[markus]

Small update, 2 new countries and success in Germany.

Slovenia

Had the pleasure of visiting Slovenia for the first time in my life this summer, two times in fact. Bought Tusmobil from one kiosk in Ljubljana. As far as I understood, Tus "group" includes many supermarkets and gas stations, which also sells Tusmobil products. Most other gas stations also sold talking time for Tusmobil, so no problems there. Card was easy to buy and required no ID or activation. Data connection worked fine and price wasn't bad either. Only problem is 90day activation period, no idea when I will go there again.. So don't charge too much.

Germany

Visited Germany again in June and bought Aldi Talk from Aldi supermarket in Berlin. Got the starter envelope from cashier and didn't have to show ID. Registered card online (used hotel's address and landline number) and card was activated after few hours. Have been using it later on too, prices are not bad and everything works fine like most things (if not all) in Germany.

Italy

First visit to Italy was really horrible. Came from Slovenia and decided to visit Trieste first. Asked some police officers if they knew where nearest Wind shop is. Of course they "knew" and showed me the location of one department store on the map. Got there and found all the other providers, but not Wind. Asked if they had ever had Wind shop, no. Didn't spend more time looking for one, headed to Venice. Asked hotel staff there if they know where Wind shop is, and got location on map. It was on the other end of the island. Luckily got there in time, bought 2 cards. I had generated local "social security code" before hand at home (help on this forum is much appreciated). Helpful guy told that he tries to get the card activated early next morning (he said he must FAX the "agreement" to Wind). Well, it didn't work out and as I had to leave to Austria following evening, I couldn't use the card I bought! The whole purpose of prepaid card is to be easy and fast activation, clear that Italians doesn't think that way.

Card was anyway activated before my next trip, and I had working Italian number when I crossed the Italian border, huh! I had written down the exact activation procedure for "flat rate data packet", but I didn't get reply saying it has been activated. Instead I got message in Italian saying it will take up to 48 hours! It wasn't exactly the reply I wanted to get, as I had planned only one night stay in Italy in hotel which didn't have wifi (most hotels in other countries have wifi, but not Italian ones.. ones I have tried. As most things have taken more time than promised in Italy, I didn't hope for any miracles to happen, but data packet was in fact activated after few hours. And when it finally was activated, it worked well. In fact, really well. Had a plan to visit Italy again this month, but didn't, so must deactivate it now..

Phone update

I have used E90 lately. Except poor battery life and size, it's perfect. Has good keyboard and big screen. What is of course most important, MSN, email, web and Google Maps all work fine (Google Maps really well with build-in GPS). I also like mini-USB port, because now I can use same cable for both my phone and camera. And if I ever lose or forget the cable, new can be bought almost anywhere for few euros (and many have spare cables anyway). Only bad thing is that it's not possible to charge either camera or E90 via USB.