Need cell phone help
 

I already have a tri-band phone that I used on my last trip with a United Mobile SIM card and CallBackWorld call back service. I thought I could do the same for my upcoming trip to Croatia and Slovenia, but the rates have skyrocketed.

I would prefer to have everything set up before I leave the US, so I have not really considered purchasing SIM cards when I get there. That being said, it looks like I could use either 09 Mobile or Yackie Mobile to get a SIM card with a 354 Iceland number. Yackie also offers a local US number for my family in the US to use, at a charge to me of $0.29 per min.

Enlinea offers callback service at $0.18 per minute. Do they offer a 1-800 number for someone to call in the US to reach me (like the Pin2Dest that CallBackWorld has?)

Does anyone have an experience with 09 Mobile or Yackie?

Any other suggestions for SIM cards that I can get set up before the trip?

Molly, your question is too advanced for me, but have you checked out www.prepaidgsm.net?

This is the site xyz123 (who seems to be the most knowledgeable poster on the subject on this board) says is the most informative, & it has a forum as well.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have actually been to that site, but the forum seemed very technical. I could give it a try, though. I appreciate your help.

The site posted above is your best bet. Yes, United mobile and CallBackWorld combination has become very expensive. I have the new yackie sim myself and will be testing it out in a couple of months.

O9 mobile is based in Iceland and I use it extensively while in Europe and loaned it to a friend who visited Croatia last summer.

With enlinea, you can get a US toll free number which will ring to the O9 phone at the posted rate of $0.18 US and yes it was fairly (not 100% but fairly) reliable....calls of course at this rate travel via voip carriers and you can hear a delay and the voice quality is fair...certainly understandable but not as good as you would hope, but then again you get what you pay for.

For others reading this, Yackie Mobile piggybacks on O9 and will provide a direct dial US number which ties into their system which is O9 based. The only problem with O9, and admitedly it is a big one but will not affect the OP here is that it does not work for some reason in Switzerland...this is not a temporary aberation but for some reason O9 has no roaming partner in Switzerland.

As far as United Mobile is concerned, till a little more than a year ago it was a great service...however as the OP noted, termination fees increased the cost of using enlinea dramatically and also people calling you paid huge amounts...however, UM recognizing this problem begain something called UM+...instead of a Liechtenstein (+423) number with its high termination fees, you now get a British (+44) number; it is not based in the UK but rather on the isle of Jersey but you do get British rates calling in which aren't too bad...you pay the termination fees forBritish incoming which on most US carriers is around 29¢/minute, really not too bad...enlinea would be expensive for calling back but actually using the naitive UM+ service to call the USA isn't too bad by roaming standards...you pay 0,29€/minute to call the USA with a 0.25€ set up fee per call...you don't pay to receive calls anywhere in Western, Central and Eastern Europe west of Russia. Look for info on UM+ (you may still be able to convert your +423 UM card to +44UM+ for free and transfer over whatever the balance is...

wow, all that was way over my head, but I did have a tri-band phone that I use while in Europe and I just went to the nearest phone store in Dubrovnik and had a SIM card inserted. I had very good reception and could load more minutes when I got low. It's not cheap, but you don't pay for incoming calls. A couple people calling from home could not get through, but others did. Not sure what was up with that. I still have time left on my card and intend to use it when I return in April. Easy, easy.

Thanks for the help everyone. XYZ, if Yackie and 09 use the same network, would they theoretically be equally reliable? Is there a reason you chose 09 over Yackie?

Barb, thanks for the info. I know that buying a SIM there is an option, but my main concern is that my family in the US will be able to easily contact me at no charge to them. So I really want to get it set up beforehand. The callback service worked well last time.

mollymcl, yes, the reliability of yackie and 09 should be the same since yackie actually uses 09's network. So, anywhere 09 works yackie should also work there.

As for choosing 09 over yackie, the former was around first. Also, 09 will give free incoming calls in a lot of countries, but people have to dial an icelandic number. Which does not always work...especially from the US. Yackie, not only gives you a local number of your choice (US, UK, etc), they also let you call the icelandic number it's tied to directly, and incoming calls will be free in that case.

Click on yackie's rate table for the countries you may be visiting to see the costs:

http://www.yackiemobile.com/