When the SIM4Travel global assets were purchased by Truphone Limited in 2008, some may have been expecting the service to be shut down quicker than the more than 4 years it has since been running. Of course, the time for SIM4Travel’s sunset is coming by the near end of summer.
SIM4Travel has plans to shut down the service effective August 10th according to the company’s website. The closure has apparently come at the decision of the Truphone Board of Directors, who have decided that it’s “no longer commercially viable to continue the SIM 4 TRAVEL business division, which has become surplus and financially burdensome to operate.”
SIM4Travel’s shut down will cause all SIM card functions to cease operating
Upon the deactivation, all SIM4Travel SIM cards will cease to function; phone numbers will be cancelled and cannot be ported out due to a non-existent agreement between the UK and Channel Island; users will also lose any data saved on the SIM, and should transfer any data off of the SIM before the closure date.
The company is directing SIM4Travel customers to its newer Truphone SIM card service, and is offering a free SIM with starting credit of £10. In addition, any existing SIM4Travel balance remaining will also transfer over to Truphone. We’d also like to mention that Truphone also has its VoIP app that complements its SIM card service in areas where there is only Wi-Fi for coverage, something that SIM4Travel did not have.
It’s always sad to see a pioneer service such as SIM4Travel go, but it’s a natural progression in business. As the global SIM arena grows, more and more services will evolve, change, merge, or could possibly even end up with a fate similar to that of SIM4Travel. Here’s hoping very few actually end up being struck by the latter.