A new type of SIM for a new type of roaming? Sounds like a job for Ewan. So we packed him off to Las Vegas on AAS expensessomeone else's tab to try the MaxRoam SIM out for real. Seems like it could make significant savings for anyone travelling regularly.
Read on in the full article.
In a way this highlights how horribly overpriced some phonecalls are.
Personally I blame locked phones and contracts, they stop people migrating to networks with cheaper prices.
1.) Is this the same as sim4travel(.com) and if so which is better?
2.) Is there any system/SIM/etc that can save on data charges abroad in the same sort of way?
In my opinion over-priced 3G/GPRS data roaming charges are a more difficult problem than phone call and SMS prices.
I can easily avoid most calls when travelling for leasure or work. Often the timezone difference means I cannot make calls home anyway (ten hours between California & US and Helsinki).
Whereas SMS messages aren't that expensive even when roaming. It's quite reasonably priced to send all the necessary messages.
However, it would be interesting to hear about solutions to cut data romaing costs. I know many people are buying those pre-paid SIM cards for data, but it's very awkward to get those from different operators and stores in each and every country and city.
A truly global data roaming SIM card for travellers would be a great thing.
http://blog.maxroam.com/index.php/2008/09/maxroam-launches-v2-with-data-roaming-and-usa-roaming/
Not really cheap but just as much as most operators charge people who are not in bundles, here in Ireland.
Three have a great deal (Three Like Home) for when you roam on their network in other countries, you can use voice and data from your bundles abroad I've done it in Austria and UK.