! Who knows if that will last or what the 'invisible' cap is on incoming calls for there. As far as my research would suggest, free incoming in India from a European based SIM is a difficult thing to achieve unless you have some form of an Indian partner dual IMSI'd onto the SIM.

[dg7feq]

Albino: do you have the list with surcharges at hand and could send it to me (or to the board). The customer support wanted to email it to me but didnt receive it yet. Cambodia rates were slightly higher than on the website so i guess its on the surcharge list as well.

Petkow: It is a IoM SIM, but i think it has dual IMSI - you really have to switch something in the Sim Toolkit-menu when you are in italy only. Otherwise the card will not register there.

Chris

[albino]

OK Petkow you are going to tax my brain here, I had it explained to me over a beer in Palma last year! We had a technical email from Gymsim about it too but I cant find it now.

The numbers come from the Isle of Man - due to having a GSM mobile licence there.
The calls are routed by British Telecom - To make call quality tip top
The other stuff like the ability to roam, roaming agreements, connecting calls and signaling etc is all done by TIM.

It was explained that in roaming you have to appear big or you have issues with other networks not prioritising you when you roam on their networks. It gets bad for those crew in the touristy areas in the Med during the summer as you often find you just have constant problems when the base stations all getting loaded with traffic, (but in the winter you dont have a problem). In Monaco during the Grand Prix it's almost impossible for anyone to use their phone. I have had problems with both incoming and outgoing calls when using my old Callkey and United Mobile Sim cards due to deprioritising, So then you always have to manually hunt around looking for networks that are working OK which can be a pain. So with TIM being one of the big players (one of the big 5 networks?) means you appear bigger then you really are so you get prioritising as well as a reliable network.

I should find that technical email, it was full of interesting goodies about roaming, makes you realise how hard it is, its a bloody miracle the whole roaming thing can work at all. They had a shocking statistic that indicated roaming in Europe runs at about 80% success, and it drops to 40% when you are in third world countries. I was in St Martin and Antigua this year and both had problems with networks that stopped working completely for days at a time! (The power station in St Martin blew up which couldn't have helped There was also something about a ship dropping an anchor on an underwater telecommunication cable which cut off parts of the middle east for a few weeks, it happened twice last year! Lol I loved that one.

Hey Dg7feq, I didnt ask Sonia yet for the info, will shoot an email just now

[mingelli]

I am also seriously interested in the card bit would like to know for sure where we stand now in terms of rates and connecting fees (is 0.09 incoming and 0.15 outbound??) Is it possible to publish here the surcharge list or to speak with Sonia? When the website will be updated?

[MrEd]

Originally Posted by albino

There was also something about a ship dropping an anchor on an underwater telecommunication cable which cut off parts of the middle east for a few weeks, it happened twice last year! Lol I loved that one.

Dont' jest. This happens.

Fishing boats are also a prime cause of taking out submarine cables. Most countries have redundancy in the form of another cable / diverse route, but smaller places sometimes only have one cable going in, so when it breaks, it can be days before a repair is carried out.

Having repaired a number of Submarine cables myself, I talk from experience.

[dg7feq]

Just a short add-on to this very old thread:
My GymSim was now lying in my desk for more than 2 years, still all balance is on the card and it is working fine. So the expiry is not handled strict at all.

Chris

[depee]

I'm using my GymSIM not regulary, only on business trips. Two, or three times a year, and I never had a problem with the expiry.