Israel GPRS rates

[davidtheprof]

I'll be getting 2x orange Israel sim cards for December, a question or two: (probably for Sperial, who seems to know the most!)
- I've seen rates mentioned back to the US and UK of around 7c, do you need to add an international plan for this?
- to get the weekly unlimited calls+text plan or a data plan, can you do that from any Orange shop or street kiosk? do you top up first then pay for a plan out of that?
Last time, I tried to register and manage it online, but struggled without a Hebrew keyboard, and the website was only in Hebrew and Russian, if I recall...

thanks!

[sperial]

You will have to top up at an Orange booth or a post office, as topping by phone or the internet requires an Israeli credit card.
The BigTalk IVR can be changed to English by calling *111. To change the voice mail language call *159.
The7c/min international calls are similar to callback. for the USA call *313 , when the system answers dial the US number (including the international prefix and than #. The rate is NIS 0.29/min and includes the air time.

[davidtheprof]

thanks, very useful info!

[moua]

Thanks for *159 i didn't know it.

Also, to add packages (like data) call *4555

You can found great infos here also :
Israel - Pay as you go sim with data Wiki

sperial : highly suggest orange bigtalk for travelers,
rami levy is cheaper for voice but bigtalk is much more convenient :

You find sim and topup everywhere, no monthly charge (useful when you come only once a year), complete offer (data...), and best of all, an english IVR and customer service.

Also, like said on the above site, if you use bonus card topup it can be much cheaper.


PS : my sister is in Israel now, and she took a sim only after 2 days.
meanwhile she used her french vodafone sim, she didn't had data (10€/mb... desactivated), and she called at 2,5€/min.
That's, for 10min, 25€, or 125 NIS (and she called more in 2 days, not including incoming calls at 1,5€/min).

Usually when i come i take a 150 NIS bonus topup for a month, that's give me 5GB data, a lot to orange network, plus ~100min to others (less in fact, because of sms) and i call overseas with VoIP.

Ok, with hot/golan it's 30% cheaper for more, but with contract, and rami levy is not convenient.
But anyway, when you travel your are used to pay more than locals

The situation can be different in europe, when you can stay just 2-3 days for a weekend (sometimes less) in a country.
Most people are going in Israel at least for a week.

My 2 cents.
Again, thanks for your tips about israeli market, you know much more than even techies.
Don't hesitate to ask if you need my expertise about the french market

[sperial]

I agree that Orange BigTalk is more convenient then Rami-Levy, as they have outlets in city centers, as opposed to Rami-Levy's supermarkets in the outskirts.

The strange thing about Orange is that international rates per minute are about one third than for local calls.

I am not sure that the NIS 150 "bonus" card includes any data, as it is not stated in the Orange site. However, is includes NIS 100 for international calls.

This week another MVNO, Home-Cellular, started selling prepaid SIM cards, I will open a new thread later today,

[sperial]

Home Cellular, an MVNO run by the Home-Center DIY chain and running on Cellcom's 2G and 3G network, started offering a prepaid plan. The SIM card costs NIS 39, Local calls are around NIS 0.39 (but vary according to top-up type) SMS are NIS 0.39 ans data NIS 0.50/MB.
SIM cards can be purchased at the Home Center DIY stores or through the internes. Balance can be boughtat the same stores or gy phone (see page 5 for English)

[davidtheprof]

saw these on ebay, and was thinking of buying a couple for mid-December trip.

Israel mobile carrier ORANGE New Sim Card 3G Without Contract CHARGED WITH 10$ | eBay

They don't say Big Talk like the ones you can order from the Post Office, but I presume this is just the plan name, and once there, I can add a data and call plan? Anything else to be wary of?

thanks!

[sperial]

All Orange prepaid plans are called "BigTalk" and the *111 us the BigTalk customer service,

[moua]

It cost more here but it's always good to have an alternative : http://www.israelpost.co.il/mall.nsf...ndocument&L=EN

[sperial]

A new player recently joined the Israeli Prepaid scene: Home Cellular, an MVNO marketed by the Home Center hardware stores.
A prepaid SIM card (called Home Cellular Card) costs NIS 29 (about EUR 6.00). The basic rate is NIS 0.39/min, and the cedit is valid for 12 months. Text messages are charged NIS 0.39 (EUR 0.08 ) and data surfing NIS 0.50 (EUR 0.10)/MB.
Customer service can be reached by dialling *111, and the language can be selected ( Hebrew, English, Arabic or Russian).
The MVNO uses Cellcom's GSM 1800 and HSPA 2100 networks, and it's number format is (0)55-22xxxxx
This leaves one MVNO, YouPhone without a prepaid plan. Such a plan is posted as "coming soon" on their web site (called YouTalk).

The really good news for visitors is that tho two new mobile carriers - Golan Telecom and Hot Mobile, added very cheap international calling rates from every Israely phone. Golan is the cheapest to most countries at NIS 0.08 (EUR 0.016)/min to landlines in most european countrieas and to all numbers in Continental USA and Canada, and calls to most West European mobile numbers are NIS 0.49 (EUR 0.20)/min. Access is by dialling the international access code 016 followed by the country code. The corresponding rates fot Hot are NIS 0.15 (EUR 0.03) and NIS 0.50 (EUR 0.10)/min, and the access code is 017. Note that these rate include air time, so calls to the USA, Canada and most European landlines are actually cheaper than calls inside Israel.