Lycamobile US

[NFH]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

I don't understand or agree with this practice either but in the defense of the carriers I'll just say that most American customers have either unlimited domestic texting or a huge text bucket.

True, but this doesn't help prepaid customers who comprise the members of this forum. I'm sure nearly all of us here have monthly contracts in our home countries with similarly generous allowances.

[Stu]

I gave up trying to get relatives and friends to move to top level services like Whatsapp, Viber, etc. and purchased a subscription to Line2 because I didn't want to pay ATT $30 a month. Line2 gives me a virtual cell number which receives SMS and forwards wherever I wanted it to. When I first started, it had a callback service. Unfortunately they pulled that. It costs me $8 a month (buying several months at a time), works VOIP Over 3g, allows me to forward calls on the fly, and gives me unlimited SMSes which I can receive on whatever SIM card I might have in my phone.

If I had it do over, I might look at VoxOx which offers something similar but includes a callbackservice.

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

Nope. Nada. Zilch. [to fulfill 10 character requirement.]

OK. Just a random telemarketer then.

[rfranzq]

I received my SIM today via UPS 2nd day air.

PAYGO is now working according to CS.

Went to the web site and they have lowered the talk rate for PAYGO:

2c/min Pay As You Go
2c/min, 4c/Text, 6c/MB

And added another 'plan':

$19/month
Unlimited Nationwide Talk & Texts

I am going to wait until April to activate, so I have to trust them that PAYGO is now working.
[Sorry for double post but both threads seem worthy. ]

[andy]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

I'm sorry but that Free Incoming Calls while roaming is too good to be true or to last. This will break down as soon as people (like me) who know how to turn free incoming into free outgoing get their hands on the SIM. Remember that for calling US mobile numbers, there's no cellular surcharge. No way this is going to work. They'll be broke in 3 months.

I wouldn't count on it lasting anyway.

This may just be a promotional offer for a certain time (although I expect the brand's main focus is on calls made within USA, not roaming).

For a while after Lyca launched Toggle, it had free incoming calls in over 140 countries; slightly less than half of that now.

[Motel75]

I just ordered a free SIM, and looking at the order code, I suspect the last five digits indicate the number of orders so far - in which case there have been about 15,000.

I certainly hope Lycamobile can make money at 2c/min.

[Motel75]

I've finally registered my Lycamobile US SIM (in Germany) and my wife will be giving it a try in Miami in two weeks. There were lots of bugs in the website programming (spaces were not ignored, the mandatory login with the phone number had an incorrect 0 on the beginning, some things not translated, etc.).

I notice that the "free SIM" now costs $7. I wonder what that could tell us.

Anyway, I can now confirm that it really does cost only 30 cents to receive a call in Germany. Hope they can stay in business.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by Motel75

I notice that the "free SIM" now costs $7. I wonder what that could tell us.

They don't understand the USA. [leading zero in account number also]

It is said on Howard Forums that if you order a SIM and put a $5 topup on it, the SIM will ship free.
I have no need to test, but the ones saying this are reliable forum members.

[GadgetKen]

The 2 cent per minute rate for US to US calls is incredibly inexpensive. Lyca uses T-Mobile towers so people considering it should compare coverage as well as cost with AT&T MVNO's. One website also reports that you need at least one billable event every 90 days to maintain service (cellguru.net).

I use H2O (an AT&T MVNO) for the primary sim in my dual sim phone and Telna Mobile (using mostly T-Mobile in the USA) for the secondary sim card. Both sim chips have inexpensive USA rates, but not as cheap as Lyca Mobile. Lyca won't work for me though because I need the AT&T coverage footprint more in the US. T-Mo is more of a backup for me. Plus Telna has better international roaming rates than Lyca does (at least for Canada, Mexico, non-US Caribbean; European roaming rates are more competitive).

[Motel75]

Doesn't Lyca roam on AT&T like TMO prepaid does?