I got 2 riing cards, one for myself and one for my associate. His works here in China, mine doesn't sometimes I get Unknown SIM state, sometimes not. It seems to be a defective SIM. I've emailed Telestial and no response.

On the other SIM (which works in my phone BTW) the service works OK. Sometimes the person my associate is calling gets a weird screeching every few seconds. Most of the time not.

Guess its a mixed bag.

I'm looking for a prepaid SIM card to use on an upcoming trip to Chile, and ideally one that would also work on a later multi-country trip to Europe. www.telestial.com has three multi-country prepaid sims, but apparently only the Explorer card works in Chile. It's also out of stock, but they say they will have more in stock in a week or so.

Does anyone else following this thread have any experience with the Explorer card? Does anyone know of any other good options besides the Explorer card?

When I lived in China I used to get weird screeching every now and then a plain ol' China Mobile SIM. My guess is that it's unrelated to your SIM and has something to do with the China Mobile network.

Please before getting the cards check to see the rate in the country you are going to and the possibility of using a callback and forwarding service as described above. There is kall8 and Telcan.net. I have been using Telcan.net for several years and have been very happy. At least with my useage travel it was enormously more expensive to get a global card. In addition, some of the companies above that sell global cards also are selling national cards at huge markups over what you would pay if you walked into a store coming out of Heathrow for instance. I URGE YOU to do some searches here and at www.howardforums.com (a cell phone site similar to FT) before getting these global cards. And yes, you can make outgoing calls in many countries with the callback service.

I used a United Mobile SIM my last trip through Europe to Africa. The great thing about this international SIM is the number of countries with free incoming calls. Outgoing calls are reasonable as well, but they accomplish this by use if a dial-bakc system. Telestial does sell them, but you can get it a little cheaper direct from United Mobile.

[QUOTE=USAFAN]T-mobile's international airtime is $1.00/QUOTE]Just so that others know, $0.99 USD is the cheapest rate overseas... in some places, it can get to $3 USD (India) or more.

I'd suggest you check the T-Mobile website before you use your phone overseas to avoid surprises when you get home and see your cell phone bill!

I'm off to Chile next week with the Boy and one of the kiddies (14 yrs old). I've been trying to figure out (1) how the three of us can stay in contact, conveniently and cheaply, if we split up or someone gets lost, (2) how we can make occasional phone calls back to the US, cheaply and conveniently, and (3) how we can receive occasional phone calls from the US, again, cheaply and conveniently, of course.

(1) Keeping my team together: I bought three Explorer prepaid SIM cards from telestial.com. For Chile, the Telestial website says incoming calls using the Explorer card are free, and outgoing calls are $0.55/minute. I have three unlocked triband phones ready to go. (For local calls in Chile, I will temporarily swap the Explorer card out and put in my Entel PCS prepaid plan SIM card and load it with some minutes using a card I can buy at a newspaper stand. I don't think you can make international calls with those cards though.)

(2) Making calls to the US:

- Option 1: I have T-Mobile with global roaming, but the cost in Chile is $1.99/minute. Or is it $2.99/minute? Anyway, it's too much.
- Option 2: The cheapest option seems to be to use Skype on the home computer internet connection. Of course this will only work when we're in the apartment at night, not out roaming during the day.
- Option 3: I have Skype on my Pocket PC too, and portable headphones. But wireless hotspots are still few and far between in Santiago. (There are about half a dozen Starbucks stores there now, but from the internet info it doesn't look like any of them are T-Mobile hotspots).
- Option 4: If I call with the Explorer SIM card, does it really cost $0.55/minute to the US? Or anywhere in the world? Or just to phone numbers within Chile?

(3) Receiving calls from the US: really the caller's problem, since on the receiving end the calls should be free in Chile with the Explorer card. But it's an expensive problem, since really, calls to the Explorer card are calls to an Estonian phone number. The Telestial website suggests their calling card for this purpose, which might work if it were just for my SO and I to stay in touch, but in this case he'll be with me, and it's for other people to call us.

- Option 1, suggest they use Skype. We could only receive the calls when we're on Skype too, in the apartment in the morning or at night.
- Option 2, keep my T-Mobile SIM in one of the phones. Risk paying $1.99 or $2.99 or whatever it is for every call I get whether I want it or not.
- Option 3, forward T-Mobile calls to Efax voice number, retrieve voice messages later via email, return calls using Explorer card.
- Tell them just to send email. Fine in general, but some family members need to have a phone number to reach us at in case of an emergency.

What would you do? Am I missing something?

I would head over to callingcards.com, they have nice rates for USA to Santiago, and Chile.

I have used a bunch of differant cards from there, with rates like .05$ a minute, for calling to ecuador and peru, and buenos aires.

Try it first with a $10 card, and then buy more minutes.

Much cheaper than for people calling on their home phone.

or, sign up with onesuite, and put people on your friends list. If you have internet access, YOU can even change the target number they reach you at so they only have to remember to dial a local number in the USA, and then a speed dial, like 1# or something.

rates as low as .025$ cpm.