Truphone Enable the Globe-Trotting Phone

Truphone this week unveiled their newest idea “Truphone Local Anywhere”, which builds on the software client they have already built, and on the SIM technology and HLR infrastructure from acquisition SIM4Travel. Truphone Local Anywhere allows people with international lifestyles to better manage their call expenses as well as make it easier and cheaper for friends, families and co-workers to keep in contact.

At the heart of the solution is a SIM with multiple personalities (the IMSI), so that the one mobile phone can have a domestic mobile number say in the UK, then another in France and the USA, all active without changing a SIM card. So for example all of your French contacts could call the +34 number, your UK family could call the +44 number, and so on, meaning that people are more likely to call, not faced with an international; number. At the same time, calls made from the mobile via Truphone, both to in-country and international numbers at rates that CEO Geraldine Wilson referred to as “not the cheapest, but competitive”.

Truphone are looking for international telco partners to allow them to add more countries to their network. The product will be officially launched in the second half of the year; no tariff information has yet been finalized.

Reply from dean on Feb 20, 2009 - 09:27 AM

If you need this service now MaxRoam have had it for the last 18 months (and numbers in over 50 countries):-

http://www.maxroam.com/

Reply from andyk on Mar 02, 2010 - 01:09 PM

Did someone forget to mention that Truphone recently launched its newest idea "Truphone Local Anywhere"?

At the moment, it has options for just UK* and US IDs, apparently combining Jersey Telecom for roaming and Vodafone in the UK, don't know yet what US provider, with other options such as Netherlands and South Africa said to be about to emerge.

There are different rate tables for SIMs supplied in UK or USA, and options to add the other ID calling rate either for a month or annually

Roaming rates in the EU are almost exactly the same as main UK networks, including charges for incoming calls, with an option to use callback instead for outgoing which drops rates to 25p, matching for example O2 My Europe Extra.

Roaming rates in the rest of the world? Nothing much to write home about, well over a Euro a minute in places. The callback option is usually butnot always cheaper.

It might be worth having for a UK user visiting USA, with genuinely local rates and similarly cheap calls to other countries, but might be rather less attractive to someone in the other direction, if they happen to know of other brands that let them call USA for from 3 pence a minute, compared to this product's 70 cents

Personally, for USA I'd take a different multi-ID SIM, as the various Isle of Man based ones have free incoming calls there when called on the +44 number, but this consideration would be less likely to apply for people from elsewhere in the world as they might be using the US ID anyway


* well not quite UK as it uses a Jersey Telecom 074088 number, little difference for people in the rest of the world but relevant to some UK mobile users who will pay 50p a minute to call it, and to landline callers to its over 20p a minute

Reply from andyk on Mar 02, 2010 - 01:45 PM

too late to edit, re a missing part after my 70 cents to USA from UK remark, this is only if the US user omits to add the UK ID, which then reduces cost to USA to 8 pence a minute (compared to from 3p from other brands)

to clarify: US should add the UK ID when visiting UK, and UK users should add the US one for trips there, as you'd expect

Reply from martyndavies on Mar 02, 2010 - 02:44 PM

Thanks for your comments Andy. I received my Truphone SIM in the last week, and have attached the (chargeable extra) US DID to it in addition to the UK number. I haven't been travelling with it yet, so I'll come back with a report later.

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