Please confirm cell phone information
 

After searching multiple posts, I think I have the best information concerning the cheapest cell phone service for my daughter to use while studying in London.

I purchased an "unlocked" RAZR phone on ebay. When my daughter gets to London, she is going to get a prepaid Mobile World sim card to use in the UK, which I understand has the cheapest rates for calling the US.

She also intends to take her Christmas holiday and spring break, about 4 weeks each in Spain, France, etc. For that, I understand the best deal is for her to purchase a prepaid United Mobile sim card.

Is all of this correct? Am I missing anything?

I've just recently switched to this card http://www.globalsim.net/. It has free incoming all over Europe and many other countries, a UK mobile phone number and can be reached from Germany for 1.5ct/min. Not to bad. May be an alternative?

LOGOS...

Haven't checked that particular one...while there are several international cards working out of the isle of man with UK numbers, believe it or not for Americans calling the USA via callbackworld (when it is up, it crashed this weekend and haven't checked yet if it's been repaired) the cheapest is still Liechtenstein numbers (United Mobile) which charge 14¢/minute to call to the USA from any of their free roaming countries...isle of man considered UK mobiles charge in the vicinity of 30¢/minute

Are you sure of the 1.5¢/minute to an isle of man mobile?

I wasn't aware that Liechtenstein service numbers still cost less than UK mobile numbers from "your" location. afaik United Mobile charge 26ct for each minute to the phone company that connects to their service number.(The Liechtenstein number you get is not a mobile number, but a number for special services) So anytime you get connected it'll cost your phone company the difference between what they pay and what they charge you. Wonder how long this will continue to work? Callbackworld still connects?

Calls to isle of man mobiles are still classified as pager numbers by some 010 phone companies here. They're charging from 1.49ct/min. May be the same for calls from the US?

Callbackworld crashed sometime on Friday and has been out ever since...

For whatever the reason, they have managed to retain the rate of 14¢/minute for calls from Liechtenstein (their rate chart does not differentiate Liechtenstein from Liechtenstein mobiles) to the USA and very low rates from Liechtentein to most other landlines in Europe..more as always to mobiles.

My own long distance carrier, AT&T also does not surcharge Liechtenstein calls and I have been paying 10¢/minute from the USA to Liechtenstein again with no add on for mobiles...this has been true for well over a year which allows me to forward from my landline to my United Mobile phone at 10¢/minute which is by far the cheapest...when I'm in Germany, for example, if I use my German mobile forwarding from the USA to German mobiles is 29¢/minute (7¢ to Germany and a 22¢ termination fee to a mobile)...it's 30☼ minute to UK mobiles...these are two carriers that have not raised rates since United Mobile (born as riiing) became a factor in this game.....

How long? Don't know...Barry the head honcho of Callbackworld claims that a good part of their business depends on the number of people tying in United Mobile with callbackworld and he says they are committed to maintaining the 14¢/minute rate to the USA from Liechtenstein as long as possible...enlinea has 2 different services and raised one to 63¢/minute but the other is still around 22¢/minute..

BTW O9 is eveh cheaper, on enlinea it is 10¢/minute...

Also just to be informationally correct, enlinea also crased at the same time as callbackworld...odd isn't it.....

Hopefully the callbackworld thing can be fixed before my next trip to Europe in 2 1/2 weeks...I would hate to think of paying long distance rates to call the USA without callbackworld and by the way I had one of my friends using my callbackworld account the last couple of weeks in France and this was the first time I was on the receiving end of callbackworld calls and I couldn't believe how crystal clear they were.

You konw if there might be any possiblility to use the AT&T service from abroad? They do sell calling cards. don't they. Maybe one has this 10ct rate too?

I don't know if it's available on any of their call cards..In the USA one can choose one's ld carrier to go along with the provider of your local landline service...so they are very competitive are the ld carriers.

AT&T long distance has very high international rates but they come down immensely if you sign up for a $1/month plan...this is only on my landline phone and as I noted for the callforwarding it is very useful to me.

>choose one's ld carrier to go along with the provider of your local landline service
Yes, we can do this too, the phone system can be programmed to used different companies for different times and locations to call. I'll stick with 1.5ct and isle of man for now. United Mobile has free incoming in China, no other card has this... Hopfully CBWorld isn't gone for good this time...

As I am also about to be in this situation, does anyone else have an answer to the OP question?

Yes...that's the direction I would go today...tomorrow might be another story.

xyz123 is pretty good on these things. I read some of his posts last year and learned them for myself.

As for the OP, if she is going to stay in one country for 4 weeks at a time, I'd just have her get a SIM card in that country and use callbackworld to call the US. She will have good coverage, free incoming all through the country and plenty of cheap minutes for local calls. She can easily run into a local store to add money to the account.

My daughter spent Spring semester studying in Europe and found it most convenient to buy a local card if she was going to be in a country for at least 10 days. I think she wound up with 4 of them over 5 mo. Many of the calls were local to other students with her. It was simple to set up a callback number and then change it to a new number almost instantly. Totally new callback accounts with numbers would take several days or more to take effect.

Forgive me if this seems like a really stupid question.

I planned to use my Riiing SIM last year but the trip was cancelled. I called United Mobile and they reinstated my number for the next nine months.

I will use it in October. But after that, I am not sure when I will have the opportunity to use the cell phone. That is, I am not now planning any trips within nine months of October 2006.

I understand that only one short call will keep the number active for a further nine months.

But. Can the call to my voice mail while I am in the US work? Otherwise, how can I keep the number active if I do not return to Europe nine months after October 2006.

Thanks

Call your voice mail...forget the code but it's on the calling menu...or I believe you can simply send an sms to your local mobile here which is probably cheaper but calling voice mail in the USA will certainly work too...

Thanks.

I can confirm that MobileWorld offers a SIM card that has cheapest rates for calling back to the USA-- 5 pence per minute. Can also confirm that the service worked very well in London. One place to purchase the MobileWorld sim is at Carphonewarehouse stores (there's one near Bond Street tube station).

Thanks everyone for your replies.