Germany | Fonic to lower int'l rates, 9ct/min to 50 countries, ideal for visitors
 

Fonic, a MVNO on the O2 network, has announced to reduce tariffs for international calls from Germany to 50 countries including Europe and North America soon. Calling landlines of those 50 countries, which were not disclosed yet, will be charged with 9 ct/min while mobile networks will be available for 29 ct/min. SMS to networks abroad will cost 19 ct/min.

Regarding national rates Fonic already offers attractive rates - calls to all national fixed and mobile networks cost 9 ct/min. The same price applies for national SMS.
For € 2,50 Fonic customers get a whole day of internet access through O2's EDGE- and HSPA-enabled network.

Since Fonic SIMs are sold at Lidl, Real, Müller and dm supermarkets as well as at Jet gasstations for € 10, they are easy to get and so are recharge vouchers. Although officially disclaimed, Fonic SIMs can be recharged with "O2 Loop Up" vouchers, which are available at every turn.

All in all Fonic appears to become an ideal choice for travellers and tourists visiting Germany.

As soon as further details pop up, I will give you an update.

The only problem is the problem I run into a lot in Germany

No sprichen zie deutsch or whatever...don't understand a word......I'll bet you you can't set the voice menus to English.......too bad.

Yes, my T-Mobile prepaid SIM is still stuck on German voicemail prompts too :)

My Swisscom one is happily in English though :)

At least I don't have this problem with my British sim cards as English and American are very closely aligned languages:)

so what I wrote, time ago, on this website:
is not valid anymore? That would be a very good piece of news.

No, a bank account isn't necessary anymore. You just need to register the SIM online or toll-free by phone (0800/4636642) and therefore provide a German address.

Ok, I corrected the page, waiting for the new international rates.
Is it possible to refill Fonic cards through internet with a non-German credit card?

Yes, you can by purchasing a top-up voucher for O2 at https://www.acprepaid.com/shop/index...ge=shop&step=2 - Btw this site has just launched while I'm writing this post and they also offer recharging United Mobile and several German MVNOs.

The top-up seller linked above seems to experience problems, as German top-up vouchers disappeared and only Dutch ones are offered at this time. As long as this problem persists, you can buy O2 vouchers from Verivox' old platform at https://secure.verivox.de/cards/index.asp?Lang=eng by creditcard.

Can I give the address of a friend of mine? How do they check if this is my address?

Update
 

Fonic's new international tariffs will become effective as of tomorrow (March 4th, 2009) and will apply for the following countries:

Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faeroe Islands, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Kroatien, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithunia, Luxembourg, Malta, Macedonia, Moldavia, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Vatican

Fixed lines of these countires will be available for 9ct/min and mobile networks 29ct/min (except for North America, where mobile networks will be billed like fixed lines).

OT: American v. English
 

There was a great skit five years ago or so on the US comedy show Saturday night live where they had "George Bush," "Tony Blair," and a translator. The Texan to English translation had been laughing hysterically.

The best one liner that I remember from the show was when "Tony" told "George" that he was going to go outside and "smoke" a "fag" (pulling out a cigarette and a lighter). "George" pulled out the biggest pistol I ever saw and said "I'll join you." Obviously "fag" means cigarette in British slang and homosexual (not in the kindest terms) in US slang).

Another one that I love is when I am in London and a culturally ignorant American tourist asked the British security guard whether he wanted to search her "fanny" pack ("bum-bags").

A word of warning to anyone who presents outside their native culture be very careful about using jokes or slang to bring the audience in. If you are going to do it, run them a native first. In Dubai, I had a friend who got himself in real trouble using an old American aphorism -- if you "can't bring the M'hammad to the mountain, bring the mountain to him."

Yeah I remember the first time I used a British sim and the voice told me to enter my pin number and then press hash, I blurted out how can I press hash, I have never smoked the stuff in my life.:)

Just a tip for anyone purchasing a Fonic SIM:

If you activate your Fonic SIM online at https://www.fonic.de/selfcare/servlet/ActivationInfo, there will be a field called "Mobilfunknummer/Aktionscode eingeben". If you enter another Fonic customer's phone number there, you and the other Fonic customer will both get an additional bonus credit of € 5 due to their customer referral program.
So ask some Fonic customer (e.g. our fellow forum member VladS) for his number before activation.