I have come across this global sim card that cost GBP 29 and gives me a UK phone number which costs me nothing to receive calls in 55 countries including CH. The only catch is that I have to make a call using the card every six months or so. This sim card has literally saved me thousands of Francs, when people have phoned me from the UK. I was fed up with receiving overseas charges on a UK mobile. Yes it really works. Someone phoned me in Egypt the other day and we spent over an hour on the phone and it cost me nothing to receive the incoming call. More info http://www.0044.co.uk/global-sim-card.htm

how much do people pay to call you from Switzerland? Or from the UK? They must be recouping costs somewhere......

Maybe it's good for people getting UK calls to them all the time - but if you wanted me to call you, do you think I'd be pleased (calling from here).

You do know also that you can get SIPGate.co.uk accounts with UK numbers here? Just a little bit of work

The only other catch is that everyone has to know when you're abroad, so they know which number to use. The only other other catch is that local Switzerland friends would have to call or text a number abroad. More expense for them.

Seems impractical to me.

=DM=

The numbers come out of the Isle of Man and the call rate for someone in the UK to make a call is 12 pence / minute (standard BT mobile rate). Because I spend a lot of time in Germany, I don't get snagged up with roaming charges. Skype also doesn't recognise this number as a mobile one , but as a UK landline number, cost Eu 1.5 cents / minute

This is how I have thought about it. I am not sure how it works, but who pays the UK postman to deliver a letter to a UK address that is posted in Switzerland. Answer nobody, it is all on receprical agreements.

Bottom line is it has saved me a lot of money, if you need to do business in the UK.

thanks for that!!! that's perfect for us!

Now if someone could dig up something like this for a Swiss SIM card I can imagine it would be very useful indeed.

Still it's a good solution for all those people that seem to live here for years at a time and continue to give everyone in Switzerland their UK mobile number because they haven't had time to change over yet... A good way to kill your Swiss-based social life I'd say

Mark

This could be what you're looking for:

www.yallo.ch

I bought a sim card a couple of weeks ago and all is going well. You can call within europe at the same price as Switzerland (and USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

• CHF 0.39/min.
• CHF 0.05/min. for calls from yallo to yallo
• CHF 0.10 per SMS message to Switzerland and to the world
• No minimum contract, no basic charges

Wow - you mean you can go roaming with it and not pay the inbound calls? That's would be so cool. Nope - didn't think so.

Yallo is just a slightly cheaper version of Sunrise pre-pay with some cheaper international calls thrown in. If it's even possible to roam on it you would still get stung.

nah, you roam and still get shafted for send and recieve,
I've been looking today 'coz my phone is wonky since I dropped it

Outbound from CH to, say, UK are the same as CH to CH

The 0044.co.uk global sim works for me because I work for a UK company and spend most of my time in Germany. Most of my business is with the UK. There is absolutely no roaming fees across Europe for incoming calls. However what it does mean is that I carry two phones, one for incoming and one for outgoing calls.

So true... every time I travel I seem to notice all these business men carrying two to three mobile phones plus their PDAs. I certainly don't miss those days....