Beyond Wireless Gsm Official

[andy]

Originally Posted by GadgetKen

I agree it would be good for international visitors to the US, but there is one sticky point:

Their website says "Shipping & Returns: We do not accept international orders.
US ORDERS ONLY" on their shipping policies page.

Well, it's lucky I never saw that, otherwise I wouldn't have sent this email

Hello. Can your SIM cards be ordered by people outside the USA? - and
delivered abroad or only in USA? I notice that your account page has a
possibility for foreign addresses, but a US state still appears by default.
Thanks

reply -

Our website and UPS could technically allow anyone almost anywhere to
purchase our products and have them shipped to them - but our SIM cards only
work with Cingular's North American GSM network.

Thank you for contacting Beyond GSM!

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by andy

Our website and UPS could technically allow anyone almost anywhere to
purchase our products and have them shipped to them - but our SIM cards only
work with Cingular's North American GSM network.

Thank you for contacting Beyond GSM!

Based on the response I think they are politely discouraging non-US orders(maybe they got burned in the past on international orders). You could still get an Oxygen, Locus or Callplus sim card from the ecallplus website Ecallplus Link that would work on the same Cingular network. From the order form page on the ecallplus website, they apparently have no problems in accepting foreign orders (plus they include international long distance to many countries).

Very good chart that someone came up with on major US prepaid plans that include coverage in the Northeastern US: Cell Guru Prepaid chart

Based on my needs, I went with Beyond GSM, because they can activate a local US number for me that ecallplus can not(trying to avoid having family members dial long distance to reach me for domestic phone calls), their rates are slightly lower, and their minimum usage per month is slightly lower. I'll see if it's as good as it sounds when I get my sim from Beyond GSM.

[andy]

I don't think he meant to discourage - it's just we were competing to see who was being daft - did I really think I could use the SIM for roaming / did he think I wanted to?

Strangely, Oxygen/Callplus told me last June they would not export
"We are unable to ship overseas for security reasons"
(I was asking for a friend last year).

I did look at the XE one, and wondered about the package of free incoming calls - so why not use callback? The maths got too convoluted for someone with no plans to visit in the near future.

[GadgetKen]

Originally Posted by andy

IStrangely, Oxygen/Callplus told me last June they would not export
"We are unable to ship overseas for security reasons"
(I was asking for a friend last year).

Interesting that some US companies are getting so tough on US sim card exports. Probably the easiest and cheapest way is just to buy a prepaid SIM from a cellular carrier's store or an independent dealer when visiting the states. It's got to be easier if you are there in person and can flash a passport to prove your identity.