Geodesa GeoSIM card

I decided to get a global SIM card so as to make calls from abroad
without paying roaming charges. I got the GeoSIM from Geodesa Ltd
because the few online references I could find were positive. Having
tried it on both my wife's and my phone at home in Cumbria I find that
I cannot make any outgoing call as I receive the message "call
barred".

If it doesn't work even in the UK it doesn't bode well for using it
abroad. Is it a matter of which network the phone is connected to? I
can't find any advice on the site www.globalsimcard.co.uk that I must
use a particular network.

Julian

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› See More: Geodesa GeoSIM card

"techpro" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I decided to get a global SIM card so as to make calls from abroad
> without paying roaming charges. I got the GeoSIM from Geodesa Ltd
> because the few online references I could find were positive. Having
> tried it on both my wife's and my phone at home in Cumbria I find that
> I cannot make any outgoing call as I receive the message "call
> barred".
>
> If it doesn't work even in the UK it doesn't bode well for using it
> abroad. Is it a matter of which network the phone is connected to? I
> can't find any advice on the site www.globalsimcard.co.uk that I must
> use a particular network.
>
> Julian
>

How much credit do you have left on it?
Dont sound like the phone is locked.

--
www.experimentalist.co.uk/shop/index.php Global sim cards & Satellite
Phones.

On 11 Apr, 12:39, "www.experimentalist.mobi"

> How much credit do you have left on it?
> Dont sound like the phone is locked.

It's a new card. It works if you dial *125*1*countrycodeand number# so
it seems that what Ed told me is right. I guess that where on their
site they list the phones it doesn't work with, it just shows the ones
it won't work with *at all*.

The problem with texts is you must still use the normal number. So if
you edit all your phone book entries to *125*1*countrycodeand number#
format, then when you send a text to someone in the phone book you
have to edit those extra digits off again or the text appears to go,
but doesn't arrive.

"techpro" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 11 Apr, 12:39, "www.experimentalist.mobi"
> The problem with texts is you must still use the normal number. So if
> you edit all your phone book entries to *125*1*countrycodeand number#
> format, then when you send a text to someone in the phone book you
> have to edit those extra digits off again or the text appears to go,
> but doesn't arrive.

i tried one of these call back global sims last year, never again.

We spent 4 mounths touring europe, going through belgium, holland, germany,
luxembourg, switzerland, italy and france, was recomended the 0044 version,
which is really run by simazing in the US.. you have to put on credit in
dollars, minimum ammount 50 dollars,

i even bought a new phone specificaly for this sim, as it was noted on their
site that my old phone wouldent work with it, i bought a nokia 6820 which
was listed by them as working perfectly.

Got the sim, origionaly checked the web site out and registered as prompted
to be able to put credit on the sim, and it put 50 dollars oe the sim, not
what i wanted to do right then as i thought i was just registering to use
the web based crediting facility.

Anyway, tried to make calls, got the outgoing calls barred thing, it took
almost a week of faffing about before a bloke in america phoned me back to
tell me my phone wasn't compatible with the sim i had bought, even tho their
own website said it was, he blamed certian firmware releases for the problem
on some phones.

Only workaround was the *125*1*xxxxxxx# thing, it worked, but not like i
wanted it to, but i had inadvertantly credited the sim, so i had to use it,
so changed all my numbers in the phone to the coded ones, and to send texts
i had to manualy remove the codes.

Went abroad, it did work, but quite often the callback line was terrible,
despite the adverts saying they would be clear, it was like someone was
manualy dialing the number i called on one phone, ringing me back on another
and holding the recievers together on both phones to pass the call through,
i got echoes from both ends, sometimes a 3 second echo which was very
annoying,
on about 10 occasions we got a 3 or 4 way call, i.e. there were 2 other
people on the line we were using and we could all hear eachother, it was
only because they talked we realised, if they kept quiet they would have
heard everything we said when that happened.

We regulary got crackely lines, like the old analouge days when your in a
bad signal area.

Then there's the texts, every single text we sent was debited for, but when
we called later to find out why the other person haddnt replied, they never
got the text we sent,

In some cases the texts got through upto 5 days late, we sent series of
text's in some cases, and only half arrived and those that did were way out
of order of sending.

So when we got home we took the sim card out and i binned it,

Then the icing on the cake, about 2 months later a letter from the american
company telling me i owed them 8 dollars for calls used, (this is a pre-pay
sim card by the way) and the usual snotty stuff that they'd send the balifs
around if i didn't pay up within 30 days, the letter took 18 days to get to
me from posting in america, so i only had 12 days left before the balifs
would be knocking my door down

I had to send 3 or 4 e-mails to the UK side of the company before i got a
reply, where they mentioned the sim wasn't actually pre-pay, it was a
contract sim in america, but pre-credited like a pre-pay with some weird
agreement between us and them, no explnation on how the sim went over it's
credit limit, as when we threw it out it still had about 5 dollars of credit
left, (the sim went through the shredder btw, so no one else got hold of it)

They eventually sorted it out, canceled the outstanding debt and turned the
sim off, they asked me for details of all the missing tests, countries i was
in at the time, network i was on etc so they could investigate,

No mention of a refund for the missing yet paid for texts sent, and no way i
could provide that info as it was by then over 4 months since we'd got back,
and we'd been through 7 countries, and in a few places we'd be on one
network one second, move an inch to the left and we'd be on another network,
so nothing ever happened about the missing texts.

Next time i'm going to get a sim card whilst i'm in france, and try and get
one with a half decent roaming rate for going into germany and the other
countries bordering france, i'll pay a bit more to call england, but still
have no incomming call charges, and may even get one with inclusive data
like the T-Mobile web and walk on pre-pay.. i can only hope anyway.

--
www.experimentalist.co.uk/shop/index.php Global sim cards & Satellite
Phones.
"Gazz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "techpro" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> On 11 Apr, 12:39, "www.experimentalist.mobi"
>> The problem with texts is you must still use the normal number. So if
>> you edit all your phone book entries to *125*1*countrycodeand number#
>> format, then when you send a text to someone in the phone book you
>> have to edit those extra digits off again or the text appears to go,
>> but doesn't arrive.
>
> i tried one of these call back global sims last year, never again.
>
> We spent 4 mounths touring europe, going through belgium, holland,
> germany, luxembourg, switzerland, italy and france, was recomended the
> 0044 version, which is really run by simazing in the US.. you have to put
> on credit in dollars, minimum ammount 50 dollars,
>
> i even bought a new phone specificaly for this sim, as it was noted on
> their site that my old phone wouldent work with it, i bought a nokia 6820
> which was listed by them as working perfectly.
>
> Got the sim, origionaly checked the web site out and registered as
> prompted to be able to put credit on the sim, and it put 50 dollars oe the
> sim, not what i wanted to do right then as i thought i was just
> registering to use the web based crediting facility.
>
> Anyway, tried to make calls, got the outgoing calls barred thing, it took
> almost a week of faffing about before a bloke in america phoned me back to
> tell me my phone wasn't compatible with the sim i had bought, even tho
> their own website said it was, he blamed certian firmware releases for the
> problem on some phones.
>
> Only workaround was the *125*1*xxxxxxx# thing, it worked, but not like i
> wanted it to, but i had inadvertantly credited the sim, so i had to use
> it, so changed all my numbers in the phone to the coded ones, and to send
> texts i had to manualy remove the codes.
>
> Went abroad, it did work, but quite often the callback line was terrible,
> despite the adverts saying they would be clear, it was like someone was
> manualy dialing the number i called on one phone, ringing me back on
> another and holding the recievers together on both phones to pass the call
> through, i got echoes from both ends, sometimes a 3 second echo which was
> very annoying,
> on about 10 occasions we got a 3 or 4 way call, i.e. there were 2 other
> people on the line we were using and we could all hear eachother, it was
> only because they talked we realised, if they kept quiet they would have
> heard everything we said when that happened.
>
> We regulary got crackely lines, like the old analouge days when your in a
> bad signal area.
>
> Then there's the texts, every single text we sent was debited for, but
> when we called later to find out why the other person haddnt replied, they
> never got the text we sent,
>
> In some cases the texts got through upto 5 days late, we sent series of
> text's in some cases, and only half arrived and those that did were way
> out of order of sending.
>
> So when we got home we took the sim card out and i binned it,
>
> Then the icing on the cake, about 2 months later a letter from the
> american company telling me i owed them 8 dollars for calls used, (this is
> a pre-pay sim card by the way) and the usual snotty stuff that they'd send
> the balifs around if i didn't pay up within 30 days, the letter took 18
> days to get to me from posting in america, so i only had 12 days left
> before the balifs would be knocking my door down
>
> I had to send 3 or 4 e-mails to the UK side of the company before i got a
> reply, where they mentioned the sim wasn't actually pre-pay, it was a
> contract sim in america, but pre-credited like a pre-pay with some weird
> agreement between us and them, no explnation on how the sim went over it's
> credit limit, as when we threw it out it still had about 5 dollars of
> credit left, (the sim went through the shredder btw, so no one else got
> hold of it)
>
> They eventually sorted it out, canceled the outstanding debt and turned
> the sim off, they asked me for details of all the missing tests, countries
> i was in at the time, network i was on etc so they could investigate,
>
> No mention of a refund for the missing yet paid for texts sent, and no way
> i could provide that info as it was by then over 4 months since we'd got
> back, and we'd been through 7 countries, and in a few places we'd be on
> one network one second, move an inch to the left and we'd be on another
> network, so nothing ever happened about the missing texts.
>
> Next time i'm going to get a sim card whilst i'm in france, and try and
> get one with a half decent roaming rate for going into germany and the
> other countries bordering france, i'll pay a bit more to call england, but
> still have no incomming call charges, and may even get one with inclusive
> data like the T-Mobile web and walk on pre-pay.. i can only hope anyway.

Never had problem with the World Global Roaming sim i use works realy well.


--
www.experimentalist.co.uk/shop/index.php Global sim cards & Satellite
Phones.

On 11 Apr, 23:59, "Gazz" <[email protected]> wrote:

> i tried one of these call back global sims last year, never again.
>

[snip]

> Went abroad, it did work, but quite often the callback line was terrible,
> despite the adverts saying they would be clear, it was like someone was
> manualy dialing the number i called on one phone, ringing me back on another
> and holding the recievers together on both phones to pass the call through,
> i got echoes from both ends, sometimes a 3 second echo which was very
> annoying,
> on about 10 occasions we got a 3 or 4 way call, i.e. there were 2 other
> people on the line we were using and we could all hear eachother, it was
> only because they talked we realised, if they kept quiet they would have
> heard everything we said when that happened.
>
> We regulary got crackely lines, like the old analouge days when your in a
> bad signal area.
>

Bit worrying about the call quality. It is fine here, yet to find out
what it will be like elsewhere. In the FAQ they do say something about
if the quality is bad, you might have a bad line, try again. Seems
funny how you can have a bad line on a digital network. Still, it's
possible they use VOIP routing to get the low call charges and if you
have ever used any of the cheap overseas phone call services the same
problem can apply.

Sure a local SIM card is better but you need to be in a country for a
long time for it to be worthwhile. We're going to France, a French
PAYG SIM card is 30 Euros I believe (more if you buy one here) and you
lose the credit if you don't use it for a few months. Next we're off
to Prague for a week, and later in the year we might go to Spain.
That's a lot of SIM cards to buy. And one of the times you may want to
use it is right when you've landed at the airport, before you have had
a chance to get one.

I'll just hope that the GeoSIM is a better service than the one you
got from 0044.

On 12 Apr, 07:00, "www.experimentalist.mobi"
<webmaster@(REMOVE)goldno.com> wrote:

> Never had problem with the World Global Roaming sim i use works realy well.

But as you apparently flog the things, you would say that wouldn't
you?

On Apr 11, 11:59 pm, "Gazz" <[email protected]> wrote:
>

> i tried one of these call back global sims last year, never again.
>
> We spent 4 mounths touring europe,
>
> Only workaround was the *125*1*xxxxxxx# thing, it worked, but not like i
> wanted it to, but i had inadvertantly credited the sim, so i had to use it,
> so changed all my numbers in the phone to the coded ones, and to send texts
> i had to manualy remove the codes.
>
> Went abroad, it did work, but quite often the callback line was terrible,
> despite the adverts saying they would be clear, it was like someone was
> quiet they would have ...
>
> We regulary got crackely lines, like the old analouge days when your in a
> bad signal area.
>
> Then there's the texts, every single text we sent was debited for, but when
> we called later to find out why the other person haddnt replied, they never
> got the text we sent,
>
> In some cases the texts got through upto 5 days late, we sent series of
> text's in some cases, and only half arrived and those that did were way out
> of order of sending.
>
> So when we got home we took the sim card out and i binned it,
>
>
> Next time i'm going to get a sim card whilst i'm in france, and try and get
> one with a half decent roaming rate for going into germany and the other
> countries bordering france, i'll pay a bit more to call england, but still
> have no incomming call charges, and may even get one with inclusive data
> like the T-Mobile web and walk on pre-pay.. i can only hope anyway.

Though the contract tariff was an option, I'm surprised you ended up
on it without realising, then made a lump-sum top-up

For quite a while to begin with, text messages were actually free

There's no need to top it up, as using a separate callback service is
cheaper. Mine has had only a few cents on it since about May. I've
used this SIM with callback and routing that goes about one and a half
times around the world, and only had problems on about 5 calls last
summer, which I wouldn't put down to CallKey anyway.


For France, the ordinary tariffs aren't that hot, though there are
some useful unlimited options on Orange, or an option on SFR to only
pay the first minute, either of which would be good with a calling
card access

For in Germany, look at Blauworld for good international rates. Local
rates are good on Sunsim and a new one called Youni, and you could use
a calling card or maybe set up a Voipcheap account there.

Sunsim also has good roaming rates, 9 cents incoming, from 39 cents
outgoing but if you don't like using callback it will be more
expensive.

But also look at O2 UK on the My Europe Extra option, costing £10 a
month, then outgoing calls are 25p/min, incoming free. If you can
bring yourself to use callback with this, even if occasionally
glitchy, then ReturnCall is 2 pence a minute to UK landlines, 5p many
countries' landlines, from 9p mobiles.

As an alternative to RC, Vyke and Voipbuster callback are also worth
looking at, possibly also with call forwarding via another Betamax
provider, like JustVoip's 5c + vat to UK mobile, thus 7 or 8 cents a
minute to UK