Germany and France

[wco81]

Originally Posted by chrget

Dialing *100# will give you your current balance as a flash SMS.

See below. It returns a message for me saying I need to send a secret number (Google translation). Will that show me how much data I've downloaded when I loaded some web pages or just show me a raw money balance?

As for GPRS/3G access, you need to make at least one phone call using the SIM first. After that, access will be activated usually in a 1-2 hour timeframe (this somewhat strange procedure was introduced to work around a bug in E-Plus' prepaid billing platform that allowed people to use GPRS without being charged with SIMs that weren't fully activated yet ).

For internet, use the appropriate APN: internet.eplus.de -- AFAIK user id and password don't matter, but eplus / internet is what is documented everywhere. With current day equipment, that should more or less be all you need as far as settings go. How many times and in how many cryptic menues you may have to enter or reference that setting obviously depends on your hardware of choice and should be documented in the manual ...

Regards,
Chris.

[Edit]

P.S.: To top up, it's probably easiest to buy codes and enter them from your mobile. As has been mentioned, regular E-Plus "Free and Easy" codes will work with the medionmobile card as well -- at least currently. This is not officially documented, and may, for all I know, be subject to change without prior notice. For top-up, you can either call 1155 and select menu item 4 (IIRC) or enter the code using *104*CODE# (again IIRC).

OK, I can now say it loads web pages with either E-Plus Internet (APN is internet.eplus.de) or E-Plus WAP (APN is wap.eplus.de). Both seem to load regular web sites, not WAP sites and they both seemed about the same speed.

So you have to buy or get top-up codes, there's no way to enter a credit card on a secure web page to get the codes displayed?

Looks like I get 12 months with either just the starter kit balance or any top-up.

Maybe it's better to let this one lapse because roaming in the EU is suppose to get a lot cheaper in the future right?

[chrget]

Originally Posted by wco81

It returns a message for me saying I need to send a secret number

Obviously your card isn't fully activated yet. You need to dial your voice mail (IIRC 9911). You will be prompted to select a PIN number for that. This will finalize activation. Once activation is finalized, checking balance with either 1155 menu 1 or *100# will work.

Originally Posted by wco81

Will that show me how much data I've downloaded when I loaded some web pages or just show me a raw money balance?

Just the raw balance. For phone calls, 1155 menu 1 will also give access to the cost of the last 5 calls.

Originally Posted by wco81

[...] there's no way to enter a credit card on a secure web page to get the codes displayed?

AFAIK not from the provider. A workaround would be buying codes via a third-party vendor like (I hope I won't get flak for this) Verivox.

Originally Posted by wco81

Looks like I get 12 months with either just the starter kit balance or any top-up.

And as soon as you top up € 15 or better, an additional 12 months, maxing out at 24 months.

Originally Posted by wco81

Maybe it's better to let this one lapse because roaming in the EU is suppose to get a lot cheaper in the future right?

AFAIK medionmobile has already announced lowering their prices to the EU-prescribed levels. As for the rest, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Regards,
Chris.

[wco81]

Posting from my Nokia E61i via Aldi Talk SIM!