Thinkpad & iPhone travelling thru Europe & Canada: Prepaid GSM & Data HELP!
 

Thinkpad & iPhone travelling thru Europe & Canada: Prepaid GSM & Data HELP!
Thinkpad+iPhone thru Europe+Canada: PrepaidGSM & Data HELP
Thinkpad & iPhone travel thru Europe & Canada: Prepaid GSM & Data Help

I’ll be traveling through
Europe (24th June – 8th July), mostly Germany (Berlin, Bad Antogast) but maybe entering Europe via Brussels, Belgium etc.
Canada (8th July – 17th July), mostly Montreal
Frankfurt (18th – 19th July).

I have an unlocked & jailbroken iPhone 4 & Thinkpad T61 & X61T. (If not MicroSIM, I have cutter, but do mention)

What would be my best options for? : Hardware & Service Providers.

Prepaid GSM:
Calling & SMS Rates for > Local, Across Europe, International (India, US, Canada) Numbers:

Data/Internet access via iPhone:
Data (GPRS/EDGE/3G?):
via iPhone
Options of Unlimited Data/ Fixed amount Limited Data/ or Weekly Unlimited/ Daily Unlimited data.. etc?

Internet Access via Laptop:

Option 1:
3G/4G Unlocked Data Card + SIM for Data Access via Laptop:
Which are best Data Cards for Europe – Internal (Thinkpad) or External (USB/PCMCIA/Express)

AND/OR

Option 2:
If a pre-paid SIM provides access to 3G/4G data via tethering with iPhone 4 (I can install iPhone tethering enablers from Cydia etc & Configure the IPCCs if the right app or tutorial is pointed out).
This saves me having to buy a Data Card. Also, I’ll have lesser time to access my laptop so via iPhone is the best option.

GUIDE PLEASE:
Please guide for mainly Germany & Canada even if you don’t know all of the above. Whatever you know / understand.

ALSO: Any Navigation/ GPS App recommendations for Europe welcome.. But not critical :)

Unfortunately, there aren't yet any GSM/UMTS-based prepaid data options for Canada that really make any sense. Some Canadian providers are starting to provide reasonably attractive Canadian roaming if you buy a specific Canada/US data package; perhaps your US provider has something similar. (Only in the past year or so have any US carriers implemented affordable data on prepaid, and Canada is a little behind.)

I'll let the others comment on Germany, but odds are good that there is something quite good there. Most European countries have very affordable prepaid data plans.

You may wish to also consider WiFi roaming via BoingoMobile.