Re: Us pre-pay that allows international roaming?

Joel,

I use the Riing mobile sim which has a Lichtenstein mobile number. Free
incoming calls in numerous countries. Then get a US number from
stanaphone.com (free NYC number) and program it to ring to the Riing SIM.
You get incoming calls in most of Western Europe for about $0.15 a minute.

"www.simcard.me.uk" <simcards@msn.com> wrote in message
news:1114461660.55559.0@dyke.uk.clara.net...
> Not sure if thay have US Mobile numbers on but there are a few roaming
> cards on ebay.
>
> Soz cud not help more.
>
>
>
>
> --------
>
> UK Pay As You Go Sim Cards. Will ship World wide
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5768600230
>
> More UK Sim Cards Will post Worldwide
> http://stores.ebay.co.uk/experimenta...k_UK-Sim-Cards
>
> http://www.simcard.me.uk/uk_sim_card.htm
>

Stuart Friedman wrote:
> I use the Riing mobile sim which has a Lichtenstein mobile number.
Free
> incoming calls in numerous countries. Then get a US number from
> stanaphone.com (free NYC number) and program it to ring to the Riing
SIM.
> You get incoming calls in most of Western Europe for about $0.15 a
minute.

Joel,
Stu is on the mark here. Check out the Riiing discussion on
www.prepaidgsm.net to learn all the tricks. I've been using Riiing in
conjunction with callbackworld.com's service, including their PIN2DEST
service. This even allows me to give people in Europe toll-free numbers
they can use to call me (at my expense). It's great if you have people
you are traveling with and can just give them the local toll-free # and
pin code to reach you.

Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

Hmm, I've been asking about this very thing over in the SprintPCS
newsgroup. Appears nobody there travels to Europe. So I've come
here hoping to get some advice.

I've got SprintPCS (normally CDMA-only) for the US. I'm going to Europe
(NL, CZ, UK) for just under a month. Here's what they offer for "taking
my number with me":

a) The new Samsung IP-A790 phone. It does the Sprint US networks AND
world GSM networks. It apparently can be had for just under $400. It
is NOT a locked phone, which means you could also use it with cheapo
Euro SIMs. (Maybe Riiing?) But since I don't *think* I'm going to be
going back and forth from Europe very much (*maybe* once a year for 3-4
weeks each time), I'm not sure it makes sense buying one of those. How
much does a decent new GSM phone cost in Amsterdam cost these days,
anyway?

b) Renting/leasing a GSM phone from Sprint. I didn't inquire about the
leasing cost.

c) Using your own GSM phone, or renting/leasing one overseas.

With ALL of those options, it costs $36 to activate the international
service, a couple of bucks for them to ship the SIM card to you (they
don't charge for the card, just the shipping), then $6 a month to keep
the number/SIM active. On top of that it's $1.50 a minute, whether your
call is to or from the U.S. or other numbers in Europe -- local or long
distance.

But it's $3.00 to check your voice mail! So even if you managed to use
a cheap Euro SIM all day in Europe for local calling, then checked your
voice mail once every night for emergency calls etc. from the U.S.,
that's a minimum of $3.00 a day no top of your monthly service! So it
ain't exactly cheap -- this is all on top of one's regular service plan.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. The two main things
I'd like are

1) for it to be easy for U.S. callers to reach me,
2) easy to place & receive calls in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, &
London

and both being at the cheapest cost possible. I'm leaning to the 2-SIM
route at the moment -- the SprintPCS SIM takes care of #1 (even though
it's a bit pricey), Riiing (or similar) takes care of #2.

What do you think?

Thanks,


--
da
~~

Stuart Friedman wrote:
> I use the Riing mobile sim which has a Lichtenstein mobile number.
> Free incoming calls in numerous countries. Then get a US number from
> stanaphone.com (free NYC number) and program it to ring to the Riing
> SIM. You get incoming calls in most of Western Europe for about $0.15
> a minute.

Hmm. I wonder if right before I get on the plane for Europe I could
forward all calls to my SprintPCS phone to a Stanaphone number, which
would then be forwarded to a Riiing SIM?

How dependable is that Stanaphone service? And do you think two
forwards would work, or is that just asking for trouble?

Sprint charges $.10 a minute for domestic forwarding, so with the
Stanaphone number that comes to one quarter dollar a minute total -- a
lot cheaper than the $1.50 per minute Sprint charges for *their* SIM
roaming oversears.

So calls from the US to me in Europe would cost me $0.25, and NOTHING
for calls from people inside Europe. So the only things I'd have to
worry about would be placing calls inside Europe (NL, CZ, UK only), and
calling back home. But that's only .39 Euros normally (about $.50), and
again a lot cheaper than Sprint's $1.50 per minute rate.

If it works, it would be ideal price-wise. But this forward-forward
stuff makes me nervous -- I can envision calls never getting through to
me at all. Are we dealing with duct tape and bailing wire here? In
that case the Sprint international roaming -- while more than double the
price -- might be just worth it.


--
da
~~