Prepaid SIM card with international call forwarding or international roaming.

[frank999]

I'm looking for a PREPAID (no long term contract please) SIM card with a local Canadian number. The SIM card would allow me to either:
1) Call forward to a phone # in Thailand.
2) Roam in Thailand (using an unlocked phone of course).

Fido allows international roaming to many destinations, except for Thailand. Bummer.
Prepaid Rogers does not allow international roaming.
Both carriers above don't offer international call forwarding with a prepaid account.

Anyone has a good suggestion for what I would like want to do?

Thanks,

[Telekom]

Originally Posted by frank999

I'm looking for a PREPAID (no long term contract please) SIM card with a local Canadian number. The SIM card would allow me to either:
1) Call forward to a phone # in Thailand.
2) Roam in Thailand (using an unlocked phone of course).

Fido allows international roaming to many destinations, except for Thailand. Bummer.
Prepaid Rogers does not allow international roaming.
Both carriers above don't offer international call forwarding with a prepaid account.

Anyone has a good suggestion for what I would like want to do?

Thanks,

Find a service in Canada that will forward your calls internationally. In the US there's Kall8 800 Numbers & Toll Free Number Services . I don't know if there's something similar in Canada where you can designate a number that your own service will forward to.

[worldtraveler]

hey frank
try buzzroam, it allows you to roam in most places (including thailand) and via their website you can rent numbers from Canada and call forward to any number ...

[frank999]

Hey scloete,

I listened to your advice and gave a try with Buzzroam. I received my SIM card in the mail 5 days later. Here's a review - feedback about their service:

1st
Customers cannot choose the phone number associated to the SIM card. The SIM card comes with a Belgium phone number (go figure...I'll never use that because I'm in North America). Buzzroam offers to purchase additional phone numbers from 52 different country, however that feature currently does not work. Read on.

2nd:
Unfortunately, their core service of adding phone numbers to the same SIM card is currently broken as I'm writing these lines. Their Website offers a link to add phone number, but the list of country does not pull down. So I'm currently paying for a SIM card that can only be access through Belgium. Great.

3rd
I called their North American telephone support without success as the person on the other end doesn't work for Buzz Roam and doesn't know what I'm talking about. The phone numbers displayed on Buzz Roam's website is just a facade. I later submitted a request to "Customer Service" by email. I should get a response within ...48 hours as to why I cannot add a phone number to my SIM card.

4th
The cost of adding phone number is nowhere advertised and I still don't know what it will be. In fact I was under the impression that it was included with the initial SIM card cost.

Finally, Buzz roam is advertising themselves as fully functional corporation, but in reality is just a small non operational startup. I feel like I've been cheated. Don't waste your money on Buzz Roam until further notice.

[worldtraveler]

Hi Frank

In reply to some of your feedback:

1. Sorry about the misunderstanding regarding the Belgium number - this is on there user guide etc

2. I checked my account yesterday and the one feature was unavailable, however it is now back up and you can purchase North American Numbers. Must have been a tech issue for a day - but all works fine now, and has always done while Ive used the service.

3. Ive called their support line a few times and had no problem.

4. The cost of numbers are advertised on your account page - seem to vary betw $4-$10 according to region.

On the whole - Ive always had good voice quality, prices and service from Buzzroam - so I reckon you just caught them on a tech upgrade for a day or something..

[mrcamp]

As already suggested, you an just sign up with a voip carrier that allows international call forwarding. Then forward to your local sim card whereever you are. les.net is a Canadian provider that can provide such service.

Buzzroam looks like a reseller of Maxroams service. Maxroam's service was down for at least 4 months starting early this year. And it's not fully functional still. They too had the problem with adding local DID's to the useless Belgium number the provide. I used up my credit when I traveled last month and moved on. I do not see Maxroam or any of its resellers surviving.

[worldtraveler]

Buzz roam is owned by Global Roaming Solutions in Hong Kong, so not sure if its the same thing..

Anyway I suppose it depends on what you want out of your travels.. Buzzroam offers me the complete solution - ie: one sim card that works for voice, text and data, a local number if I choose... and the prices are good...
I find that a lot more convenient than buying different cards in every country I go to (with diff numbers) and not having data capabilities ..