I think you want to do prepaid in South Africa. You would actually do a little cheaper in the other countries if you went prepaid on a country-by-country basis, but I was trying to pull everything together in one package and South Africa doesn't bundle neatly.

I liked Truphone because you could use the same number in the UK and abroad. For the US and Australia, they were effectively now part of your plan. Canada also fit in nicely. Free or cheap incoming calls wasn't hard to find, but data with that combination was a different story.

I have a virtual US mobile number (text and voice) which forwards internationally and also works on the VOIP side of data. That makes it easier to use prepaid SIMs without having people keep track of six different numbers depending on what country you are in.

Based on experience, I try to keep the number of prepaid SIMs I need to keep up (he recharge, relicense, or renew) to a minimum.

Thanks for the advice but I have enough trouble operating one sim, so have plumed for the www.piranha-mobile.com option that will hopefully be with me tomorrow. They have explained to me how to setup voip that I can use over the internet. I am off to Canada for a few days next week so will be able to see how I get on. I have also purchased a blaze phone for £60 that is unlocked for the job. Shame about my iPhone as it was an expensive purchase and it seems that it can’t be unlocked until my orange contract is up.

Note their data prices. They are very high in South Africa.