Truphone's New Virtual SIM

[Stu]

Truphone had an interesting announcement:

No more roaming: Truphone simplifies international phone service for travelers | VentureBeat

The company has excited me more than once, but their delivery has left me hanging.

[davidtheprof]

yep, Truphone has promised a lot, but nothing in last 3 years, the company seems to be in a coma. No new services or countries beyond their basic 3, UK, US, Australia. Meanwhile, Piranha and others are moving rapidly to innovate, integrate VOIP with the sim card, lower rates, etc. The final straw for me was when Truphone lowered rates for EU residents in the summer but not for those of us elsewhere.

[Stu]

Not giving me the benefit of EU roaming rates got me pretty furious. I also noticed that their business customers have inbound calls in Hong Kong for US$0.10 a minute, but consumers pay $1.10. I get that consumers who aren't paying a monthly fee pay more, but the degree they are charging bothers me.

I started with Truphone's VOIP service on my old Nokia E61. It worked flawlessly, but their rates where way higher than everyone else. Their new SIM has promise, but again they charge more than roaming SIMs in non-Truphone countries and even in Truphone countries their rates aren't hugely better for voice. (Data seems better).

[fsotirop]

sorry but i don't trust this guys...

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by Stu

Truphone had an interesting announcement:

No more roaming: Truphone simplifies international phone service for travelers | VentureBeat

The company has excited me more than once, but their delivery has left me hanging.

I like this quote:

“Mobile roaming rates for voice, SMS, and data are exorbitant – so almost all people ‘turn off data’ and ‘forward calls to voicemail’ when they go abroad – or carry multiple phones, duck into and out of Wi-Fi zones – or any other strange workarounds.”

I think he was talking about us.

[Paul578]

It's pretty bad when even TruTower.com the Truphone news blog acknowledge that it's unfair to Truphone customers about the lack of the EU rates for US peeps. There's no reasoning behind it. Truphone obviously looked for and found a loophole that allowed them to charge more.

I use their SIM but they desperately need competitive bundles or I don't see them lasting long.

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by Paul578

It's pretty bad when even TruTower.com the Truphone news blog acknowledge that it's unfair to Truphone customers about the lack of the EU rates for US peeps. There's no reasoning behind it. Truphone obviously looked for and found a loophole that allowed them to charge more.

I use their SIM but they desperately need competitive bundles or I don't see them lasting long.

their rates are extremely high, if your main concern is a US incoming number you better look the alterantive of Piranha mobile simcard