United Mobile – is the end nigh for travel SIMs?
It’s been an interesting few weeks in the world of travel SIM providers. If rumours are to be believed, United Mobile – one of the biggest (and longest established) providers of travel SIMs is in the throws of death – and already some of it’s competitors are trying to pick at the bones.
On Tuesday 7th April, Truphone-owned Sim4Travel registered unlted-mobile.com – a typo suspiciously close to the official United Mobile website of united-mobile.com. At the time of writing this entry, it was offering customers of ‘other’ travel SIM providers a free Sim4Travel SIM card: “Having problems with your travel SIM provider? You can’t make calls? You’re experiencing a poor service? Or simply, you just want peace of mind that you won’t be let down when you travel.”
Even more damning was a page found at www.sim4travel.com/um/ – which has since been taken down (but still available in Google’s cache) that went as far as to name United Mobile, by saying “Having problems with your Umited Mobile SIM? You can’t make calls? You’re experiencing a poor service? Or simply, you just want peace of mind that you won’t be let down when you travel.”
Meanwhile on Thursday 10th April Truphone issued a press release – which appears to have been swiftly withdrawn – trumpeting the same offer. A quick search of Google reveals that the largest German telecoms magazine Teltarif picked up on the story – which is translated into English via Google here.
Do Truphone know something we don’t? Perhaps. But their actions didn’t go unnoticed by United Mobile. An article in today’s print edition of Mobile News says that UM are to sue Truphone and Sim4travel for fraud. Both sides are quoted in the article. Firstly Sim4Travel’s Matt Rowntree:
“We have recently heard that global SIM provider United Mobile is having trouble supporting its customers. SIM4Travel would like to reassure all United Mobile customers that we can provide them with a continuation of service and would be happy to send them a replacement SIM card for free by first class post. Their remaining credit will be valid on our network.
“If the situation with United Mobile becomes more serious we will be more proactive in contacting their customers although we don’t want to be seen as vultures stealing their customers.”
United Mobile CEO Sven Donhuysen said: “It seems that SIM4Travel is really desperate. Otherwise I cannot explain their actions. What they are doing is fraud. We have our lawyers involved now.”
Meanwhile, United Mobile customers at various Internet forums are complaining that their SIM cards are no longer working. One poster at Flyertalk said: “I’m trying to use my United Mobile SIM card in Singapore and it isn’t working. I’ve used it in many other countries with no problems. This is the first time in several weeks though. I also notice big chunks of the United Mobile website are also down. You can’t access your account for a example. It’s a worrisome coincidence.” whilst another in a thread on Crunchbase posted: Just heard that United Mobile has gone out of business. Their assets have been frozen awaiting liquidation, there is no way the service will restart.”.
Meanwhile German-based Sunsim announced yesterday an offer for UM subscribers who can no longer use their SIM cards. The starter pack gives customers a new SIM card plus €15 of call credit for €14.95.
Both United Mobile and Sim4Travel rely on platforms hosted by and network connectivity provided by Channel Islands-based mobile operator Jersey Telecom.
looking forward to Sim4travel registering Pubic Telecom
, sorry about the toilet humor but its where this marketing campaign should beI am all for new business but this stinks
I agree with Pat that it stinksIt's worth adding that Sim4Travel's spoof website had livery and other branding aspects very similar to United Mobile's, and had comments that this was a free upgrade.Though it is entirely possible that this was a complete coincidence, 3 different people commented to me that their first impression of this website was that United Mobile had ceased operation, and had made official arrangements with S4T to offer replacements.In this respect, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that such a passing-off exercise had that express intention, and UM's reaction isn't surprising. Whilst one of S4T's marketing department may have posted elsewhere on the internet about a number of feats he wants to achieve before the age of 30, would it be too much to hope given the company CEO's previous experience in marketing for reputable larger companies, somebody at S4T/Truphone might have been mature enough to avoid such a fiascoS4T significantly increased their tariffs earlier in the year, cutting the number of countries with free incoming roaming to 36 (30 of them in Europe), and nearly doubled outgoing tariffs in many countries (e.g. Australia and Egypt) from 25 to 49 pence a minute. So right now, there are hardly any countries in Europe where it's cheaper to use S4T than O2 UK's My Europe Extra, and S4T's rates in a fair proportion of the rest of the world are higher than rival global SIMs. Thus, someone with more than one brand of roaming SIM might be inclined to use Sim4travel less than before
I agree with Pat that it stinksIt's worth adding that Sim4Travel's spoof website had livery and other branding aspects very similar to United Mobile's, and had comments that this was a free upgrade.Though it is entirely possible that this was a complete coincidence, 3 different people commented to me that their first impression of this website was that United Mobile had ceased operation, and had made official arrangements with S4T to offer replacements.In this respect, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that such a passing-off exercise had that express intention, and UM's reaction isn't surprising. Whilst one of S4T's marketing department may have posted elsewhere on the internet about a number of feats he wants to achieve before the age of 30, would it be too much to hope given the company CEO's previous experience in marketing for reputable larger companies, somebody at S4T/Truphone might have been mature enough to avoid such a fiascoS4T significantly increased their tariffs earlier in the year, cutting the number of countries with free incoming roaming to 36 (30 of them in Europe), and nearly doubled outgoing tariffs in many countries (e.g. Australia and Egypt) from 25 to 49 pence a minute. So right now, there are hardly any countries in Europe where it's cheaper to use S4T than O2 UK's My Europe Extra, and S4T's rates in a fair proportion of the rest of the world are higher than rival global SIMs. Thus, someone with more than one brand of roaming SIM might be inclined to use Sim4travel less than before
Free sim card exchange for old united mobile customers.Travel Sim uk are happy to exchange your non working united mobile sim card for a new UK 07924 Travel Sim number. Once received, we will post back same day the new sim card.For more info, Please go to our website: http://www.travelsim.co.uk
If you wanted a free plug, you could had the courtesy to drop me an email and ask
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Free sim card exchange for old united mobile customers.[removed] are happy to exchange your non working united mobile sim card for a new UK [removed] number. Once received, we will post back same day the new sim card.For more info, Please go to our website: [removed]
If you wanted a free plug, you could had the courtesy to drop me an email and ask
)