Truphone Local Anywhere is now available!

We are thrilled to announce that Truphone Local Anywhere, the one smart SIM that saves you money and keeps you local home and away, is now available. 

When in a Truphone country with a Truphone Local Anywhere SIM you can:  

• Pay what locals pay for voice, text and data


• Add phone numbers for each Truphone country so friends there can reach you without paying for an international call (even if you are not in the country) 


• Receive calls for free* on any of your Truphone phone numbers 


• Pay less for international calls - from 8p/min 

And when you travel to one of 185 non-Truphone countries, get low cost roaming – from 25p/min in EU.

Our first Truphone countries are the US and UK and we’ll soon be adding others such as Australia, Hong Kong, Spain, The Netherlands and South Africa.

The Truphone Local Anywhere SIM works in nearly any ‘unlocked’ mobile phone, and is available to buy from £14.99 ($24.99). To find out more, and buy one now, click here.

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*Apart from countries where standard operator charges to receive calls apply, such as the USA.

Comments

[stephen]

How exactly does one who has a truphone account order the sim card without requesting a new number?

[Tru]

Good question Stephen.

Merging a Truphone Mobile Apps account and a Truphone Local Anywhere account together is something that we are looking at, however for now you cannot bring across your current Truphone number to your SIM.

[stephen]

can we port over our regular cell phone number to local anywhere?

[Tru]

Hi Stephen,

You will be able port your regular cell phone number over to Truphone Local Anywhere shortly, however not just yet.

When this service becomes available, we will update the blog and website accordingly.

[Ben]

Do you support 3g data with Local Anywhere in the US? If so, which frequencies? Would I be able to use 3g data on an unlocked T-Mobile USA 3g-capable phone within the US?

[Pete]

Is Truphone Local Anywhere a VoIP service, or is it a conventional prepaid cell phone service (apart from the attractive pricing), completely distinct from Truphone's VoIP services? I'm also interested to know what frequencies / which carrier Truphone is using in the US, i.e. will it support 3G on the Nexus One?

I think the straightforward pricing is very attractive. I do not see any mention of credit expiration / top-up requirements? Is it correct that credit does not expire and there are no monthly charges?

[stephen]

@Ben The truphone localanywhere will support data, but it is not cheep $1 per mb, but really the purpose of the service is not to replace a regular wireless service.

[Pete]

$1 per mb is not cheap, but for limited use might not be too bad. There are few alternatives for inexpensive prepaid data service.

[Tru]

@Ben,

Yes, we do support National Roaming on the T-Mobile network in the USA with Truphone Local Anywhere, coverage can be found on:

http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx (3G and 2.5G services are supported)

The US frequency is 1900 Mhz.

For the UK, coverage can be found on:

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=templateBlank&pageID=OS_0200

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@Pete,

Truphone Local Anywhere is a "full GSM solution", meaning VoIP is not involved in the carriage of calls made by users of the service. As such, you will be able to use Truphone Local Anywhere on nearly any unlocked phone, and access data over 3G - as outlined on the website.

With regards to your question about credit expiration and top up – the basic Truphone Starter pack provides you with a SIM and credit. There is no credit expiry as such, but where your account is inactive (i.e. where you have not made or received any calls) for a period of 30 days you may be charged an inactivity fee for each month, which is in order for us to keep your chosen number(s) available to you for your use.

You can then buy local rates for the UK (with other countries to follow soon) on a flexible monthly basis. There is no contract needed.

Hope these answers help you both. Feel free to comment back if you have any more questions.

[Pete]

What is the inactivity fee? The "terms and conditions" says that the current fee can be found on the web site, but I don't see it.

[Albert]

@Truphone,

T-Mobile USA's 3G is on its own AWS 3G band (commonly called 1700Mhz band) that's not used anywhere else. You should make it clear somewhere that that's who you have an agreement with in the USA and what equipment is needed to use Truphone Local Anywhere 3G while in the USA.

Also, it's nice that you offer data but at $1/MB it's sort of pricey for anything serious. Are you planning on offering prepaid data packages? like $20 per 500MB or the like?

[Heath from Tru]

@Pete - the inactivity fee will be a £2 fee charged monthly only after 90 days of inactivity. To avoid the fee, simply make or receive a call or text to keep the account active.

@Albert - we are looking at a range of pricing plan options at the moment, and prepaid data packages are one of those. We definitely understand the importance of offering affordable data. Keep an eye on the blog or the Truphone website for updates.

[Storm]

Hi, what physical GSM network is used in the UK, and what data settings should be used when wishing to use data in the UK? My phone is trying to use Vodafone Netherlands settings! Thanks.

[Storm]

Ok, I've realised you are an MVNO using the Vodafone network in UK, but what data connection settings should we use on our devices, and is there an ETA on sending/receiving MMS messages?
Thanks

[Sethster]

This looks like a very cool service. How are we (in the US) able to avoid using data charges if we put the TruPhone Sim in our unlocked GSM smartphone? In my case, that would be a Nexus One Android? Is your network going to show up as a roaming data network? Thanks.

[Heath from Tru]

@Storm - the data connection you should use are:

APN: truphone.com
username: leave blank
password: leave blank

No ETA yet for MMS messages however it is something that we definitely would like to offer in the future.

@Sethster - if you are a US resident, you will get US local rates, which means that is you use data in the US it will be just $1 per MB. You won't be paying roaming data rates. To avoid data charges altogether though you can switch data off.

[Jaysincross]

I have an iPhone 3g and just ordered your sim card. After reading up on GSM and iPhones, I'm not sure I will be able to use your sim in my iPhone. I plan to unlock it using some meathods on the Internet, but I would like to avoid doing so if there is no hope for using the sim card on my iPhone. So simply has anyone used this sim in an iPhone successfully? Thanks

[GaiaGeek]

Please clarify whether the inactivity fee kicks in after 30 days (as stated above on 27 January 2010) or after 90 days (as stated above on 17 February 2010). Also, what is the inactivity fee for accounts with credit in Euros or US dollars?

Regarding data usage, is it rounded up to nearest megabyte? Meaning if you use 50kb in one session, you will be charged for 1mb?

[Sethster]

Thanks for the quick answer. Putting aside the data question, would I be able to use the Truphone Android (nexus1) App for wifi calls and the Local Anywhere SIM for non-Wifi calls when calling US to US? Would this make sense?

[iphone rapidshare]

I'm also interested to know what frequencies / which carrier Truphone is using in the US, i.e. will it support 3G on the Nexus One?

[Heath from Tru]

@Jaysincross - we have definitely run tests and had success using a Truphone Local Anywhere SIM on an iPhone. I do understand the issue of unlocking an iPhone when under contract, especially in the US, however I would suggest contacting your network operator to see whether they will unlock the iPhone for you.

@GaiaGeek - apologies for the contradiction. The later response is the correct one. The inactivity fee will commence after 90 days of inactivity, charging £2 (or 2 Euros / $3) a month thereafter until there is an activity made on the account. Avoiding the fee is as simple as sending a text message every 90 days.

@Sethster - yes, no reason you couldn't use both the app and the SIM in your Nexus One.

@iphone rapidshare - i will come back to you very shortly with an answer

[Heath from Tru]

@iphone rapidshare - Our partnership in the US is with T-Mobile for voice and data with 1900 MHz frequency.

[Albert]

@Heath from Truphone
Just to clarify, T-Mobile in the USA operates in different bands for their 2G and 3G services.

2G is indeed 1900Mhz (voice and data)

3G is running on the 1700Mhz band which is unique to them in the world. The Google Nexus One is an example of a device that supports this 3G frequency and there are many other phones out there that do european 3G (2100Mhz) and US T-Mobile 3G (1700Mhz).

I still think Truphone should have posted somewhere a list of what frequency requirements are needed in every country to get onto the 2G/3G services , so people know what hardware to get.

[Jon]

Is there an initial fee and any additional fees for getting a 2nd number but in another country. For example if I have a truphone local anywhere UK number and I want a truphone local anywhere US number in addition, what initial and additional on going fees do I incur if any? And what is the process in obtaining the number? I believe elsewhere this is referred to I think as an upgrade.

[Jon]

Found it: "Add local country numbers to your SIM for just £12.99 or $19.99 or €12.99 a year"