Roam Simple international SIM card?

[jywv8]

Anyone have any first-hand experience with Roam Simple (roamsimple.com)?

In particular, I'm looking at the Europe SIM Card, because I'm going to be visiting a few different countries. I'm on T-Mobile prepaid and can't roam internationally in Europe.

I know it is not the cheapest option (compared to, say, buying local SIM cards once I get to Europe), but I want to know my phone number beforehand and have the same number in multiple countries. I'm more concerned with convenience and reliability.

 

[iMacZealot]

I only glanced at that, but I think United Mobile, a company I've used in the past, is a better and less expensive service. United Mobile has free incoming calls in over 80 countries, and the system works worldwide with one number, making it convenient.

However, if you have your own laptop, bring that and just use Skype in your hotel room instead. That is the end-all system of world phone calls. I used that after I got my MacBook Pro and I spent less than $8 for three week's worth of phone calls.

Good luck.

 

[jywv8]

I'm going to be going to Italy and Amsterdam. This sounds good.

United Mobile... ack... I get confused when everything is in euros.

No, I won't have my laptop.

 

[iMacZealot]

I'm going to be going to Italy and Amsterdam. This sounds good.

United Mobile... ack... I get confused when everything is in euros.

No, I won't have my laptop.

There's an option to switch it to dollars.

 

[jywv8]

Is United Mobile one of those "call back" things? Where, to place a call, you have to dial, hang up, and then you get a call back?

For that matter... is that how Roam Simple works?

I just want to make calls normally. The whole call back thing seems really annoying. I'd rather pay more for "normal" service.

 

[iMacZealot]

Is United Mobile one of those "call back" things? Where, to place a call, you have to dial, hang up, and then you get a call back?

For that matter... is that how Roam Simple works?

I just want to make calls normally. The whole call back thing seems really annoying. I'd rather pay more for "normal" service.

Sort of, but it's not as complex as you think. What I do is I dial the number normally with the + and country code, and then I wait for the phone to ring, and answer. I don't have to hang up.

If you can't deal with that, then sign up for a two year contract from one of the big four US carriers and get ready to pay $1+ / minute.

 

[garybUK]

If you DID get a sim card in Europe then you would have the same number anyway wherever you went, and the EU have imposed price caps to stop the networks overcharging you, however i'm not sure on the cost of dialing internationally, but i know Orange UK (they are in other EU states too) have a Pay as you go sim card with cheap calls back to the USA. I picked one up to just call my friend in the states. it's like 6p per minute for the USA, around 11cents a minute!

Oh you still need to check your phone handset is network unlocked and is tri-band so it will work on our GSM networks.

 

[jywv8]

Sort of, but it's not as complex as you think. What I do is I dial the number normally with the + and country code, and then I wait for the phone to ring, and answer. I don't have to hang up.

If you can't deal with that, then sign up for a two year contract from one of the big four US carriers and get ready to pay $1+ / minute.

Yeah, I could probably deal with the callback thing. But, I contacted a different company that also uses the callback thing, and they said it wouldn't work with my Centro. So I just kind of assumed Centro+callback = no go.

 

[iMacZealot]

Yeah, I could probably deal with the callback thing. But, I contacted a different company that also uses the callback thing, and they said it wouldn't work with my Centro. So I just kind of assumed Centro+callback = no go.

I'm not sure how true that is. Any GSM phone should be capable of handling callbacks. They may have assumed that you Centro is CDMA, in which case, won't work at all in Europe.

 

[jywv8]

I'm not sure how true that is. Any GSM phone should be capable of handling callbacks. They may have assumed that you Centro is CDMA, in which case, won't work at all in Europe.

I told them I had a quad-band, unlocked, GSM phone (twice, just to make sure). This is the response I received (Cellular Abroad):

"The Talk Abroad service has a call back feature for placing outgoing calls. Some models of higher end phones do not support this function and may prevent this from happening. We have also verified that the service is not compatible with the Palm Treo, which may be similar to the Centro in functionality."

So I'm pretty sure it is true, at least for this particular service. United Mobile may be different. Who knows.

 

[iMacZealot]

I told them I had a quad-band, unlocked, GSM phone (twice, just to make sure). This is the response I received (Cellular Abroad):

"The Talk Abroad service has a call back feature for placing outgoing calls. Some models of higher end phones do not support this function and may prevent this from happening. We have also verified that the service is not compatible with the Palm Treo, which may be similar to the Centro in functionality."

So I'm pretty sure it is true, at least for this particular service. United Mobile may be different. Who knows.

I know that United Mobile works on my Nokias with S60 and Motorolas. I'll look into that for you.

 

[jywv8]

Update

Since this thread has bee resurrected, I might as well give an update.

I traveled to the Netherlands and Italy for a couple weeks last fall. I used a Roam Simple card with my Palm Centro. I never had any problems with the service, reception or voice quality. I used both voice and data capabilities.

It's definitely not the cheapest option, but it was so easy that I'd use it again.

 

[Iliah]

Way overstated billing

The company charged me $400 for a data, which I have never used. When I asked for the explanation they provided a bill showing data in time used (seconds). Stay away1