Greenhouse

Do you have any knowledge of problems for riiing? The Europe forum at the prepaidgsm.net site has a thread titled "Roaming in Europe w/out riiing" where some are wondering if riiing will still be around by August.

xyz123

Nobody can predict the future. The riiing rates are truly revolutionary. They are also part of a bigger company whose main company (United Mobile) does not have the free roaming and low rates for calls that riiing has. It is for these reasons that some speculate the pricing structure makes no sense and that in the long run riiing cannot survive.

About a week ago, there was an outage of the riiing web site, a really bad one where the browsers were not even recognizing the domain name rather than just giving the message the site is unavailable and some people went wild and speculated riiing had died that day. Luckily within 24 hours, the web site was back and functioning. At no time during this period was the service itself down.

Remembering that mobile phone companies make a good deal of their profits from the exagerated offensively high roaming rates they charge each other, it is hard to see where riiing's profit is coming from. So from that angle, nobody would be absolutely shocked if riiing went under. I certainly wouldn't be; I would be very sorry and upset as the service is a god send to people who like to travel and don't stay put in one country. And it must be having some effect as vodafone has announced some plans to lower international roaming rates in some cases.

But I can't tell you of any specific problems that would lead me to believe riiing will definitely not survive nor do I think anybody else on that forum.

So if you're even going to make 1 trip to Europe and visit more than 1 country, I wouldn't let that stop you from acquiring a riiing sim card and using the service. It works absolutely as advertised, free reception of calls on your mobile throughout all of western and central Europe, much of Eastern Europe and in such places as China and Australia.

Sher

I posted two questions by email to United Mobile this week and both were answered.
Hopefully, they will be around.

Greenhouse

Thanks, xyz. I will be in Italy only, the last 2 weeks of July. Would it be better for me to go w/TIM, Vodafone or Wind or would you, yourself, still stick w/riiing?

Can you also educate me on the "codice fiscale" issue. Am I right to gather that in using riiing, it's not something I need to concern myself with
but would need to register w/the other cards?

xyz123

You're right on the codice fiscale issue...whether to go with an Italian prepaid or riiing is a matter of choice. The advantage of riiing, as I see it, is that you can get the sim card now while still in the US and you will know and be able to publicize your number; otherwise you will have to wait till you get to Italy.

Reception should not be any different as riiing will be roaming on one of those networks anyway.

Greenhouse

Having the number before departure is important to me, so I guess riiing it is. Can you tell me what you think about this offer? http://www.telestial.com/products/gl...iing_promo.htm.

xyz123

$59 + postage, too high...

Go to ebay and put in riiing sim card and you will see a much better offer!

Greenhouse

I agree, $59.00 is too much for just the sim, but this offer includes a Haier D6 phone w/40EUR of preloaded airtime for $189.00+

With ebay, it's $38.00 for sim with about $7.00 airtime, topup card another $23.00 and I still need to purchase an unlocked phone. (Is the Nokia 3100 at mobalrental really unlocked?)

xyz123

Several people on this web site have freported the nokia 3100 at mobal is unlocked; even if by some chance they have changed their policy, since it is a nokia, the unlocking code is readilly available on the web for free.

For another $10 you can get a 3100 at several other web sites where it is unlocked (make sure it is the 3100 not the 3100B...and then take the riiing sim from ebay.

I never pay riiing a penny...I use enlinea.com for outgoing calls via callback at 14 cents US/minute billed in 6 second increments...once every 9 month I suppose I would have to make 1 quci call and bite the bullet for €0,64...I still have the original €15 balance left and even set up voicemail via calling my riiing number before leaving (the last 4 digits of the puk code are the temporary pin code for voicemail).

I would certainly go for the 3100 + ebay sim card which would run something like $135 compared to the telestial offer.

Greenhouse

I know I can get an unlocked Nokia at expansys for just under $140.00. Where can I do better?

xyz123

Take a look at mobilebee.com

Greenhouse

Thanks, xyz. That would be the 3100A at mobilebee, correct? I want 900/1800/1900 as opposed to 850/1800/1900? Please realize that up until 2 days ago, I was CLUELESS re:the whole int'l cell phone topic - Only by reading your posts (even the wide, hard to read one) have I grasped it somewhat.

I'm sure you must feel like a broken record at times, but your postings here have been extremely helpful and always appreciated.

xyz123

That's the one you want...nokia makes it very difficult as instead of assigning 2 model different model numbers, they use the same model number for phones designated as true world phones (900/1800/1900) and the ones Cingular US GSM users have to use as Cingular operates on both 850 and 1900 in the US meaning they will be without 900 on these phones and in many cases up the creek without a paddle (or a mobile phone).....

Interestingly enough on a side note, up until now tri band phones T mobile USA has provided for its customers have been the true world phones but now for some reason their newest offer, the Nokia 3220 is really the 3220B lacking 900 and having 850...can be very confusing.

Greenhouse

Is the card still available on ebay, xyz? I'm having some trouble finding it.

xyz123

Try ebay.co.uk

Article #6383894310

They sell the sim card with €5 worth of credit which is basically all you will need if you follow my suggestions...I think they have an English site but if not you should be able to follow through in German as the form is pretty obvious...my friend ordered one from them on a Sunday 2 weeks ago and had the sim card by Wednesday.

travelingforfum

I'm planning to use the Riiing card and Enlinea or one of the other call back services. I heard that using call back with Riiing would be a problem since their service also works on a call-back type system...when you place a call through Riiing, you received a "call failed" message and then, about 30 secs later, your phone rings and when you answer it, the number you called is ringing through. Is this how Riiing works?... and does it cause some problems with the call back sevice?

xyz123

Yes that's the way riiing works...but the callback comes about 5 or 6 seconds later not 30.

It has caused a bit of a problem with callbackworld.com and I spoke to them. They said they would try to slow down their second callback which is the one you get after you dial what we will call the triggering number. What was happening was we would call the triggering number on riiing, get the callback hang up and for some reason the callback from callbackworld was coming so quickly that invariably it was routed into voicemail....I won't know if their fix of delaying the callback will work till my next trip to Europe which is scheduled for Friday....however there were 2 solutions

1. First solution was with the help of my friends of gsmworld.net of discovering enlinea. Enlinea is actually cheaper than callback world; its rates to Liechtenstein believe it or not are only 12¢/US per minute timed in 6 second intervals (don't see how you can beat that) and it work flawlessly...call on riiing, wait for callback and hear busy signal hang up and get 2nd callback in about 5 or 6 seconds! ot

2. Used my tmobile US roaming phone to make the triggering call. I need the t mobile US phone with me anyway as I get text messages every day of the baseball games I am interested in (free)...so if I dial the triggering number on the t mobile US phone, I don't get charged as the call is never completed and then the callback occurs on riiing and of course I am not charged by riiing as I have the free roaming of received calls and I am receiving...I pay callback world's fee. I know I know most people won't have 2 phones and I surely understand that but it's just another way of doing things but to make a long story shore, enlinea should work fine.

travelingforfum

I just received my Riiing sim card and am trying to test it in Los Angeles before printing business cards with the Riiing phone number. I get the "call not allowed" and then "please wait" messages but then I get a "network busy" message and I don't get the call back. I can receive calls but don't get the call back when making calls. Any idea why? - I sure don't want to print business cards with a cell number I can't call out on. Thanks for your input.

AnneO

I need some help to make sure I understand how riiing works. I purchased the Mobal phone when it was on sale for $29. Have it, haven't done a thing with it yet (my trip isn't for several months, but a friend is going to London in a few weeks and will use it there).

I will be travelling to Greece, Italy, Czech Republic and Austria. I know that I could get a SIM card in each country, but that seems a waste (except maybe for Italy as we will be there almost 3 weeks). Do I understand the riiing card right? I read their web site, but still am somewhat confused. I will receive a SIM card with a set phone number, based in Lichenstein. That number will work anywhere in Europe, and it will charge me like I am making a call from Lich. to Italy, for example? I think from seeing the website that a call within Italy or from Italy to the US would cost ,39E per minute...that seems high (but not outrageous).

What about incoming calls (from the US)? I know they are free to me on the cell phone (right?), but callers will pay for an international call to Lich? So I just need to find the best calling card rate for int'l calls to leave them (don't expect many calls, but we will be gone for several weeks and I need my family to be able to reach me in the event of an emergency).

And I'm really confused by the call back thing, although I guess I don't need to know how it works, just that it does I will call a number (say the restaurant to make a reservation). The call will disconnect, a few seconds later, the phone will ring, answer it, and my original call will be going through? Does this make it a "free" call, as it is an incoming call?

Lastly, what is elinea and how does that work?

Thanks so much for your help!

Anne

xyz123

For the most part, you have it...one of the problems with riiing is calls to Liechtenstein are very variable. My AT&T ld account with its $1/month plan costs 11¢/minute but others report much higher rates. There are some calling cards that do not go through to Liechtenstein for some reason.

You can also, for $2 plus $2/month and the cost of calls, open up an account with kall8 (www.kall8.com)...they will give you a US 800 number which you can key in to ring on your riiing account (no pun intended)...they charge something like 20¢/minute to call from the US to Liechtenstein so you could give your friends the 800 number but warn them it may take somewhat longer for the call to go through and they will hear a European ring tone somewhat different from a US one.

Enlinea is a callback service...another one is callbackworld (www.callbackworld.com)...they are very useful with those European sims that charge high rates to call North America (or other places) for prepaid customers. For example, Vodafone UK charges over £1 to call North America.

It works like this...you call a number they give you in the US. It either rings or gives you a busy signal...you hang up...no call completed. The service then calls you back (hence the name callback) and you are asked to enter the phone number followed by the number sign key. The call then goes through and if you are calling the US the charge is 14¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals. With riiing it would involve a double callback..that is you dial the US callback number, you hang up and wait for the riiing call back where you will hear either the ringing tone or the busy signal. You hang up and wait for the second call back and proceed as above...seems tricky but it works real well.

Incidentally riiing charges 0,25€ as a set up fee for all completed calls in addition to the 0,39€/minute for most calls but receiving calls throughout western Europe (believe it or not with the exception of Liechtenstein) is free.

Now I must report that when I left Europe on 10 July, both callback world and enlinea were having problems in completing calls. Callbackworld claims the problems have been resolved but I can't attest to that.

Also I feel more secure with a local sim if I am going to be n a country for 3 weeks. I would tend to get an Italian sim for that period but then program the kall8 number to ring to the Italian number; it can easily be done via the web at an internet cafe so in effect the 800 number becomes your number for the duration of your trip (or you can program your US mobile to callforward to the 800 number in which case the US mobile number becomes your number for the duration of the trip)...

I know a lot to digest but you did realy well so I think you should be able to handle it.

You can also look at the www.prepaidgsm.net forum and leave questions there and some people who may be smarter than me will answer you.