Pre-paid SIM Card for Ireland

Ireland is the third largest island in Europe, with an area of 32,544 square miles, and is situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. It is divided into two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland, that constitutes one-sixth of the southern, eastern, western and north-western part and the Northern Ireland which forms a part of the United Kingdom. The name Ireland is derived from the name Ériu, which in modern Irish is Éire, with addition of the world land . As per the census of 2006, the population of the island was about 6 million, with just over 4.2 million in the Republic of Ireland and 1.7 million in Northern Ireland. The climate in Ireland is temperate compared to the countries lying in the same latitude. The country is full of lakes and rivers and the soil is good and fertile at some places. It grows corn, hemp, and flax in plenty and beef and butter are exported, and articles like hides, wool, tallow, wood, salt, honey, and wax are traded. Ireland produces fine linen cloth, which is made to specialised perfection and traded. The history of Ireland is full of legends and myths. The people in Ireland still remember the famous sea-warrior, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, who, as a boy, is said to have gained his wisdom by tasting the salmon of knowledge . His feats in triumphing over the giants and magicians are still remembered by the Irish people. There are more of such myths which still remain in the minds of the people. Many of the patron-saints of various localities are the centers of myths. The history of Ireland portrays these saints as having sacred power to banish the monsters, cure illnesses, and provide food for the people in time of need. There is much famous fairy lore, the stories of which show the presence of traditions prior to Christianity. Ireland is full of castles, stone towers, walls and other fortifications and some of these are well restored, while the others lie in a heap of rubbles as a testament of the past glory. The castles were built in Ireland as a fortification against invaders and were such dwellings which were made for providing security. While it is true that most of these castles were owned by the clan heads, Kings or the honoured English gentry, most of the castles in Ireland were not the grand dwellings of the royalty. When the Vikings came to Ireland, they further enhanced this fortification by putting up stone walls around entire villages or towns, with watch towers at intervals. Castles in Ireland are not as big as one would think. They are small and dark, with few small windows, just to look out for anyone approaching. The rooms are generally small so that a small fire can keep the occupants warm and keep the bitter cold and the damp away. Few have big halls and many have their own chapel. Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, lies along the sweep of Dublin Bay. It is situated between the rocky Howth in the north and the headland of Dalkey to the south. The river Liffey, while flowing into the harbour, divides the city between the northern and southern part, both part inked by several bridges, the main one being the O Connell Bridge. The major part of Dublin, bordered by fine parklands, lies in the southern part of the River Liffey, with the other part of the city situated on the northern bank. The Grand Canal links the Dublin Bay with Shannon River. The canal was constructed mainly for the purpose of improving the city s water supply. The canal was completed in 1804 and there-after many small canals were constructed, which branched out to the small towns lying near the Dublin and Shannon harbour. The canal lost its importance as the railroad was developed and about 1960 s the commercial traffic through the canal ended. The largest city after Dublin and Belfast is the city of Cork, which has an international airport. It lies inland at the south coast, linked with the sea by a narrow channel called Passage West leading to the Cork Harbour. The two arms of the river Lee, which are the north and south channels, enclose the central area of Cork, forming an island. The River Lee flows into Cork Harbour which is called Lough Mahon. The river is spanned by several bridges. Cork has many cultural institutions, which include the Cork library, scientific society founded in 1820. The city is the cultural center of southern Ireland. The city is thriving on shipping agricultural produce. The industries in Cork include brewing, foodstuffs, textiles, footwear and chemicals. In the seventh century A.D., St Finbarr found a monastery on a small alluvial island in the River Lee. The Cathedral of St. Finbarr still stands at that spot. In-spite of several Danish raids, the settlement, which grew up all around the monastery, survived and prospered. This settlement was fortified later by the Danes. Henry II, the English King, conquered Ireland which was retaken by the Irish and taken many times by the English. When you visit Ireland, you would need to be in touch with your associates and friends, locally and abroad and with your family back home as well. You will also require to be available to those who want to get in touch with you. You will, no doubt, have your cell phone with you when you visit that country. If you had gone abroad for a visit, at the time when mobile telephony was not available, you would have used the telephone in your hotel room to make the calls that you wanted. You had made local and international calls. The bills were exorbitant and way out of your budget set for making such expenses. When cell phones became available you had taken your cell phone abroad on roaming. You had made calls locally and abroad and paid for incoming calls too. Cell phones on roaming are charged extra for the outgoing and incoming calls and the charges are quite expensive. When you are on cellular roaming, you get the facility to make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services, when you move out from your own home area, as you do when visiting abroad. This facility is available through the local network of the country that you are in. In providing you with this facility, your home service provider has entered into a business contract with the operator of the country that you are visiting. This agreement allows you to make use of your cell phone in Ireland, for making calls locally and abroad Your home service provider pays the operator of the network that you are using in Ireland for every call that you make and receive. In turn, you are charged for the roaming facility provided and such charges are pretty high. A pre-paid SIM card for Ireland saves you up to 80% of your call charges. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Ireland, you get a local number and you pay for your calls as the locals do. All your incoming calls are free, no matter where they generate from and you do not pay for roaming. You do not have to sign any contract with a service provider and you do not get to receive any bill at the end of the month. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Ireland, you also get a small talk time credit with your SIM card, so that you may start using your cell phone right away as soon as you reach your destination abroad. You can buy recharge vouchers or coupons from practically any shop in the cities of Ireland, to top up your talk time credit. These coupons are available in various denominations and you can choose the value of the credit that you want. Since you pre-pay for your calls, you are in complete control of the expenses that you incur for the purpose and there is none of that worry of receiving an exorbitant bill amount at the end of the month. For more information on pre-paid SIM card for Ireland, visit planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card is a printed circuit board smart card that renders your cell phone intelligent. It is a little smaller in size than that of a postage stamp and goes in a slot at the back of your cell phone. You will find the slot as you take off the back cover of your cell phone. The SIM card consists of a microprocessor circuitry and memory. It holds your unique information, identifying you, your service plan, the SIM card and your cell phone identity, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and other security details. When your cell phone is switched on, the information is transmitted to the nearest tower in the city that you are in. This is checked for validity in the operator’s database and on clearence, your cell phone gets logged into the network. At this time you are ready to use your cell phone. The process is so fast that you do not realise the delay. The SIM card also holds your address book, where you store the names and telephone numbers of the people you frequently call. It also logs your incoming and outgoing calls and the calls which you fail to answer. It logs them according to the date and time of the calls received and made. You will need a GSM cell phone with you when you visit Ireland. The networks in Ireland operate on 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM frequency bands. Therefore, even if you have a GSM cell phone, it is unlikely that it will work in Ireland, unless you have a multi-frequency cell phone with you, having the compatible frequency bands. North America, Canada and some of the countries in the Americas, work on 850MHz and 1900MHz GSM frequency bands, which are not compatible with the ones used in Ireland. If you do not have a multi-frequency bandwidth cell phone with you, it is economical for you to rent one such. If you are a frequent traveller, going out of the United States often, you might consider buying a compatible GSM cell phone, which may be used in the countries of your visit. For more information on buying or renting cell phones, please visit planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml Cell phones are available in multi-frequency bands, making it convenient for the people going abroad, visiting number of countries. The Quad-band phone covers all GSM frequencies and can work in any of the GSM region in the world. The Tri-band works on three of the GSM frequency bands and these are, 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz, and would work in most of the GSM countries. There is the Dual-band covering two of the GSM frequency bands, 800MHz and 1900MHz. Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) technology is an open structure second generation (2G), first digital mobile telephony technology, replacing the old analog first generation (1G) system. GSM is used in over 214 countries and has 80% subscription amongst the total mobile users in the world. There are four frequency bands offered by GSM and these are, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, and 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz, which are distributed to the different regions, with some of the regions using common frequency bands. Within these four frequency bands, North America, Canada and some of the countries in Americas use 850MHz and 1900MHz, which are exclusive to this part of the world. GSM offers the advantage of letting you remain in touch with the world from about anywhere in in this planet. Whether you carry your own phone, buy one or rent, you must ensure that the cell phone that you are taking with you is SIM unlocked. If it is SIM locked, you will not be able to use your phone with your pre-paid SIM card for Ireland or any other SIM card. A cell phone is SIM locked for specific purposes. One example is that, when you sign a contract with a service provider, a clause in that contract would stipulate that you will be required to use the services of the service provider for a definite period of time, which may be one year. Further, you will receive a cell phone free of cost to you and it becomes yours once the contract period is over. The cell phone that you receive is SIM locked and would work only with the SIM card that you have received along with the cell phone from your service provider. This is done to ensure that you use only the SIM given by the service provider for the whole contract period. At the end of the contract period, your service provider will help you to SIM unlock your phone, when you are at liberty to use any SIM card of your choice. A pre-paid SIM card for Ireland is affordable and saves you substantially on your call expenses. With this SIM card, you are not charged for any of the incoming calls that you receive and you do not pay for roaming. The charges that you pay for your calls are the same as the locals do. In pre-paying for the air time usages, you are being able to keep a check on the expenses that you are incurring for your calls. Cell phone use overseas. In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD (which usually goes under the battery of the phone) the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You ll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 or the 193 countries on earth from planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984. Cell phone use overseas. In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD (which usually goes under the battery of the phone) the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You ll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 of the 193 countries on earth from planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984