Like many of you I do a lot of international travelling. Often I stay in a country only one or two days. Friends, family and colleagues can reach me on my NZ phone number but I then pay hefty international charges for the incoming calls. Buying a local sim card doesn't work for such short stays and means I change phone number.

A 'global sim' seems to be a good solution. Intouchsmartcards offers several. Calls are usually about US$.99 outgoing and $.35 incoming. People ring a Monaco or Liechtenstein number which, using Skype or a discount international provider from a landline is very cheap. So it seems like a great way to stay in touch at not too high a cost (you need to top up the $99 sim card once a year to keep it active).

Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks!

My son was traveling this summer in England, Scotland and Czech Republic. I purchased a Global RIING sim for him so he waould have the same number. It was a bit more pricey than individual country cards.


I was characterize the service as adequate. It worked much of the time; but there were several lapses. overall, I think I'd go with another one next time. The best part is free incoming calls and they have a call-back system to save you money.

You can consider a forwarding service like kall8.com where you get a toll free number and can forward it online from any internet cafe to the number of the sim you just purchased.

All depends on how many calls you get, it can save you a ton of money, as their rates for forwarding are way less then SIM roaming.

Thanks for the tip cordelli. That is certainly interesting but of course does not let you make calls yourself. Calls are cheaper (at least for me using Vodaphone NZ) incoming and outgoing than roaming.

I use the HOP global roaming card. The riiing card i got was defective. I have no problem calling or receiving calls with this sim. It sounds like you are next door making the call. Of courser if I am in a certain country for a few days I get a sim for that country. I hope this helps.

Thanks powerlifter. Where did you get this card?

HOP can be pruchased from distributors like www.telestial.com or direct from www.hopmobile.com

I use itand I am pleased. The only place I ever had a problem was Kuala Lumpur.

I suggest visiting the HOP site above and get information or the Telestial site which has tons of information/options etc.

When I found the actual hopmobile site (Europe), I registered my credit card with them and I can now refill my sim on line from any computer in the world. Just logon, with password, enter a code they give you and tell them how much value you want to add. If you buy the additional time from Telestial they will charge you a premium (like $65 for $50 worth of airtime). www.hopmobile charges no premuim, $50 gets you $50 in airtime (.35 incoming and .99 outgoing).
I'm taking the phone to Beijing next week.

Thanks Vulcan, excellent stuff.

I've just discovered Riiing a few days ago and have been perusing threads here and on www.prepaidgsm.net. It looks like a mixed bag. My questions, for those who are more experienced:

- How often do you really get a defective SIM card? (can't you exchange it with whomever you purchased from?)

- Assuming one spends most of one's time in Western Europe a few times a year for a week or less, not making too many local calls, have a callback account to call home, and not sending too many SMSes, the main advantage of Riiing vs. HOP is that Riiing gives you free incoming calls and lower outgoing call rate (E 0.39 on Riiing vs. $0.95 on HOP). Am I missing anything else?

- Given the free incoming call, I could use Riiing with my existing callback service (which I currently have through GlobalPhone). I understand that Riiing itself uses callback, so I would (using my unlocked Siemens S46) place a menu-based call to my trigger number and wait for the callback as normal? A bit confused since this sounds like a nested callback.

- As I understand it, the "holy grail" usage of Riiing is to have a callback provider with the lowest possible callback rate to your Riiing's Liechtenstein phone number. I read that Callbackworld (CBW) charges $0.14 but there is no mention whether it would cost more for callback to a Liechtenstein mobile number. Other companies advertises $0.43 to $0.69/min callback rate to a Liechtenstein mobile number. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
Jamester

it is just .14 to lichtenstein mobile with CBW

... also to a MOBIL NUMBER?
Thanks?

And thanks to Jamester for posting his "ideas" ... sounds good, if and when it works.
It would be great, if other would post their experiences.

nice thing about riiing, is that it ALSO works in CHINA, meaning .14$ to the mobile in china too.

I would suggest getting more than one Call back providor for you, so that there is always a fall back, if the CALL back doesn't work.

I see that. Although my (biggest) fear is that CBW would increase their rates - although the consensus is for rates to gradually decrease with new technology.

Can anyone else see any flaws with my strategy (3 posts above)?

Thanks again!

the only flaw i see, is that is could change.

at the moment, this is the best viable solution, it might change, carriers MIGHT impose higher rates to mobiles via lichtenstein, carriers MIGHT prohibit the FL are codes in their networks, but at the moment, it works.

I just got the Global Hop Card - great website and speedy delivery.

An auto-direct / forwarding of your calls costs US$2 to set up. That would be useful for example when you travel and get a local sim card (e.g. because you are going to be doing a lot of calling in one location/country). You then simply redirect all your calls to the new number without having to update your contacts

But do you still pay for incoming calls? I rang them and they say that you then do not pay for incoming calls on your redirected number. That seems counterintuitive - if someone calls you on your Monaco mobile phone and the call then gets diverted to, say, Antarctica, then who pays for the extra leg of the call?

Does anyone know if diverted, incoming calls are free? (of course, as long as you don't pay for incoming calls with your local mobile phone company).