Pre-paid SIM card for Poland
 

Hi,

Visiting Warsaw for a few days soon and would like to have a local SIM card for a few calls and maybe some data too. I understand the options (Play and Heyah seem to work best for me), my questions are:
- Do they sell micro-SIM cards (for iPhone 4)?
- Is it possible to buy a card at the airport (Chopin)? Where?

Thanks a lot,

Shuly

If data is not very important or you have WiFi at the hotel the cheapest is an Israeli Golan SIM - ILS 0.35 both for calling home and for incoming calls. Order on the site or by at some Bug or Ivory computer stores (listed on the Golan site).

Suggest only going with Play if nobody within Poland will be calling you. The rates are crazy, from Orange/Plus/T-Mobile to Play. I use Orange. It's probably the weakest network of the big three, but the rates are very low, and it works every time I come to Poland (like right now). If it's only calling you're looking for, then Orange is great. If it's a combination of data and voice I still recommend Orange, especially in the big cities. If it's just data in the big cities, then go with Play.

I'd suggest Heyah - low voice rates including international, great data rates, and expiration date extended by one year every time you do anything that costs something. Frequent x2 offer that doubles topup credit, though this is unlikely to be an issue for a short visit. Available in lots of places - look for the red hand logo. (And I think they do offer the Apple-compliant SIM nowadays.)

Oh, and as far as Warsaw airport goes, there are a couple of newsagents who stock SIM cards.

Thanks a lot for all the replies, that's very helpful.

Shuly

Having recommended Heyah above, I've noticed something odd: The one-year validity does not appear to be reset by calls or SMS (or probably data use) from outside Poland. My account is set to expire in October, one year since the last time I was in PL and remembered to use Heyah - calls placed since then from Germany have had no effect on this date.

As to what I last posted, the Heyah 1 year validity option now costs 3 zloty a month, with a 5 Zl signup fee (waived until 19 March). Not very nice of them.

Rok wa?no?ci konta po ka?dej rozmowie

I'm going to be in Poland for about 2 weeks in August.

I'm looking for a SIM card and prepaid data with these features:
• 500MB to 1GB data
• VoIP
• tethering a PC to my smartphone.
• good coverage in Zakopane/Tatras
• prefer website in English but not essential

I would appreciate recommendations for a carrier as well as where to buy this in Krakow.

Dziękuję bardzo.

No one has any suggestions or recommendations?

Several offers would meet your needs. If you want a lot more data than that, T-Mobile has a card for 5 zloty (=1.20 EUR) with 1 GB to start off, and 30 zl for 6 GB. I THINK they allow VOIP, but don't quote me. (Sorry, bit of a hurry here.)
http://www.t-mobile.pl/pl/oferta_spe...ernet-na-karte
Then there's Heyah, which has cheap international calls and an English site plus 100 MB internet per day (but no longer has decent validity - not a big deal for a short visit):
http://www.heyah.pl/english
Lycamobile has cheap calls, cheap Internet, and a sort-of English website. SIMs slightly harder to find, though: http://www.lycamobile.pl/po/
And Play, Plus, and Orange probably also have deals that would do what you want. Reception is pretty much the same on all networks. SIMs are dirt cheap, so you can always change your mind or get more than one.

Thanks. I didn't realize SIMs were so cheap so I suppose I can afford to try all three carriers if necessary.

(If only prepaid service was this inexpensive in North America...)

Warning to others to be careful when buying this card or more to the point the similar looking 500MB for 5zł card that's also on the linked page.

The phone store I was at on Wednesday had only the 500MB for 5zł card. The card is all in Polish so it's hardly obvious to non Polish speakers that this is a very restrictive offer compared to the recommended 1GB./10zł card. According to Google Translate: "Pay only 2 zł per package of 250 MB each day." Also a day is a calendar day so if you activate at 23:00 you really only have one hour for the first "day."

So with this SIM even though I only did about 50MB total on Wednesday and Thursday, this morning my card was all used up and now useless. (Technically there is still 1 zł left but without a further cash infusion it's useless for data.) Worse today is a national holiday in Poland and all stores are closed so I had no Internet outside of WiFi range.

Now it's only 5zł so it's less about the loss of money and more about the inconvenience of learning. I'll get the correct 1GB for 10zł card tomorrow and all will be good again. But maybe this is warning will benefit other visitors to Poland.

There's a new-ish operator in Poland that has very cheap international calls and data and 365-day expiration after every topup: Klucz Mobile. It uses Plus infrastructure. http://www.klucz.net/

In order not to begin new thread:

mBank mobile to close down.
According to information published on mobile.pl, the operator of mBank mobile, Aspiro, closes its telecomunication branch on 30.11.2014. All minutes shall be used up to the date. If one would like to keep the number, one has to move it to another network.

mBank mobile is the first Polish MVNO, started in 2006. The offer was aimed to mBank customers, the first Polish virtual bank, and thus has naver achieve more than 3% of market. It was almost impossible to buy mBank mobile without being mBank's customer.

The close down is probably one of changes following rebranding of BRE Bank. BRE used to be an owner of mBank, Multibank and other brands. All branches have been united under mBank brand, and focused on banking services only.

On September the new MVNO brand has started.
The brand Izzi is held by operator Ahmes sp. z o.o. (Ahmes Ltd.) that has already been holding brand Tele25.
Izzi targets to young and active people. Logo and whole visualisation of brand seem to be "dynamic" and "free".

Prices:
Starter cost: 5 zł incl. 1 zł for calls (unless you move number from another network, then it's free)

voice calls to all networks in Poland - 0,19 zł / 0,05 €
video calls to all networks in Poland - 0,19 zł / 0,05 €
sms to Poland networks - 0,09 zł / 0,02 €
voice and video to Izzi and Play 30 days after topup - free

Calls to Europe, Canada and the US - 2,00 zł / 0,52 €
SMS - 0,50 zł / 0,13 €
Calls to the rest of World - 4,00 zł / 1,05 €
SMS - 0,50 zł / 0,13 €

Number is Valid 1 year after every topup.
Minimum topup is 25,00 zł / 6,50 €

Where to buy?
At the moment it is accessable only via Internet (their website or allegro.pl).
They are to cooperate with some Polish discount, grocery and petrol brands.

Information (in Polish) at www.izzinakarte.pl

After several months using Klucz, I've noticed one annoying and expensive trait: If you book an internet package, and it runs out, Klucz keeps going, charging your internet use at the normal rate, eating up the rest of your credit immediately. (It does send an SMS warning, but you can easily miss this.)

This even happens if you book a second internet package well before the first one expires. There seems to be a time after the first one expires and before the second one starts in which internet use is billed at the normal rate, so your balance still disappears.

For an offer that is otherwise so great, this is infuriating and unfair.