Travel Technology - International Roaming SIM Cards? What is the best?

Hi,

I am planning a trip to UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand then back to the US. What is the best International Roaming SIM Card?

Thank You!

Hi,

I am planning a trip to UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand then back to the US. What is the best International Roaming SIM Card?

Thank You!

Look carefully at New Zealand. For some reason, that is a country which has less roaming agreements than it should.

For example, United Mobile (Riiing) doesn't work down there. I like globalsimcard.co.uk's sim because it has a good feature set and a number of "free incoming calls." 09.is probably has the best number of list countries, but I've seen some complaints about them on prepaidgsm.net. 09 also does not have voicemail.

Hint: you can get a free US phone number from voicestick.com that will forward to either of these numbers for about US$0.18 a minute.

T-Mobile has a pretty good add-on for international roaming. I dont think they charge extra (at least not expensive), but you do have to request it. A lot of Europe is 99 cents (US) per minute. The thing I like about it is (assuming I understand it correctly and Im pretty sure I do) is that the rate you get while in a country doesnt change no matter where you call. So if you are in Germany, it cost 99 cpm to call US and 99 cpm to call Argentina.

More expensive than a local SIM but a lot more convenient.

http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

Buying local cards that have free incoming and then signing up for a jajah.com account could work out cheapest if you are able deal with the process

T-Mobile has a pretty good add-on for international roaming. I dont think they charge extra (at least not expensive), but you do have to request it. A lot of Europe is 99 cents (US) per minute. The thing I like about it is (assuming I understand it correctly and Im pretty sure I do) is that the rate you get while in a country doesnt change no matter where you call. So if you are in Germany, it cost 99 cpm to call US and 99 cpm to call Argentina.
I might be wrong but I think yes PLUS the local roaming charge as well?

I was looking into the same thing, but all of these for USA or Mexico or Poland have a surcharge. If any card has free calling to those 3 countries, ill get it.

I was looking into the same thing, but all of these for USA or Mexico or Poland have a surcharge. If any card has free calling to those 3 countries, ill get it.

09 has free incoming in Poland and Mexico. You are not going to get free incoming in the US. The US gouges for providers for roaming privileges. The best you can do there is something like globalsimcard.co.uk which offers free call forwarding to the US and free incoming in many countries.

09 has free incoming in Poland and Mexico. You are not going to get free incoming in the US. The US gouges for providers for roaming privileges. The best you can do there is something like globalsimcard.co.uk which offers free call forwarding to the US and free incoming in many countries.
I read about 09. Only problem its icelandic #. Ill have to get a USA transfer # to point to it.

I read about 09. Only problem its icelandic #. Ill have to get a USA transfer # to point to it.

Callbackworld has a US toll free number which is US$0.15 a minute. They charge a US$1.00 fee for the number.

Voicestick is a US geographbical number that they will give you in the area code of your choice and it is like US$0.18 a minute.

I might be wrong but I think yes PLUS the local roaming charge as well?
No additional roaming fees are charged, its just the flat rate charge (99 cents for most of west Europe). This is what I like about the plan ... no surprises when I get my bill.

No additional roaming fees are charged, its just the flat rate charge (99 cents for most of west Europe). This is what I like about the plan ... no surprises when I get my bill.

I am sorry Muddy, but I really disagree with you on this point. In fact, I had to engage in a battle of certified letters NOT to get put on the T-Mobile "World Class Roaming Plan." To remain on the old "variable rates," I have to stick with a 2001 plan which means I am giving up 200 or so minutes a month, and giving up free nights. T-Mobile has tried to make it inconvenient for folks with the old plan by taking the variable rates off their website, but it is still way better. For example, in Israel, I paid $0.06 a minute to place a local calls. On "World Class," roaming it would be $2.99 a minute.

T-Mobile's World Class rates are fairly comparable with the rates that T-Mobile charges in Europe. The European Union recently found these rates are excessive and has been pressuring the European arm of T-Mobile to reduce roaming rates way below these rates.

Notwithstanding this, I still use a roaming SIM and a callback service. It is vastly cheaper than the old variable rates, let alone the new World Class Rates. I receive calls in over 80 countries at $US0.14 a minute and using a call back service at the same rate.

The day T-Mobile makes me give up variable rates is the day that I quit T-Mobile.


Stu

Grandfathered plans don't really help the OP though, do they?

I am sorry Muddy, but I really disagree with you on this point. ....

Notwithstanding this, I still use a roaming SIM and a callback service. It is vastly cheaper than the old variable rates, let alone the new World Class Rates. I receive calls in over 80 countries at $US0.14 a minute and using a call back service at the same rate.

...


Details on the callback thing and roaming sim would be great ... whats your set up?

Not being argumentative, but what were you disagreeing with? I go to Germany and talk 10 minutes and am charged $9.99 .... are you saying I am misunderstanding my bill?

Details on the callback thing and roaming sim would be great ... whats your set up?

Not being argumentative, but what were you disagreeing with? I go to Germany and talk 10 minutes and am charged $9.99 .... are you saying I am misunderstanding my bill?

You are paying way more than I would.

You are paying way more than I would.

It's more than Id like to pay too! :D

I only use it when I dont have a way to Skype. I used to do the local sim card juggle, but it was usually around 50 euro cents per minute on top of the ~$30 sim card and then I had to worry about the acct expiring, remembering the phone numbers, changing the sim, etc.

My situation is a bit odd, I guess. I might be in any of a number of countries every other month for 3 months and then not back for a year.

What are some cheaper alternatives without multiple sim cards?
Note: my calls a variable country x to country y .... neither x nor y are fixed ... so I think a callback service wouldnt work for me.

I use callbackworld. Many people use a competitor called enlina.

A callback system assigned you a dummy number in a third country, usually the US. You dial that number and hangup. The system triggers a return call to a prearranged number and gives you essentially a dialtone. You dial an outbound number at that point.

I always carry a second phone with me (a Blackberry Connect device) and I usually trigger the calls from the second phone. Roaming SIMs usually have their own builtin callback system and this avoids a double callback.

My Blackberry connect device, by the way is a Nokia E61, which gives me VOIP connections over wifi as well. You can use truphone and can make free calls to the US over wifi much like SKype calls off a laptop.

Stu

Kinda bringing this back up.
Any international sim providers with a USA cell number?
Also, so callback world would work like this.
I got 09, and I'm in Poland which has free incoming. I want to call the USA. I just call, hangup, and it calls me, which then I can call to the USA at 15cents/min.
For traveling around the EU, also Norway, and Australia, would 09 be the best? Anything good for a USA-international sim foward number price wise?

So, there are NO USA number international roaming, free incoming in other parts of the worlds SIMS. I think, there never will be. USA is the only country that doesn't do the CPP thingy, so the math and billing and cross billing would be tough. That is why the callback pricing is so cheap.

I setup the riiing with an 800# in the USA, that costs me 1.00$ a month, so people in the USA just call the 800#, everyone else gets the LIC number, or the 800#, it works for me to pay the .15$, rather than have people not want to call, or god forbid call LIC without a calling plan or something.

Hmm there was one I found somewhere. Started with a Y I think.

Yackie is probably the one you are thinking of.

www.yackie.com

No experience with them. I'm looking at places like

www.yackie.com
www.rangeroamer.com
www.united-mobile.com (which is where riiing is based now)

and a couple others for a few trips coming up.

Make sure to look at all the small print, one minute vers six second billing,things like that make a huge difference in total cost, it's just not a per minute rate

yackie changed their name to
www.yackiemobile.com a bit ago,

Yup, yackie mobile it was.
Thanks

EDIT: Where did yackie go? their site looks like it isnt working

duplicate delete

So, yackie changed their name to yackiemobile.com a while ago,
but, yackie never offered free incoming minutes, anywhere, so it wasn't really an option for me at least. As for the other, rangeroaming never offered FIM in the USA, so it was pretty much similar to the others, yes one could get a USA number, but the riiing option with 800# would be much much cheaper.

Hmm, still with Mexico, 09 looks the best, and with call back its 15cents then a min.
What about jajah? Looks though thats pricy iceland mobile to USA.

Someone posted about this company in the stickied thread about SIM cards:

http://www.maxsim.co.uk/

Does anyone have any experience with them? They looked pretty interesting to me. Thanks.