Is Maxroam working? - Page 4

MATHA531 · 14-03-2009, 15:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossman

I just knew I was charged for something, but not sure why. It may well be for the direct dial calls that never went through.

Personally, I do not see all of them (Maxroam, UM, Yackie, Celtrek, etc.) surviving. Especially considering the now lower roaming rates in trhe EU. So, their major target market is probably going to be the US. UM has been around for a long and has pretty much always worked. Never had a problem with my +423663 number except for the high cost of reaching or forwarding to it. The UM+ number is quite stable now. Maxroam has been okay too except for the last month or so. Yackie is another story.

If the US carriers can just lower their roaming rates by 50%, I would not even bother with roaming sims. AT&T already offers data packages with okay prices in most countries I am likely to visit.

I agree with much of the above.....the only addition I might add is that significant to the whole discussion is cheap outgoing as well as free incioming at least for me. I know, I know, this is not what the free incoming is intended for. It is sort of like the stores that offer low prices on some item to get you into the store to sell you something else. The free incoming entices you to use the somewhat higher (although better than roaming rates) outgoing....understood. And I was a cheater, admitedly so. When I used UM+ and termination fees were low, not only did I get the benefit of the free incoming, since termination fees were low, I used enlinea and callbackworld for outgoing and saved a mint. Interestingly enough, on all of the Isle of Man and Jersey +44, both CBW and enlinea have very high rates, very high indeed. The cheapest rate I used last summer was on O9 where I was getting 11¢/minute calls back to the USA (it should have been 16¢ but for some reason, they had my number at least programmed at 11¢)...should I have kicked a gift horse in the mouth? Not me; a bargain is a bargain.

Now with the demise of O9, what do I have. Well I travelled to Paris and London in January. I have my Estonian Air Baltic card. Could only complete 1 call through enlinea and that was 27¢/minute while in France which was the cheapest I could deal with. But enlinea only charged 27¢ through my Orange FR sim card and it worked fine (I've always felt the French carriers do something to block enlinea and cbw as I've constantly had trouble with them in France). I didn't bother in the UK as rates to the USA are dirt dirt cheap on T Mobile (through ycw), Talk Mobile (they were running a special of 2p/minute to the USA in January) and Orange Camel.

Next trip is June to London (foresee no problem), Germany (have vodafone de, know it's not the cheapest but since I can't speak German, I don't think I shoud spring for an MVNO German sim, probably the wrong decision)...vodafone DE still works with enlinea or I can fall back on UM+ (especially since the euro has dropped my UM+ rate, denominated in euro, has dropped considerably, even with the nuisance set up fee. Or it might pay, to use one of the UK sims on the eu tariffs as 19p to receive, at the rate sterling is dropping against the USD, might soonbe less than a quarter of a dollar, it's just above now.

Of course, on the horizon, are trips to Japan and China in 2011. Wonder what will be doing then......

CellRider · **Has anyone gotton the new Maxroam SIMs to work in the US -** 14-03-2009, 17:22

I also just receieved a new SIM and all I can do in the US is receive calls, send\receive texts or check my balance. I have tried everything in the new users guide plus all the suggestions back and forth with support. No matter what I get either call failed or user not accepting calls. All this on the ATT -Cingular network. Has anyone progressed further.

Bossman · 14-03-2009, 18:25

Yes. I am able to make outgoing calls using the alternate format suggested above.

*182*001*******# command

Check your balance, it probably has dwindled a little due to all those failed attempts

Quote:

Originally Posted by CellRider

I also just receieved a new SIM and all I can do in the US is receive calls, send\receive texts or check my balance. I have tried everything in the new users guide plus all the suggestions back and forth with support. No matter what I get either call failed or user not accepting calls. All this on the ATT -Cingular network. Has anyone progressed further.

Grampa · 16-03-2009, 20:15

I'm glad I checked back on this forum. I don't use the MAXRoam cards much, but I DO use the free forwarding feature (two cards, one with Irish DID the other with US DID, each forwarded to phones in the other country = unlimited free two-way calling with no expiration of credit). I noticed that I could no longer change the forwarding number; then I noticed that the cards didn't work at all. The help desk sent me the same message about a failure of their SIM toolkit, caused by an issue at their manufacturing plant.

Does anyone know whether MAXRoam maintains the same forwarding feature with their new Belgium cards? I know this can no longer be controlled from their website, but I was hoping it might work from the phone, and if it does, is it still free?

CellRider · 16-03-2009, 21:34

Thanks I finnaly got it to work. Not quite the service I thought I was buying. The should have never sold me the service noing that most of the features where changing and not available. They still have the old info up selling as is. I mainly bought it fot the US number that is still not available. Anyone try GeoSim? Any better luck with them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bossman

Yes. I am able to make outgoing calls using the alternate format suggested above.

*182*001*******# command

Check your balance, it probably has dwindled a little due to all those failed attempts

Bossman · 16-03-2009, 22:03

I agree. Anyone buying the sim today will not know exactly what they are getting. Since most of the info there partains to the old sim. According to them, the US number/DID will still be attached to the sim, so you shold be able to do that soon.

Maxroam, like yackie, celtrek and probably a few others, actually depend on a third party for their backbone. So, I think it's their operator that disappointed them. At least celtrek is saying the truth. Maxroam is giving other reasons for the disruption in service.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CellRider

Thanks I finnaly got it to work. Not quite the service I thought I was buying. The should have never sold me the service noing that most of the features where changing and not available. They still have the old info up selling as is. I mainly bought it fot the US number that is still not available. Anyone try GeoSim? Any better luck with them?

andy · 16-03-2009, 23:21

I think that there is some unsafe or incorrect speculation here, so could I sound a note of caution.

Let's try to confine things to describing how the SIMs and the rest of the platform are behaving, and I'm sure the rest of the picture will gradually emerge

GadgetKen · 17-03-2009, 04:43

I got the following message from Maxroam:
"Dear MAXroam user,
We just wanted to give you an update on where we are on our move to V5.
First carrier in the world with affordable prepaid voice and data on one sim.
Voice quality improved by at least 75%
Feedback from customers indicate very high clarity and consistent reception.
213 countries voice/139 countries data. Middle East now covered.
Callback time reduced to sub 2 seconds/ option to disable callback in Europe on sim menu.
Billing for voice in 10 second increments/billing for data in 100 Kbps increments.
New features including prepaid voucher top up functionality.
One number for voice and sms.
Your existing DID (extra numbers) and original credit will be active asap on your SIM and online billing will follow. We really appreciate your patience on this matter and insure you that we are working to finalize the product. Please remember our dialing plan has changed based on your feedback, all numbers must now be dialed +country code/number or 00countrycode/number. Your roaming number is on the front of your sim card, it looks like 048XXXXXXXXXX, please remove the 0 and put a +32 in front of it.
Regards,
Niamh Hartery"

Interested in some of the tidbits in this email because it indicates 10 second billing or 100kb data increments. That would explain why my short USA to USA test call was only about a Euro for USA to USA. Normally most European callback-sims are very pricey in the US, and this was a bit less than I expected.
Agree on the high voice quality and quick callback from my limited test. On some other call-back sims, the voice quality was only fair and it would sometimes take up to a minute for the callback to occur plus some calls would fail or not properly connect to the other party.
Has anybody tried data on this sim chip yet? Packet data indicator doesn't go on when I use this sim in the US, although I haven't set up the data setting they suggested yet. The number of data countries is smaller than voice countries, but still must be a huge list. Will be interested to see the new rates and countries covered.
I might be able to figure their new country list by looking up on GSM World which Belgian carriers cover the number of countries Maxroam mentioned in their email.

andy · 17-03-2009, 10:10

A Euro for 10 seconds? No, presumably the minimum charge is longer. Over a year ago, they were hoping for 15 cents in the near future.

I'm interested to hear that they are the first network in the world to have affordable prepaid data. Though I'm slightly sceptical that it will be more affordable in 100k steps than using my home network which for years has been aggregating it in fractions of k at a time. And other global SIMs have smaller steps, without a new SIM needed, as announced recently. I suppose it depends on the price ...

I'm also interested to hear about their excellent feedback from many customers about the new SIM card. The last person I asked said that the old one is still working, hadn't been aware of a new one, and hasn't replied to my news that it may have a number from a different country.

Grampa · 17-03-2009, 17:09

Would someone who has the new card be willing to test whether forwarding works? You could use either the phone's forwarding menu or **21*number-you-want-to-forward-to# to send the call to your home phone, then call the card to see whether it rings at home. If you answer the call, you might get charged (although with the old card you wouldn't), so be careful. Of course if you do answer it, please let us know if it's still free. Thanks.

	(#32)
CellRider (Offline) Junior Member Newbie Posts: 9 Join Date: 14 Mar 2009 Country:	Has anyone gotton the new Maxroam SIMs to work in the US - 14-03-2009, 17:22 I also just receieved a new SIM and all I can do in the US is receive calls, send\receive texts or check my balance. I have tried everything in the new users guide plus all the suggestions back and forth with support. No matter what I get either call failed or user not accepting calls. All this on the ATT -Cingular network. Has anyone progressed further.

	(#34)
Grampa (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 97 Join Date: 01 Oct 2007 Country:	16-03-2009, 20:15 I'm glad I checked back on this forum. I don't use the MAXRoam cards much, but I DO use the free forwarding feature (two cards, one with Irish DID the other with US DID, each forwarded to phones in the other country = unlimited free two-way calling with no expiration of credit). I noticed that I could no longer change the forwarding number; then I noticed that the cards didn't work at all. The help desk sent me the same message about a failure of their SIM toolkit, caused by an issue at their manufacturing plant. Does anyone know whether MAXRoam maintains the same forwarding feature with their new Belgium cards? I know this can no longer be controlled from their website, but I was hoping it might work from the phone, and if it does, is it still free?

	(#37)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	16-03-2009, 23:21 I think that there is some unsafe or incorrect speculation here, so could I sound a note of caution. Let's try to confine things to describing how the SIMs and the rest of the platform are behaving, and I'm sure the rest of the picture will gradually emerge

	(#38)
GadgetKen (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Expert Posts: 342 Join Date: 14 Dec 2004 Location: Connecticut, USA Country:	17-03-2009, 04:43 I got the following message from Maxroam: "Dear MAXroam user, We just wanted to give you an update on where we are on our move to V5. First carrier in the world with affordable prepaid voice and data on one sim. Voice quality improved by at least 75% Feedback from customers indicate very high clarity and consistent reception. 213 countries voice/139 countries data. Middle East now covered. Callback time reduced to sub 2 seconds/ option to disable callback in Europe on sim menu. Billing for voice in 10 second increments/billing for data in 100 Kbps increments. New features including prepaid voucher top up functionality. One number for voice and sms. Your existing DID (extra numbers) and original credit will be active asap on your SIM and online billing will follow. We really appreciate your patience on this matter and insure you that we are working to finalize the product. Please remember our dialing plan has changed based on your feedback, all numbers must now be dialed +country code/number or 00countrycode/number. Your roaming number is on the front of your sim card, it looks like 048XXXXXXXXXX, please remove the 0 and put a +32 in front of it. Regards, Niamh Hartery" Interested in some of the tidbits in this email because it indicates 10 second billing or 100kb data increments. That would explain why my short USA to USA test call was only about a Euro for USA to USA. Normally most European callback-sims are very pricey in the US, and this was a bit less than I expected. Agree on the high voice quality and quick callback from my limited test. On some other call-back sims, the voice quality was only fair and it would sometimes take up to a minute for the callback to occur plus some calls would fail or not properly connect to the other party. Has anybody tried data on this sim chip yet? Packet data indicator doesn't go on when I use this sim in the US, although I haven't set up the data setting they suggested yet. The number of data countries is smaller than voice countries, but still must be a huge list. Will be interested to see the new rates and countries covered. I might be able to figure their new country list by looking up on GSM World which Belgian carriers cover the number of countries Maxroam mentioned in their email. Phones/Wireless Devices: Doogee S90, Isatphone Pro, Amazon Kindle 3G, SkyRoam MiFi device, Karma MiFi device, AT&T Liberate MiFi device Sim Cards: T-Mobile (Mint), AT&T (Mifi device or Kindle), Koko Satphone: InMarSat Broadband US Wireless Data: AT&T postpaid, Sprint (Karma Mobility prepaid) Broadband International Data: SkyRoam VOIP: Skype

	(#39)
andy (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Prophet Posts: 2,128 Join Date: 10 Dec 2004 Country:	17-03-2009, 10:10 A Euro for 10 seconds? No, presumably the minimum charge is longer. Over a year ago, they were hoping for 15 cents in the near future. I'm interested to hear that they are the first network in the world to have affordable prepaid data. Though I'm slightly sceptical that it will be more affordable in 100k steps than using my home network which for years has been aggregating it in fractions of k at a time. And other global SIMs have smaller steps, without a new SIM needed, as announced recently. I suppose it depends on the price ... I'm also interested to hear about their excellent feedback from many customers about the new SIM card. The last person I asked said that the old one is still working, hadn't been aware of a new one, and hasn't replied to my news that it may have a number from a different country.

	(#40)
Grampa (Offline) Member Advanced Member Posts: 97 Join Date: 01 Oct 2007 Country:	17-03-2009, 17:09 Would someone who has the new card be willing to test whether forwarding works? You could use either the phone's forwarding menu or *21number-you-want-to-forward-to# to send the call to your home phone, then call the card to see whether it rings at home. If you answer the call, you might get charged (although with the old card you wouldn't), so be careful. Of course if you do answer it, please let us know if it's still free. Thanks.