German Fonic questions...
 

I was given a German Fonic SIM card recently and it has been working well. All the docs with it are in German and I haven't really checked out their website.

I was just wondering if there is credit expiry on it ?

If the SIM will expire if it is not used, top-ups not made, calls not made/received etc ?

Also, is it possible to top-up online ? If so, is it necessary to create an account with them and is English available ?

Is it possible to buy low value top-ups from shops in Germany that I could use some months later ?

Any other useful info on Fonic would be welcomed.

Also is Blau good any more ? I have a SIM that I don't think is activated / hasn't been used and just wondering if it is worth giving that a go too.

See the "validity" section at Germany - Fonic - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access

The SIM will not expire, but it will be blocked for outgoing calls, text messages and data connections 6 months after your last recharge, which means that your remaining credit is practically blocked, too. You can fully reactivate the SIM at any time (even months later) by topping up additional credit, which will also release the blocked remaining credit. So neither SIM nor credit expire, but are just blocked temporarily until your next recharge.

Unfortunately you can only top up online through a German bank account. Their website is only available in German.

You can buy top up-vouchers at local retailers, which can be redeemed even months later, but the smallest ones cost € 20.

check out Germany - Fonic - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access

Blau charge a connection fee of € 0.15 for each international call, which other operators like Fonic don't have, and Blau is based on the eplus network, which is a low cost carrier with an inferior network.

Validity:
@inquisitor: Are you sure? On the Fonic-URL is stated:
Wie lange ist das aufgeladene Guthaben für die Nutzung verfügbar?
Seit dem 01.02.2008 steht das Guthaben unbegrenzt zur Verfügung.
=> Starting 1st of Feb. 2008 there is no timelimit for the credit anymore!

Validity Top-Ups:
They do not expire if not used - but the paper, they are printed on may bleach out....

Top up:
Inside the EU (and EFTA) you may use the bank transfer:
Überweisung FONIC ? Prepaid-Wiki
In Short:
- Send a (empty) SMS to 63633
- You 'll get a code back with the Reference-Code
- Make an EU bank transfer to
- Fonic GmbH
- IBAN: DE03 7002 0270 0668 5192 37
- BIC: HYVEDEMMXXX
- Reference-Code
- Amount (what you like - starting with one Euro-Cent).

I'm not sure if SIMs are still disabled for outgoing calls 6 months after the last recharge. That's at least how it used to be until recently.

Thanks for the great information.

I just used Fonic for a week in Germany for both voice and data. It was fabulous. And, yes, I remembered to cancel the data plan before leaving Germany. :)

I'll be back in Germany in June and would love to keep this card alive until then. I gather it is possible.

I don't know if Fonic still enforce their previous practice of blocking outgoing calls six months after the last recharge. If it's still the case you just need to recharge your credit when returning to Germany in order to unblock outgoing calls and release the remaining credit. If it's not the case you don't need to do anything to keep the SIM alive.

hello guys. Just purchased 2 fonic prepay packages too for me and my gf. The calling charge for landlines in Europe is just great! Only 9 cents per minute.

My question has to do with the tagesflat internet:

We have sent the sms for activation this morning (start tagesflat at 36642 and after the sms we received, we sent "ja"), and the received the following:

how long does it take for the package to get activated? It has been 10 hours since then and the tagesflat hasnt been activated :(

When I requested a tariff change to the "Tagesflat" last week, activation was confirmed only the next morning. However it was actually already active minutes after I sent the SMS.
Check your credit (*101#), go online for a minute and visit Google, disconnect and check your credit again (*101#) - if € 2.50 was deducted from your credit, the Tagesflat is active already. If less than € 2.50 have been charged, you're still on the volume based tariff (€ 0.024/100KB).

new fonic sim
 

Hi guys,

I purchased a FONIC sim a week back and activated the Monthly 10 eur data plan. Though the 10 eur was deducted and my mobile internet is working, i did not get a confirmation msg that the plan is activated. Is that a problem ?

Also, i wanted to know if there are any extra mailbox/voicemail charges on fonic prepaid, and if i need to disable this ?

If you're not billed for data usage anymore (except for the monthly fee of € 10), there's no problem. If you're still charged volume-based you should contact customer care.

No, there's no charge for the mailbox, at least for you. Neither is there a fee for having voicemail activated nor will you be billed for listening to your messages (at least within Germany). Callers of course are billed when the mailbox picks up a call as if you would answer the call.

anyone knows if its possible to get a fonic microsim?

If you order a new SIM card you get a double-break card which you can use as a regular or micro sim. If you are an existing customer you can order a micro sim at the hotline. This will cost you 10 euro.

Chris

thanks Chris.
I already have a number but i might get a new one in order to have a micro sim.

If i get a new number from for example media mark, are those double break cards (micro sim)? Or do i have to order a new number?

hmm...from what i can see here https://fonic.chriskeim.com/B2CPorta...&itemno=104142 the SIM-Karte/Micro-SIM is for the internet package and not for the "telefonieren" package? :confused:

This is the quote from the official website (www.fonic.de):

"Gibt es bei FONIC auch Micro-SIMs?
FONIC versendet als Telefonie SIM-Karte bei Online-Bestellung ausschließlich Kombi SIMs. Die Kombi SIM hat die Größe einer Standard SIM-Karte, aus der bei Bedarf eine Micro-SIM heraus gebrochen werden kann. Somit ist die FONIC SIM-Karte für alle mobilen Endgeräte (auch z.B. zur Verwendung im iPad oder iPhone 4) verwendbar."

"Are there Mico SIM at Fonic?
Fonic is shipping all telephony SIM cards which are ordered online only as a combi-SIM. It can be used as a regular SIM or after breakout it can be used as a micro sim. So you can use it in any kind of devices, also iPad or iPhone."

I dont know which SIM is in the bundles in the shop, but i guess you can ask the guys if its Micro SIM.


Chris

Existing Fonic customers can also request their SIM to be swapped for a MicroSIM (so they can keep their phone number) at a price of € 10.

Hi Everyone,

Is there any additional information regarding the lifespan of my Fonic SIM card. Are they still being blocked after 6 months? If so, is there any way to top up and unblock my card before leaving for Germany so I have a working phone when I arrive?

Thanks!

Hi Lizzie,

Fonic SIMs have unlimited validity since last year or so. This is also valid for SIM cards purchased before validity became unlimited.

That's great news! Thank you. If I'm understanding correctly, all I have to do when I get back to Germany is top up as needed and activate the Internet connection. Right? :)

Exactly.

Remember that there are three data tariffs for internet usage:

• volume-based billing at € 0.24/MB, which is the preactivated standard option
• daily flat ("Tagesflatrate") for € 2.50/calendar day with a cap at €25/calendar month (basicly internet is for free after the 10th day of usage within a calendar month), which can be activated through customer care (call 80000 or send a message through the contact form on their website)

Alternatively to these you can activate the "Handy-Internet-Paket" for € 9.95 which will give you an internet flatrate valid for 30 days with bandwidth throttling after exceeding a total data volume of 500MB.
To subscribe to the "Handy-Internet-Paket" send a text message with "START HANDYINTERNET" to 36642.
It will be extended automatically for the next 30 days if there's enough balance left. Otherwise it will be disabled and won't be re-enabled automatically if you top up later. If you wish to unsubscribe manually send "STOPP HANDYINTERNET" to 36642.
The "Handy-Internet-Paket" is being activated on top of the two aforementioned data tariffs, so as soon as the "Handy-Internet-Paket" is disabled you'll fall back to one of the tariffs above (depending which you had before).

answering my own question, on the bundles available on media markt i found out that all of them were micro sim cards(normal sim cards that u can break and make them micro sim) which is cool! also u could choose ur number (it was written on the back on the package).

Fonic Top-up Online
 

It appears that the top-up cards are available online with many payment options including PayPal and credit cards through merchants like aufladen.de. Aufladen.de has an English-language option. Anyone have experience with this site?

I just used a similar service in here in the US for a local prepaid CDMA, and everything went smoothly.

Yeah I do. Didn't work. I assume it's because they perform an address check with the credit card you pay with (and it it impossible to enter an address outside of Germany).

You could try Cabox.de though.

Others that look promising from a web search include :
Fonic online aufladen Handyguthaben
Prepaidpunkt- Aufladen auf den Punkt gebracht!

I won't get my Fonic SIM until I go to Germany in the summer. Any personal experience with these, or Cabox.de?

i bought a fonic SIM at a local grocery store in Germany for 9.90, i sent the Handy-Internet-Paket text to start it, but now after almost 2 days, i got a text saying i need to add money to get data.

i thought i got 30 days free? or something like that upon activating the HandyInternet. How can i go about getting the 9.90 30 day data?

There's no free internet included with Fonic SIMs. However you should have had an initial balance of € 10 on your account, which should have been enough to activate the "Handy-Internetpaket" for one month. How much credit have you left at the moment? (request your current balance by calling *101#)

Ownership Change Requirements for Fonic SIM card
 

I have been offered a Fonic SIM card that has already been activated/registered and still has some time left on it.

I understand that registering a Fonic SIM card the first time doesn't require a German bank account anymore (discussed earlier in this thread) or the provision of a passport or ID card (does purchasing it in a store?) but the Fonic besitzerwechsel form still seems to require both the German bank account and eine Kopie des Reisepasses oder Personalausweises, a copy of a passport or ID card, for an ownership change. This last is an unacceptable practice to a North American. No telephone company gets that documentation from me! :nono:

What difficulties are there in leaving the ownership data as is, assuming the previous owner doesn't care? All I really need, AFAIK, is to change the caller-id that is displayed when I call people?

Any other gotchas? Thanks.

When you buy the card in a shop they write down the data from your ID or passport. This is obligatory in germany to buy any SIM card from any provider.

however if someone sells his already activated card you can use it without any problems. If you now trigger a roadside bomb with the card the former owner will get questioned by the police, not you... ;-)

Thank You. :beer:

Generally registration of SIM cards is a legal requirement in Germany as in most European countries and most operators will ask you for your ID card when you buy a SIM.

However Fonic SIMs are not being registered by the personnel if you buy one in a shop, but you have to provide your personal details yourself either online or - if registered by paper - on the form that comes with the SIM card. Also Fonic do not require any proof of identity upon activation.

I believe the fact that they require an ID card for an ownership change is just a security measure to deter people from changing ownership without the original owner's approval.
But be aware that the change of ownership is subject to a charge of € 10 (see p.2 "Besitzerwechsel" of http://www.fonic.de/html/pdf/FONIC_T...Preisliste.pdf).
I wouldn't change the ownership if I were you.

The only disadvantages of not changing the personal details are that you won't be able to request a new SIM card (with the old number) if you lose your's and you won't be able to export your number to another operator.

First of all you can't change the callerID, but you can only disable it so no number would be presented to the called party. But why do you want to change the callerID? If the SIM card is your's, why shouldn't people see your number and so be able to call you back?

Ah, I had forgotten that the caller-ID is number caller-ID only. I was thinking of name caller-ID but if no name, only the number, is displayed then no name change would be required/possible.

Thanks again.

We don't have alphanumeric callerIDs (i.e. a name) in Europe - at least I haven't seen this so far. We just see the number of the calling party unless it's disabled.

Even here, in Canada (or even in the U.S.), it's not universally available and sometimes only at extra cost but I have gotten used to it and had forgotten that it isn't used in Europe (at least also in my very limited experience).

I think this will not be enabled in europe or at least germany. People are expecting a number to be displayed, if anonymous calls or anything else appeares on the screen most people dont even pick up anymore (or enable "block anonymous calls" at their providers)....

When it's available, name caller-id shows the name of the caller (or Private, if no name is available) as well as the number. Of course if the user has a name for that number in the his/her phone's address book then that is displayed instead.

And in fact the name on the cell account doesn't have to match the name that will be displayed. For our two cell phones, in one account, in my name, my name is displayed for one and my spouse's for the other, when we call other people.

Since that isn't an option for the Fonic SIM cards, I don't have to worry about it. ;-)

does anyone know if iphone tethering can be used with fonic or is there a limitation (like in Vodafone?)

Tethering works flawlessly.

I'm still thinking of porting my numbers from Vodafone to Solomo, or possibly Fonic (or indeed Lidl Mobile, because it's Fonic with a 25 euro bonus for number porting).

Solomo has had some reliability issues in the past (in addition to being on the crappy E-Plus network) so I haven't used it for a while, but Solomo Pro has fairly ideal pricing - Fonic doesn't have a community tariff, which is its biggest weakness as far as I'm concerned.

Are there any reliability problems with Solomo at present or have these things improved enough for it to be recommended again?

For usage in germany i dont have any issues with Solomo. We have 4 cards within family and friends and use them as the main phone accounts on the mobile (have a netzclub for data though).

In roaming it depends on day and country, most of the time we had a realiable connection, but its a good idea to take a 2nd card with you..

Good, I just remember the one time international calling stopped working on a Friday (all attempted international calls were answered by a "disconnected" message) and Solomo didn't fix it until Monday morning. If that sort of thing isn't happening any more, I'll go for it.

Hello Pre-Paid GSM.

It's been a while since I've used Fonic, but I have one question fairly straight forward.

Can you tell me the appropriate APN settings so I can pre-program my Android Phone?

I've found the : pinternet.interkom.de ..... and the settings on the fonic page.... but if I am not mistaken, shouldn't there also be MNC (mobile Network Code) and a MCC (Mobile Carrier Code) that I should provide? I believe the MNC for german carriers is 262... but what about the MCC for Fonic?

Thanks in advance!