Cheapest sms with an international sim card?

[Dubrock]

Virgin UK has hardly any coverage in South America, 02 UK is a lot better in that matter, but I'm not sure whether they provide data service as well. Telfort NL for example has roaming in most of those South American countries, but doesn't do data in those countries. I just mailed 02 customer service. I still not sure if they charge in 1kB increments with pay as you go either. I just downloaded mobisms to my phone over GPRS, but mobisms can't connect with the server packetinfo or something is failing

mobisms filesize of sms should be less than 600 bytes. so that would be 1 kB.

[andy]

I wonder if 3 UK charges in smaller increments than 1k. I got 7 separately connected ~1400 byte messages for a penny, which would be 3 pence in Europe and some other countries.

There are other mobile Java programs, such as Vyke and Voipbuster, and a new arrival called Fishtext. A bit off-topic: both Vyke and Voipbuster clients can also use their callback services

Vyke used to charge 2 US cents per message, but has recently gone up to 6 cents. It was my favourite until a protracted discussion with them about their switch to a Java MIDP 2.0 version of Lite and withdrawal of the old one [is the word 'deprecated' a vogue amongst software engineers?]. They also have a version with free messages between users who are both online, as do others. For people without inclusive data packages, it may be wise not to leave this type permanently on, to avoid constant pings to check for updates.

The Voipbuster client can use any of the Betamax brands. Their sms rates are something of a movable feast; there have been occasional free message offers in the past, some with fair-use conditions that weren't all that clear, and for a long time the rates were a cent or two each, but are now typically 4 cents or so.

Fishtext appeared a few weeks ago, rates from 2 or 3 eurocents each. I wouldn't expect problems, as they've run an online service cbfsms for some time. They claim to have compression techniques that use less data. I've only just signed up a trial account, synchronise settings (?) twice, did a couple of balance checks, test about four tariffs, sent one message, used about 3k.

There are quite few services which will send non-sms messages between two of their subscribers free, and I don't know them all

It seems that many of these clients now are only supporting MIDP 2.0 version of Java [check version], so if downloads or installs are found not to work on an older phone, that's a possible reason. It may be worth trying to find an old version, but some are no longer supported (Vyke as I mentioned).

There are also services which send sms from websites, with some useful possibilities, but I don't know if we want to go into this here

[Dubrock]

Ah! That's a lot of good info! If I must believe the websites, mobisms is still the cheapest for me. Unfortunately they charged 2 credits for a sms to Telfort NL although it's only 1 according to the website. And sms to 09 sim and go global sim is not possible.

[kctopitz]

Great thread here: If you really want cheap international SMS, either while roaming abroad or from your home country to a friend abroad, you need to use GPRS data and one of the mentioned services.

Like Andy, I too was a Vyke proponent until their recent changes. The move to a Java client means that you can no longer select the recipient from your phone's contact list, and now have to enter the number from memory. (Who wants to do that each time they send an SMS?) 6 US cents per SMS is still competitive though. I've switched to using their service with the goText client instead of the native Vyke client because with goText you can store contacts (though you still have to manually enter them in).

You can get a €1 free trial credit per phone number with Vyke, depending on where the number is based, which can be handy for short travel and experimenting. They don't accept US mobile numbers and they won't take US credit cards to add credit. You can have a friend with a European credit card pay to top up your account, but expect a lot of hassle: they made me fax in copies of my friend's credit card, his ID and my ID for security verification.

I also use Voipcheap (one of the many rebranded Betamax VoIP services) with the goText Java client, simply because I have an account with them. Here's a pricelist for the range of Betamax services. Note that the rates of these services tend to change often, sometimes drastically. Some offer free SMS to certain countries, but there's a limit on this in the fine print and only applies to SMS sent from their PC VoIP client and doesn't apply to SMS sent using goText.

You can also supposedly use Wadja with goText, which would allow free SMS (minus your GPRS data charges). I haven't had success with it from goText, but I haven't played with it much. If an SMS does go through, you can expect it to be limited to something like 80 characters with a Wadja endorsement at the end. At least, that's how the free SMS sent from their website show up. WARNING to US users: I sent a test SMS to my US mobile from the Wadja website, and it ended up sending the message over 20 times (at a cost of $.05 per SMS received). I didn't have this problem with test messages to my Germany mobile, though it's not as big of a concern in Europe where incoming SMS are free anyway.

So far it looks as if a UK prepaid SIM at £.005/1kb ($.009/1kb) combined with FishText may be the best deal, though obviously it depends where you're going and what country you'll be sending SMS to.

[kctopitz]

Originally Posted by andy

The Voipbuster client can use any of the Betamax brands.

Andy, do you have a link to the Voipbuster client? I wasn't able to find anything looking on their website.

[andy]

via the Features page > Voipbuster Mobile, etc

http://www.voipbuster.com/en/mobile.html#client

on your MOBILE phone go to http://gsm.voipbuster.com

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by andy

Fishtext appeared a few weeks ago, rates from 2 or 3 eurocents each. I wouldn't expect problems, as they've run an online service cbfsms for some time. They claim to have compression techniques that use less data. I've only just signed up a trial account, synchronise settings (?) twice, did a couple of balance checks, test about four tariffs, sent one message, used about 3k.

Wow. Fishtext looks pretty good. Rates are about 15% of what T-Mobile (US) is now charging for most SMS. T-Mobile now charges $0.20 per domestic SMS and Fishtext is €0.02. They also claim to be able to send to US CDMA carriers. Their Java aplet loads and runs on my E61. The smsBug aplet is very buggy on the E61 and Moto phones. Thanks for the tip. I think I'll give them a test run.

[inquisitor]

Regarding all those midlet-based services always make sure your GSM-provider doesn't block them. E.g. the voipbuster midlet doesn't work with a French Orange SIM, as they seem to have blocked the required port (9000). Changing the port in the midlet to 80 didn't help. Betamax' websites could be accessed with a browser though.

[Dubrock]

Fishtext indeed looks very good! I think I'll go for that one. It looks better designed and you can change the number where your sending from. Ideal when traveling the world.

[Dubrock]

I just got a reaction from 02:

"The various GPRS Call Data Records (CDRs) generated for each session are consolidated into a single daily total. The daily total is then rounded up or down to the nearest Kbyte, based on the following rules:

Daily usage: 0 to 512 bytes: total sent for pricing is rounded down to 0 Kbytes. Daily usage: 513 to 1024 Kbytes: total sent for pricing is rounded up to 1 Kbyte. So usage of less than 512 bytes in a day will not be priced. Usage of 0.5 to 1.5 Kbytes in a day will be rounded to 1 Kbyte. Usage of 1.5 to 2.5 Kbytes will be rounded to 2 Kbytes, etc."

And they offer data roaming in Chili, Nicaragua, Jamaica, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. So that's covered!

No data coverage in Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Fiji, Vanuatu, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal though

Laos had pretty cool sms rates! to 10-15 countries its free, and to all other countries they charge 0.15 kip, which means you can send about 8300 sms for 1 eurocent