PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post

snidely · **Review of Truphone -** 07-04-2011, 04:26

Thanks to a member here - I learned that there were new unlocked quad-band phones with Truphone SIMS on Ebay going for about $24. There was $15 in prepaid credits on the SIM.
We spent two weeks touring Portugal and Spain via car. Strictly a personal trip. We only ran up 14.5 minutes. All calls were local within the country we were in. Only 4 calls.
Quality was excellent. We got no incoming calls. Their website is easy to use and we could have recharged easily. However, unless you are traveling in what they call "Tru Countries", the cost is quite high. Now they only have 3 countries (UK, US, Australia). They claim they will have 20 by the end of 2012 with 6 of those "coming soon".
Eg. Calls within the 2 countries were 51 cents/min. Incoming would have been 21. Calls to the US would have been a prohibitive 86 cents. I had a US number on the phone.

We did make moderate use of the free UMA calling to US numbers where we had wifi w. our TMobile BBerrys. We always try to pick a hotel with free wifi - which we were able to do just over half the time. There were a few restaurants with open wifi as well.

Bottom line - Truphone is not a "tru" international SIM when it comes to saving money in most of the 200 countries they do provide service. Their data rates, when compared with other SIMS, are good - $2.17/mb in many countries. However, if its mainly data you need via cell - Abroadband.com will be the way to go at 59 Euro cents/mb in about 55 countries. I see on their web site they do intend to make product available everywhere "soon".

...mike

	(#1)
snidely (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 451 Join Date: 09 May 2005 Location: Berkeley, California and Miami Country:	Review of Truphone - 07-04-2011, 04:26 Thanks to a member here - I learned that there were new unlocked quad-band phones with Truphone SIMS on Ebay going for about $24. There was $15 in prepaid credits on the SIM. We spent two weeks touring Portugal and Spain via car. Strictly a personal trip. We only ran up 14.5 minutes. All calls were local within the country we were in. Only 4 calls. Quality was excellent. We got no incoming calls. Their website is easy to use and we could have recharged easily. However, unless you are traveling in what they call "Tru Countries", the cost is quite high. Now they only have 3 countries (UK, US, Australia). They claim they will have 20 by the end of 2012 with 6 of those "coming soon". Eg. Calls within the 2 countries were 51 cents/min. Incoming would have been 21. Calls to the US would have been a prohibitive 86 cents. I had a US number on the phone. We did make moderate use of the free UMA calling to US numbers where we had wifi w. our TMobile BBerrys. We always try to pick a hotel with free wifi - which we were able to do just over half the time. There were a few restaurants with open wifi as well. Bottom line - Truphone is not a "tru" international SIM when it comes to saving money in most of the 200 countries they do provide service. Their data rates, when compared with other SIMS, are good - $2.17/mb in many countries. However, if its mainly data you need via cell - Abroadband.com will be the way to go at 59 Euro cents/mb in about 55 countries. I see on their web site they do intend to make product available everywhere "soon". ...mike Make use of T-M's UMA/wifi free calling from any place in the world with access to wifi. I use an LG G6, wife an S7) A/o Oct 20, 2013 no need for intl prepaid as T-Mobile U.S. includes voice roaming at 20¢/min (in and out)., unlimited text (in and out), and unlimited data in 140+ countries. My Plan -[6 lines] U.S. T-Mobile unlimited minutes (incoming and outgoing), unlimited text, fast data on each line. that $145/mo. total! . (In U.S. no surcharge for calling a cell.) If a line exceeds 2G of data in a month, pay $10 more for that line. [That only happens a couple times/year.