new data only sim ROAMLINE
 

https://www.roamline.com/countries-1
0.39eur. per mb to European Union countries and USA+Canada...

0.89eur. per to rest of the world.

very important: data sessions are rounded per 1kb

sounds VERY interesting indeed, especially for our customers who drive trough whole Europe with our GPS-tracking devices... thanks for sharing

just discovered it while googling.
reading the terms & conditions it's a KPN Nederland network service (biggest Dutch mobile network), so it should be reliable.

*dg7feq, which GPS-tracking devices do your mainly use for your drivers?

It looks very interesting. Do you know if they charge your credit card as you go or do you have to buy credits in advance of use?

i aksed them the same thing via email, they told me that CC or DB (debitcard) is charged once per month (when usage occurs) and in between when exceeding €50 usage.

it works like abroadband style, but with cheaper rates (within europe) and with biling per 1kb increments (abroadband charges per 128kb)!

the SIM is from KPN netherlands, also a big player... So i would guess its quite risk-less.

>fsotirop: We are a manufacturer of GPS tracking devices, not a user ;-)

dg7feq you have a PM concerning the gps-tracker issue.

OK, that makes sense now. The website & FAQ aren't really clear about how the billing works.

It would be really interesting if that 0.89€/MB included ferries and cruise ships.

that's impossible!
ferries and cruise ships networks for e.g seanet etc charge other mobile-carriers (wholesale) something like 2,5-3eur. per mb!

Some things may be possible in the short term but impossible in the long term. For a year or so, US PacBell (now ATT) mobile customers had free foreign roaming because the company's billing system didn't work.

First I though: wow this is interesting!!

But as I think of it, the efficient solution for data roaming little amounts of data is probably still E-Plus + abroadband for most users.

Why?

The "Europe" which is included in this consists pretty much only of the European Union. Remember that the EU is forcing providers to cap their rates as of July, and German MedionMobile already charges only 50 cents per MB within the EU, making 39 cents not so special any more... Especially when you consider the 60MB package for 4,99 which enables data roaming in the EU for just 12 cents per megabyte. So in fact the only place where roamline gives you profit over a E-Plus + abroadband construction is Switzerland+US+Canada. Three countries which are easy to solve with local prepaids.
At the same time roamline charges you more for all non-EU European countries .

It may however be a good deal for tiny amounts of data (under 128kB) for some hardware devices as already mentioned because of their rounding per 1kB.

Kuba.g you forget the most important: that roamline rate of 0.89/mb covers 85 non-European countries!
most of these important countries are top leisure+business destinations such as Japan, Brazil, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Indonesia etc which aren't covered by abroadband!
have a look and compare:

https://www.roamline.com/countries-1
http://www.abroadband.com/en/GR/countries


another also important parameter, because roamline uses KPN roaming agreements, their simcard can be used with all local networks in each country, so there is wider signal coverage!
abroadband just uses 1network per country, mainly of Vodafone group.

concerning the 0.39/mb rate within Europe, the rate is excellent, especially for higher daily or weekly data amounts over 60mb!
for Canada, United States and Switzerland the rate of 0,39eur./mb is just the best current choise in the market.

i have also been informed from roamline customer service that as of next month, they will also introduce data bundles for higher data usage within European Union, where the price per mb will be below 0.20eur per mb.

Ah yes, you're right. I never really looked deeply into what non-European countries abroadband covers as I never go there, I thought there were more. So for these non-European countries you mentioned it indeed looks like a very good deal!

I really don't agree though that the rate within Europe is especially good for large daily/weekly amounts, then it's better to get a few 60MB packages from Medion ;)

A bundle for higher usage within Europe with better rates than Medion would be amazing though! I'm looking forward to it.

Medion only allows the 60MB package to be activated only one time per week! so if you run out of mb.. you have to pay the 0.49eur./mb for europe.
so you have only 60mb per week.
if you have a smartphone or laptop, 60mb per week is almost nothing! very little.. especially for usage for a week time.
also, medion charges per 10kb increments, roamline by 1kb.

One thing I would like to know has to do with taxes. They quote 19.95€ as the delivery & activation fee but then add about 3.50€ in "taxes". I wonder if their per MB rate also has high added taxes?

if you are in the States no vat or any taxes applicable.
19.95€ include the simcard and delivery.
abroadband costs 29.90€ for simcard and delivery.

True. That makes roamline a cheaper choice when you use more than ~185MB per week.

Also, I could say - get a few MedionMobile sim cards ;) but at a certain point you have to count in user friendlyness as well :)

exactly!
and even 185mb for a whole week is very little if you use a smartphone or laptop!

I am grandfathered on ATT's global roaming plan for iPhones and I have unlimited worldwide including cruise ships. The problem is that I get GPRS style speeds. It is good enough to get your email or possibly push out a text message using a virtual SMS serviced, but it is not even EDGE style speeds. I haven't tried cruise ships yet. I can tell you that last year I was in Mr. Newcomb's part of the world and I even had included data on the carrier which covered the Gulf of Mexico (catering mostly to drilling rigs).

Additionally, iPhonetrip.com offers unlimited data on these services.

Ordered one yesterday. :)

With AT&T's roaming data packages now restructured, for the occasional use, it makes sense for an AT&T customer to just sign up for one of those. For me, I will just sign up for the $30/125 MB package when we go to Montego Bay, Jamaica for 7 days at the end of the month. Plus, the resort has WiFi. I personally do NOT see a need for these data roaming sims. With the data roaming rates in the EU, it will not be much useful there either.

me2 today!

This is one of the advantages of roamline... +1

AldiTalk
 

Slightly off topic but:

Do you know if it is possible to buy AND activate a German AldiTalk card by non-German people?
I live in Belgium, would like to buy the card, take it home, and start using/recharging it here (and in the rest of Europe), not in Germany.

Thanks
Yves

You can definitely buy a German Aldi SIM as a foreigner (anything different would violate the freedom of services within the EU) but you'll need to provide a German address as their activation system does not support foreign addresses. In contrast to Fonic/Lidl I haven't heard of Aldi sending out confirmation letters to the provided address, so I believe you can provide just some arbitrary existing address.

As of recharging prepaid-wiki.de says that Aldi SIM cards can be recharged by bank transfers to eplus (who actually run German AldiTalk like the Belgian AldiTalk service is run by KPN Belgium) like it works for eplus' prepaid service called "Free & Easy" (described here).
Following this information you should be able to recharge your German Aldi SIM card by transfering the desired amount to the following bank account:

payee: E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co.KG
IBAN: DE07300400000121790001
BIC: COBADEDDXXX
reference: <your Aldi phone number>

Recharges by bank transfer prolong validity of your SIM card as follows:
< € 0.10 = no prolongation
>= € 0.10 = 3 days
> € 1 = 1 month

So you can test this method by transferring a cent or so. Once your payment has been received and the amount has been accredited to your account you'll receive an SMS confirming the recharge.

I've just realized that the reference is not being displayed above since I used arrow brackets that were deleted by the forum software. The reference when recharging a German Aldi SIM must be your Aldi phone number (e.g. 01771234567).

This is actually very nice. So to put the card to sleep when you ony use it once a year, just to be sure, you transfer 1 euro every month and the card stays active?

Hmm, I'm leaving this friday for a holliday. Anybody so kind to buy some cards and mail me? :-)

Maybe I just drive to Germany this afternoon.

Yves

It's even more convenient because with higher recharges validity will be prolonged for longer:
€ 5 = 4 months
€ 15 = 12 months
€ 30 = 24 months

Also after these terms have been exceeded (so-called "Aktivitätszeitfenster"), your SIM card will remain reachable for another two months during which you can fully re-activate your SIM card by a recharge.
Some additional info in German can be found at ALDI TALK ? Prepaid-wiki

I won't make it to an Aldi store before tomorrow and according to Deutsche Post letters to Belgium take 2-3 days, so there's the risk of the SIM card not arriving in time. If you still want me to get you a SIM card, drop me a PM and we will try.

Thanks for the offer, I couldn't take that chance so I went to Germany today to pick up a card :-)

I registered it but it still says no service, maybe I'll just have to be patient?

Yves

I have no experience with Aldi but according to some German forum postings activation may take a couple of hours.
Did you really drive some 180km from Arendonk to Germany and back just for a SIM card?

I did indeed :-) (actually Herentals/BE->Selfkant/DE->Arendonk/BE)
Call me nuts, I won't blame you.
The card became active by now.

Just trying to figure out what APN to use, I found 3 different APNs, depending on the tarif option, strange.
BTW: do you know how long a session lasts? access is billed by 10kb, but if I transfer 2kb and another 2kb 15 minutes after the first access, does this make 20kb or just 4kb ? I couldn't find this on the site.

I'm glad I'm not the only patient suffering from this disease.

tagesflat.eplus.de is only used for the dayflat which is only offered while in Germany. For all other tariffs including the roaming pack use internet.eplus.de
What is the third one you found? wap.eplus.de? Forget about that one as it is designed for archaic WAP phones.

According to ALDI TALK ? Prepaid-wiki sessions are billed in 10kb increments. Unless you don't interrupt the session you would be billed for 10kb in your example.
These rounding ups should only occur if the session is being interrupted or after the billing system decides to (no experience on this issue either, but I guess at least once a day).

for some european countries ekit Global Premium Service simcard is chepaer on data roaming than roamline, they charge $0,39/mb , that is approximately 0.30eur per mb.
ekit, Mobile Info

this rate also apply to some non-european countries such as hongkong, south africa, new zealand etc