Dear Wise Collective,

I've searched everywhere - but struggling to find any recent info on this headache and would greatly appreciate anyone's thoughts:

I'm trying to find a global sim card to use on a trip (from UK to China - with over 50% of the triip in China) - anyone have any experience on a global sim that works out best so that I can call home (mobile in China fitted with global sim to UK landline) and folks in the UK can call me (UK landline to my mobile in China fitted with the global sim).

For various reasons, I need a single sim rather than picking up local sims....

Trying to find the best solution is a nightmare.....greatly appreicate any help.

Cheers folks

There are loads of earlier threads about global sim cards in here:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/communications/

Just nothing very recently; perhaps because everyone is using skype, viber or whatsapp (or one or other of all the other comms apps) via wifi, for free?

__________________
Dave

Thanks Dave - appreciate your response. Think wifi may be the way forward where possible and keep mobile calls to a min.

Cheers.

I recently bought and just used for the first time a gadget ("sticker") from a company called KnowRoaming. It's basically a printed circuit that sticks onto your regular (home) SIM card. When you're in your home country you are using your regular network, but when you are traveling -- and it works in a LOT of countries -- you are using prepaid time on their network at a much lower rate than roaming.

I live in Panama and last week used it on a trip to the US. After a bit of set-up hassle, which I resolved by looking at their videos, it worked great. My data connection, while not the fastest, worked well and was reasonably priced (about 11 cents per mb). Telephone was also pretty cheap.

I think a local SIM card is more economical, but for traveling around to a bunch of different countries this is a pretty good system. They also gave me free US and UK telephone numbers. I'll be riding around Europe this summer and plan on buying a SIM card when I'll be in a country for more than a couple of weeks, but will use this for more temporary stays. Also, this is good if you need to use your phone when you first arrive in a country and haven't had time to buy a local chip.

Check out their web site at Reduce Roaming Fees with KnowRoaming but also do a Google search for reviews.

__________________
Steve Barnett
Panama City, Panama