Simon from Mobi Passport contacted me earlier this week to see if I was interested in listing their services on www.prepaidplans.com.au. At this stage I will do a quick review of the offers they have and how they may differ from the other international roaming sims on our site.
What is Mobi Passport? At first I thought it was in fact just another international call roaming service, but in fact the service seems to have more of a focus on data than calls. Yes a little different and certainly worth reviewing and maybe adding given the killer rates provided by most telcos for data.
With Mobi Passport you don’t buy the sim card you rent it. In fact you rent a different sim for each place that you travel to. At the moment there are only 5 destinations covered but more are on the way. Mobi Passport covers France, UK, Spain, Australia and USA. A starter kit is rented for each destination and then credit is purchased and applied directly to the sim. Mobi Passport uses the following carriers, in France it is Orange, in the UK it is O2, in Spain Vodafone, in Australia it is Optus, in the USA it is AT&T.
Below is how they describe the service:
Just like your passport gets you access to countries around the world, Mobi Passport allows you to connect to mobile phone networks at local rates all around the world.
Mobi Passport provides travelers with a local pre-paid SIM card for each destination to take advantage significantly lower data rates available through the local mobile broadband providers compared to global roaming.
By using a local SIM in your iPhone, smartphone or iPad while overseas you can access all your favorite applications such as Facebook, Google Maps, Skype and Email, whenever and wherever you are without coming home to a phone bill in the thousands of dollars.
Order a Mobi Passport by adding SIM cards for each destination you plan to travel to. Each SIM card has a low monthly charge to rent and comes fully activated and ready for use in the destination country. Family and Friends will also be able to contact you, without you paying global roaming charges.
You can have credit pre-loaded onto the SIM, purchase credit through Mobi Passport or do it yourself through the providers authorised retail outlet. Details on the options for buying credit will be included with your Mobi Passport.
What is included in your Mobi Passport:
Sim card for each destination
Recharge and credit check instructions for each destination
Supporting information and user guides
Prepaid return envelope
How does it work?
Step 1: Purchase SIM Cards for each Destination Online
You firstly select the sim cards you need based on the destinations you are going to travel to.
Step 2: Your Mobi Passport is Sent via Post
After a few days you passport with each of your nominated sims arrives in the mail. The sims will have the nominated credit added as per your schedule of travel.
Step 3: Insert the SIM card into your mobile phone.
Follow the instructions to use the sim and you can add additional credit using the Mobi Passport website, through the phone menu system or at local outlets.
Step 4: Return your Mobi Passport using the supplied Pre-Paid envelope.
Lets compare some rates for data. Note that I am comparing casual rates here. The Mobi Passport service allows you to buy bolt on data plans as per the sim offer that is available at the time, so the rates would in that case be a lot better.
gotalk Roaming Sim Mobi Passport
UK 3c/10kb 10c/100kb £3 / MB up to 1£
USA 12c/10kb $1.33/100kb $0.01 per 5kb ($2/MB)
France 4c/10kb 10c/100kb €3 – Daily Unlimited
Spain 2c/10kb 10c/100kb €3.50- weekly Unlimited
Australia 30c/10kb 10c/100kb $2 per MB
In all it is a very interesting concept and means that you can have your local sim cards all sorted before you leave and because they are local sims, roaming doesn’t apply any more. If you lose the sim, you will be charged for a replacement.
