PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - View Single Post - Will this EU high court decision remove a lot of the need for an intl. SIM?

MATHA531 · 24-07-2010, 18:27

BTW yes and no to the question of the value of international sim cards....yes when it comes to receiving, a sim card from most any eu supplier will do fine. You know if you're doing one of those if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium trips, you know 8 countries in 12 days, it would hardly pay to get local sims everywhere and one European sim will usually do. UK sim cards are pretty good as they are almost all available for free, only the price of the initial top up and of course there are no language problems for Americans and most Canadians as American, Canadian and English are very closely allied languages. And in most, but not all, Switzerland and Norway are included despite not being part of the eu (and many of the former Soviet satellite stats are too now....just an interesting point Estonia is part of the eu and you get eu roaming rates in Estonia but if you use one of the Estonian sim cards in Estonia, they charge very high roaming rates despite having free reception all through many other parts of Europe; don't understand it but it's a fact)....

So for receiving calls, it's fine. However, calling outside the eu is problematic if using say a British sim card in Germany. Almost all the British sim cards allow very very cheap calls say to North America (as little as 3p/minute but some charge 4p (lebarra), 5p (vodafone, t mobile) or 6p (Orange Camel)....still very cheap. But once you leave the UK, you lose that ability and charges to call North America might be as much as £1 or even more! For that reason, I keep my e-kit handy (calls going out are moderately expensive but a quick call and ask for a call back works).....until the day comes when you can get realtively inexpensive (define it anyway you want) calls to North America and other places outside the eu, there still will be a place for international sims.

Incidentally, Ms. Redding I think her name is is on record as saying her ultimate goal is to eliminate roaming charges throughout the eu altogether using as an example what happened in the USA.

Also I suppose a work around for the asinine prices to call outside the eu are phone cards with local or at least eu triggering numbers....the only problem being is that even if the call is not completed, you get nicked for the initial call to the triggering number! But if intra-eu free or nearly free roaming ever becomes available, this might be a worthwhile solution.

	(#15)
MATHA531 (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Specialist Posts: 869 Join Date: 15 Oct 2004 Country:	24-07-2010, 18:27 BTW yes and no to the question of the value of international sim cards....yes when it comes to receiving, a sim card from most any eu supplier will do fine. You know if you're doing one of those if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium trips, you know 8 countries in 12 days, it would hardly pay to get local sims everywhere and one European sim will usually do. UK sim cards are pretty good as they are almost all available for free, only the price of the initial top up and of course there are no language problems for Americans and most Canadians as American, Canadian and English are very closely allied languages. And in most, but not all, Switzerland and Norway are included despite not being part of the eu (and many of the former Soviet satellite stats are too now....just an interesting point Estonia is part of the eu and you get eu roaming rates in Estonia but if you use one of the Estonian sim cards in Estonia, they charge very high roaming rates despite having free reception all through many other parts of Europe; don't understand it but it's a fact).... So for receiving calls, it's fine. However, calling outside the eu is problematic if using say a British sim card in Germany. Almost all the British sim cards allow very very cheap calls say to North America (as little as 3p/minute but some charge 4p (lebarra), 5p (vodafone, t mobile) or 6p (Orange Camel)....still very cheap. But once you leave the UK, you lose that ability and charges to call North America might be as much as £1 or even more! For that reason, I keep my e-kit handy (calls going out are moderately expensive but a quick call and ask for a call back works).....until the day comes when you can get realtively inexpensive (define it anyway you want) calls to North America and other places outside the eu, there still will be a place for international sims. Incidentally, Ms. Redding I think her name is is on record as saying her ultimate goal is to eliminate roaming charges throughout the eu altogether using as an example what happened in the USA. Also I suppose a work around for the asinine prices to call outside the eu are phone cards with local or at least eu triggering numbers....the only problem being is that even if the call is not completed, you get nicked for the initial call to the triggering number! But if intra-eu free or nearly free roaming ever becomes available, this might be a worthwhile solution.