Update April 2010 – Celtrek is no longer in business. We now recommend Telna Mobile. We have used Telna and found the service to be equal to or better than Celtrek.

April 2008 -

The main focus of this web site is to make your life easier on the road. Well for those folks who fly international, especially on short notice, communicating back home can be an issue. Celtrek solves the issue by offering a global roaming sim card for GSM capable phones. This means by switching out your current GSM provider sim card for one from Celtrek you can receive calls nearly anywhere in the world.

While you may have this option with you regular mobile phone provider Celtrek offers a much more cost effective solution. For example inbound international calls with AT&T can be as high as $1.99 per minute. (See Comparison Chart Below) With Celtrek they can be as low as $.029. The same savings applies with outbound rates as well. Take Sweden, for example, the inbound rate is $.029 and the outbound rate to the US is $.044. Best of all your friends, family, whomever have a US phone number to reach you on. No calls to a foreign country.

What it is:

An international sim card for your GSM phone. On a recent test I used the card in Switzerland, Austria, and Croatia with little issues. Only for a short time (6 hours) the card would not connect to a roaming partner in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Otherwise the card worked flawlessly with quick connection times. Call quality was generally good. The key here is it depends on the roaming partner NOT Celtrek. So if you don’t like the quality each country usually has multiple roaming partners. Just choose another one and try again. On the same trip I tried to Estonia based global sim cards with only fair results. Both cards worked fine in the western Europe countries but were hit and miss in Croatia. If you are a frequent caller Celtrek is the way to go.

Why we like it:

• Easy to use. Just swap your sim card and go. If you want to forward your regular mobile number to your Celtrek number this is usually easily done via your phones property settings, consult your providers phone manual.
• You will receive a US phone number. Many other global sim cards offer UK or Estonian numbers which can be very expensive to call from the US
• You can receive free inbound text messages SMS # is different than voicenumber and is Israeli based
• Voicemail is available, works well, and is only $0.12 per min to check
• There are additional features like call recording and sending voice mail messages to your email account
• Online account history is available for auditing purposes

Why use it?:

If you make frequent calls back home to talk to family this card can save you significant money. If you don’t want to unlock your current phone or deal with switching cards unlocked GSM phones are readily available on places like eBay. You can also use a pre-paid mobile phone from places like Target if it is GSM compatible.

Requirements:

Your phone must be unlocked. Call your mobile phone provider and ask if you can unlock your phone. If they are unwilling to do this for free we suggest going to gsmphonesource.net.

Where to get it:

Cost:

Varies depending on how much airtime you purchase with the card. We are working on a special program just for pilots! Hopefully this will be available through our affiliate program in the next 30-60 days (May 2008)

In summary:

If you want to make it easy for people to connect with you no matter where you are the Celtrek sim is a great option. It will provide lots of peace of mind for those back home. For you whether you are on vacation or business having the ability to use your phone anywhere is a huge convenience. Especially when you are on vacation and trying to book accommodations or get directions. My only grip with the card is the separate SMS number. With the number being Israeli it could cost your friends a bit extra to send you a message. Celtrek is working on enhanced features including data access while roaming.

International GSM Cost Comparison