Question regarding T-mobile Prepaid in Germany
 

So I have a prepaid T-mobile DE sim card. It works fine for voice but does not let me use data. Do I need to do anything to access the data portion of the card? I am using a nokia N82 right now, but in the past have used an unlocked iphone, and a Tmobile SDA and got nothing. Just want to make sure I am not doing something wrong.

I want to add some more time to my card prior to my trip, I was looking at verivox or using Mein Tmobile (both appear to be the same) and wanted to make sure if I put in my US billing address that everything will still work fine because it does not ask for a state or anything. If these sites won't work where can I purchase more minutes in the US?

thanks for your time. glad I found this place.

-Justin

Usually all German SIM cards are ready for data without prior activation. You only need to configure your phone correctly (T-Mobile DE GPRS settings). But I wouldn't use an Xtra card neither for voice nor for data, as it's very expensive (3G/GPRS sessions are billed with 9ct/min). Better go for solomo pro (only available online) or Blauworld (available e.g. at Saturn electronic markets), which both offer data for 24ct/MB and calls to the US for 9ct/min and also way cheaper domestic calling than T-Mobile (solomo is even cheaper than Blauworld).

Have you configured your phones for T-Mobile's APN? The Nokia N82 should automatically configure the right settings, as soon as you insert the German SIM. But maybe the US version does not come with European operator settings, so you may need to request a configuration SMS from https://nokiags.wdsglobal.com/globalJumpPage.html

Credit for T-Mobile DE (so-called "Xtra Cash") is sold at eBay.de or e.g at http://www.cabox.de/index.php?manufacturers_id=6

Thanks for the help, did some sluthing and discovered that the APN settings on the nokia were correct, except they forgot to put the .de on the end of the acesspoint name, added that in and it worked.

How is coverage with the 2 providers you sopke of and do they support 3g? thanks.

-Justin

Both named providers use the eplus network, which has some gaps in coverage in few uninhabited areas, but there's no really big difference (see eplus coverage map). However a disadvantage of eplus is, that they neither support EDGE (but GPRS) nor HSDPA (but regular 3G/UMTS).
In another thread I advised a countryman of you, whose phone doesn't support the European 3G-bands at 2100 MHz, to go for a T-Mobile or Vodafone-based provider as they do at least have EDGE, but your N82 supports European UMTS and so you could get internet access with 384 KBit/s on eplus' 3G-network.
Anyway, if you prefer the T-Mobile network, check my recommendations on this thread, but be ready to be charged € 1-2/min for calls to the US. Except for solomo pro and Blauworld all prepaid providers have crazy international rates.

would anyone be willing to pick me up a blau card for me? I have been looking at ebay.de but cannot find anyone wanting to ship to the US and I cannot signup online as they do not ship to the US. Thanks.

-Justin

I would, but I found out today, that those € 0.24/MB are only valid for customers with the regular Blau SIM (which has high international rates), but not for Blauworld customers.
So solomo is the only option if you need cheap data and international rates.