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Cellular forums Home > Archive > Cingular cell phone service > June 2006 > Pre-paid SIM in Germany?
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Pre-paid SIM in Germany?
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| phreak 2006-05-05, 5:48 pm |
| Ok, a few of us are heading over to Germany for the month of June for
the World Cup.
All of have quad-band phones of one kind or another and are wondering
where the cheapest place would be to get a handful of pre-paid SIMs
good in Germany and maybe Switzerland & Austria.
suggestions (relavant of course) and thanks!
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| phreak wrote:
> Ok, a few of us are heading over to Germany for the month of June for
> the World Cup.
>
> All of have quad-band phones of one kind or another and are wondering
> where the cheapest place would be to get a handful of pre-paid SIMs
> good in Germany and maybe Switzerland & Austria.
>
> suggestions (relavant of course) and thanks!
The U.S. resellers of the foreign SIMs really gouge you on price. You're
better off waiting until you get to Europe.
The cheapest way to go is a separate prepaid SIM for each country, as
the ones that work in multiple countries are a lot more per minute.
It might be helpful to your callers from the U.S. for you to set up a
phone number on Stanaphone (https://www.stanaphone.com/) and each time
you go to a different country log on and change the number to which the
calls are forwarded to.
For a worldwide SIM, see
"http://www.valuesphere.com/intouchsmartcards/hopworldwide.html"
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| John Navas 2006-05-05, 11:48 pm |
| [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
In <1146853047.739896.287290@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> on 5 May 2006
11:17:27 -0700, "phreak" <newsposter@mn.rr.com> wrote:
>Ok, a few of us are heading over to Germany for the month of June for
>the World Cup.
>
>All of have quad-band phones of one kind or another and are wondering
>where the cheapest place would be to get a handful of pre-paid SIMs
>good in Germany and maybe Switzerland & Austria.
>
>suggestions (relavant of course) and thanks!
See International Calling in the FAQ below.
--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>
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| SMS wrote:
> phreak wrote:
>
> The U.S. resellers of the foreign SIMs really gouge you on price. You're
> better off waiting until you get to Europe.
>
> The cheapest way to go is a separate prepaid SIM for each country, as
> the ones that work in multiple countries are a lot more per minute.
>
> It might be helpful to your callers from the U.S. for you to set up a
> phone number on Stanaphone (https://www.stanaphone.com/) and each time
> you go to a different country log on and change the number to which the
> calls are forwarded to.
>
> For a worldwide SIM, see
> "http://www.valuesphere.com/intouchsmartcards/hopworldwide.html"
To follow up on my own post, some of the prepaid cards, like Hop, use a
system where you are essentially sending the number you wish to call to
their server, then their server calls both parties and connects you.
This transfers the cost of the call to the caller, rather that the
receiver, since in much of Europe, the caller pays for the calls. This
is why you'll see different long distance rates to European countries,
based on whether you're calling a landline or a mobile. This is also why
they charge less for incoming calls, part of the cost is being born by
the caller. Even adding the incoming call cost to the cost paid by the
caller, it's still cheaper to have someone call you, then for you to
call them. Of course for outgoing calls in Europe, you're better off
using a pay phone with a calling card, if you're trying to save money.
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| First, check to see if your handset is unlocked. Many are not, so
unless the shop in Europe can unlock it for you (going rate about
US$20), you won't be able to use the PrePaid SIM.
Also, most countries have free incoming minutes, so once you get the
PrePaid card, you should be able to leverage that. I'm not absolutely
certain if they'd extend that to PrePaid subscribers, but PostPaids
(contract customers) get free incoming. Someone in Europe should be
able to chime-in and address that in here.
To check whether your is SIM locked, find a friend who has another
carrier's service like T-Mobil and see if it prompts you with
something like "enter subsidy code" when you insert his/her SIM into
*your* phone. If it does, it's SIM locked and you'll need to have
your phone unlocked. Some can be unlocked by providing the IMEI (and
money) while others want you to send the phone in.
Here's a couple sites for unlocking Motorola:
http://www.gsm-software.com/unlock/unlockmotorola.html
http://www.mobile2mobile.net/unlock...r
ola.htm
Google for SIM unlocking.
They let you know beforehand if they can unlock it so you dont' have
to worry about a "pay first" deal. You can also buy the cards in
advance, but you'll pay about twice or 3x as much. It doesn't seem
like you've got time for that anyway, but here's one:
http://www.220-electronics.com/simcards/index.htm
Zeng
On 5 May 2006 11:17:27 -0700, "phreak" <newsposter@mn.rr.com> wrote:
>Ok, a few of us are heading over to Germany for the month of June for
>the World Cup.
>
>All of have quad-band phones of one kind or another and are wondering
>where the cheapest place would be to get a handful of pre-paid SIMs
>good in Germany and maybe Switzerland & Austria.
>
>suggestions (relavant of course) and thanks!
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