Sorry to start another thread but I wanted to be sure you would see this.

I found this on the gsm page of The Travel Insider (which by the way I found to explain the whole gsm process in such a way that my tiny little pea brain could "get" it.)

"The Global Riiing SIM costs $59 to purchase from Telestial, their main US agent. Included in the $59 is €15 (about US$20) worth of free airtime, so the actual net cost of the SIM by itself is only $39.

Extra airtime can be purchased in multiples of €25, either through Telestial or directly from the Riiing service."

My question to you is, I know that you don't like Telestial, but I went to the riiing site and couldn't find a way to buy the card from it directly. Maybe I just missed it or do you have to buy the card from a third party like Telestial?

Also, how easy is it to recharge? I won't have computer acess. Do they sell them in tabacs like Carte Orange & Mobicarte?


I apologize if this posts twice....the first one kept crashing and it didn't look like it got posted.

For whatever the reason, probably because of promises it made to 3rd party re-sellers United Mobile which is the parent of riiing has not been selling riiing sim cards on its own web site.

They are sold on ebay, although many of the sites selling the cards are in German (although you can probably figure out what is being said and what you have to enter), there is a site called www.riiing.ch which is in Italian selling the cards. In addition a member of the www.prepaidgsm.net international forum was selling them for about $48 postage included; don't know if the person still is but you can check that forum.

As far as recharges, you can re charge on the riiing web site itself, you submit your credit card number and receive by e mail the secret code that will top up..nobody has complained that it doesn't work so I assume it's working okay.

Hope that helps and no I am not a fan of telestial; I think their mark ups are pretty unconscionable for what "convenience" they supposedly offer.

I just went to ebay, did a search for riiing (3 i's) and did find an English language selection selling the cheaper version of the riiing sim for €15 (includes €5 worth of credit; the other one sells for slightly more and includes €15 worth of credit)...they say they will ship world wide and I believe shipping fees are only €3 so it is available.....

Thanks xyz.

ABout the recharging, I will not have computer access while in Italy or France and am a bit hesitant using a cyber cafe to buy something on a credit card. I know someone who had their credit card number retrieved by a scammer from the computer they had used. Is there another option?

I just found the answer to that last question from Telestial, I wonder if it's possible to do the same through another reseller:

"Alternatively to add airtime from the road:

Dial +1 858 274 2686, select option 2 and then again select option 2
Follow the instructions at the voice prompts
Airtime will be added within 6 hours.