Could T-Mobile (U.S.) new global plan doom the global SIM card business?

[snidely]

See Stu's post about it.

I have been a TM customer since before TM came to the U.S. and took over a couple of regional operators. (They now cover the entire U.S.)

TM no longer requires contracts on either pre-paid or postpaid accounts. While they have, for some years, sold prepaid plans, this Global option is only for postpaid customers. This means that it might be almost impossible for any non-U.S. person to get an account. Anyone can get a prepaid account as easily as walking in and buying a loaf of bread. There are no government requirements.

Maybe there is an opening for an enterprising U.S.(and/or foreign?) entrepreneur to "rent out" T-M SIM cards? He/she would have to figure out how to control all the SIMs on the account.
Individual and small business accounts are limited to 5 lines. First line costs $50/mo., 2nd line $30 and lines 3-5 $10 each. I don't know the structure for "medium" sized business's. Every line has unlimited text, voice and 500MB of fast data in the U.S. You can buy 2G of more data, for a per line cost of $10. After you use your allotment, you are throttled to about 128Kbs.

The TM SIM would be useful for almost any intl. traveler.
Eg: You are Italian. You travel to France or China or Costa Rica. When in those or any of the 100+ countries (called Simple Global Countries -SGC) that are covered, you can call back to Italy or any other SGCs for 20¢/min. Incoming calls are all 20¢. Texts, to SGC countries are included unlimited. Incoming text has always been free.
The Unlimited Data you get is limited to 2G - good enuf for email. You can buy different packages of faster data - but I forget the cost. Comes out to be about 20-25¢/MB, as I recall.

The extreme example of change of price: When we were in Vietnam 18 months ago, using voice would have cost us $6/min!! Of course, didn't use it. They are a SGC country - now 20¢.

[Bossman]

Also looks like one will need to sign up for one of their monthly plans. And cancel it if one needs it for no more than a month.

[fsotirop]

but i don't think this plan is offered to foreigners

[powerlifter]

I have been a T-Mobile subscriber for many years. MY problem with this is how do you get a client to call you if they have to make a long distance call if you are in the same country. I usually have a driver, and I would never let him call me long distance if I had gotten his vm. I personally will stick with local sim cards. I find it a lot easier to deal with.

[snidely]

Originally Posted by powerlifter

I have been a T-Mobile subscriber for many years. MY problem with this is how do you get a client to call you if they have to make a long distance call if you are in the same country. I usually have a driver, and I would never let him call me long distance if I had gotten his vm. I personally will stick with local sim cards. I find it a lot easier to deal with.

What could be easier, on your end, than simply using your phone "on the road" just like you do at home?
Stu seemed to mention there is some outfit that will sell? rent? you a foreign number to use that would forward to your home SIM. I am waiting for him to reply to a question about this. Sure would be easier than dealing with prepaid cards - and you just carry your home phone. Your problem would affect very few users. Calling a U.S. number is cheap for most people and they are used to doing it. There is no surcharge for calling a U.S. cell. There is for calling a cell in the caller's home country! The bottom line, the caller could probably call your U.S. number cheaper than calling a cell in his home country.
Of course for business appearances, having a local number might be the way to go. You could still use your TM SIM for outgoing calls, texts, and data (email). Just use your local SIM for incoming. No cost to you!

[powerlifter]

Originally Posted by snidely

What could be easier, on your end, than simply using your phone "on the road" just like you do at home?
Stu seemed to mention there is some outfit that will sell? rent? you a foreign number to use that would forward to your home SIM. I am waiting for him to reply to a question about this. Sure would be easier than dealing with prepaid cards - and you just carry your home phone. Your problem would affect very few users. Calling a U.S. number is cheap for most people and they are used to doing it. There is no surcharge for calling a U.S. cell. There is for calling a cell in the caller's home country! The bottom line, the caller could probably call your U.S. number cheaper than calling a cell in his home country.
Of course for business appearances, having a local number might be the way to go. You could still use your TM SIM for outgoing calls, texts, and data (email). Just use your local SIM for incoming. No cost to you!

Well as it happens the only country that Stu Hushed link I could use is the UK. I mainly go to the old soviet block countries. I have a number for the UK which is on my business card. Hushed looks quite expensive once you have the card with monthly fees and calls to inbound and outbound. I will stick with local sims.

[Stu]

Let me be clear, I am only suggesting Hushed as a solution for ten days or less and then only forwarded to a cheap number such as a US or Canadian number ( or UK landline).

I am going yo Costa Rica on holiday next month. Piranha is .06 a minute inbound and Telna is .07. My wife and I have ATT unlimited international data. Unless we decide to tether, a single Hushed Costa Rica number forwarded to my Asterisks box and an IVR handles are limited local calls.

If I wanted something longterm, this is not the way to go.

[jeffharris]

Originally Posted by powerlifter

I have been a T-Mobile subscriber for many years. MY problem with this is how do you get a client to call you if they have to make a long distance call if you are in the same country. I usually have a driver, and I would never let him call me long distance if I had gotten his vm. I personally will stick with local sim cards. I find it a lot easier to deal with.

you do realize, depending on where you go, most country calls to the US are sometimes in fact cheaper for therm than to call a local mobile.... just sayin...

and heck, if you have a driver, hes making money off of you. he can call you!!

Sadly (but im happy asbout it), i have not such a need for this board any more because of T-Mo's new Intl deal. I just keep a OneSimCard and a GeoSim SIM anyway in case i hit one of the countries TMo doesn't cover...

[Stu]

You can get the TMobile deal from harbormobile.com for $30 a month.

For the folks who don't live in the US and are attracted to this plan: A Canadian friend of mine in Toronto got a TMobile account with a US credit card and address. Within 90 days they had him flagged as not being a US resident. And no, it wasn't Vlad.

[Donal]

Does he perhaps speak French?

What happened after he was unmasked?