new data only sim ROAMLINE

[fsotirop]

Originally Posted by tux

Ordered one yesterday.

me2 today!

[Bossman]

With AT&T's roaming data packages now restructured, for the occasional use, it makes sense for an AT&T customer to just sign up for one of those. For me, I will just sign up for the $30/125 MB package when we go to Montego Bay, Jamaica for 7 days at the end of the month. Plus, the resort has WiFi. I personally do NOT see a need for these data roaming sims. With the data roaming rates in the EU, it will not be much useful there either.

Originally Posted by Stu

I am grandfathered on ATT's global roaming plan for iPhones and I have unlimited worldwide including cruise ships. The problem is that I get GPRS style speeds. It is good enough to get your email or possibly push out a text message using a virtual SMS serviced, but it is not even EDGE style speeds. I haven't tried cruise ships yet. I can tell you that last year I was in Mr. Newcomb's part of the world and I even had included data on the carrier which covered the Gulf of Mexico (catering mostly to drilling rigs).

Additionally, iPhonetrip.com offers unlimited data on these services.

[inquisitor]

You can definitely buy a German Aldi SIM as a foreigner (anything different would violate the freedom of services within the EU) but you'll need to provide a German address as their activation system does not support foreign addresses. In contrast to Fonic/Lidl I haven't heard of Aldi sending out confirmation letters to the provided address, so I believe you can provide just some arbitrary existing address.

As of recharging prepaid-wiki.de says that Aldi SIM cards can be recharged by bank transfers to eplus (who actually run German AldiTalk like the Belgian AldiTalk service is run by KPN Belgium) like it works for eplus' prepaid service called "Free & Easy" (described here).
Following this information you should be able to recharge your German Aldi SIM card by transfering the desired amount to the following bank account:

payee: E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co.KG
IBAN: DE07300400000121790001
BIC: COBADEDDXXX
reference:

Recharges by bank transfer prolong validity of your SIM card as follows:
< € 0.10 = no prolongation
>= € 0.10 = 3 days
> € 1 = 1 month

So you can test this method by transferring a cent or so. Once your payment has been received and the amount has been accredited to your account you'll receive an SMS confirming the recharge.

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Following this information you should be able to recharge your German Aldi SIM card by transfering the desired amount to the following bank account:

payee: E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co.KG
IBAN: DE07300400000121790001
BIC: COBADEDDXXX
reference:

Recharges by bank transfer prolong validity of your SIM card as follows:
< € 0.10 = no prolongation
>= € 0.10 = 3 days
> € 1 = 1 month

So you can test this method by transferring a cent or so. Once your payment has been received and the amount has been accredited to your account you'll receive an SMS confirming the recharge.

This is actually very nice. So to put the card to sleep when you ony use it once a year, just to be sure, you transfer 1 euro every month and the card stays active?

Hmm, I'm leaving this friday for a holliday. Anybody so kind to buy some cards and mail me?

Maybe I just drive to Germany this afternoon.

Yves

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by ygeffens

This is actually very nice. So to put the card to sleep when you ony use it once a year, just to be sure, you transfer 1 euro every month and the card stays active?

It's even more convenient because with higher recharges validity will be prolonged for longer:
€ 5 = 4 months
€ 15 = 12 months
€ 30 = 24 months

Also after these terms have been exceeded (so-called "Aktivitätszeitfenster"), your SIM card will remain reachable for another two months during which you can fully re-activate your SIM card by a recharge.
Some additional info in German can be found at ALDI TALK ? Prepaid-wiki

Hmm, I'm leaving this friday for a holliday. Anybody so kind to buy some cards and mail me?

I won't make it to an Aldi store before tomorrow and according to Deutsche Post letters to Belgium take 2-3 days, so there's the risk of the SIM card not arriving in time. If you still want me to get you a SIM card, drop me a PM and we will try.

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

I won't make it to an Aldi store before tomorrow and according to Deutsche Post letters to Belgium take 2-3 days, so there's the risk of the SIM card not arriving in time. If you still want me to get you a SIM card, drop me a PM and we will try.

Thanks for the offer, I couldn't take that chance so I went to Germany today to pick up a card

I registered it but it still says no service, maybe I'll just have to be patient?

Yves

[inquisitor]

I've just realized that the reference is not being displayed above since I used arrow brackets that were deleted by the forum software. The reference when recharging a German Aldi SIM must be your Aldi phone number (e.g. 01771234567).

[inquisitor]

I have no experience with Aldi but according to some German forum postings activation may take a couple of hours.
Did you really drive some 180km from Arendonk to Germany and back just for a SIM card?

[ygeffens]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

I have no experience with Aldi but according to some German forum postings activation may take a couple of hours.
Did you really drive some 180km from Arendonk to Germany and back just for a SIM card?

I did indeed (actually Herentals/BE->Selfkant/DE->Arendonk/BE)
Call me nuts, I won't blame you.
The card became active by now.

Just trying to figure out what APN to use, I found 3 different APNs, depending on the tarif option, strange.
BTW: do you know how long a session lasts? access is billed by 10kb, but if I transfer 2kb and another 2kb 15 minutes after the first access, does this make 20kb or just 4kb ? I couldn't find this on the site.

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by ygeffens

I did indeed (actually Herentals/BE->Selfkant/DE->Arendonk/BE)
Call me nuts, I won't blame you.

I'm glad I'm not the only patient suffering from this disease.

Just trying to figure out what APN to use, I found 3 different APNs, depending on the tarif option, strange.

tagesflat.eplus.de is only used for the dayflat which is only offered while in Germany. For all other tariffs including the roaming pack use internet.eplus.de
What is the third one you found? wap.eplus.de? Forget about that one as it is designed for archaic WAP phones.

BTW: do you know how long a session lasts? access is billed by 10kb, but if I transfer 2kb and another 2kb 15 minutes after the first access, does this make 20kb or just 4kb ? I couldn't find this on the site.

According to ALDI TALK ? Prepaid-wiki sessions are billed in 10kb increments. Unless you don't interrupt the session you would be billed for 10kb in your example.
These rounding ups should only occur if the session is being interrupted or after the billing system decides to (no experience on this issue either, but I guess at least once a day).