New Global SIM Card with UK (+44) number

redux

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Your overweaning arrogance (a common fault amongst moneysavingexpert forum regulars it would appear) leads you to an incorrect conclusion.

I was calling my United Mobile Jersey Telecom routed SIM card while here in the UK from a BT landline and the phone was here in the UK and showing as being on the Orange network. The ring tone was a neeegghhhhh continental ring tone because the routing table provided by Jersey Telecom for any calls to these numbers directs it immediately to the switch of United Mobile in Switzerland where the call is actually terminated. The phone will always ring with a single neeeggghhhhhh Swiss tone regardless of where in the world the phone is roaming.

How do you explain to your friend ...

Your experience seems very unusual, as over a dozen calls to the phone in the UK all hear a UK-type ringing tone, including 3 with exactly the same circumstances you had. Whereas when the phone was in France, a different tone was heard, as to be expected.

I won't explain those charges to my friends, as they won't call the number from mobiles at all.

And as it says further up the thread already, Ofcom does not oversee phone companies in Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, however useless you think it.

NonGeographicalMan

redux wrote: »

And as it says further up the thread already, Ofcom does not oversee phone companies in Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, however useless you think it.

But their mobile phone number allocations are within the UK telecoms country code and within the UK National Telephone Number Plan overseen by formerly OFTEL and now by Ofcom.

I have spoken to the Jersey regulators who tell me it was the decision of OFTEL to allocate Jersey mobile numbers in the same range as UK mobiles and they are aware of the issues it causes. They believe that Jersey should have been allocated its own country codes as with other small European states such as Liechetenstein.

The current situation for Jersey phone numbers is clearly anomalous when they have their own internet domain, their own car registration number system and their own taxation system that is nothing to do with the ones operated in the UK.

However obviously the fact that United Mobile is able to form roaming agreements with many overseas networks that does not involve billing the call recipient for the call but only passes those networks a proportion of the revenue United Mobile earn for originating the call tells you what a total ripoff is going on in respect of roaming with other telcos, even after the changes recently imposed by the EU commission.

rainbowtrout

O2 cpw does not charge for IoM numbers starting with 07924, despite their terms and conditions AND their customer services telling you they charge it as an international number. I have made over 3hrs of phone calls to such a number last month (on a 1 year old O2 250mins a month contract) and all the calls have come out of my inclusive minutes.

NonGeographicalMan

rainbowtrout wrote: »

O2 cpw does not charge for IoM numbers starting with 07924, despite their terms and conditions AND their customer services telling you they charge it as an international number. I have made over 3hrs of phone calls to such a number last month (on a 1 year old O2 250mins a month contract) and all the calls have come out of my inclusive minutes.

For now may be but sooner or later they will spot their error and bring in exorbitant call rates. Look how this is just about to happen on existing 02 contracts for calls to 084 and 087 numbers.

And imagine you call forward a UK PSTN number to your United Mobile Jersey number using an ATA and a voip provider and the call forward price suddenly changes to 50p per minute while you are away....................

redux

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

For now may be but sooner or later they will spot their error and bring in exorbitant call rates. Look how this is just about to happen on existing 02 contracts for calls to 084 and 087 numbers.

And imagine you call forward a UK PSTN number to your United Mobile Jersey number using an ATA and a voip provider and the call forward price suddenly changes to 50p per minute while you are away....................

Why don't you just cut the SIM in half now, to save yourself all the neurosis this seems to be causing you already?

And why spend money on an ATA?

In fact you won't be able to use the cheapest providers with an ATA.

NonGeographicalMan

When I first got the SIM card any outgoing calls from it to my UK landline or my UK Vodafone (who are better at consistently revealing all overseas CLIs than BT are) came up as Number Unavailable but after my complaint to United Mobile via their web site form they turned on CLI (not configurable on their customer account website area).

Likewise when I first got the SIM card calls to it on a BT landline produced a neeeeghhhhhh continental ringing tone as did calls using www.18185.co.uk But now today I have tried again and tried manually roaming the phone on to all four UK 2g networks and when calling it from BT or with 18185 it now has a conventional UK ringing tone. This issue was also mentioned in my fault report to their online support so it seems they have reconfigured the SIM to overcome the problem.

I have tried roaming the United Mobile SIM on to 3G networks here (this Sony V600i is an unlocked 3G phone) but if I select the 3 network after a few seconds the phone changes to showing SIM Inactive and then refuses to connect to any other network again until you turn it off and back on again. The only other 3G network showing a signal round here (Tmobile) is too weak to connect, although it doesn't roll over to SIM inactive (unlike 3) but instead to TMobile's 2G network.


I would imagine United Mobile do not yet have a roaming agreement with 3 and that 3 have some kind of excessive security policy of sending back a message to temporarily shut down the SIM until the phone is rebooted to prevent phones without roaming access to their network from repeatedly trying to connect. Not having a roaming agreement with 3 will be more of a snag if and when United Mobile get their promised data service working.

So things are looking up regarding this SIM although the little Sendo S330 still doesn't want to talk to it despite it being an unlocked phone.

As to why would I want to use an ATA well surely so I could re-route my UK POTS landline calls to my United Mobile SIM card for only a few pence per minute. Obviously without an advance ATA like my Linksys this is not possible on a conventional POTS landline number.

The remaining fly in the ointment is getting the overseas ringing tone when you are outside the UK. Why did the damned UK have to have a different ringing tone from the rest of Europe.

Contrary to negative comments I have seen about United Mobile customer service elsewhere their online support now seems excellent and responds within 24 hours with helpful answers. Also they gave me 30 Euros free credit on this SIM card for which I paid nothing at all.

Also when I first had the SIM and made the call Jersey telecom would send a message saying the credit only has 30 days remaining but following a complaint to United Mobile this message no longer appears when calls are dialled although the available call credit does still show when a call is dialled (a feature UK Pay As You Go customers can only dream of).

Can anyone give me a suggestion on the best callback provider to use with this SIM for calling back to the UK from overseas?

redux

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I would imagine United Mobile do not yet have a roaming agreement with 3 and that ... Not having a roaming agreement with 3 will be more of a snag if and when United Mobile get their promised data service working.


As to why would I want to use an ATA well surely so I could re-route my UK POTS landline calls to my United Mobile SIM card for only a few pence per minute. Obviously without an advance ATA like my Linksys this is not possible on a conventional POTS landline number.


Also when I first had the SIM and made the call Jersey telecom would send a message saying the credit only has 30 days remaining but following a complaint to United Mobile this message no longer appears when calls are dialled although the available call credit does still show when a call is dialled

Can anyone give me a suggestion on the best callback provider to use with this SIM for calling back to the UK from overseas?

The roaming agreements pertain to Jersey Telecom so you could probably find these on their website somewhere or GSMWorld.

I've managed without an ATA so far, though perhaps you mean you are avoiding a BT charge to a DID number that's itself forwarded.

That message would be from UM, and was a temporary error.

They do have feedback from other customers as well, though perhaps most with a bit more restraint

Callback as already suggested above

usemobile

Hi

Can any one tell me on which networks does this 07937 number included as part of UK mobile inclusive minutes.

I know Virgin but what about others.

Thanks in advance.

ducky2004

No network will let you call this number as inclusive minute I am afraid.

As for earlier post regarding pre call annoucement, yes, you can't expect
the destination network to give an annoucement, but you CAN EXPECT
Vodafone etc to put in an annoucement. The fact that they don't is what OFCOM should look into. Exactly as the previous poster said, consumer cannot tell that 07924 is IOM, 07937 is Jersey etc. And now we have newer wifi range numbers which also looks 079xxxx, and most are not inclusive in free minute, this is going to be very interesting.

Worse, nothing stops the mobile network vf etc from charging £1 per minute to certain 079 numbers as they pleased. There isn't even a requirement that they publish the price list in details on their website and there is also no guarantee that their customer service will give you the correct information.

There is no technical issue about pre call annoucement by originating network at all. If you dial 0800, most mobile network can already warned you that this call is not free. Nothing stops them from doing that to 079xxx number. This is what should be done.

jeremygiles

ducky2004 wrote: »

No network will let you call this number as inclusive minute I am afraid.

ducky2004 - this is not true. Virgin Mobile DO INCLUDE Jersey mobile numbers in their inclusive minutes. I have this in writing from their customer services department, and have made several calls to my 07937 number which are shown as inclusive on my bill.