But it's too expansive compare with Gigsky services. It is "not" real local prices but almost same as local prices.

How do you know? Gigsky hasn't revealed any prices yet, have they?

Do you have a relationship with the Gigsky you'd like to share?

I'm sure this is what apple themselves wanted to do - built in SIM and list of approved carries you pick when you activate the phone!

However this ends up it will certainly be great progress.

I don't travel as much now, but a few years ago I think I had 10 SIM's active. Each with a cash balance, expiry date, voice mail, and local numbers. Some I was able to buy at convenience stores, some from government stores.

Wouldn't it be great to just go to a website, or app, and say "I am coming, can you get me a phone number?" The number is issued immediately so you can give to whoever is necessary, funds are made available as needed from a central fund (or billed to your home cell bill) and the phone operates as a local number, perhaps getting your "home" calls also, without roaming.

Data, too, please!

Seems like we are not going to get there for awhile, though.

No. I mentioned it I visited their booth at Macworld.
They showed me their application quickly so I saw USA plan in the application. I don't remember exactly but few hundreds MB (data call plan) is around 30? 40 US dollars..

Toggle Mobile offers exactly what you describe, except for the home calls part. For that, you can set up call forwarding to your foreign number using any call forwarding service.

Yes they still do as far as I am aware. However there are people who think that Apple shouldn't have the ability to do this, because it doesn't take long to figure out that they could easily restrict your choice of carrier that way.

Yes, thanks for that. I ordered a toggle sim last week to see if it was what I was describing and it seems like it is.

Even better is that the local numbers are free for 30 days, which is more than enough for what I need. Only problem could be you get the "old" number of someone very popular and end up answering a lot of calls meant for him/her. I suppose that can happen any time but if these get recycled every 30 days, it could be a problem. But free is free, so it certainly is worth that type of risk.

Data prices do vary depending on where you are, but all are substantially cheaper than using your US SIM.

Single account to fund is a key benefit here. I have forfeited an awful lot of balances over the years. As long as you keep the master (UK) number active, your balance is protected and I think even longer than that.

Looking forward to trying it out.

Thanks again R U for your information.

Anytime. I agree it is a great service. Also, you can keep a local number permanently for 5 GBP per year. As for keeping your account active, here are the terms from their website:

3.3 If you do not use your SIM Card to make a voice call, or send a message or data, or if you do not purchase a top-up using the Top-Up Services, for a period of ninety (90) days from the date you registered or activated your Account or your last use of the Services (whichever is later), Lycamobile will contact you by SMS or e-mail advising you that your SIM Card will be deactivated. Lycamobile will then provide you with an additional thirty (30) days to make a voice call, send a message or data, or purchase a top-up using the Top-Up Services.

Interesting stuff. Not sure it's for me though. I always just buy local SIM cards as well. Or better yet, take my 'other' SIM cards with me if it's a place I regularly visit (I do Shanghai to Hong Kong a few times a year).

Changing SIM cards on an iPhone can be a hassle though. On top of that, the new nano SIMs for my iPhone 5 are as small as my pinky nail, so I worry about losing or damaging them.

I got tired of the hassle, so I designed the SIMPLcase as a solution: http://kck.st/12r02PR