Lycamobile US

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by Motel75

Doesn't Lyca roam on AT&T like TMO prepaid does?

As far as is known: NO. No one on Howard Forums has claimed this to be true.
On Howard Forums, Lycamobile in the USA is very popular.
I am not in an area to test it. I am in southern California
and AT&T 2G & 3G say 'Network Unavailable' when I try to connect to their network.

[rockjock]

Originally Posted by Motel75

Yes, I was wondering about that - free incoming to a US number in Europe would be fantastic - although we do have a form of this at present with T-Mobile using UMA over Wi-Fi.

Lycamobile US looks like a great deal, and I'll certainly be trying it, but as in Lycamobile's other countries, its website does not inspire confidence (missing obvious information, bad links, atrocious grammar), and it has Lyca's annoying rapid expiration policy (which I have to admit isn't that bad compared to other US providers - but I suspect they could have made it 365 days if they'd felt like it).

Now if only they could do Canada.

They had said they would launch in Kanada last year but did not. No explanation at all. fingers crossed as the new entrants are going bust..

[NFH]

Lycamobile US has recently become useless, particularly for those who need data. Following is a summary of recent changes, which they've kept very quiet:

1. According to http://www.lycamobile.us/en/termsandconditions "From 5 August 2014 any new top up credit shall expire ninety [90] days from the date of top-up or recharge. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not apply to the existing credit balance in your Account before 5 August 2014."
2. Data is no longer available on pay-as-you-go since 16th September 2014; to get data, you now have to pay for an expensive monthly plan including minutes and texts that you probably don't need or want.
3. Charges for calls (outgoing and incoming) on pay-as-you-go have risen from $0.02 to $0.05 per minute.

Lycamobile is now a worse deal than T-Mobile US, which offers plenty of data bundles, e.g. $10 for 1GB for 30 days.

Lycamobile is a British company and had exported the British fair play approach on SIM expiry policy to all the countries in which it operates. It is a shame that Lycamobile has made an exception to this fair play approach and is now depriving its US customers of their credit after 90 days. Coupled with no data on pay-as-you-go, this is now a SIM card to avoid. What a shame that they have destroyed a potentially useful product.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by NFH

Lycamobile US has recently become useless, particularly for those who need data. Following is a summary of recent changes, which they've kept very quiet:

1. According to http://www.lycamobile.us/en/termsandconditions "From 5 August 2014 any new top up credit shall expire ninety [90] days from the date of top-up or recharge. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not apply to the existing credit balance in your Account before 5 August 2014."
2. Data is no longer available on pay-as-you-go since 16th September 2014; to get data, you now have to pay for an expensive monthly plan including minutes and texts that you probably don't need or want.
3. Charges for calls (outgoing and incoming) on pay-as-you-go have risen from $0.02 to $0.05 per minute.

Lycamobile is now a worse deal than T-Mobile US, which offers plenty of data bundles, e.g. $10 for 1GB for 30 days.

Lycamobile is a British company and had exported the British fair play approach on SIM expiry policy to all the countries in which it operates. It is a shame that Lycamobile has made an exception to this fair play approach and is now depriving its US customers of their credit after 90 days. Coupled with no data on pay-as-you-go, this is now a SIM card to avoid. What a shame that they have destroyed a potentially useful product.

All of the above is true to the extent that it is what Lycamobile says on its website.

However, in actual practice, much has not actually happened yet.
With regard to the list of the three items:
1. It is still too soon to see if this is going to work as described. There are many on Howard Forums waiting for the 90 days to come to pass.
2. This seems to be true with the new 'Plus' SIMs. Old SIMs data seems to still work on PAYGO.
3. To the best of my knowledge and those on Howard Forums' threads this has not 'actually, really' happened to anyone yet.
There have been false alarms--mostly people who were careless in their checking of balances.

Perhaps, someday, all this will come to pass. Other than loss of data, that day has not arrived.

Where is PAYGO? PAYGO is difficult to find on the website because it is very well hidden and not called PAYGO.
If you activate a SIM and do not choose a plan you will be on PAYGO.

For further current info I would suggest searching the General Prepaid Forum on Howard Forums for Lycamobile.
On the 'monster' thread, [about Lycamobile coming to the US and Canada] only read the last twenty pages or so.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

2. This seems to be true with the new 'Plus' SIMs. Old SIMs data seems to still work on PAYGO.

That was previously my understanding too. However, my mother has borrowed my old Lycamobile US SIM card this week, and cannot use data. She's tried both APNs - data.lycamobile.us/lmus/plus and data.lycamobile.com. When I phoned Lycamobile for advice, they told me that data is no longer available go any pay-as-you-go customers, even those with old SIM cards.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by NFH

That was previously my understanding too. However, my mother has borrowed my old Lycamobile US SIM card this week, and cannot use data. She's tried both APNs - data.lycamobile.us/lmus/plus and data.lycamobile.com. When I phoned Lycamobile for advice, they told me that data is no longer available go any pay-as-you-go customers, even those with old SIM cards.

I am going to ask this on HoFo. I will update later today.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

I am going to ask this on HoFo. I will update later today.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...4#post15604274

Messages #3 and #4 in this thread indicate data is still working on PAYGO.

[NFH]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...4#post15604274

Messages #3 and #4 in this thread indicate data is still working on PAYGO.

But message 5 indicates that it is intermittently unreliable, even on a monthly plan. This concurs with my mother's experience on PAYG; she encountered <5% reliability.