activating sim card

[2088bob]

Hello Everyone

I am leaving for Germany in 5 weeks I have acquired a unlocked dual sim card smart phone to use while I am there My sister lives in Konstanz Germany she is going to buy me an alditalk prepaid sim card deal she is going to send it to me here in Canada My question pretty straight forward can I activate card from my laptop here I will give my sister's home address

Does anybody know why this would not work or should I let my sister activate it there in one of her phones and then send it i would like to have phone service as soon as i hit the tarmac in Frankfurt

thanks in advance for your replies

[inquisitor]

You should be able to activate the SIM card remotely from Canada but I would let your sister do it if she gets hold of it anyway. That will leave enough time for your account to be fully provisioned before you step on German soil. Make sure your sisters phones have mobile data disabled before she inserts the SIM as the standard volume-based billing of data with € 0.24/MB could eat up the initial credit quickly.

[wolfbln]

Have in mind that getting the Eplus/O2 networks (with free domestic 3G roaming between them) Aldi talk is operating on, is a bit tricky in boarder regions.

As Konstanz is located in the boarder region to Switzerland with very high roaming fees, you should better make a manual network search and either lock it to Eplus or O2 (only if your local 3G coverage is much better on O2, as you won't get any 2G on O2). O2 is recognized as a domestic roaming network of Eplus by many devices. But you can't allow data roaming without allowing Swiss networks at the same time too.

This way you can't jump mistakingly onto a Swiss roaming network with high roaming fees as Switzerland is not a part of the EU.
But you will possibly lose the German domestic O2/Eplus roaming with an extended 3G coverage.
Going north through Germany, it's therefore best to re-activate automatic network selection to get both networks of Eplus and O2.
This is ongoing flaw of the domestic Eplus/O2 roaming in boarder regions, but can be only solved when both networks will be fully integrated in one or two years.

[2088bob]

I am grateful for your replies My sisters 3 kids are on alditalk and my sister and husband are on congstar I believe they seem to have much better service from Alditalk my sister will be switching her phone to adlitalk next time she needs a topup She is very savvy when it comes to saving money so she would have already have noticed something if there was an issue with swiss roaming charges

[wolfbln]

Aldi talk can be a good choice and I can recommend it.

But there is certainly a general issue with Swiss roaming charges. This applies to all users of German networks close to the Swiss boarder, not only to Aldi talk. As soon as your device picks up a Swiss network and switches to it, you'll pay 10-100 times as much for data. That's why normally, you'll need to release data roaming on your device, not to jump accidentially on a foreign network.

You can be sure to avoid this by disabling roaming or selecting manually your network by your device configuration. Unfortunately, thus, you will be disabling the domestic German Eplus/O2 3G roaming on many devices too.

[2088bob]

Wolfbin

I now understand what you are saying sorry I am a late comer to the cell phone world My sister ask me if I wanted the data plan and I said no so what I believe I am getting is just a talk plan I will be traveling a lot in Germany so I will be mindfull of what advice you have given me should I decide to add a data plan

Again I am thankful for your reply

off topic but I picked up a BLU advance 4.0 cell phone off of amazon.ca dual sim unlocked for 65 cdn I have to admit at the moment I am quite pleased with my cheap little smart phone

[wolfbln]

Originally Posted by 2088bob

Wolfbin

I now understand what you are saying sorry I am a late comer to the cell phone world My sister ask me if I wanted the data plan and I said no so what I believe I am getting is just a talk plan I will be traveling a lot in Germany so I will be mindfull of what advice you have given me should I decide to add a data plan

There are no "talk-only" plans in this country. All options for voice, include texts (SMS) and data too. Of course you can simply switch off data usage on your device. That still doesn't prevent your cell phone from jumping on a foreign network in border areas. And the roaming charges in Switzerland can be high for voice too.

I'm have to say that your new BLU Advance 4.0 may be unsuitable for data use in Europe: HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 1700 - A270A, HSDPA 850 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 - A010U, HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - A010L. So only the model A010L has 2100 MHz which you are going to need in Germany (or Europe) for 3G. Otherwise you will only get 2G data up to EDGE speed. But for voice and text (SMS) all models are fine as they all have 1800 MHz 2G.

[2088bob]

As long as I can make and receive voice calls that is all I really care about I have my laptop for email and Skype And if I can be completely honest I was over in 2013 and again last year and really did not have issues finding a wifi signal to jump on to all the hotels I have booked have wifi and I have had that included with my reservations besides my hands are too big for most cell phones so I find them awkward to use for surfing the only way I can dial my Samsung rugby lte here at home is with a stylist any other method is just too frustrating I am 6'11" tall and 305 lbs I can hold a basket ball hanging downward quite easily with one hand

Again thank you very much

[2088bob]

so my sister activated the card tested it and sent it here I have installed in my phone here and everything appears to be ready to go