Quote:
Originally Posted by GadgetKen
I'm guessing here, but I think it may be because either:
1. The US carriers (or roaming charge clearinghouse if there is such a thing) charge a call attempt fee to the Isle of Man company so this gets passed through.
2. There may be a call attempt fee if the phone rings too long
3. A minimum of one minute may be charged whether or not there is a successful connection (would be .25 USD on the UK version of the simple calling card and .59 on the US version)
Got the US version of the card on ebay for a trip to Nevis in a couple of weeks. Depending on which island I'm on (transiting via St. Marteen on way in to Nevis, and via Antigua on the way out), and where I'm calling to, the Simple Calling card or my Digicel Bermuda card may be cheaper.
Cheapest of course would be Skype but can't always depend on a high quality and free wi-fi connection (comment I got on a Skype call from Nevis last time I visited there was "tinny and echo-ey," so I switched to my mobile phone at higher rates for a better connection).
For US, prefer my AT&T (Jolt) and T-Mobile (Tuyo) MVNO prepaid sim cards, but can see the Simple Calling attraction of relatively cheap US calls and a US number for the visitor from outside North America. Think I will use the Simple Calling US number mostly for keeping the sim card alive, occasional trips to Canada, and for the rare US GSM operators that don't have agreements with my 2 US MVNO sim chips.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but, from what I understand Jolt/Beyond GSM are an AT&T MVNO that has similar or the same coverage AT&T PAYG service has (just the native network) and Tuyo is a T-Mobile MVNO that has no roaming either.
I keep my T-Mobile To-Go line active due to their roaming agreements (and dropped my AT&T PAYG line due to their lack of them, not to mention other crap) around North America (including Canada & Mexico). It's also nice to get _some_ Internet access (and MMS) even though it is extremely limited. Of course it sucks that one is charged to receive SMS/MMS, though I believe it is cheaper than even Simple Mobile when used only for SMS/MMS in NA.