Chart comparing Roaming Rates for 4 intl. SIMS in 190 countries

[snidely]

Also included are the 2 U.S. GSM carriers.

I had a hard time finding easy to grab Manx rates. As mentioned on the chart, the Manx card I used, "National Geographic - Talk Abroad", seems to have weird rates. In a few instances, INcoming is more than OUTgoing. I also noticed that they claim they use the same non-functional VM United Mobile used to have. They say calls won't go to VM unless the phone is on! You can force ALL calls to VM. I don't know whether this is a function of all Manx cards or just this one.


http://us.f13.yahoofs.com/bc/4432dad...zMa9FB7td3BNic

If that doesn't work, try:

http://rapidshare.com/files/20725101...rates.pdf.html

I would have posted it here, but the 29K PDF file exceeds the limits here by 10K.

I guess I could also post it on Yahoo in .xls format if people want.

Please let me know where there are errors. (Note I said not "if" ther are errors.

...mike

[prion]

I can not download it. Please upload it in rapidshare.com and give us the link. Its easier this way!

[snidely]

Originally Posted by prion

I can not download it. Please upload it in rapidshare.com and give us the link. Its easier this way!

See edited post above and let me know if that works. They both worked for me on tests.

Thanks.

My main problem with creating the chart is that different carriers list Bosnia, Serbia etc. and a few other places by different names. N.G. still lists Yugoslavia as a country and I'm not sure which country they refer to.

[bones_boy]

Snidely, that is indeed some effort you've put forth. Thank you very much.

[VladS]

Great job! Thanks!

I have two questions:

Who reliably terminates to the United Mobile numbering range for $0.30 a minute? (CBW excluded).

What leads you to believe the cost to terminate calls to the IoM numbering ranges (07624 and 07924) will go up?

[snidely]

Re: IOM rates.
There was a "high end" telephony conf. about 10 days ago in S.F. sponsored by oreillynet.com. There were at least 200 people there from all over the world.
No - I didn't spend the $2K to attend. However, I did go one afternoon and evening when you could sign up and get into the Exhibit Hall for free. I couldn't help it if I accidentally walked in on a couple of conferences. Many/most of the sessions were WAY above my head.
Anyway, I wound up talking to someone w. a UK accent - a person who is somewhat well known in "telephony circles" in the U.S., (he was interviewed by Reuters about an hour earlier). I asked him about the IOM "carriers". He said that the free ride for the IOM resellers will probably end soon - for the same reason the Iowa "free calling to Europe" operations were shut down.
[An aside, there is still one of those free calls to many countries operations with a Minnesota number 218-339-1990. At least it was still working last Friday.]

He didn't tell me the exact reasons and I didn't know anyone else to verify this with.
My guess is that either (1) the central UK govt. subsidizes the IOM operator and/or (2) there is a much higher termination cost for calling an IOM number that the carriers either (a) don't know about or (b) do know but their systems can't distinguish between calls going to diff. UK - +44 - systems.
I do know that some operators can't distinguish between calls going to the mainland U.S. and countries in the Carribean w. +1 numbers for setting rates.

So, for now, this is just a RUMOR. I have seen this mentioned either here or elsewhere in a forum.

...mike

[MATHA531]

Termination fees to Liechtenstein vary widely...as of January, the best seems to be on the AT&T $1/month international plan I have...calls to Liechtenstein are 10¢/US billed, unfortunately in 1 minute intervals and the termination fee to a Liechtenstein mobile is.....hold your breath...1¢ (not a misprint)..

Verizon, my landline carrier, allows remote call forwarding so when I'm in those European countries where I don't have prepaid sims, I use United Mobile and set my phone to forward to the United Mobile sim and the calls indeed come through at 11¢/minute (as noted unfortunately rounded up to the next highest minute which is the way AT&T does it but you can't have everything!)

[snidely]

Re: Calling a +423 mobile.

Our landline LD carrier is: IDT. (idt.net).
From their web site: Liechtenstein 423 9¢ 9¢

They make no distinction between landline and cellular! 18 months ago when I had a UM card, I made a test call and was billed that amount (or maybe it was even a cent more at the time).
Wouldn't do me any good because, unlike Verizon, PacBell doesn't allow forwarding to intl. numbers.
Voicestick would charge 36 cents. Kall8 92 cents!!. Others in the past, here, said ATT LD only charges 10 cents. CBW - 14. Onesuite 25.

So, I picked 30 cents.

As for Estonia - CBW is 22, Voicestick and IDT, 23. However, Kall8 is 52. My usual dial around carrier, Onesuite, is 40.

IOM was a last minute addition. Rates I found for calling a UK mobile are:
Voicestick-16, IDT-40!, Onesuite-18, CBW-40. I should look up the rates for the other, major U.S. LD carrier-MCI?

Now that I look at all this - none of the pricing makes any sense!!! My main objective was to make sure people took all factors into consideration. Eg. UM is the only one to charge a "connection fee" on outgoing.
AND the main point is: Free Incoming is far from free. The cost simply shows up on a different bill.
"Foreigners" try to tell us 'muricans that we are at a disadvantage because their incoming is free. They neglect to factor in the 12 to over 20 cent per min. cost that shows up on their landline bill. Here, for $50, I can buy 3000 min. anytime airtime for less than 2 cents/min. It is FREE for the caller to call me.

I am open to suggestions as to what figure should be shown for the "average" user - not the cheap (frugal?) people here.

...mike

[prion]

Originally Posted by snidely

See edited post above and let me know if that works. They both worked for me on tests.

Thanks.

My main problem with creating the chart is that different carriers list Bosnia, Serbia etc. and a few other places by different names. N.G. still lists Yugoslavia as a country and I'm not sure which country they refer to.

The rapidshare link worked! Thank you for this chart!

Since we talk about termination fees, I have recently noted that many carriers start charging hagher rates to dial a 09 mobile (+354). The situation seems comparable to that of UM albeit not so many charging high fees at present....

EDIT: I have just noticed that the incoming rate to Argentina with UM is wrong. It 0.59 euros (around 0.78 $).

[Effendi]

Great work!
As for about calling Liechtenstein, IOM or Estonia, here in Italy it's great to use one of the postpaid plans of 3 which, in the worst case, costs 9 cent/min (per minute billing) to call both Estonia and IOM, while FL is still expensive....
I think I'll recharge my Travelsim before going to Georgia and Armenia next summer...