BLAUWORLD v SOLOMO
 

Any opinions - especially from our German friends?

Background:

Will be traveling to DE and FR this summer (~ 2 weeks each country) and wishing to call US. Will NOT have free access to landline in DE (long story but EITHER outbound 800 calls are blocked or not free). Will not have computer. Will have 3 mobile phones and 3 people in party.

PREVIOUSLY, to call US I have used the following methods:

1. ATT and MCI toll free #s to call from mobiles
2. SUNSIM and local German # to access Enjoyprepaid (8 ecents + ~5 US cents)
3. United Mobile 423
4. Calling from payphone with ATT, MCI or other calling service (Onesuite, Enjoyprepaid).

Those options would all still be in play but are somewhat cumbersome (lots of dialing). Have a SIMYO and SUNSIM DE card. Also, have a TRAVELSIM and UM+ cards which can be used, especially in FR. I am not sure if there is a landline phone available in FR at place we are staying. In FR we would use the SUNSIM, TRAVELSIM and UM+ cards. Sorry, just not worth it to pick up FR cards. I have plenty of PREPAID funds paid into calling card services ATT, MCI or other calling service (Onesuite, Enjoyprepaid).

I only have 2 German SIMs and would prefer to have a 3rd but it is not essential. The SIMYO, SUNSIM and UM+ cards will definitely need refills if they are to be used extensively.

There are several offers for BLAUWORLD cards on Ebay US and DE. I am debating whether I should purchase one of those. At 9 ecents per minute DIRECT to US + a 15 ecent connection fee per call, the rate is not bad.

Another possibility for DE is a T-MO card with NON-STOP; wife has a tendency to make long, very long calls while in Germany, catching up with friends. I give her the SUNSIM phone @ 8 ecents per minute for those calls.

Of course the German market is ALWAYS changing, so what I decide now may be incorrect for the July trip.

Question:

What to do?

1. Nothing (least INITIAL cost option)
2. Blauworld
3. Solomo
4. Sunsim # 2
5. T-mobile
6. Other

Thanks,

Stan

I'd chose solomo SIMs, since they're cheap to call each other (€ 0.05/min), German landlines (€ 0.08/min) and the US (€ 0.09/min) and the data price is also low (€ 0.24/MB).
Further solomo would be relatively cheap in France, too (€ 0.29/min from France to US).
Another advantage of solomo is that you can top up by credit card.

I'd go for 01051mobile -- cheaper international calls than Solomo (5 cents to the US with no connect charge), while data costs marginally more (29 c/MB in 3 cent increments); calling German landlines costs 9 cents. You can top up with credit card, too. The SIM costs 7 EUR less than Solomo, too. However, while receiving calls in France is very cheap (13 cents/min) it is not particularly cheap to call the US from France with it. Even so, I'd use a calling card from a payphone there.

Danke. Thanks.

Guessing I will need at least a German mailing address to order a starter set of either brand, solomo or 01051mobile.

I may also need a German credit card. I had an issue with SIMYO. I ordered a starter set several years ago with a US VISA card. I even reloaded with it a few times. Late last year I needed to update the expiration date on the card; no go. Even called customer service to no avail. The US VISA would not work. Fortunately, my US based AMEX card did work.

Seems both 01051mobile and solomo (like sunsim) do not have the ability to use and E- refill cards; blauworld does allow that option.

There are no solomo or 01051mobile cards available on Ebay us or de at this time.

My issue/question is NOT critical, as the trip is in mid-July. I just happened to see some blauworld cards available. I'll keep looking and thinking.

Thanks again. Any other comments are welcome.

Stan

Just one warning: At the moment Credit Card topup does not work. I tried to load my card and i got a email that i should use bank transfer instead of (which worked fine, though).

Chris

Hmmm, worked fine for me (with auto topup) a month ago. I'll keep watching the situation -- my balance is about to drop under 5 EUR, which should trigger a new topup.

One advantage of Blauworld is that the cards are usually available at Saturn (and, I think, Media Markt) and some other electronics retailers. Saturn and Media Markt are in all big cities. (Think of Best Buy and Circuit City -- and think of them being owned by the same company and only pretending to compete with each other. That's how it is.)

New daily flatrate from T-Mobile
 

The German market is very dynamic. T-Mobile has just announced that it will introduce a new tariff on Easter Monday for prepaid customers.

The new "daily flatrate tariff" will cost 99 cents per day and include all calls to German landlines and T-Mobile numbers.

This might be perfect for holiday makers who stay in Germany for one or two weeks. If you are staying for longer, the constar prepaid flatrates are cheaper, but you need internet access (internet cafe?) to switch the flatrates on and off.

At least solomo do ship abroad, allthough the US are not listed in the drop down menu of the order form. Anyway I would contact them and ask them (https://www.solomo.de/?function=showContact), since I recently read on a German board, that they shipped to unlisted countries, too (I think it was Ireland).

Ask them for that, too. But I think you'll quickly find out if foreign CCs are accepted, as you'll make use of it already while ordering the SIM.

Right. Blauworld accepts E-Plus' "Free & Easy Cash" vouchers, which are sold everywhere in Germany, e.g. at every gas station.

I believe both sell only directly to customers and there's no wholesale of blank SIMs. If you ever find SIMs of those providers on eBay they are surely registered in someone's name.

I am unclear as to what advantage or disadvantage being "registered in someone's name" means.

Some SIMs like TMO are listed as aktiviert so you can telephone right away. You can usually buy top up vouchers all over the place. No issue. Sellers on Ebay extol the benefits of these pre-registered cards.

HOWEVER, when a SIM like sunsim, solomo, 1015tmobile REQUIRE online registration, I would imagine being registered to someone ELSE will prevent the use of a credit card to refill the account. The account is registered to say HANS MEYER and when the provider tries to bill my new credit card against HANS MEYER and his address, the S is going to hit the F and my credit card transaction is going to fail. Blauworld FAQ says you cannot buy for a friend as a gift and NO FOREIGN ADDRESSES for the online purchase. Must be different if you walk in to SATURN.

BTW, Circuit City and Best Buy are not (yet) owned by the same company, although one does see that in other areas (Sears, K-Mart).

Thanks again for all the comments.

There was a blauworld SIM for sale starting at 1 Euro with a small credit. Not clear if that could be sent to US and at what price; seller did not answer me. There are several others for the market price.

Perhaps as suggested earlier by babble, the German market is very dynamic and it might be better to wait a bit to decide.

Stan

01051 told me that they accept a foreign credit card, for delivery at a German address. I have a Sunsim, by the same means, which arrived there (family) a day and a half after order.

For a longer visit in the summer, I'm tempted by Simyo's Flat tariff, but they mentioned bank transfer. Is Simyo available in shops at all, or only online?

I regard registered SIMs as disadvantageous, since that may have an impact on validity, you don't know who used it for whatever purpose before (e.g. cirminal usage or just disturbing calls for the previous owner) and as you stated it's problematic as soon as you need to authenticate to customer care for whatever reason.

@andy
Simyo is only available online. Their flatrate doesn't require a German bank account - you just need to have € 15 of credit in your account to activate the flatrate option.

Free Congstar cards
 

If you know someone in Germany, perhaps they would be happy to apply for a free Congstar card for you.

The offer is here: http://mp-success.com/mpa/wm/000350/?partner=cst_ppd

In Germany, you can buy or top up the card at many locations: gas stations, "real" supermarkets, "Extra" Supermarkets und "DM" drug stores, etc.

There is an excellent wiki with information about all the German prepaid cards:

http://www.prepaid-wiki.de/index.php5?title=Hauptseite

Thanks for that tip! Great offer. I have applied for one.

Which German network does a number belong to?
 

In Germany, people are allowed to move telephone numbers from one telephone network to another. But this is not a problem because it is easy to test which network a telephone number belongs to.

From T-Mobile network (and from T-Mobile discounters: Congstar, etc) dial: 4387
From Vodafone network (and from Vodafone discounters: smobile, etc) dial: 12313
From eplus network (and from eplus discounters: simyo, etc) dial: 10667

From O2 network (and from O2 discounters: Fonic, etc) send an SMS message to special service code 4636 with the text: "NETZ telephone number". Do not include the quotation marks. The SMS is free of charge.
Example: NETZ 01761234567

All of the above methods are free of charge, when they are internal network calls. These numbers can save a lot of money if you use a German flatrate tariff together with a second SIM.

I noticed the Flat options on Congstar. Can these be booked for one month and then removed again, or is this actually a separate product?

I think I have decided...
 

I think I have decided what to do. For now NOTHING. Either when we arrive or before (Ebay) buy a T-MO with NONSTOP and activate it for one month.

I think my biggest expense has been and will be my wife's long calls to friends & relatives, usually on landlines @ home. Last summer it seemed best solution was 8 cents per minute with SUNSIM. T-MO Nonstop may have been available then, but as I recall, they kept starting and stopping the offer. It was not clear at the time if they would suddenly withdraw the availability as they have don with so many of their prepaid plans. Seems that is now a permanent fixture of their prepaid plan. We'll be in Germany 2 of the 4 weeks and I bet that will be the bulk of the calls. So, instead of 100 minutes at 8 cents, 8 Euro, that call will cost 29 cents. Of course for calls to non D1 mobiles, the card is a bust. That's why we have the other.

I'll probably still need a recharge on UM+, Simyo and the SUNSIM. At least the SIMYO can be 10 Euros; the others are more.

I'm trying to find out how much a T-MO starter pack (straight T-MO, no "provider") costs retail at a T-MO store. I'm guessing 20 Euros, maybe more. They are going for less, brand new, on Ebay.de, even with shipping. I previously had 2 cards from Viktor Vox and they have their own customer service. I think I would prefer to deal DIRECTLY with T-MO.

Again, I would appreciate any thoughts.

I think I saw the CONGSTAR FLAT was going to be 69.95 Euros per month. That is more than I hope to be spending for the NEW prepaid; I have the other cards.

Stan

That's for all destinations. I was thinking of landlines only for €9.99, with callthrough for from half a cent a minute

New Congstar flatrates - from 18th March
 

Correction:

At the moment, flatrates can only be added to, or removed from the congstar "postpaid" sims. Without any additional flatrates, postpaid sims charge 19 cents per minute for calls to all networks. Prepaid sims charge 9 cents per minute for calls to all networks.

Flatrates can be cancelled provided notice of the intended cancellation is given at least two weeks before the end of the current monthly flatrate period. Otherwise, the flatrate automatically continues for another month, provided the sim has sufficient funds.

I think that the flatrates can be switched off via the internet, provided the necessary notice period is given. Perhaps someone with a congstar sim can confirm this.

From the 18th March, the T-Mobile, vodafone, O2 and eplus flatrates will each cost 14.99 EUR per month. (At the moment the T-Mobile and vodafone flatrates cost 19.99 EUR per month.)

Flatrate congstar-congstar is 4.99 EUR per month. The flatrate landline tariff (to all german landlines, not just Deutsche Telekom Festnet) costs 9.99 EUR per month.

I have not read anything about "callthrough for from half a cent a minute".

One of the Betamax operators (Dialnow) charges half a cent per minute to landlines in several countries! There are access numbers for many countries including a 0211 number in Germany. See: http://www.dialnow.com/en/accessnumbers.html. The funny thing is that calling other Netzwerke in Germany is excluded from the German flatrate tariffs and is normally charged at something like 15c/min. If you did it via such an option this might cost only 9c/min.

In some countries and on some postpaid tariffs you can nominate a favourite number with free calls! In these cases nominating such an access number can make a lot of sense!!