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Stu · 06-01-2011, 22:59

Believe it or not, we were seriously thinking about Queensland (but not Rock Hampton). My wife is still working in Dubai fairly regularly. She was there roughly twelve weeks last year. I had taken a few years off and lived there when she did an implementation for their Government.

I have an iPhone with unlimited international data. In addition to my own Asterisks box, I have a service called Line2 from Toktumi. Until their most recent upgrade, it had a great callback feature (which they are hopefully restoring and which I still have since I didn't upgrade). It doesn't use SIP and went through firewalls great, had good VOIP over 3g, and permitted call forwarding on the fly. I'll let people read between the lines where it works. My Bluetooth headset handles inbound calls on two phones.
I also have two great roaming SIMs. SIM #1 is the Classic Maxroam with a US number pinned to it. I have $0.08 a minute inbound in Western Europe, the Bahamas, OZ, Kiwi, SA, and many the standard places (other than the Bahamas). The other is an EKit roaming SIM. Between this combination, I have a great little Swiss Army Knife of telecommunications. We also have a UAE SIM with a US phone number permanently pinned to it with six cents a minute inbound rates.

By the way, I’m now pretty much resigned to paying eKit their $0.19 a minute. I can find cheaper rates to connect to them, but after a few weeks (when the company gets the actual termination rates, the fees rocket upward). Whatever Manx Telecom is charging to terminate these calls, it is obviously far more than the UK mobile provider. Better the devil you know….

I'll answer or initiate my call on Line2 most of the time and transfer the call only if the connection quality goes South on me. If I know I don't have a good connection, I flick one softswitch and I dial on my iPhone and answer the call on one of the previous SIMs just by tapping the button on my Bluetooth. It is a great setup.

I just lost my Rogers SIM but don't miss it. With access to Rogers, Bell, & Telus's 3g networks, I can make pretty good 3g VOIP calls in most places. If I have to transfer the call to eKit, I'm paying $0.19 a minute which is cheap for Canada.

Toktumi’s international rates aren’t great, but 95% of my calls are to the US/Canada and with US numbers tied to my roaming SIMs, it seems like a good setup and is certainly good enough to work temporarily with my SIM de jour until I get to the hotel room and on to my Asterisks box back home.

I have a source for all the Michigan DIDs I need for free and this has made my life easier as well.

	(#19)
Stu (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Guru Posts: 1,091 Join Date: 11 Feb 2004 Location: Detroit (formerly Dubai) Country:	06-01-2011, 22:59 Believe it or not, we were seriously thinking about Queensland (but not Rock Hampton). My wife is still working in Dubai fairly regularly. She was there roughly twelve weeks last year. I had taken a few years off and lived there when she did an implementation for their Government. I have an iPhone with unlimited international data. In addition to my own Asterisks box, I have a service called Line2 from Toktumi. Until their most recent upgrade, it had a great callback feature (which they are hopefully restoring and which I still have since I didn't upgrade). It doesn't use SIP and went through firewalls great, had good VOIP over 3g, and permitted call forwarding on the fly. I'll let people read between the lines where it works. My Bluetooth headset handles inbound calls on two phones. I also have two great roaming SIMs. SIM #1 is the Classic Maxroam with a US number pinned to it. I have $0.08 a minute inbound in Western Europe, the Bahamas, OZ, Kiwi, SA, and many the standard places (other than the Bahamas). The other is an EKit roaming SIM. Between this combination, I have a great little Swiss Army Knife of telecommunications. We also have a UAE SIM with a US phone number permanently pinned to it with six cents a minute inbound rates. By the way, I’m now pretty much resigned to paying eKit their $0.19 a minute. I can find cheaper rates to connect to them, but after a few weeks (when the company gets the actual termination rates, the fees rocket upward). Whatever Manx Telecom is charging to terminate these calls, it is obviously far more than the UK mobile provider. Better the devil you know…. I'll answer or initiate my call on Line2 most of the time and transfer the call only if the connection quality goes South on me. If I know I don't have a good connection, I flick one softswitch and I dial on my iPhone and answer the call on one of the previous SIMs just by tapping the button on my Bluetooth. It is a great setup. I just lost my Rogers SIM but don't miss it. With access to Rogers, Bell, & Telus's 3g networks, I can make pretty good 3g VOIP calls in most places. If I have to transfer the call to eKit, I'm paying $0.19 a minute which is cheap for Canada. Toktumi’s international rates aren’t great, but 95% of my calls are to the US/Canada and with US numbers tied to my roaming SIMs, it seems like a good setup and is certainly good enough to work temporarily with my SIM de jour until I get to the hotel room and on to my Asterisks box back home. I have a source for all the Michigan DIDs I need for free and this has made my life easier as well.