Quick Facts
Prepaid Card Name: Globalsim
Home Network Name: ManX Telecomm (Isle of Man)
Country Code: +44
Prepaid Package Cost (Just SIM): € 43.45 including €10 of credit
Prepaid Package Validity: 1 call/sms every 9 months
CSD access: No idea
GPRS/EDGE access: Yes
SIM applications: No
Manual included: Single A4 sheet with short codes and instructions
Refill amounts: € 20, 30, 40, ..., 100, 200, ..., 500
Availability: online store
Competitors:
More In-Depth Information
Buying:
The Good:
The online shop accepts many payments type. The delivery was on time. Customer service phone support responded promptly to all my enquiries.
The Bad:
I haven't received the feedback on my payment, which was performed via bank transfer, nor they've responded to my email enquiry about it. Customer service phone difficult to reach (+49700 number), since most VoIP carriers are not routing to it.
Usage:
The Good:
Relatively low initial investment (€33.45). No call setup fee. Good price for sending SMS: €0.19. Isle of Man number can be called for as low as 6 ct/min. +44 prefix allows this number to be texted from lot of free/cheap web to SMS services. Online top-up. Free incoming calls in most European countries. Good phone customer service.
The Bad:
Caller ID is provided neither on outgoing nor on incoming calls. No SMS delivery reports. Call records not available on Web. Billing 60/60.
TIPS:
Since, unfortunately, caller ID is not provided on outgoing calls, you'll have to find out other ways to use callback services and hence cut the call prices (they start from €0.39 for landlines, and from €0.59 for mobiles). There are some VoIP providers that offer a SMS callback service which is, obviously, triggerred via SMS sent from your Globalsim phone number. For example,
www.mywebcalls.com and
www.voipfone.co.uk both offer SMS callback and charge by seconds. They also offer attractive rates for IoM mobiles: Voipfone 8.2p and mywebcalls 19.5 US ct/min. There are also other VoIP providers who have good rates to UK mobiles, notably
www.voipcheap.com and
www.draytel.org.
As far as handset compatibilty is concerned, GlobalSIM works flawlessly on Nokia 1100 and Nokia 6020. The only thing which bothers me is that outgoing calls are not recorded in the call log, a minor usability issue.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
It appears to me as a good (if not the best) choice if you need an IoM number, relatively low SMS price and free incoming calls throughout the Europe.