Best practice international GSM setup

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

Airbalticcard

I went to the airbaltic website to check it out:

Free incoming/forwarding countries:

Airbaltic: 134 (they say more than 140 but I could count only 134)
Onesimcard: 154

Furthermore, many of the regions Onesimcard provides free service in aren't even in the Airbaltic rates list.

Of course, most of these regions are considered overseas territories of some countries, but many companies still charge them differently.

The list below of 20 + 134 = 154 which equals the number of free regions served by Onesimcard could have us think that they are considering these regions as parts of other countires.

The question is, does Airbaltic offer service in these regions or not? And are these regions free (as with Onesimcard)?

I have sent them an email to inquire about this. We'll see.


Regions:

Aland Islands
Azores
Bonaire
Canary Islands
Christmas Isl.
Curacao
Easter Island
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Reunion Island
Saba
St. Barts
St. Eustatius
St. Maarten
St. Martin
Svalbard
Tibet
US Virgin Isl.
Zanzibar

[HappyCamp]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

I use Piranha, Tru and Toggle (Toggle only in Toggle countries) and have compared prices with Onesimcard and Airbaliticard and the maths works out, that overall the Onesimcard and Airbaliticard are more expensive, not only for outgoing calls but especially for the caller.

I am going on a trip to Europe and will travel to Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, France, and Spain.

I too went with Piranha Mobile, TruPhone, and Toggle Mobile.

TruPhone states it will cost me $0.09 per minute to receive calls in all of my listed countries. And $0.32 per minute to make calls to other phones within the same country. I think it is $0.11 to send SMS messages. They provide a US phone number.

Piranha rates vary from country to country. Receiving calls cost $0.06 to $0.08 per minute. Making calls to other phones within the same country cost $0.17 to $0.23 per minute. Sending SMS always seems to be $0.15. They provide a US and UK (not Isle of Man) phone number.

Toggle Mobile in the "local number" countries of Denmark, Germany, France, and Spain. 3 pence (UK) per minute to land lines, 9 pence (UK) per minute to mobile, 9 pence (UK) per SMS. Calls/SMS are to phones within the same country. Free incoming calls in these countries. They provide a UK phone number and then a phone number in each one of the countries. I believe that the UK number is NOT an Isle of Man number.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by MBK

I went to the airbaltic website to check it out:

Free incoming/forwarding countries:

Airbaltic: 134 (they say more than 140 but I could count only 134)
Onesimcard: 154

Furthermore, many of the regions Onesimcard provides free service in aren't even in the Airbaltic rates list.

Of course, most of these regions are considered overseas territories of some countries, but many companies still charge them differently.

The list below of 20 + 134 = 154 which equals the number of free regions served by Onesimcard could have us think that they are considering these regions as parts of other countires.

The question is, does Airbaltic offer service in these regions or not? And are these regions free (as with Onesimcard)?

I have sent them an email to inquire about this. We'll see.


Regions:

Aland Islands
Azores
Bonaire
Canary Islands
Christmas Isl.
Curacao
Easter Island
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Jersey
Reunion Island
Saba
St. Barts
St. Eustatius
St. Maarten
St. Martin
Svalbard
Tibet
US Virgin Isl.
Zanzibar

the free incoming countries are same for onesimard and airbalticcard. airbaltic also offer free uk mobile number +4475207prefix with surcharge of only 0.15eur.per call!

from airbalticcard website for credit expiry:

What are the expiration terms of airBalticcard mobile and my balance?
There are no expiration terms imposed. The card is blocked if 2 years pass without activity on the card (phone call, SMS, credit refill). Left-over balance is returned at the customer's request within 2 years of the last activity from the card (call, SMS, balance refill) in accordance with the "General Terms and conditions".


a very good UK +44 alternative roaming simcard is mysims2go http://www.mysims2go.com/document.aspx?iid=1060&lang=en very cheap rates and stable service based on cloud9 service http://www.cloud9mobile.co.uk/.
free incoming calls in 101countries

[MBK]

Yes, very valid points.

Originally Posted by gkeeper

I use Piranha, Tru and Toggle (Toggle only in Toggle countries) and have compared prices with Onesimcard and Airbaliticard and the maths works out, that overall the Onesimcard and Airbaliticard are more expensive, not only for outgoing calls but especially for the caller. You mentioned calls to +372 numbers are $0.06, but only from certain VoIP providers, therefore all of my friends and family would have to sign up and download a sip client and no doubt pay a minimum top up when signing up, if they did not they would have to pay anything between £0.50 and £1.00 to call me on a +372 number.

Not necessarily a sip client, it also offers callback, local access numbers, and also works with any sip enabled phone.

Originally Posted by gkeeper

I personally have about 50 very important contacts from family to friends and business, and i do not think many would sign up and pay maybe £10.00 for top up only to ring me.

But I agree, a good option in your situation would be what we discussed earlier:

1. open an account with anveo (cheap numbers) or callcentric (free US number and easier to use than anveo).
2. forward the incoming calls on that number to your sip address (free)
3. forward your sip provider to your phone (cost €0.005 to UK mobile, France mobile, etc... Free to US mobile, €0.07 to Estonia mobile) (with the betamax clones the forwarding setting is only available in the windows application. Once set it works for all incoming calls).

This way you give your contacts only 1 number, and you can change that forwarding to any SIM you are using at the time.

Even if you move to another SIM, people can reach you on the same number.

[fsotirop]

MBK how do you forward your sip provider's incoming number from siemens c610ip? in which menu is that possibility? i want to forward my sip incoming number to a +372 number via a betamax clone

[MBK]

Originally Posted by HappyCamp

Toggle Mobile in the "local number" countries of Denmark, Germany, France, and Spain. 3 pence (UK) per minute to land lines, 9 pence (UK) per minute to mobile, 9 pence (UK) per SMS. Calls/SMS are to phones within the same country. Free incoming calls in these countries. They provide a UK phone number and then a phone number in each one of the countries. I believe that the UK number is NOT an Isle of Man number.

Yes, the UK number is a regular lycamobile UK number charged at regular UK mobile rates (the same in the Toggle countries as Toggle uses the Lyca backend).

Furthermore, Toggle Mobile have announced that the US numbers (with free incoming!) are currently in testing and that they will be available soon (using the Lycamobile US platform).

Toggle Mobile Launching Enhanced SIM Card, United States Numbers Coming Soon | TruTower

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

how do you forward your sip provider's incoming number from siemens c610ip? in which menu is that possibility?

The best is to forward directly with the sip provider.

But if you want to forward with the c610ip:

Settings > Telephony > Call Divert > "Call number"

"Call number" will be forwarded according to your dialing plans.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by MBK

The best is to forward directly with the sip provider.

But if you want to forward with the c610ip:

Settings > Telephony > Call Divert > "Call number"

"Call number" will be forwarded according to your dialing plans.

i want to forward my sip incoming number to a +372 number via hotvoip.. what is the best way?

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

i want to forward my sip incoming number to a +372 number via a betamax clone

If your sip provider allows forwarding to sip addresses, you can do it directly without going through the c610ip:

1. Forward to username@sip.betamaxclonename.com
2. Install the betamaxclone windows application (can't do it from the website)
3. in the windows application settings set forwarding to +372xxxxx.

All calls arriving at username@sip.betamaxclonename.com will go to +372xxxxx. and you will be charged the rate for a call to +372xxxxx.

[MBK]

Originally Posted by fsotirop

i want to forward my sip incoming number to a +372 number via hotvoip.. what is the best way?

If the incoming sip allows direct forwarding to sip addresses, see above post.

If it doesn't, but at least allows free calls to inum numbers (+883 - most sip providers do it for free) you can do this.

1. open an account with callcentric.com (you get a free INUM number + if you want, a free US number).
2. forward your sip to your callcentric INUM (+883xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
3. with callcentric forward incoming calls on the +883 to username@sip.hotvoip.com
4. hotvoip windows application: forward to +372.