Talkabroad International SIM Card

Talkabroad International SIM card gives you the convenience of a single SIM card and a single phone number, which will let you receive and make calls to your friends, associates and your family back home. It is far less expensive that a GSM mobile on roaming. Talkabroad features a pre-paid SIM card, where you pre-pay for your calls thereby having a controlled budget on the expenses that you incur. While you buy the SIM card you get a certain talk time credit which you can top up by buying coupons ot vouchers from practically any shop in any of the countries that you are visiting. This card allows you to roam in over 100 countries worldwide, including Europe and most of the world's popular countries.

When you buy a Talkabroad pre-paid international SIM card, you get a talk time credit of 30 minutes in Zone 1 which consists of most of Europe, Australia, China, Israel and calls to the U.S. The credits are Zone specific. You can get more information from www.planetomni.com for Talkabroad international SIM cards. You can buy recharge vouchers to buy more talk time credits for your SIM card. These are available in many denominations and you have the option to buy the credits that you want. A recharge of $29 would give you an additional credit of 30 minutes in Zone 1, 20 minutes in Zone 2 and a little over 12 minutes for the countries in Zone 3. For a complete list of countries, visit www.planetomni.com for further details. The incoming calls while you are in Zone 1 are free as also the incoming SMS. For example, if you are somewhere in Europe and your associate calls you from the Unites States, that incoming call will be free.

A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card is the brain which lets you make and receive calls on your GSM phone. The size of a SIM card is a bit smaller than a postage stamp and consists of printed circuits. It has a kind of a microprocessor with memory, which holds your unique personal information and your SIM and handset details for identifying you on the network. The SIM holds your phone number, your mobile identification number, the International Circuit Card ID (ICCID) and many more. As you switch on your phone, the information is transmitted to the relevant network and your identification is verified before you are logged into the network. This process goes through lots of security checks too. Each SIM card is uniquely identified by the network by its ICCID. The SIM card also holds your address book and further it logs all your incoming and outgoing calls, with those specific phone numbers, along with the date and time of call. The SIM card secures your mobile against misuse. You can punch in your Personal Identification Number (PIN) in your mobile which gets registered with the SIM card which protects your phone from being misused.

If you are planning a trip to Europe, you would need a GSM mobile handset. If you have a GSM mobile phone, it is doubtful if it will work which ever countries you are planning to visit. The GSM phone that you have has compatible frequency bands which work in North America and Canada. Most of the other countries in the world operate on different frequency bands, which sets apart North America and Canada from those countries. North American and Canadian networks operate on 850MHz and 1900MHz frequency bands, which are not the frequency bands used in Europe. In case you are a frequent traveller to different countries, along with a Talkabroad international pre-paid SIM card, you may consider buying a Quad-band mobile phone, which works on all the GSM frequency bands used all over the world, or at least a Tri-band handset which will work on 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands. On the other hand a Dual-band phone will work on 800MHz and 1900 MHz. If you are infrequently travelling abroad, you may consider renting a compatible mobile handset.

As for your GSM handset, that you rent ot buy for your trip to Europe or any other countries, you need to make sure that your handset is SIM unlocked. With SIM locked phones, you shall not be able to call or receive calls with your Talkabroad pre-paid international SIM card or any other SIM card for that matter. Your SIM locked phone is meant for a specific SIM card and your phone will not work with any other. For example, if you sign a contract with a service provider and that contract has a clause which binds you to be with the service provider for a specific period of time, usually one year, you get a mobile phone free of cost along with the SIM card. This mobile phone is SIM locked and will work only with the SIM card that you have received from the service provider. At the end of the contract period the service provider would help you to unlock your phone and it is only then you can choose what-ever SIM card that you want to use. Therefore, it is necessary for you to confirm that the phone that you are taking with you on your trip to countries abroad is SIM unlocked.

To activate your Talkabroad pre-paid international SIM card, simply make a call. The service is valid for a perid of 9 months from the time you activate the service and each recharge will provide you with an additional validity of 9 months. By dialing a 3 digit number you may verify your balance credit remaining, when your balance will be displayed in Euros. There are many ways to add on talk time credits, by purchasing a recharge coupon or voucher from practically any shop in the countries that you are visiting, from the internet website, by sending SMS or by phone.

Talkabroad pre-paid international SIM card is an economical way to meet your communication expenses from your GSM mobile. It is much cheaper than taking your mobile on roaming but a little more expensive than a pre-paid country specific SIM card. Being a pre-paid SIM card, you have a better control over your expenses and more-over you will not have a bill at the month end for the incoming ot outgoing calls with your Talkabroad pre-paid international SIM card. You will not be entering into any contracts what-so-ever.

To learn more about buying such a SIM card and renting a SIM unlocked GSM mobile, compatible with the frequency bands used by Austria, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml and www.planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml where you can find the relevant information regarding your communication requirements.

Cell phone use overseas. In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD (which usually goes under the battery of the phone) the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You'll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 of the 193 countries on earth from http://www.planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984