New to Europe: Any Recommendations for Phone and SIM card service?
 

Hey all,

I am living in Europe now for two years. Right now I am in Austria, and will be moving to Italy in 5 months, and Germany in one year.

I need a cell phone, and have been trying to do some research on the best options/solutions. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which SIM card and cell phone would be the most affordable (I am a graduate student :)), or even if a contract would be better? I will be mostly calling Austria and the United States, and will text a lot.

Has anyone tried 3ReLoad? I have heard mixed reviews about them. I would have to buy a UMTS phone for that, but the cost per minute is great. Does it have good service/coverage? My roomate has Vectone, and it seems to be expensive.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Cheers,
Manil

P.S. My roomate is looking for a SIM card to call Ethiopia. He has Vectone, but has trouble connecting and it seems to be overcharging him. It should be 0.29 euro/min for the call then 0.19/min afterwards. Anyone know of a better service?

How many minutes you'll call per month? Landline? Mobiles?
There are cheap offers with 1000 free minutes under 10€/month in Austria.
Contracts usually go for 1 year, but you'll leave after 5 months.

I prefer a different way: I use a Klax (T-Mobile AT) Prepaid SIM with tariff My Faves activated.
This option is 1€/month basic fee and you can call 5 numbers of your choice (need to be registered on the website t-mobile.at and can be changed after some time) for 1ct/min.
This is possible for landline numbers and also for mobiles.

With this plan I call a VoIP access number, i.e. rynga.com or dialnow.com.
In Germany I use a EDEKA D2 Prepaid SIM with flatrate option (10€/month, Landline and Vodafone) to call the VoIP access. E-Plus has blocked the access numbers!!!
For data I use a second phone and a data SIM, T-Mobile or A1, in Germany blau.

Do not use a Yesss! data Prepaid SIM for data on your phone, they have increments of 6MB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With this option you can call Austria landline for 1-2 ct/min from your mobile, USA the same.

What do you mean with "text a lot?" Emails? SMS?

For Germany you'll find more info here: www.prepaid-wiki.de

Another issue with Yesss! is that their coverage isn't as good as other carriers, especially in more remote parts of the country like in the mountains. When I experienced this first hand, locals said, "Oh yes, you must be using a discount carrier's SIM. We have no problem with A1 or T-Mobile." My Mobal SIM worked fine too, because it roams on both of those carriers.