Review of Truphone

[Stu]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

I am starting to understand how this works now, with my Piranha i get 2 numbers free one US one UK, if i want another number on my Truphone, say a US number, I have to pay an extra £5.00 per month, which seems very steep. As for Data Rates it depends where you are traveling, in Europe the Piranha rates are much cheaper than Truphones, £0.35 per mb to Truphones £0.60 per mb, outside of the EU some countries covered by Piranha are very cheap, but most are silly prices and i would definitely leave data off if i travelled to those countries. On the whole the voice prices inside and out of Europe are much cheaper on Piranha. Anyways thank you both for your explanations, you have opened my eyes and made my mind up for me.

My comment about Truphone's data rates was focusing on Truphone 3.5 countries -- The US, UK, Australia, and Netherlands.

Piranha also throws in their VOIP service and you need to sign up for a seperate service with TruPhone with a seperate account from Tuphone. I subscribe to more than one roaming carrier right now, but am thinking of ditching Truphone. Earlier this year I gave away my Maxroam SIM, and am will probably cancel Telna. I may substitute an Air Baltic card (or the variant of it -- can't remember the name -- which gives you a US number tied to it).

An interesting data service for folks interested in the Truphone group of countries is:

Globalgig

[Stu]

Originally Posted by gkeeper

I am starting to understand how this works now, with my Piranha i get 2 numbers free one US one UK, if i want another number on my Truphone, say a US number, I have to pay an extra £5.00 per month, which seems very steep. As for Data Rates it depends where you are traveling, in Europe the Piranha rates are much cheaper than Truphones, £0.35 per mb to Truphones £0.60 per mb, outside of the EU some countries covered by Piranha are very cheap, but most are silly prices and i would definitely leave data off if i travelled to those countries. On the whole the voice prices inside and out of Europe are much cheaper on Piranha. Anyways thank you both for your explanations, you have opened my eyes and made my mind up for me.

My comment about Truphone's data rates was focusing on Truphone 3.5 countries -- The US, UK, Australia, and Netherlands.

Piranha also throws in their VOIP service and you need to sign up for a seperate service with TruPhone with a seperate account from Tuphone. I subscribe to more than one roaming carrier right now, but am thinking of ditching Truphone. Earlier this year I gave away my Maxroam SIM, and am will probably cancel Telna. I may substitute an Air Baltic card (or the variant of it -- can't remember the name -- which gives you a US number tied to it).

An interesting data service for folks interested in the Truphone group of countries is:

Globalgig

For the moment, my ATT phone is still grandfathered on their unlimited international plan. For US$64.99 a month, I get unlimited on phone data everywhere in the world which has changed my focus somewhat. For example, in Panama I was able to make hour long VOIP Over 3g calls using my unlimited US VOIP plan. I could also use it to trigger callbacks. This SIM has also changed the balance for me on short trips in favor of roaming SIMs. I can set inbound calls to first (or simultaneously ring VOIP and then to the roaming SIM). If ATT pulls the plug on this plan, I will have to rethink things. Right now I am carrying an iPhone 4S and a Nokia Asha 311 quadband GSM/Pentaband HSPA phone with a Piranha SIM in it.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by Stu

Right now I am carrying an iPhone 4S and a Nokia Asha 311 quadband GSM/Pentaband HSPA phone with a Piranha SIM in it.

I really appreciate your insights as you seem to keep moving around and 'testing' a lot of different things. Thanks, also, for bringing Globalgig to our attention.

[Bossman]

Same here - for the countries that I need these roaming sims for, maxroam is insanely expensive. So, I used up my credit and moved on a year ago or so. Same thing with truphone. Telna is just too unreliable for me, so I stopped using that too. I now just have Piranha, and Ekit. Have not traveled with piranha yet, but ekit has served me well. When I am in UK/France, I just use my UK sim card.

Originally Posted by Stu

I subscribe to more than one roaming carrier right now, but am thinking of ditching Truphone. Earlier this year I gave away my Maxroam SIM, and am will probably cancel Telna. I may substitute an Air Baltic card (or the variant of it -- can't remember the name -- which gives you a US number tied to it).

[Effendi]

I moved the posts talking about Piranha Mobile into Piranha Mobile thread.
Please here talk about truphone.
Thanks.

[tux]

Originally Posted by Effendi

I moved the posts talking about Piranha Mobile into Piranha Mobile thread.
Please here talk about truphone.
Thanks.

Effendi, just a note about International Cards: Truphone issues true UK numbers, not Jersey/IoM/etc. numbers

[Stu]

Effendi,

I politely disagree with your position. We were comparing Piranha with Truphone. Severing the threads divorces the meaning. For example, Tux just posted that Truphone differs from most roaming SIMs because the number issue is a true UK number (versus a Jersey, Guernsey, or Isle of Mann number range). I was going to answer that Piranha also issue genuine UK numbers, but you were forced to use callback in the UK? Am I violating the spirit of your decision by doing this?

Truphone continually keeps me intrigued with their hints about where they intend to go, but lets me down in many of their day-to-day things. Their rates for their U.S. prepaid service are more expensive than most U.S. prepaid providers and their rates for the UK or Australia aren't wonderful.

There are a number of things they could do to increase their sales and keep their rates competitive ATT for example will sell me 125 megs of British/Australian/Dutch (or French, German, Italian, or most EU places) for US$30. (I don't need it because of my previously described grandfathered plan). Tru could offer similar bundles.

Why doesn't Tru offer these kind of bucket offers or something akin to TMobile US discount by the day rates? E.g. $3 a day gives you unlimited calls to US, UK, and Australian landlines, and a discounted rate to UK/Australian mobiles plus 100 megs of local data for the country you are in for that day?

They could tinker somewhat with the rates and make it a text to activate plan. They could offer discounts if you reach gold status (spend $100 with them not counting the price of the SIM).

[DRNewcomb]

Maybe the thread should have been retitled, "Comparison of Tru and Piranha".

[gkeeper]

Originally Posted by tux

Effendi, just a note about International Cards: Truphone issues true UK numbers, not Jersey/IoM/etc. numbers

you are correct Tru and Piranha do issue true UK numbers (if anyone knows of any others please add to thread), which is a big plus for UK customers as they come within bundled UK contracts, however if we are still allowed to compare Sims for the benefit of all, Piranhas outgoing calls/data in the EU are much cheaper via call-back versus direct and incoming rates are lower in many countries in and outside of the EU. I would have to say both companies seem to be the most competitive on the market at present. I do use my Piranha more but this is only due to some of the very high costs Tru charge outside of the EU.

[Stu]

I think Telna also issues real UK Mobile numbers. I'm not one hundred percent positive. Maxroam has some available as well but be careful because everyone gets a Jersey number as well, at least they didn't when I used them.