I totally agree with that. These data packs are way too expensive. As long as toggle doesn't offer inbound MNP and so I have to use a second domestic SIM for voice which gives me much cheaper domestic data, I am not ready to pay this premium. Also I won't even need so much data volume as long as I have to use a second domestic SIM for my busines number.
That said I would be ready to pay GBP 7.50 for 500MB but not more. Now that AldiTalk offers that 150 minutes pack for voice calls from EU and EEU countries and Switzerland to all these countries (which converts into € 0.033 if fully consumed) I rarely use toggle abroad. Actually I mostly use toggle for international calls from Germany, so toggle has lost pretty much of its attractiveness for me.

It's worth remembering that the Toggle data deals are valid across country borders, so if you are country-hopping you pay for one 30-day session for the countries concerned.

In terms of convenience, since I use Toggle for voice calls in my dual SIM handset when outside the UK, it's pretty good.

+Steve

Sure, but toggle SIM cards can store only 9 IMSIs and you cannot replace an IMSI, so the data volume is limited to the first 9 countries out of currently 13 toggle countries you first request a local number from. Further to that although toggle covers Europe's largest markets their geographical footprint is still patchy. Lastly with toggle you pay for a whole month of far overpriced data but few people will actually be travelling the whole month. On average I personally do not spend more than a week per month abroad.

For roaming in Europe I will definitely stick to my German AldiTalk SIM card which is much more flexible and better matches my requirements.
Their "EU Internet Paket 150" gives me 150MB for € 4.99 valid for 7 days in all EU countries + EEU countries + Switzerland. This converts into € 33.26 per GB compared to € 24.93 for 1GB with toggle. That's a premium of 33% but I can buy my data volume in smaller chunks and so don't run the risk of buying too much volume.
Further to that they offer the "EU Sprach Paket 150" for € 4.99 which includes 150 minutes from the same countries as above to mobiles and landlines in all these countries + Germany. If you fully consume those minutes you end up with a price of € 0.033 per minute. Even if you don't buy this pack, calls to these countries + Germany are charged with modest € 0.11/min and incoming calls are free by default. Unless you call a destination outside of Europe AldiTalk is much cheaper for voice.

That said toggle would only be interesting for me if I travel to a toggle country outside Europe, which leaves only the US and Australia.

sorry guys, but some of you are really insane. Talking of "overpriced data" for a 20 Pound / 1 GB package valid throughout the Toggle Mobile countries is just ILL.

Here is a overview of some roaming charges from different providers:

• 3 AT - 1 GB / 30 days / EUR 50
• Swisscom CH - 1 GB / 30 days / 79 CHF (66 EUR)
• Vodafone DE prepaid: 700 MB / 2 weeks / 25 EUR
• T-Mobile DE - 150 MB fast data (but flat without speed) / week / 14.95

Thanks for UKSTEVE's comment. I really like my ALDI / Medion Mobile SIM, and I really hate her when I use it specially in Germany and have no coverage with E-Plus. But trying to sell a advantage of 4x150 MB for 19,96 EUR in 28 days over 1 GB for GBP 20,00 valid for 30 days is like looking at our world through pink glasses.

If you don't need 1 GB per month, don't buy it - but making it bad by calling it overpriced is just not fair. We are not discussing billing cycles or personal needs here. We simply look at 1 GB Data-Roaming for 30 days and for that it's bloody cheap. Can anyone show me a cheaper offer for 1 GB Multi-National Data valid for 30 days?

I can see Inquisitors point quite clear, I have a 250 MB roaming package on my 3 AT contract and it's more than enough for what I need on my mobile. But there is my swiss mobile (20 CHF per month for 1 GB) and if I travel to Germany the local data package and when I am in UK maybe another local package. That all sum's up and could be easily covered by 1 GB of Toggle Multi-National Data. And at the end it will be cheaper and only one Simcard to top up.

I have bought that 1 GB Package and will post my thoughts on it as I will travel in Switzerland, Spain and Germany in the next 30 days.

You miss an important point I made, namely that toggle works in 9 vs. 32 countries where AldiTalk's tariffs are valid, and that you can buy your data volume in smaller chunks, which - in my opinion - easily justifies the premium of 33%.
On a side note I do expect a mannered tone from you even if you disagree with my opinion.

P.S.: If you consider my comparison as unfair what should I say about your comparison with four incumbents totally ignoring peterdoo's reference to the Spanish Orange Mundo SIM?

Ha, ha, ha!

I heard a similar "fly-on-the-wall" comment exactly one hundred years ago. I hope this doesn't get me banned!

@ Inquisitor, I got your point quite right, but that might be your personal need or flavour. Take it the other way round. You sit in your hotel room, no free WIFI and need to download one or more large files (presentations, PDF etc.) from your Skydrive or Dropbox. With 150 MB a week you are quickly down to zero, aren't you? Regarding the tone, I absolutely agree with the manners, altough I havent mentioned any names in my previous post?!

All personal feelings and preferences aside, we are still not talking about billing cycles since this is the Toggle forum and we are discussing the 1 GB Multi-National Data valid for 30 days. If we all get back to that topic, do you know any cheaper Multi-National Data package containing 1 GB in Multiple Countries valid for 30 days?

If you can show me another offer that comes even close to that price (or cheaper), we can start discussing seriously about the "overpriced".

@ Inquisitor

It is getting confusing and hard to follow with edits of post whilst the other writes a new reply.

You are all Masters of prepaid gsm knowledge. But with all respect, this is the Toggle Forum, we are discussing above mentioned package 1 GB, Multi-National Data. It is not 1 week 150 MB or 1 day 100 MB. It is not about the good or bad of shorter time or smaller amount of data.

It's 1 GB, 30 days. Fullstop. You can use that 1 GB within one, two or three days - or you may not use the whole at all.

You can only compare it with other 1 GB Multinational Data offers valid for 30 days. I have only found far more expensive offers from competitors for the same package. Calling that offer overpriced without proving it with a cheaper example of THE SAME, is unfair. Comparing 1 week or daily offers is like comparing apples with pears. And again, our personal feelings or favours do not count...

I clearly stated that my considerations are based on my personal usage profile.

Then I'll simply re-order another 150MB.
But imagine that I visit Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia or Slovenia and need to download a file of 100MB with my toggle SIM card.

You have referred to the person who called toggle's pricing "overpriced" (even quoting this very person by using quotation marks) as being "ill" and I'm the only one to have used the word "overpriced".

Billing cycles/increments influence your total costs as much as the nominal price does. You always need to take the time component into account in order to make a proper analysis.

I don't know any other operator offering data roaming tariffs limited to only 9 unchangeable countries so that it could bear comparison with this few-countries-data package

As you still don't take into account the huge billing period/increment of toggle and the limited geographical availability of toggle I don't see any basis for further discussion with you.

So you are saying you cannot compare an operator offering shorter billing periods at much lower unit costs with one that charges only by months? Could you please explain what the advantage of a longer billing period is which could justify your statement?

I know the meaning of the idiom of the "fly on the wall", but beyond that my English proficiency seems to be insufficient to understand what you are trying to say.
Anyway my warmest congratulations to your high age especially that you are still using a computer!

I am not going to answer each of your detailed picks, since it's simply not worth battling here. It's not my interrest to fight with you. We have all waited so long for such a Multi-National Data-Roaming offer and it seems, most of you simply make it bad, based on personal flavours.

You are seriously right, that the whole consideration on my side is based (as yours) on my personal needs and it is unfavourable to use the Toggle card outside the Toggle Countries. You can compare it at least with 3 AT old "Roam like home" - if the countries included fit your usage, it's a very good offer.

In my oppinion it's still unfair to compare other billing cycles with each other. You ask me to justify the longer billing cycle. It's not about justifying it, it's just my persuasion that you have to compare the same against it. 100 MB a day is like 1 GB a month. The AVERAGE consumer doesn't need it at all. My average data roaming on my mobile with emails, messenger etc. is 120 - 150 MB a month. If you read the review of the aldi talk sim roaming package on teltarif, they state that there is no exact notification when your data volume is empty. Also there is a break between the packages if you are going to reorder one. In between, data will be billed at usual roaming prices.

If you know you are going to use a high amount of data, to my personal flavour its favouarable to have a higher fixed amount of roaming data on a longer period. Based on MY preferences I travel via Zurich Airport to Germany, Spain or Switzerland or even visit clients in Norway. Toggle covers all of my travel destinations. I live in Austria, but have 3G Swisscom/Toggle coverage at home. If I decide to book 1 GB of data within 30 days I know that I can use it in all countries I visit. It could be used within a day, a week (with no breaks in between packages to be renewed) or at least 30 days.

To close this discussion and answer your last question regarding comparion of different offers with another question: If you want to buy a car, lets say a Golf IV, and you find a offer in the newspaper. Are you going to compare that offer for the Golf with other offers for a Golf or do you compare it with Alfa Romeo, Renault, Citroen and Toyota - if you want to buy a Golf? (Golf stands here for the 1 GB package)

Bourbonkiller may have a very valid point here. My experience of activating a new AldiTalk sim in Germany, is that after you initially book an AldiTalk option, you are informed that it may take up to 6 hours for the newly-booked option to become active. I don't know how long you have to wait when you book one of the EU-Options.

Perhaps people can book the EU-DataOption in different countries and tell us how long they have to wait before the option is activated.

Thank you! How kind of you. I look younger than I really am.

Whoops! I have nothing to add!

Having ordered AldiTalk's EU Internet Paket 150 four times during the last week while I was staying in Austria and Hungary, I can report from my own experience that the text message informing you of your allowance being used up arrives within seconds. After that it took 5-15 minutes before I could re-order the next pack. Although I left mobile data activated during these gaps, the costs amounted to a few cents each time (billed at € 0.23/MB). That's indeed inconvenient but automatically recurring subscribtion may become available soon.
In comparison with toggle I would have been billed some € 125 for 150MB in Austria or Hungary.

It seems, you still don't get the point. Toggle is a Multi-National Data offer, not a EU roaming package. Austria is not even included in their offer, what happens if you take your Aldi-Talk SIM to the US? You pay 99 Eurocent per MB - no package avaiable. But that's kind of irrelevant here...

Some of us are not german based as you are, so to us Germany is roaming country. Again, with focus on the Toggle offer this might not attract YOU. If I travel to Germany with the Aldi Sim, that's not roaming - it's domestic. I will have to order a german domestic data package as well, costing me additionally 6 to 10 Euros, depending on the offer of choice.

Toggle - for those of us who really can use it, is a great offer. It's even valid in their domestic market UK (something Aldi doesn't offer). And it is clear to me, that the Toggle offer doesn't attract you because Germany is no roaming country for you! But still - the value is clear to anyone that NEEDS that amout of data, in countries included.

I think we should stop here, I am quite happy to discuss any Aldi Talk related topics over in the Aldi Talk Forum and will join the Nokia 630 Dual Sim discussion as well, since I own that handset. It may be of no surprise, which two Simcards are in that handset?!

BK

Agreed. Of course my Nokia 630 Dual SIM accomodates an AldiTalk SIM as well as a toggle SIM. ;-)
However - as this may be relevant for readers of this thread - the automatic IMSI switching of the Nokia 630 DS does not work reliably as I sometimes need to change the IMSI manually from the STK menu which is a burried quite deep in the settings menu.

I haven't discovered this yet, as I always switch manually because of Austrian and Swiss Networks available at my place and my worry, to switch into roaming mode without notice. However, my wife's toggle is in a Lumia 520 switched to automatic mode and it works fine. Must have something to do with the dual sim feature.

Have anyone noticed that recently deliverred Toggle Simcards come with preregisterred Countries on it? I had a look at the sim of my wife and there has been a Spanish, French, US, Australian and German IMSI preregisterred without showing a number, all showing as expiring july 2023. Funny enough, there is a IMSI listed as "1"?

So you don't even have the full choice on countries personally needed...

BK

Perhaps those new SIM cards can now store more than 9 IMSIs. You could easily find out...

o2 Germany now seems to have an offer for o2 Blue Select tariff which includes each month 500 MB in Germany and 500 MB in the EU/EEU, but also valid in Switzerland, Andorra, Gibraltar, Monaco, San Marino, Vatikan, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey. 19,99 EUR monthly with 24 months contract.

Of course not suitable for those living outside of Germany. However in my opinion it shows that the market is moving fast and also the operators in the other countries will follow with new offers.

I think we are going to have to agree to disagree here :)

Basically I've been using the EuropaSIM at 3 euro a day for 500 MB of data when I've been travelling outside of the UK and in Europe.

I have a dual SIM handset (Cubot x6) with my regular contract O2-UK SIM in it, and a Toggle Mobile SIM for cheap voice calls when I travel.

I then use the EuropaSIM in a Mifi (Alcatel Y800).

If I could pay £20.00 for a 1GB of multi-country data on my Toggle SIM, I'd jump at the chance, as it would mean I wouldn't have to take my MiFi with me.

As Bourbonkiller mentions, it really comes down to convenience. Obviously, if you're travelling to a European country without Toggle discount call/data facilities, then other choices become necessary.

I think the really interesting feature with Toggle is the US voice and data option, which can be a low-cost and convenient option for globe trotters.

+Steve :)

Toggle´s website advertises incoming calls in Belgium (non-Toggle-country) @4c/minute.

Their info-sms praises incoming calls as "free".

I received some calls in Belgium today, and they show up as free in the call details.

Does anyone know the "real" tariffs charged in Serbia/Romania/Bulgaria?

Thanks and rgds,
Christian

Other people may not be as fortunate as you when they try to rebook their AldiTalk "EU data paket" option.

Teltarif report that there was a delay of two-and-a-half hours before they could renew their "EU data paket".

http://mobil.teltarif.de/aldi-talk-r...74.html?page=3

Some feedback on tariffs:

Bulgaria/Romania: Incoming advertised on website at 4p/min, however SMS sais it´s free. Effectively it was free.

Serbia: Crazy prices (incoming 213p/min), didn´t even try. At least the SMS said the same as the website.

Lebanon: 96p/min advertised for incoming, however the SIM doesn´t register in any of the two available networks.

So far the SMS always said what is also effectively charged - it just differs from the website.

Tomorrow I´ll check Cyprus :)

review of the 1GB data service
 

I've just returned from a multi country trip to Switzerland, Spain and Germany and have tested the new data package from togglemobile UK.

I must say, it's been a fantastic experience with no lags, no coverage holes and no service interruption (like I get sometimes on my old orange AT/3AT contract).

Coverage on holiday vacation in Mallorca was great, roaming on MOVISTAR gave me mostly H / H+ and rarely only 3G. I noticed the before mentioned lag of about 4 seconds on calls, not shure if it's been only on incoming calls that have been routed to the german mobile number through localphone (subscription).

In Switzerland, coverage is exceptional with Swisscom, specially along the rail tracks and even smaller villages. Surfed the web during my train ride from lake constance to Basel airport with no outages. Even tethering to my windows tablet worked well! There is no lag on the Swisscom network for phonecalls!

This weekend I've been to Berlin and Köpenick, roaming on the vodafone network. Data worked like a charm (H+), also NO lags when calling back home to Austria or Liechtenstein.

One big plus for me is the "native local" nature of Togglemobile Sim. I haven't experienced any blocks on ports. The most annoying thing for me on my austrian orange/3 contract is, that "whatsapp" for some reason don't work with several roaming providers (specially when going into Germany). It stops working when roaming and gets back "on" when getting into the home network.

With togglemobile I had not problems neither with "whatsapp" nor with the Blackberry Messenger in all countries I've visited.

Thumbs up for this offer, it works great! Since my Samsung ATIV S doesn't support LTE, I couldn't test availability of LTE services in these networks. Maybe someone else can test this?

BK

I haven't heard of any European full MVNO to offer LTE and I doubt they will do so before VoLTE has been deployed because it involves significant capex while such LTE implementation will require substantial modifications once MNOs launch VoLTE instead of CSFB. Not to mention that MNOs are still trying to sell LTE at a premium so they will hardly admit cannibals like Lycamobile to their LTE networks at this time.

Lyca offers LTE at least in the UK, US and CH. They could support 4G with Toggle in these countries.

As inquisitor mentions, most MNOs are trying hard to keep MVNOs out of 4G, so adding 4G in other countries is not easy for Lyca/Toggle.

Have you ever heard of Virgin Mobile France? :p

It seems like I've missed out something here. Nevertheless I think even if Lyca has access to some LTE networks, for toggle LTE implementation will be quite complex given the many different underlying MNOs and the network equipment from multiple vendors involved.

Out of current context, but still:

Cyprus:

• SMS praises incoming free, while the website sais 4p/min. It was effectively free.
• Website sais outgoing to EU (countries I checked) is 18p/minute, SMS sais 23p/minute. I used callback via the free incoming instead, so don´t know what would have been charged.
• I did make one call from Cyprus to Cyprus lasting 19 seconds. Website sais 18p/minute, SMS sais 23p/minute (same as above), the effective charge was 9p.

Summary:

The rate calculator on Toggle´s website is effectively worthless.

This just came to my attention:

If someone tries to call my Swiss Toggle# and I don´t pick up, after 20 seconds of ringing the caller hears the message: "The number you are trying to call is not assigned."

If I do pick up during that timeframe, the connection is established - so it´s not simply an expired number.

Need I say that that´s less-than-helpful?

I contacted Customer Service - let´s see if they can do something about it.

Rgds,
Christian

Toggle Customer Service sais, they depend on the local companies they work together with, hence can´t do anything about it.

So I called the Swiss Lycamobile folks, trying to tell them that it´s a Lycamobile#. They can´t locate the number in their database, but actually tell me "this number really doesn´t exist, hence the IVR-response is correct".

I tried to tell the guy to call me back as proof that the number does indeed exist - they´re not allowed to do any outbound calling.

As a summary: Seems as if there´s not exactly an easy fix! :o

EDIT: It´s the same "the number you have dialled is not assigned"-story for my UK#.

After some time, the call is transferred to the voice mail number. Check with *#61#. In my case it says after 25 seconds to 00447404000231. This should be the Lycamobile UK voice mail that has nothing to do with the local Lycamobile numbers. I cannot reach that number from any phone, not even from Toggle. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have deactivated the voice mail.

@chrisneedtoknow



Have a look at the new orange.ch unlimited EU roaming offer, that might be ideal for you!

I also had my voicemail de-activated, and call diverts (which I cannot change) from my number also point to +447404000231.

Maybe you should check if you also get the "this number is not assigned"-announcement!? :mad:

Thanks for the hint!

There´s a lot of movement in the market right now. t-mobile.de suddenly offers an EU-roaming package at €5extra/month, which allows using your "national" data throughout EU+EWR+CH, plus it includes calls to Germany + within the country visited.

The mentioned orange-offer doesn´t include enough data for my liking.

simquadrat.de offers a flatrate at 19.95 to all of EU+EWR+CH, albeit only from Germany.

This trend encourages me to hope that there will be true "all-EU" packages soon, so I´ll wait just a little longer before re-optimizing everything from scratch.:)

In Italy 3 out of 4 main carriers have at least one EU-wide offer since last year. :)

TIM offers 500min, 500sms and 500MB (within and to EU) (+ national unlimited texts and calls, 3GB data) for 49€/month, while Vodafone offers unlimited calls and texts (to EU and USA) and 5GB within EU and USA (and Italy) for 75€/month. Wind instead offers 1000min, 1000sms (to EU) and 1GB (+national unlimited calls and texts, 2GB) for 39€.

Unfortunately not on prepaid, where we have to stick to daily bundles :p

N.B.: even Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are included.

I get the same result by calling +447404000231 directly or calling my Toggle number and waiting for 25 seconds until the call is diverted. Which one that is, depends on the network/operator from which I call. On some there is a message that you describe. On others about 2 seconds silence, then the call is simply ended without any announcement or explanation on the display. On other networks the phone stops ringing and starts ringing again after few seconds (no ringing here in the case of direct dialing the voicemail).

What is even more annoying is, that those that call me see the same behavior when my phone is busy. Instead of busy tone they either hear an announcement about the not assigned number or the call is simply ended without any explanation.

Strangely though this is not the case when the phone is out of coverage. Although the divert number is the same for that case, the announcement for the phone not being available is played and an SMS sent as soon as the phone registers to the network again.

In the case Toggle would blame other network operators for this behavior, it is easy to demonstrate that that is not the case. Calling the Toggle number from another Toggle SIM gives these results in my case:

- No answer: 25 seconds ringing, then 2 seconds silence, then the call is ended without any notification. Neither as sound nor on the display. Calling other operator's numbers mostly there is a SIT tone plus a "no answer" notification on the display.

- Busy: few seconds silence, then the call is ended without any notification. Neither as sound nor on the display. Calling other operator's numbers mostly there is a busy tone plus a "busy" notification on the display.

In these tests the call was from Toggle to Toggle. They control the complete path.

I've been using togglemobile for almost a year. In my opinion, the best euro-wide sim card available. Free incoming call is to me the killer feature (BTW, can confirm that incoming calls in singapore are free). But what totally sold it to me is how cheap their Swiss tarifs are. 3p/minute for landline and 9p/minute for mobile. That's 2-3x cheaper than the cheapest swiss provider (aldimobile) Why isn't all of switzerland going crazy over this???? Fact is, no one in switzerland has heard of toggle mobile.

My only complaint is that when calling, the receiver sees the UK number. Is it possible to use another number for caller ID?