backchatmobile

[RB]

Noticed in the Sun Herald today a short story re pre-paid sim card. Can be used in 130 countries, incoming calls are free. Details at www.backchatmobile.com.au. Any existing users out there?

 

[nlagalle]

it looks similar to this:

http://www.travelsim.net.au

Which basically works by you entering the number/code and the server initiates the call, then calls you back.

so you dial, it hangs you up, then calls the number and calls you back and bridges the call.

I've yet to test them yet overseas, but believe they work quite well.

Cheers,

Nick

 

[Nov0caine]

Yeah I used the whole Roaming SIM thing and it worked out pretty well... Actually saved me a lot of money, ha

 

[ColinP]

I used it in Thailand recently. Had a few hiccups initially but their helpline was efficient and had me up and running within a few hours.

Note that incoming calls are not free in all countries. They certainly weren't free in Thailand :evil:

 

[Nov0caine]

Yeah, I think mobile roaming companies need to make consumers more educated about how to use the services properly... I heard data roaming had some pretty savage hiccups when people started using that too

 

[busykate]

Used BackChat's Globalsim instead of mobile roaming in Europe recently and it was fantastic. Had everything before I went, it worked all over and was easy to top up. In Europe was free to receive calls and cheap to call and text back home. Definitely recommend. Also, Aussie based so no problem to order from them.

 

[albatross710]

Have some experiences to report with the backchat SIM used in Europe over the last week.

On a standard basic Nokia everything worked fine. Recharge was all OK and quick. Just dial the requied number and the phone is called back within seconds.

On my iPhone in order to make calls I had to use the fall back codes as the direct call method doesn't work. The Backchat call centre seemed to be aware of this. So what I had to dial for a call was *125*1*61733xx_xx_ # where 61733xx_xx_ is the Australia number +61 7 33xx xx_x.

Now to send SMS from the iphone to another mobile is easy +61 421 xx_ xx_ and then to call them from the iphone *125*1*61421xx_xx_ #

In hindsight the Backchat card was an excellent solution on the 'normal' pone. For iphone, the extra keystrokes for voice calls meant lots of editing of the saved contact numbers. Probably not worth it for me on the iphone.

One other things that we became aware of is the delay when sending SMS from a backchat service. Some messages were taking an hour to get through. Some of our travel colleagues when they sent us an SMS the message got through to our backchat service within seconds.

Alby

 

[Travel Guru]

I used the TravelSim on my recent trip to Europe, found it to be a fantastic service, very reliable and extremely cost effective.

I've since got a discount code which can be used on TravelSim's website (MTA107), it'll save you about $10 I believe.

TG