What Sim Would You Recommend

[fuzzypuppy]

I was going to go with UM with CBW.

But given how expensive UM will be when CBW isn't working, what can you guys recommend as an alternative? (sim-only)

I'll be in the UK, Italy, Germany and possibly Austria.

[DRNewcomb]

I think most of us here have been struggling with the same question. I have both UM (Riiing) and now 09. I can tell you that 09's only benefit is a long list of "free incoming" countries. SMS does not seem to work and they have almost no concept of customer service. It just depends on what you need.

[Bossman]

Like the Dr said, it depends on what you need and which of the sims offer it. You are absolutely correct...without CBW, riiing is not cheap at all for out going calls. I have riiing and the IOM rebrand below from free global sim. The sim itself is free and it includes free shipping. It worked well for me on a recent trip. You just have to compare the rates/coverage and see what works for you. Actually, I also have yackie, but...

http://www.freeglobalsim.com/

[jeffharris]

Well, given where you say you will be, I recommend my combination.

That would be an IOM SIM, which in my case, I opted for GeoSIM ( www.globalsimcard.co.uk ), as they are one of the few, if only, who have 30 second and 6 second billing on outgoing calls, which I find very helpfull when making quick calls.

In addition, I have subscribed to Enlinea callback. So far, I have had a 95+ % rate of success with it in the past couple of months, and I have been travelling back and forth between the US, and Europe and the Middle East the last couple of months.

That all being said, and as I mentioned in another thread, there's an additional thing you can do to reduce costs on both calls out, and also for almost free incoming calls to your US (or Canadian, it seems) mobile forwarded to your IOM SIM......

I have subscribed to Skype in, and received a US number. I forward my US phone to Skype, and then I forward the Skype to my GeoSIM IOM number. Skype only charges 2c a minute to IOM numbers. The only complaint is in the MIddle East (Dubai), there was a slight delay in the voice exchange from this forwarding, which made it slightly annoying, but, do-able. And, even with my grandfathered, cheaper T-Mobile International roaming, I would still have paid $1.48 a minute incoming, to Dubai. I liked the 2c a minute better -- I lived with the delay. However, I did not experience that delay in Europe.

In addition, you can set up one Enlinea account, not to call you back on the IOM number, but, you can have it call the US Skype in number (which forwards to yuor IOM number), then the call back to the US or Canada, I guess, all this is only about 10c a minute all added up (I think about 8c a minute USA to USA with Enlinea, plus the 2c a minute from Skype). The only downside is, all this forwarding and callback, can also produce some voice delay. I guess it comes down to how much you want to save vs. how easily you can deal with the voice delay (it is still very short, about as long as an echo).

I'll tell you, it is a real pleasure knowing people are calling me on my US mobile, and, wherever I am am only paying 2c a minute to receive the call. Makes it cheaper and easier for people to call me, then me to call them!

And, I have 2 Enlinea acocunts -- one, with the Skype forward thing, and one direct to my IOM number, and I pick which one I use based on whether it is an important business call or not, and want to experience some voice delay, or no voice delay. With an IOM number, Enlinea callback to USA is about 24c a minute.

Lastly, from a business point of view, the only downside for me, for the forwarding of my US number to my IOM number, is I can only have the generic British ladies voice for voicemail, and cannot personalize it.

Hope this helps a bit.

[andy]

You might even consider having local SIM cards. Calls from the UK have options around 5 pence a minute on 3 different SIM cards, or for intensive use 3 has an option for int'l calls as cheap as 0.5p (?15 for up to 3000 minutes a month)

Germany and Austria have mvno's with rates around 12c per minute, and a Wind SIM could be used with a calling card for about the same.



I'd be interested in whether Jeff has tried this method with calls that need key entry on answer, or have you triggered with the destination number already defined? I find that with a different callback service the DTMF tones aren't relayed, so using a callthrough on top or entering my account details when calling the bank isn't possible. I thought it was a Skype issue, but maybe not. The same callback service relays DTMF on other calls though, and for this use I trigger the calls via wap/gprs. When sat in a call queue to the ferry company for 25 minutes, 3 pence a minute is a lot nicer than 25p ot 70p (but you have to make a noise every couple of minutes to keep the line alive).

There are other options for call forwarding to a UK/IoM SIM, like around 10c a minute from voipcheap.com, but using callback with that can be a bit more tricky at the moment, though perhaps with a free US DID from IPKall or Freedigits pointed at it, then Enlinea callback ....... this at least should hold good when Skype correct their tariff, which can only be a matter of time now with this sort of fanfare, or given the recent enabling or release of some new 075 prefixes for UK mobiles (only 077, 078, 079 so far)

[jeffharris]

Well, I haven't tried the DTMF issues, like at the bank, but, usually, I do not use the Skype callthru for callback calls, as I don't care about the 24c a minute rate for a cleaner, business call with Enlinea form my IOM number to USA. If I plan to be on th phone for a long time, I may ask the person to call my US number back, which uses the Skype callthru, and it is as clean a line as callback, and again, only 2c a minute.

As well, I have the new Netgear WiFi Skype phone, for, when I am in my hotel room. For the most part, I have plenty of calls to make late and night, and early in the morning, as when I am abroad, the time differences usually dictate that. Too bad Skype is BLOCKED in the UAE, where I just was. And my Vonage didn't work correctly, either, when I was there. Made it more difficult.

And Skype for sure has issues with DTMF. I also have a Vonage softphone on my computer, and there are no DTMF issues with that. Anyway, I hate claling the bank. Wades thru too many menus, and uiseless info. I use the net for bank logons.

Long at short is, for 6 years I had free outgoing calls when I was abroad, and I am so about half the year. I got very used to that, so, when that lovely option finished, I had to rearrange my methods of how I use the phone, which I do extensively during the day, wherever I am, and I found the above combinations I mentioned ot be the most efficient vs. quiality signal.

I would like to believe that my 500 minutes I week I probably use when abroad, from my cell phone, and not including virtually free direct VoIP, like Skype, costs me only about $60-$100, including incoming and outgoing. And yes, every once in a while, I get frustrated, and make a $1 a minute call direct from my US cell, when I want a fast, clean line, but, I try not to.

[Stu]

The UAE is screwing with IOM SIMs. At least with Globalsimcard, I can no longer USSD dial. When I was in Oman, the SIM worked fine. Incoming works and callback calls work.

I am a relative newbie to this stuff and would like some advice regarding the posts on this thread.

There have been two IOM Sims discussed on this thread. One suggested by bossman from freeglobalsim.com, the other suggested by jeffharris from globalsimcard.co.uk. The first costs about 25GBP and gives 25GBP prepay credit. The other costs 25GBP and gives 5GBP prepay credit. The first obviously starts one off with more time on the card. The later sim seems to have more services provided, like call triggering by SMS and by email, as well as free call forwarding of the sim phone number to any other phone number (eg local sims). As far as I can tell, the minute by minute costs are the same on the two cards for any two countries although the time increment is different. Freeglobalsim does not describe any "extra" services like globalsimcard does.

My current inclination is to go with globalsimcard and pay the extra startup costs to gain the additional services, but I might be overlooking things.

Have I sorted out the right tradeoffs between the two cards? Anybody got more advice about how to choose between them?

Thanks

Phil

[Bossman]

phlosipher, even though freeglobal sim does not describe it, it does have those features. It has free call forwarding to any number, free checking of VM, activating/deactivating VM from handset, checking of VM on the web, call cost SMS after every outgoing call, email notification of VM, etc. There are a few other features that can be setup on the web too.

[fuzzypuppy]

well, I just ordered from freeglobalsim the only issue now being is that I get a timeout everytime I try to log on to the website.

They said they were having problems with their host but the login should still work...