Poland prepaid data
 

I'm coming to Poland for two weeks and I'd like to use my laptop there for emailing and google.
On roaming this would cost me 19ct/100kb (blau.de).

Are there any better solutions known?
Which would be the best prepaid solution with a polish SIM?
Is there a SIM for both data and calls with an acceptable rate?

:rolleyes:

Yes, Heyah. 20 grosz per megabyte for data, 44 grosz for all mobile and landline calls within the European Union (except Play). The only drawback is you may have to go online to enable GPRS. SIMs are available for 5 zloty.

As you're German and (I guess) you want to call home, I think that the best solution seems to be Heyah with Flatrate tariff (see Heyah.pl). The main features are 0.44 PLN/min for national calls (except Play network which is 0.79, 1/1 debiting) as well as the same rate to all the EU/EEA (60/60 debiting), free voice mail and data 0.02 PLN/100 kB.
1 EUR = 4.45 PLN (as of today)

In Simplus there are new 30-day data packets: 25 MB - 5 PLN, 100 MB - 10 PLN, 250 PLN - 20 PLN, 500 MB - 35 PLN and national calls are 0.29 PLN/min after activation for 1.50 PLN in the Twój Profil tariff. However, international calls are very expensive (Europe - 2PLN/min) and all you cna do is to activate up to 3 cheaper numbers (1 PLN/min + 5 PLN/month for selection, see BILLIGER INS AUSLAND)

The dedicated "data sims" (available from each operator) are not so good nowadays. Their base data rates are 0.03 PLN/100 kB and voice calls are very expensive. The special case is Play Online na Kartę which supports data and incoming SMSes only and works in 3G coverage only (Play Online - Zasi?g - violet areas on the map) but you get 1GB for 19 PLN (initial limit) and later 2 GB for 30 PLN or 4 GB for 50 PLN.

The hottest news :-D: Heyah Flatrate has changed today to Nowa Heyah (New Heyah). It's the same for data and international calls but national calls are now 0.29 PLN/min (Play 0.79 PLN/min) and on-net SMSes are free.

Yes, that's great news! I just feel a little bit bad for Play, their competitive advantage seems to have disappeared, apart from the excellent 365-day expiration.

Now that I think about it, since it's "nowa" I guess it's officially ta Heyah, not ten Heyah. Hmm.

stick settings
 

Thanks for all help!!!

As I do not know one word Polish, could you plesae post the internet access settings for my laptop stick or mail a link?

Is there in Poland an address required, do I need my passport, can I buy SIMs as a foreign citizen?

:)

You choose Heyah, don't you?

APN: heyah.pl
User: Heyah.pl (on www there's Heyah.pl with uppercase H, but it may be a mistake)
Password: heyah

You can also get settings by sending a free SMS with content GPRS to 80123 or via the website (Skonfiguruj Mobilny Internet w swoim telefonie - Konfiguracja - Mobilny Internet - Heyah.pl)
on the botton of the page select
Producent - phone maker
Model - phone model
Numer tel. - your phone number (9 digits, without +48)

In both cases you must have a Heyah SIM in order to receive an SMS.


Happily, no documents (not yet ;-)) are required to buy a prepaid SIM in Poland. You buy it just like a payphone chip card or scratch calling card.

I think this user is a big mistake. I use only "heyah" in daily use and it works. Also configuration SMS from their website contains user "heyah".
So:
APN: heyah.pl
user: heyah
pass: heyah

Thanks a lot!

Btw: Also in Austria there are no documents or addresses required.
Just buy and call.

still a question....
 

Which number has to be dialed?

I don't understand - are you asking about some Heyah service?

Yes, there are different numbers for data access, they are like *99# or *99***16# or similar.

Which number is required for Heyah?

OK, now I understand. No info on the Heyah website :-(

I found some info in FAQ of a Polish wireless data forum.
Forum bez kabli :: Zobacz temat - Konfiguracja telefonu, modemu do Internetu, spis APN, DNS

Heyah
(infrastruktura - Era)
APN: heyah.pl
Login: heyah
Hasło: heyah
Numer dostępowy (= Access number): *99***1#


One more info.
GPRS and MMS are turned off by default.
In the past, it was necessary to activate it via the website or call centre.
Now I found that there's also activation with free SMS (I've told you already about it - it used for getting config settings, too).
So send a free SMS to 80123 with GPRS or MMS text.
Each of them activates the appropriate service and you will also receive settings for those services in SMSes.

Thanks, Przemolog - that's great news, and it fixes what was previously Heyah's stupidest problem.

I found it here only: Samodzielna konfiguracja us?ug ? Samouczek ? Heyah.pl
click "Heyah na kartę" ("standard" prepaid) or "Heyah Mix" (contract prepaid with a phone) and "Konfiguracja". However, I haven't tested it.
E.g. in these FAQ Odpowiedzi na pytania odno?nie mobilnego internetu ? Masz pytania? - Mobilny Internet - Heyah.pl
the answer to the question "Nie mam aktywnej usługi Heyah Internet? (dostęp do Internetu w sieci Heyah)" (I don't have the active Heyah Internet service? (the access to Internet in the Heyah network)) is:
"We invite to self-service at Telefony w Heyah MIX - Sony Ericsson W595, Nokia 5000, Sony Ericsson C702, Nokia 5310, Nokia 6300 - Heyah.pl, self-service via IVR or to a consultant". Not a word about SMS activation.

The Heyah website is in fact very inconsistent. Eg. foreign language versions still refer to 0.44 PLN/min for national calls :-P.

calling number depends on configuration and phone - if you have in phone stored access data in profiles the numeber is:
*99***prof_num# -> will be used apn and user/pass from profile num
*99# -> you need to set init string for setting APN:
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","apn_name"

in the modem settings on your computer.

i found that phone number should be used:
*99# (for Ericsson, Motorola, Sendo, Nokia and SonyEricsson models),
*99***1# (for Alcatel, Handspring, LG, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Sagem, Samsung and Siemens models).

BTW, it looks like Heyah's raising the price for calls within the EU to 59 gr/min as of 5 July:
Najta?sze rozmowy do wszystkich sieci ? Oferta cenowa ? Heyah.pl - perhaps too many people like me did the x2 thing, so now they have to raise these prices to get their money back (or to compensate for the 29 gr national calls). It would be nice of them to add more countries while they're at it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, that's right - the EU rate will go up to 0.59 PLN :-(.
However, they don't have to compensate 0.29 PLN for national calls by anything. 0.29 is a "benchmark" rate on the Polish mobile market now but it allows to make profit anyway because the MTR will drop to around 0.21 PLN excluding VAT from 1st July (Play and Cyfrowy Polsat stil will have 0.40 PLN).
I think, that the EU rate is increased simply because of weakness of PLN against EUR. The 0.44 PLN rate was introduced at AFAIR moreless 3.60 PLN/EUR and now it's 4.55 PLN/EUR. Moreover, I suppose that a huge part of EU calls have been made to EU mobiles (many Polish emmigrants don't have landlines) and less than 0.10 EUR/min is too little to pay foreign MTRs. Of course, they could give something in return like eg. 1/1 debiting for international calls, 0.39 or 0.29 PLN/min to EU landlines or increasing the list of cheap countries.
Don't blame yourself for the double top-up ;-) - I think that double top-ups are used mainly
for national connections.

:) :) :) Thanks a lot !

Heyah
 

mmmhhh cards expire within a short period of time.

Is there also a number to check the expiry date, similar to that to check the balance?

The *108# USSD code also returns the expiration date for outgoing calls and the phrase "+3 mies. na polaczenia przychodzace" ("+3 months for incoming calls" counted from the above expiration date). Please notice that you must top-up min. 20 PLN in order to increase the validity period but a good feature is that if you have outgoing calls active, the new expiration date is calculated by adding 1 month (20-49 PLN) or 3 months (50-500 PLN) to the old expiration date, not the current date. At most, you can "cumulate" 1 year validity for outgoing calls.

But there's one good thing on Heyah - data calls works also when your account is active only for incoming calls ;) So by recharging 20PLN you have 4 months of Internet ;) Of course you have to have enough money to connect. It's only thing that works when outgoing calls are blocked. After these 3 months for receiving calls better recharge, because they can deactivate your number (sometimes card can work few months after it and sometimes only few days - of course Internet still works, until card logs into network and has credit).

I've also found that expired Heyah cards (with credit on them) can work just fine when roaming. I tried one out in the US, about 5 months after it was supposed to expire, and shortly thereafter received a "Please top up if you want to keep your service" message, but the line was active for another two months (though it later wouldn't allow outgoing calls in Poland).

Yep, I think you're right. At the current rate, it's about 9.7 cents a minute (as opposed to 14.6 cents back when the zloty was around 3 to the euro). It's hard to see how they could make a profit calling mobile numbers in the rest of the EU, though landlines, and possibly other T-Mobile networks, probably would be OK. Now factor in the x2 offer, which has run twice this year, and think of it as being up to about a 40 percent discount. That works out to roughly 6 cents a minute (and that's including 22.5 percent VAT!).