Greece HSPA (prepaid and postpaid offers)

[timmfive]

Quick update on Wind PAYG data offers.
Seems they are now doing 300MB for €8.5, and 1500MB for €14.
APN: gint.b-online.gr

On their english website, under prepaid, in "Super Offers"
http://www.wind.com.gr/en/for-indivi...obile/prepaid/
It mentions that activating the 300MB package will give you 600MB.
"Now with Talk & Surf 300, you get 600’, 600 SMS and 600 MB for just €8.5!"
But the address of the link looks like it was an "Xmas package" or something.
So this offer might be out of date, as sometimes their english websites are lagging behind the greek version of the same website.

10 minutes ago I texted "300MB" to 1210, and offer went through.
(But when I text "YP" to 1210, not clear whether I was given 300MB or 600MB... seems like I was given 500MB!?...)

Anyway, hope this helps.
Tim

[kalico]

I'm just back from the Ionian and can report the following:

I researched all the networks and for this part of Greece it seems that Cosmote is by far the best network. It is almost constantly 3G.

I was told in a Wind shop that their network is not 3G.

Vodafone had an offer on a 3G SIM but nothing came close to the Cosmote "Internet on the go" offer. This gives 2 options when you buy it:-

1. SIM only. Costs €20 and comes with €20 of credit.

2. SIM and USB dongle. Costs €40 and comes with €20 of credit plus the first month included.

You'll need a passport to get the offer. It takes a little while to activate and the SIM card you get will have a PIN on it.

You have a number of options for data allowance and period, which you choose via their website. It starts at €5 for 1 day and 1GB. I took the 10 days and 2GB option, which is €15. Bargain if you ask me. The 3rd option is a 30 day offer with 5GB.

There are 2 things of which you should be aware:

First, when you top up, be sure to ask for "Cosmote Internet on the go" and not just a regular Cosmote (or Cosmokarta) top-up. They are different and the code you get for regular Cosmote will not work with Cosmote IOTG.

Second, if you get the SIM only, don't be fooled by the settings of the access point. My laptop installed it as 3G automatically, but this repeatedly would not work. When I set it up manually to be just GPRS, then no problem - it connected and also at 3G speeds.

Full HSPA was supported. Skype did work, but I found it could be variable and disconnected fairly frequently.

I hope this helps someone.

[timmfive]

I agree with Kalico above:
Cosmote is probably the best mobile internet for USB dongles.

I was in a place, and couldn't find the Cosmote or Germanos shop, so went Vodaphone.

Here is my experience so far:
Initial setup was more expensive (€50 for dongle + 2G/20day data).
Top ups were also more expensive (€20 for 2G/20day data).
However, the 20 days versus Cosmote 10 days justified it for me. (ie: I find I usually run out of time before I run out of data)
Why they put such aggressive time limits on such a small data cap is crazy...

- - - - -

Anyway, just noticed today a summer offer on their website:
K????Internet | Internet ?? ????? Vodafone ?????Internet - Vodafone.gr

New users Vodafone KartoInternet
-> Promo pack & USB modem - 35 €
A USB wireless access modem K3770 which allows for connection speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, SIM Card, Free access to the Internet for 15 days.

-> Owners of a USB modem
devicekartointernet Connection pack - 15 €
Select this pack if you already have a wireless modem and do not need additional equipment. The pack includes: SIM card, Free access to the Internet for 15 days!

- - - - -

Hahaha... I love this "free access to the internet for 15 days"... WTH? I just paid you €15... so why is it free?

Anyway, so the €35 USB modem + 15day internet is pretty competitive.
Not sure how many Gigabytes they are allowing in 15days... hopefully 2Gigs.
Will let you know when/if I top up again.

The coverage has been good. There has only been one place that wasn't 3G. (Note: Cosmote had 3G in that location).

I've only run Speedtest on it twice: average is ~3M down, 0.75M up, 160ms ping.

Yeah.. stay away from WIND if you want 3G. Wind's data is the cheapest.... I have it on my phone... but very rare to get 3G. And honestly... GPRS (2.5G) is so slow: 57k down, 28k up. The Facebook app barely works on GPRS. Ok for email though, and "always on" data. But would be useless on an ipad or USB dongle, etc.

Hope this helps.

[hubel]

Hi, does anyone know if it is possible to purchase a Cosmote Internet sim card at Rhodes Airport? I'll be going there soon and it would be great if it was easy to get one on arrival.

Thanks

[fsotirop]

the wider HSPA coverage in Greece is offered by Cosmote.

[caliston]

Stupid question... are all the 'internet on your phone' tariffs clean internet, or do we still have mangling proxies, port blocks etc etc? So will apps like SSH and Skype work?

[timmfive]

no proxies, packet filtering, throttling, etc.
SSH will defo work.
Skype will work good, providing you have some solid 3G bandwidth.
Good luck!

[DaveRo]

I've been reviewing what Cosmote and Wind are offering for prepaid data:

• COSMOTE Internet Monthly Pass 60 – 60MB for €3
  
• COSMOTE Internet Monthly Pass 200 - 200MB for €5
  
• WIND Talk & Surf 300 – 300MB for €8.50

It says you can buy the Cosmote bundles as many times as you like - until it runs out. I don't know about the Wind one - you may be limited to one per month.

[wwbusch]

Hi guys (and ladies),

Does anybody knows if its possible to buy a prepaid sim at the Thessaloniki Airport? I am staying in sommer two weeks in Sarti which seems to has no cellphone shops...

Thanks Wolf.

[DaveRo]

Originally Posted by wwbusch

Does anybody knows if its possible to buy a prepaid sim at the Thessaloniki Airport? I am staying in sommer two weeks in Sarti which seems to has no cellphone shops...

I don't know, I've never been there, but you will need to register the SIM against your passport which is a computer-based process. So it needs a phone shop, not a kiosk. As well as shops owned by Cosmote (or OTE), Wind, etc look out for Germanos electronics shops which can sell Cosmote cards.

Good luck.