Are "international" SIMS becoming obsolete?

[snidely]

T-Mobile U.S. (and one or two other carriers in the world) can make use of UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) to connect via wifi and make "cell" calls as though you were home. No $1 to $3/min. roaming calls. No 30 to 50 cent/min calls using an intl. SIM.
It is as simple and easy as using your same cell phone at home.

Just hung up w. the otherr half who is in Costa Rica. UMA connection was perfect. Once you have connected to a wifi spot, the phone will automatically connect whenever you come in range.

I have a question: Wouldn't some 'smart" phones that can load and use Skype do the same sort of thing? How about users of Google Voice?

With wifi around the world becoming more ubiquitous, and more and more people using smart phones, it would seem this is what roamers will do more and more.

Am I missing something?


...mike

[RTuesday]

Originally Posted by snidely

I have a question: Wouldn't some 'smart" phones that can load and use Skype do the same sort of thing?

They do, for example on a Nokia E51 (and many others) there is a standard SIP VOIP client - I use that for voip calls when indoors and switch to mobile when out and about (plus, my voip provider has PSTN fallback so when the mobile doesn't register via VOIP for a while it diverts to the mobile number (at my cost)).

How about users of Google Voice?

Until Google Voice forwards internationally, I'm struggling to find a real use for it, other than as a "find me" number that diverts to a US mobile or to a US VOIP number (ipkall.com) that goes to the VOIP account.

With wifi around the world becoming more ubiquitous, and more and more people using smart phones, it would seem this is what roamers will do more and more.

Depends largely on if you really need to be contacted, since you can't guarantee inbound calls with reach you with just wi-fi, you need roaming (or at least rerouting) for the times you are out of range. Also, it's getting practical to go find free wi-fi then make a call if saving money is the main objective, but it's still a lot easier to just dial from anywhere on a mobile network if you really want to make a call right now.

[hkr]

Finding free working hotspots and connecting to them is not really that easy. Roaming between them is not really automatic. Some wifi hotspots restrict what ports/protocols you can use, voip is often not working. When abroad, I usually try to find hotspots to call home, but calls normally come in when you are out of wifi coverage. Also, urgent business calls need to be made when there is no wifi avaialable (eg. on the road)...

[mart.lu]

It will stay for a long time cheaper using a global sim than to use something else.
The best it's to use a global sim with a VOIP company (eg betamax, or other) then the call can be really cheap almost like home calls.
luciano
PS : quality of VOIP calls on WIFI is not yet good, you can get really bad connection and always some echo to the people that you call.

[bylo]

We hike in the Alps and carry a cellphone for emergencies, either in case we need help or (more likely) our elderly parents need to reach us. While cellphone coverage is amazingly good even on remote trails, there aren't any WiFi hotspots out there That may slowly change because even some alpine club huts now have Internet but that could take years. And even so, once you leave a hut there's no WiFi. So we'll need a global SIM for the foreseeable future even though we hope we won't need to use it much.

[MATHA531]

The genesis of international cards were, of course, the asininely high roaming rates that telcoms have used as a cash cow.....we see how many of the international cards have met their demise due to the eu's capping of rates....they would disappear completely if something could be done about the outright thievery (and that is what it is) of the North American carriers; nobody can tell me $.99/minute or $1.29/minute, which is what they charge both to make and receive calls when roaming at their cheapest rates, are anything other than nearly a license to steal from the customers. If they could ever get these carriers to realize that charging a going rate of perhaps 20 to 30 cents/minute for international roaming, then quite frankly it would spell the end of the need for international cards.

[Stu]

I love VOIP and have been struggling with Asterisks for years. I don't think it is at the point where it can replace roaming or prepaid SIMs. I think it can supplement them and bring the price down, but it isn't a complete replacement.

UMA connects to more wifi connections than SIP does. Because it is still relatively obsure, it is not received the same attention from folks working on blocking technology. From what I've seen watching this forum, most of us have gravitated towards VOIP and use it where it is available. Many of us now run our own call forwarding service abroad. I use naked DIDs and Voicetrading accounts. I have softphones and have a client on my E65 and E71. Version 2.0 will offer a conditional divert to my mobile stopping at my VOIP connection if available.

TMobile (IMHO) opinion had the perfect roaming device and shot themselves in the foot. We dropped TMobile's Blackberry International Plan when they changed the way they interpreted the contract. Because my wife pulls e-mail from to Exchange servers, only one could go on BES. The other was coming in using a program called Astrasync which is an Activesync clone for Blackberry. We got a $500 roaming bill for data because of this. I got the charged reversed, but jump ship for ATT's international Blackberry plan which includes all on device data. This is a data only device. The device was a Tmobile blackberry and she can SIM swap to get a connection via Tmobile, but ATT doesn't support UMA.

My wife still has Tmobile for voice with an UMA compatible handset, but the Blackberry is the only UMA phone that works well in a hotspot that requires a browser to log on. As you know from HoFo, I keep on hoping that someone will make a working VOIP client for Blackberry, but it is not in the cards.

In Europe, in room wifi can easily run you 20 Euros. I've even seen 30. If you are going to buy the net, you might as well make the free calls, but if you pop down 20 euros just to make the calls, the economics change. I'm taking a Baltic cruise in two months, cruise ship internet is real pricey, but excluding Russia (I'm in free incoming territory), I've got routes to UK mobiles down to $0.07 a minute incoming at the moment. The cruise ship's internet is probably satellite (the ship respositions around the world -- it doesn't just do the Baltic run). I think I am better with prepaid. If Three continues its "Three Like Home" offer, I should be able to have 3g data on my notebook in Denmark and Sweden for 10 quid total.

I know that you and Newcomb have stayed with Tmobile's grandfathered old roaming rates., I ditched them when I could no longer get a straight quote about what roaming was in a particular country on a particular network. In Kuwait, one network was a $1.50 incoming while the other network was $7.50. I remembered that, but forgot which was which. They could not answer the question and I gave up after two hours with tech support. That was what made me give up. I switched to a roaming SIM. I'm bumbed about the failures this year and have lost roughly $200US to these failures, but I still think they are a good tool. I'm keeping the money I have on these SIMs very low, but I have a Geodessa and a Celtrek SIM right now.

In sum, I think VOIP is a great supplement to a roaming SIM or a local prepaid, but I'm not prepared to say they are no longer needed. We talked about your stay in Dubai and you were at an airport with free wifi and at the largest tech show in the Middle East. As I recall you forgot your travel router and couldn't connect in your hotel room. Ninety percent of that stay was in wired areas.

[snidely]

Comments on above.

1. I think intl. SIMS will have a place in the market for some time. I am really annoyed that high end hotels charge (a lot) for internet, while low and mid-level offer it for free. I assume that travelers who stay in such places (i rarely do), pay the fee so they can use their computer.


Not too many years ago, hotels charged small fortunes (especially overseas) if you used their phones for outgoing calls. Some still do, but I use my cell.

2. If T-M can make money charging me 29-31 cents for incoming calls in many countries, charging $1 is outrageous. I should point out that if I use T-M for outgoing, the price can be well over a dollar in most cases. By making use of call back service, my outgoing calls are about 37 cents.

3. More and more airports are offering free wifi. For frequent business travelers who have access to FFlier lounges, they almost all have free wifi. UMA works perfectly in those situations. I assume Skype (and Google Voice when they institute intl. calling) would work as well.

4. Stu - I am not as tech savy as you. What would a "VOIP Client" do? How much data does a voice call use in a minute?

...mike

[kormack8]

I've heard of UMA but I'm wondering if you guys can help me out with some info:

1. Would use of UMA be fully automated when I'm in any WiFi hotspot? No need to enter any login details for that particular hotspot?

2. Wouldn't the use of UMA be costly if you happen to stroll out of a wifi range while you're in conversation and the call transfers over to a mobile network?

[andy]

Stu, 3 Like Home is ending shortly. I haven't yet seen details of new tariffs, but I doubt call rates will be better, and I assume data was a large part of the reason to end it.