Since this is a working holiday, I researched a great deal about staying in touch with clients while overseas. I had been following blog coverage of MAXroam, the international roaming SIM provider, for a while and decided to pick one up. For €30, I got a SIM card, a US-based number and €5 of talk time. I topped my card off with another €30. It costs me €0.21/minute (around 33 US cents) to receive a call and slightly more to place a call or send a text message.
Alternatively, I could have paid another US$6 to AT&T for the month of April and received their international traveller rates of US$.99 to place and receive calls. For about 2 hours of calling, it was worth picking up the Maxroam SIM.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the service, with a few caveats.
To place an outgoing call, you dial the number and then hang up. MAXroam's service calls you back and then connects the call. Apparently, this is a standard practice with international SIM cards and this normally wouldn't be a problem, however my unlocked iPhone doesn't really enjoy this process. When I place a call, my iPhone gets stuck in a loop thinking the call didn't go through and tries to dial the number again. After frantically hanging up over and over, I'm finally able to free the line for MAXroam to return my call and connect me. I've gotten pretty good at the navigating through the process, and I'm sure it wouldn't be this much of a pain on another mobile phone, but it's still annoying.
MAXroam doesn't provide data services, so if I'm not near wifi, there's no way to check my email. For another $60, I paid for AT&T's 50MB international data package. It's a hefty amount to pay, but I feel better knowing I can check and respond to email while away from my laptop and speeding 300 km/hour on the TGV towards Marseille. Since I can only use one SIM card at a time, I've gotten very good at swapping cards while standing on the bus or train. I probably should have picked up a cheap GSM phone to use for voice while keeping my iPhone for data, but for now, swapping every few hours hasn't been too difficult.
I have a feeling MAXroam's global voice roaming is only a beginning. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Irish company release a data service, VOIP/GSM failover and more. While most SIM companies seem shady and non-transparent (Google "roaming SIM cards," I dare you), MAXroam's chief has a blog and seems to engage fellow bloggers. Stay tuned, I bet we'll see some pretty cool things from them.
Overall, I'd recommend MAXroam (and perhaps a dash of Skype) if you need an inexpensive way to keep in touch.
Pros:
1) Cheap voice calls.
2) US-based number so clients and friends don't have to dial internationally.
3) Maxroam's website allows you to forward your incoming calls to a local number/SkypeIn for free.
4) Quick email/web support.
Cons:
1) Annoying method to place an outgoing call.
2) Spotty SMS service in France which I only found out about after emailing them while in France.
3) No data services, although very few international SIMs provide this.
Related:
MaxRoam: Travel global, pay local (SocialMedia.biz)
MaxRoam Makes Improvements (VOIP Watch)
Leave a comment