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Telestial
Telestial have three Roaming Sim offerings the one we compare here is Passport
Passport Plus - £20 with £5 Call Credit Good for outbound sensitive callers as it has low outbound rates
Passport - £20 with £5 Call Credit has free incoming calls in 50+ countries, which is good for those with high incoming calls.
Passport Lite - £2.50 with £2.50 call credit. The card is basically free but the rates are a little higher, excellent for the occasional traveller.
Review:
Buy the Passport Plus
Buy the Passport
Buy the Passport Lite
We bought the Telestial Passport roaming sim card to test and review, the card arrived within two working days. The package is nice and the instructions are clear and it’s easy to see how it works and there were no surprises. They even included a recycle envelope for the roaming sim card, which we found interesting and refreshing. We did the usual when we test cards skip the instruction, put the sim in and see if it’s easy without the instructions, and it was the cards instantly found the network, in the UK it was roaming on Vodafone. We made a test call and the phone seemed like stalling then immediately after there was a call back, and we got connected via the Telestial roaming sim card to the destination. We sent a text message and it arrived then we sent a reply back and it arrived immediately to the Isle of Mann Roaming Sim card.
There is a difference in Telestial’s offering, they have three products instead of one, and at first we couldn’t’ understand why the cards were different, the Telestial Passport plus seemed like the obvious choice, however we found that it depends on your usage of the sim card which one is the most suitable for your roaming needs.
The Passport Plus is for the heavy caller, it has very competitive rates for making calls, where the passport have free inbound calls in some countries, but is slightly more expensive to make calls. The Telestial Passport Lite is almost free, the sim cards costs the same as what you get in call credit, however the charges are slightly higher and there are no free inbound calls.
The account features online was as usual for all Roaming Sims a little difficult to find, but all it required was a brief look in the manual and it all worked. You can choose from Auto top-up and they have a lot of options for paying, you can enable and disable toll-free inbound calls, you can see every phone call you made and you can print invoices so you can claim expenses.
There was a little bonus on the sim card using the services menu under the sim tool kit; it allows you to setup call-back and call forwarding to anywhere.
Customer Service:
The customer service isn’t free from your Telestial roaming sim; however they do give you a choice of toll free numbers to dial using a landline or payphone. We called the customer service and they answered immediately. As we asked the same secret question as we do in all our reviews we were satisfied in their reply, and it was courteous and helpful and the answered the query in full.
Quality of Calls:
You can’t tell the difference from a normal call; in one test we did in Spain it was almost clearer than a direct call using our mobile operator while roaming in Spain.
Call Connection:
It was a very fast call back, but from pushing the call button until the phone rings takes a second or two. There were no error messages or warnings on the phones we tested it on.
Text Messaging:
As easy as normal Text messaging, the text messages arrive as your Telestial Roaming SIM number and the recipient can reply to that number instantly.
Data Roaming:
Not Available yet.
Ease of Use:
We had no problems using the card in the following phones Nokia N70, Sony Ericsson W850i, Nokia 6300, Nokia e51 and a HTC Touch Cruise or Blackberry, however it did take a little getting used to that the call wasn’t’ connected instantly, but it is worth waiting a second to save on roaming charges.
Value for money:
its value for money and it’s nice that you have a choice of cards to select from that suits your need for roaming.
Telestial Features:
* Choice of different Roaming Sim Cards
* It’s a +44 Isle of Mann number
* There is a sim tool kit that allows you to control the call back location
* you can choose to have a toll free number your family or business can reach you on.
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Shipping was prompt and the setup was not too difficult, though I would not say absolutely intuitive. I did have to click around a bit when it came to logging into the correct place as there seems to be several ways to login. What I am most displeased with (outside of the 10 minute hold time for support) is the misinformation on the web page prior to purchasing. The web page states that there is a charge to forward phone calls, but leads one to believe not if the phone is home and turned off: "Perfect for the business traveler, the Passport Plus features free call forwarding when you are home and the Passport Plus SIM card is not in use." Unfortunately, for me, this was one of the main reasons I chose Telestial over some others. They did offer to accept a return, but I do not have the time to deal with it now.
Posted on: 16-04-2009 Rated Telestial:
 
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Telestial is horrible.
. I want to share our story so others won't share our fate. Our daughter purchased a Motorola v600i with Passport Plus plan from Telestial for use on a trip as an intern in Uganda working on TB research. She chose this phone after careful consideration because she would need the phone in London for a few days, then Dubai and then Uganda. She worked on line and with calls to the company who assured her the phone would work in Uganda.
She arrived to find her cell phone did not work. On Sunday morning we called Telestial in Boston (since she can't call) and, with our daughter on chat (sporadic internet service), worked through a number of proposed solutions, none of which worked. The support person said a technician was required The call never occurred, nor did they call me as the additional point of contact to say the call would not happen.
Once I called the company back, they said the technician really would call so we set up a chat near a phone in an office with somewhat regular phone service. They called back to say that, despite their website stating they carried service in Uganda and multiple assurances from their phone reps that they carried service in Uganda, it seems they actually don't. Her phone is useless. o
I called Telestial to see about the refund and it was denied by management (with no contact to us), who refuses to discuss issues with customers. The only way to get a refund is to pay international shipping charges from Uganda, and wait for the phone to arrive back in US within 15 days, if it ever does. Telestial recommends not sending from Uganda.
So, a young woman is stranded in Uganda with no working cell phone due to false advertising and a poor customer support network. She needed a call phone for her personal safety while in the field. All calls and help were generated and coordinated by us. Telestial takes no ownership of the problem they created and are keeping hundreds of dollars hostage, nor do they want to see an equitable or appropriate outcome to a bad situation.
I strongly recommend not using any Telestial product.
Posted on: 14-01-2009 Rated Telestial:
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When purchase, we received confirmation of order for sims but they did not actually ship out on time so missed customer deadline.
Most recently (January 09) attempted to use their prepaid data service which was offered in October 2008. Service did not work on 2 different cards. I attempted to troubleshoot with several reps/supervisors in the USA and Australia and finally realized we cannot offer this service to our customers due to lack of support and requested refund which is pending.
Jeff Brahm, General Manager
RentCell, inc.
Posted on: 13-01-2009 Rated Telestial:
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Received confirmation of order for sims last year but they did not actually ship out on time so missed customer deadline.
Most recently (January 09) attempted to use their prepaid data service which was offered in October 2008. Service did not work on 2 different cards. I attempted to troubleshoot with several reps in the USA and Australia and finally realized we cannot offer this service to our customers due to lack of support and requested refund which is pending.
Jeff Brahm, General Manager
RentCell, inc.
Posted on: 13-01-2009 Rated Telestial:
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I used this in UAE, and it worked, but i must say it does depend on what network you are on down here, as i think it's more of a network block here in Dubai that handles it.
Posted on: 26-10-2008 Rated Telestial:
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I've been traveling with this SIM frequently on and off for over a year, to France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Latvia, Netherlands, Australia, Croatia, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia and very much enjoy having the free incoming calls all over the world. As I'm overseas so often, it works out to be a significant savings for me. Recommended
Posted on: 18-04-2008 Rated Telestial:
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I've had this card for abouyt 6 months now and travel frequently to Germany, UAE, Azerbaijan and Germany. I've had many propblems with the phone both call and recieving calls. My last trip trip to Thailand was the final straw. I'm trying another company.
Posted on: 02-04-2008 Rated Telestial:
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