looking for advice

[gomelkiev]

Hello, I spent few days reading this forum and still looking for advice:
I am going to travel to Euro2008 in June , and going to be in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
I am looking for 2 sims for me and my wife and also for datacard/usb .
Voice: We have to talk to each other, receive calls from USA, call to USA.
Data: In US we have providers with unlimited data for 70-100$ per month. Is unlimited data plans exists in Europe?
We will need data plan (GPRS at least, UMTS preferred).
Can you recommend providers?
Thanks
PS. I like yackiemobile, tried to call support line 1-800# , no answer for few days. I'm not sure that I want to go with company , that not answering.

[snaimon]

I don't think there is UNLIMITED DATA on prepaid in the countries you are visiting. Won't an internet cafe be sufficient? That would simplify matters.... voice only. You might consider the United Mobile Data offer if you must always have data. Or the United Mobile voice offer, UM+.

Worst case would be 2 SIMs for each country. Germany has either SUNSIM or SOLOMO which have good roaming and I think good data & roaming data rates.

I still recommend either US or EU calling cards which you can use from a hotel or residence. Must you REALLY be reachable on a cell phone FROM the US at all times? Can you rely on a hotel or residence where you can be reached more economically? You can also use the calling cards to call US from a NATIONAL card (SUNSIM, SOLOMO or Austrian mobile). Either use the local 800 # directly or employ another service like ONESUITE or ENJOYPREPAID rather than calling US directly from the mobile phone.

I think we are going to need to know your estimate of calls, inbound from US, outbound to US from each country you visit, calls between you and your wife, other calls in each country.

EXAMPLE: I think calls between UM+ phones are 25 ecents setup + 29 ecents per minute in all countries with free inbound. If you are spending most of your time in Germany, calls among SUNSIM phones are 8 ecents per minute in Germany. Well, you can easily see that if the preponderance of your calls are between you and your wife in Germany, then the SUNSIM option is clearly less expensive. Roaming calls SUNSIM to SUNSIM are 49 ecents setup and 19 ecents per minute SEND, 9 ecents per minute to RECEIVE -- about the same as UM to UM.

Austria has some SIMs with very low rates; not sure how they are on roaming, however.

Maybe others will offer their thoughts.

Stan

[gomelkiev]

Originally Posted by snaimon

I don't think there is UNLIMITED DATA on prepaid in the countries you are visiting. Won't an internet cafe be sufficient? That would simplify matters.... voice only. You might consider the United Mobile Data offer if you must always have data. Or the United Mobile voice offer, UM+.

Worst case would be 2 SIMs for each country. Germany has either SUNSIM or SOLOMO which have good roaming and I think good data & roaming data rates.

I still recommend either US or EU calling cards which you can use from a hotel or residence. Must you REALLY be reachable on a cell phone FROM the US at all times? Can you rely on a hotel or residence where you can be reached more economically? You can also use the calling cards to call US from a NATIONAL card (SUNSIM, SOLOMO or Austrian mobile). Either use the local 800 # directly or employ another service like ONESUITE or ENJOYPREPAID rather than calling US directly from the mobile phone.

I think we are going to need to know your estimate of calls, inbound from US, outbound to US from each country you visit, calls between you and your wife, other calls in each country.

EXAMPLE: I think calls between UM+ phones are 25 ecents setup + 29 ecents per minute in all countries with free inbound. If you are spending most of your time in Germany, calls among SUNSIM phones are 8 ecents per minute in Germany. Well, you can easily see that if the preponderance of your calls are between you and your wife in Germany, then the SUNSIM option is clearly less expensive. Roaming calls SUNSIM to SUNSIM are 49 ecents setup and 19 ecents per minute SEND, 9 ecents per minute to RECEIVE -- about the same as UM to UM.

Austria has some SIMs with very low rates; not sure how they are on roaming, however.

Maybe others will offer their thoughts.

Stan

thanks for answer.
My schedule will be crazy
3 days in Munich, (GER)
1 day in Innsbruck (AUS)
back to Munich (GER)
1 day in Klagenfurt(AUS)
1 day in Zurich (SWI)
10 days in Wienn (AUS)
1 of those 10 days in Klagenfurt(AUS)

My work maybe will require that I will be accessible by cellphone and they maybe will pay for data plan.
thx

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by gomelkiev

thanks for answer.
My schedule will be crazy
3 days in Munich, (GER)
1 day in Innsbruck (AUS)
back to Munich (GER)
1 day in Klagenfurt(AUS)
1 day in Zurich (SWI)
10 days in Wienn (AUS)
1 of those 10 days in Klagenfurt(AUS)

My work maybe will require that I will be accessible by cellphone and they maybe will pay for data plan.
thx

Seems you are spending most of your time in AUS (hard to tell as the back to Munich has no day value). I count 12 days in AT (AUS = Australia, but I know what you mean). I would think your best bet would be 2 SIMs from the country where you will be spending the most time....

For AT it looks like YESSS (no data), bob, and telering have lowest voice rates for INLAND calls followed by CHAMPION. I cannot comment on these AT operators.

OR international SIMs like UM or others. I think UM is the only one with data.

Stan

[Effendi]

Originally Posted by snaimon

For AT it looks like YESSS (no data), bob, and telering have lowest voice rates for INLAND calls followed by CHAMPION. I cannot comment on these AT operators.

Champion is not for sale anymore.
Consider also eety for calling the US

[dg7feq]

For german cards Solomo would be a good option.

They charge
in Germany:
5ct/min on net call (to other Solomo)
9ct/min to USA
free inbound
Data in germany: 24ct/MB

in Austria:
29ct/min to USA
49ct/min to other Solomo cards
10ct/min inbound
no data Roaming!

For Austrians i am not the expert. Our boss bought a A1-"B-FREE breitband" card on holiday with 1 GB of data and a HSDPA USB-modem for in total about 100 Euro. He didnt even manage to finish this first GB... As far as i remember they also sell the SIM without HSDPA-Modem now for 20 Euro.

Chris

CHris

[gomelkiev]

thanks guys!

[Jayzon]

I would rather use another service like Onesuite rather than pay for the local rate of the countries in Europe which varies from country to another. I actually did just that last year when I was in U.K. (use Onesuite.com service) and I think it lowered my cost for calling back U.S.