Prepaid GSM in Switzerland, UK and Germany

[reverendo]

Hi there,
this is my first post here.
I'm trying to find out if I can buy one sim card, preferably in Germany, in order to make calls and, especially, have a data plan in Switzerland, UK and Germany. I'll be staying for 2 weeks in the UK, 1,5 weeks in Swizterland and 4 days in Germany. At the moment I am in Riehen, very near to the German border.
Any help will be welcome, since I don't want to pay roaming, if that's possible.
Best regards
André

[petkow]

How many calls and how much data do you anticipate using and in which of your 3 countries? If it's anything more than a few Megabytes in one of the visiting countries (not the country where you bought the SIM), then I think you are much better off with 3 individual national SIM's. The cost of buying SIM's is negligible.

[reverendo]

Hi Petkow,
thanks for helping out.
I believe that I will be using very little data, more for e-mails. I believe I'll use more data in the UK. I won't be using the phone much either, it's just so I have a number which I can be contacted and sometimes call from.
Maybe I'll tether the phone with my mini-tablet in the UK, since I might be more on the road there.
Hope you can help me out.
best regards
André

[inquisitor]

Hi André,

For Switzerland check out Switzerland - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access.

"Sunrise Surf" (CHF 7.50/month for 250MB + CHF 0.10/MB for exceeding volume) will probably meet your requirements. The SIM costs CHF 19.90 including CHF 20.00 of credit. I've recently written a detailed article about it at Switzerland - Sunrise - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access.

For four days in Germany I think Fonic with their daily flatrate for € 2.50/calendar day or their monthly flatrate (throttled after 200MB) for € 9.90/30 days could be interesting. Their SIM is sold for € 9.90 with at least € 6.75 of credit. Until July 4th it's even € 13.50 and you can get a bonus of another € 5 as described at: Germany - Fonic - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access (see step 7 under "activation")

Regarding the UK, there's a recent thread on this board: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/euro...d-data-uk.html

Unfortunately there's no single product, that could provide reasonable data rates in all three countries.

[90180360]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

For four days in Germany I think Fonic with their daily flatrate for € 2.50/calendar day or their monthly flatrate (throttled after 200MB) for € 9.90/30 days could be interesting. Their SIM is sold for € 9.90 with at least € 6.75 of credit.

ALDI TALK might also be an option.
1.99 per 24h or 14.99 per month, capped at 1 and 5 GB respectively.
Sim is sold for 12.99 with 10.- credit.

(Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with this offer.)

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by 90180360

ALDI TALK might also be an option.
1.99 per 24h or 14.99 per month, capped at 1 and 5 GB respectively.
Sim is sold for 12.99 with 10.- credit.

(Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with this offer.)

Aldi talk is realized through the eplus network, which is by far the worst we have in Germany. It does not support HSUPA and in the VERY FEW places, where HSDPA is supported already, download bandwidth is throttled to ~ 1.5 MBit/s . Further it is permanently on high load resulting in transfer rates comparable to analogue modems - no matter if you use their GSM or UMTS network. So believe me - it really pays off spending a bit more for Fonic or Tchibo and so getting real broadband through the O2 network.

[90180360]

Ok, thanks, I didn't know.

[90180360]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

For Switzerland check out Switzerland - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access.

"Sunrise Surf" (CHF 7.50/month for 250MB + CHF 0.10/MB for exceeding volume) will probably meet your requirements. The SIM costs CHF 19.90 including CHF 20.00 of credit. I've recently written a detailed article about it at Switzerland - Sunrise - Prepaid Wireless Internet Access.

If you use VERY LITTLE data, M-Budget-Mobile (0.10/MB) might be the better option.

(Disclaimer: I have no personal experience with this offer.)