simNote: before you read this post, make sure you’ve read the introduction plus my posts for day one, day two and day three. Of course you don’t have to – but this entry will make more sense if you have!

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So it’s day four. just to re-cap, I’m currently in Jersey, armed with a MAXroam SIM, a SIM-unlocked BlackBerry and my MacBook Pro. I’ve managed – after a few struggles – to get my SIM card activated, a GSM number from Belgium assigned to it, and can’t for the life of me figure out how to make calls (even though I’m following the instructions).

After my woes yesterday I’d dropped another email to Chris and Pat. I’m still struggling to add a local number, but the main problem is making calls – or more to the point not being able to make calls.

Got a reply – quite quickly as well. Chris said there’d been some issues during migration to the new platform, which they’d hopefully nailed. As for the number error, they were waiting for their numbering providers to upgrade their systems – and hopefully within a few days they’d be able to start offering local numbers again.

As for the USSD messages and ‘Call Failed’, it’s ‘just the phone telling you what it thought was going to be a call, was not (since a call with MAXroam you actually send a request for callback, so the phone is a little unsure as to what happens and displays that annoying message). Whilst I know that, would the average customer understand these things?

Then came the clanger.

‘Just about dialling calls, I noticed from your message you are not including the +? For calls with your new MAXroam SIM, you need to include the +, so you would dial for example +441112223333′

Oh. That’s not what the instructions (both sets – there’s two on the packaging) said. In fact, it explicitly stated:

1. Always dial the full International phone number, excluding “00″ or “+”

Hmm. So I tried to place a call to my roaming E71 from the BlackBerry, and after the stream of messages and dialogue boxes similar to those I got in the previous day’s test I waited a few seconds – and sure enough I got a call back. Success. Well, almost – as by this time I was sitting on a bus heading to the airport and didn’t really fancy having a conversation with myself in front of a bunch of pensioners who were already eyeing me up with the ‘this is a local bus for local people’ stare.

So, in summary, I’ve got it working – to an extent. It’s taken a few days of faffing, but I seemingly make a voice call. I haven’t tried data yet, nor have I managed to add a local number – so all my friends who I call think I’ve moved to the land of chocolate and Stella Artois.

This road test took place during the week before Easter 2009. How have things gone with MAXroam since I got back? I’ll tell you tomorrow..

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