International sim

Hi

Please can anyone recommend an international sim card for an unlocked iPhone. I am travelling to India, Vietnam and the US all at different times. I have read about getting a local sim in India but it seems its a hassle with the letter from a hotel, passport photo and then trusting them not to cut you off cause the paperwork hasn't been sent off. Although more expensive I think an international sim is the way to go. Does anyone have experience of these? Anyone tried maxroam?

Thanks for your help
Karen

Edited by: ka6r9en

I suggest to get yourself a simcard from your home country. Choose an operator
with affordable Asian roaming rates. At least your got direct support this way
iso through an international sim operator.

Ask for an "empty" simcard when departing, in case your phone gets lost or stolen.
Your old number can be transferred to thebackup simcard, using the long number
printed on it. The old sim card get disconnected in this process.
Print the support line number and put it with the spare simcard.

I used Airtel in India. I never use a hotel, since I travel in Hotel Benz . Got myself
a simcard in Amritsar with a copy of my passport and the visa. As backup I have
a resident card from my home country that shows an address.

I was amazed by the Airtel coverage in India. When i was there Airtel India switched
to quite affordable roaming rates in other Indian states. The state where i bought the
card had the cheapest rates.

As backup I use Vodafone with a postpaid contract from my home country - just in case.

Cheers!

Maxroam is reliable, but their rates are only good inside the EU and her closest friends (Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, etc). If you want free incoming on a roaming SIM in India the only candidate I know is the Air Baltic Card which uses an Estonian number. If you get their special US Dream card you'll have free incoming in the US, India, and Vietnam. You can also call forward the Estonian number for free to many other numbers.

Calling Estonian numbers can be tricky. Many long distance providers block calls to Liechtenstein and Estonian numbers because of unexpected termination charges. There is a discussion of VOIP providers who do connect to this range over at prepaidgsm.net.

My new favorite roaming SIM is Piranha Mobile. They give you a US and UK Mobile Number. The UK Mobile number is a real UK number (e.g. not Jersey or Isle of Mann). Inbound calls in the US are six cents a minute on either number. Inbound calls in Vietnam are also six cents a minute. India is higher, but cheap for India. Inbound calls are 48 cents a minute on Aircel. Since I don't know where you are based, I can''t quote outbound.

Pirahna is reliable so far. They bill what they quote which is a problem here. I had purchased a roaming SIM from a German outfit called FreetimeTime. Their rates were great, but nothing was as they quoted. I loaned the SIM to my nephew and he was going to reimburse me for what he used. They quoted one thing and billed another. I ate the money but cut the SIM in half. I tried out another called Telna. I liked it because it was contract and they were actually a GSM provider with their own licenses and negotiate their own roaming agreements. Their SIM often had a hard time registering on foreign systems. I also own an eKit SIM. They are reliable and work well, but you'll find their rates for India very high.

I just fiound this SIM which appears to use the same system as AirBaltic card with similar rates:

http://www.onesimcard.com/cell-phone-rates/#info

Their advantage is that they offer virtual numbers from other countries. Inbound calls on the virtual number adds an extra 20 US cents to the price of the call. Over on prepaidgsm.net, some people were reporting you can call Air Baltic card numbers for 6 cents a minute using some of the Betamax VOIP cards.

Edited by: stufried

This is very helpful, thank you for your time to answer my post..