United Mobile - dead, CallBlue - dead, FreeGlobalSim - dead; just ordered TravelSim

[ls129]

For the past 2 years i've had 3 SIM cards that came and went.
Every time they die overnight and take away any credit in the account and the access phone number.

I put my trust now in TravelSim.

If anyone can explain the business model behind these free roaming SIMs i'll be happy to learn something.

[MATHA531]

A total guess by me....

This business has been very gravely affected by the push by the eu to cap roaming rates. Europeans (and I'm not so perhaps some of them here can chime in) used to cross borders a great deal and when roaming rates were asininely high, it was very advantageous for them to have cheaper alternatives. A Brit might take a holiday in Spain and with vodafone and the rest charging an arm and a leg (well maybe just an arm) to roam, they were a very fertile market for these sim cards.

But with eu roaming rates coming down, down, down, well the need became far less. That left who? Well we Americans, stuck with the near criminal roaming rates charged by our gsm carriers (the cheapest rate is 99¢/minute to make and receive calls say in Western Europe, found the ability to receive calls for free and to call back to home for 0,29€ to be a bargain (same is probably true for Canadians, Australians) when holidaying in Europe and other places......also a factor became the high termination fees for calls to such out of the way areas as Estonia, Liechtenstein where many of these cards were based....

Another factor, and I plead guilty, were the cheapskates like me who used the free reception of calls and found ways with the help of callback firms such as Enlinea to not make any calls using the international cards. After all, who can pass up a bargain eh.

Now if only something were done to stop the near criminal roaming rates charged by T Mobile USA to roam on T Mobile UK (although I think I read somewhere that T Mobile UK is getting out of the business) where it pays itself for roaming, well then maybe our need for international cards will die completely (perhaps one reason for the push to have a dual UK/USA card).

[JohnCK]

Hi all,

Always been a key viewer on this very interesting forum but first post!

I am representing CallKey and a few of you will be familiar with the name, although we tend to sit in the background as we are a wholesale white label company, only dealing with Distributors and not end users.

This is an interesting thread and i speak with the experience of the old CallKey company having serious problems. It is no doubt true that with the Euro tariff being enforced it does leave reduced margins with fewer savings to be had (within the EU). That being said, and as a typical example travellers to Dubai in UAE can save bundles in comparison to the very high roaming charges that UK network operators impose. This applies to many more countries worldwide.

The US has always been a potentially huge market but the one big obstacle has been what is called MTC (Mobile Termination Charges). This is exactly why we have signed the deal to provide our Distributors with UK / USA Dual IMSI SIM cards. These will offer free inbound in the US, roaming nationally on ATT&T and T-Mobile. On top of that outbound calls from the US to EU will be the equivalent of calling within the EU. Check with your local network operator your roaming charges in the US and see the real savings to be had. This Dual IMSI SIM will see ourselves, our Distributors and ultimately the end users benefit from tremendous savings, and at the same time being profitable for all parties.

Thanks

John

CallKey

[MrEd]

GeoSIMs Dual Number UK/US SIM will have coverage in 203 countries. Both the UK and US number will roam in all countries and have free incoming calls in the US. The US will become "part of Europe" in terms of calling when in the US.

Much of the additional coverage is in Africa, Middle East, South and Central America and a number of island states. In total an additional 68 countries over our standard GeoSIM.

We are updating our site as we finalise details on call pricing but the coverage list is here

[ls129]

Originally Posted by ls129

If anyone can explain the business model behind these free roaming SIMs i'll be happy to learn something.

Again, can someone explain how free roaming works?

GSM operators are obliged to pay per-minute termination fees when their customers receive calls while connected to foreign networks.

how come IOM and Lichtenstein GSM operators are exempt from termination fees ?

is that a reciprocal agreement of no-termination-fees between these particular countries and the 60-130 countries that are listed on "free roaming" sim suppliers sites ?

[MrEd]

Originally Posted by ls129

Again, can someone explain how free roaming works?

In general this is would be commercially sensitive information so you are unlikely to get any detail on this or of particular business models, especially on a public forum.

[FBlack_111]

I have been hearing about those Dual Number UK/US SIM. Does it mean that if I am traveling in Europe with the Dual Number SIM, and a person in the U.S. calls the U.S. number, the incoming call in Europe is a free call?

[JohnCK]

With the Dual IMSI receiving calls on the US number will never be free and will always have a small inbound charge. There are commercial reasons behind this. Whilst in the US receiving calls on the +44 number will in general be free but again there will be a small inbound charge for receiving on the +1.

John

CallKey

[MrEd]

Originally Posted by FBlack_111

I have been hearing about those Dual Number UK/US SIM. Does it mean that if I am traveling in Europe with the Dual Number SIM, and a person in the U.S. calls the U.S. number, the incoming call in Europe is a free call?

As general and summary can be found here

[hrgajek]

Hello,

Originally Posted by ls129

Again, can someone explain how free roaming works?
GSM operators are obliged to pay per-minute termination fees when their
customers receive calls while connected to foreign networks.

Yes.

how come IOM and Lichtenstein GSM operators are exempt from termination
fees ?

Liechtenstein Prefix +423 663 is a "premium" number prefix, this means, Caller have to pay a higher fee, to reach those numbers. Liechtenstein Telco gave a higher amount to United-Mobile and therefore they could pay the interconnect till China for example. But there must have been a new Interconnect-Tariff regime, UM decided to upset their pricing and to charge one time even per incoming call.

IoM (Isle of Man) and Jersey Calls are billed as "landline" but they are ending in mobile system. These Islands have unbalanced calls. Less Calls are going TO the island, most calls are going from the islands. So an international mobile phone company attracts lots of incoming callers and minutes.

But those models are very hard calculated and if the ugly customers do not make enough outgoing calls and pay for this (and do NOT use free incoming to set up a external Callback like "Enlinea" or others) then the model gets instable.