In last week’s Times column, I wrote about a breakthrough new cellphone from Cubic Telecom that’s designed for people who call internationally, either from the U.S. or while traveling abroad.

…

Overall, though, I feel a bit manipulated, since the primary virtue of the Cubic phone was its low rates.

I’m not exactly sure how the problem could have been avoided—in 20 years of reviewing tech products, nobody has ever deliberately misled me on hard facts like prices—but I thought you should hear about it from me.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/setting-the-record-straight-on-cubic-telecoms-international-rates/#more-363

Why have Maxroam published tariffs gone up by a third?

There’s no need to set up a rival service. All the main networks have lower roaming rates in Europe, or lower still local rates.

“In order for the MAXroam service to be a low cost service we may rely on advertising and marketing supplied through the service and other mechanisms to subsidize the service. We intend that any such marketing services shall be discrete and of targeted interest to you. By agreeing to these terms and conditions You agree to receive such advertising and marketing. If You do not want to receive such services You should notify us in writing. MAXroam reserves the right to charge You a higher fee for the service should You choose not to take these marketing services. This higher fee, if applicable, will be posted on the MAXroam website.”

“We take our customers’ privacy seriously. Please read our Privacy Policy for full details at http://www.maxroam.com/privacy. Whilst we respect the privacy of our customers, cellular calls may be subject to interception by law enforcement agencies and bodies.”
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Which is it to be, marketing or privacy?

How would Maxroam discretely decide my interests if I failed to tell them what to target?

If we disagreed:

“You may request a refund for unused credit by sending an email to support@maxroam.com. Refunds will only be available for credit purchased directly by You and not through any special offers, prepaid cards, vouchers or similar mechanisms. Refunds shall not be made for balances under EUR 5.00. MAXroam charges a EUR 20.00 fee to process any refund requests. Any breach of these refund terms shall lead to termination of this agreement.”

Maxroam will also take €1 a month off an account while it is unused, and say this is widespread practice on prepaid SIM cards.

Not everywhere. It’s illegal under German law, for one place. Most UK SIMs and their credit will stay valid even with one incoming call per 6 months. O2 Ireland told me I should top up once a year, and no balances would be lost.

A friend was telling me yesterday that he was looking forward to Maxroam but has been disappointed. While roaming in Europe with O2 UK contract SIMs, he and his colleagues have free incoming calls and 25 pence a minute to anywhere in Europe, thus about half the Maxroam tariff for calls between them.

And there is Vodafone Passport, which has 75 pence or 1 euro connection fee, then no further charge for incoming, and use of contract inclusive minutes to home or roamed country.

But is it correct?

azzam, as you probably already know, you can call a Bangladesh mobile cheaply from the UK by using a range of callthrough providers that may come from your mobile inclusive minutes, or from a couple of pence a minute on top, and then the incoming calls are free. Likewise, with a local SIM you could use other callback providers to call home to UK for the same sort of rates, from about 4 pence a minute. Maxroam and other global SIMs are quite a lot more, so not always the best option.

As for whether the caller or receiver pays, this jargon seems to imply that Maxroam is aimed at the USA, which does have expensive roaming either for visitors or its own subscribers travelling abroad.

But I don’t have people calling me on a foreign mobile. A landline is forwarded to a global roaming SIM for 6 cents a minute, and callback starts at the same rate.