Best Data SIM for Germany

[GreyPaint]

In two weeks I'll be spending two weeks in Germany (and a few days in Prauge.) I have a Nokia N95-4 (USA 3G bands, not Euro 3G, but all EDGE bands.) My understanding is that data roaming is extremely expensive.

• AT&T claims $.0195/KB for data in Germany.
• 0044 claims £6.75/Mb ($0.12/KB) for data for their Mobile Monthly plan.
• United Mobile claims an odd $0.65 setup-per-session plus $1.55/MB ($0.002/KB?). Which seems like the lowest if the session is long enough and defined well.

What am I missing? Is there a clear answer for best SIM to buy for using with data over several weeks in Germany?

Thanks.

[Effendi]

Buy a German simcard, you can spend € 0.24/MB (billed at 10KB increments), i.e. 0.0002 €/KB which is a good rate.

[inquisitor]

The missing support of the 2.1-GHz-band in your phone makes it difficult to give you advice. All German discounters, that offer those € 0.24/MB are based either on the eplus network (Aldi talk aka Medion Mobile, Blau, simyo, solomo) or the O2 network (Fonic), which both do not support EDGE yet (O2 has recently started a hesitant EDGE-rollout).

So if you're looking for more than GPRS-speed, you need to go for a T-Mobile or a Vodafone-based provider as only those already provide nationwide EDGE-coverage.
In this case the cheapest providers are either ja!mobil (sold at REWE-supermarkets) or pennymobil (sold at Penny-supermarkets) with € 0.35/MB (after activating the "ja! mobil surf"- respectively the "pennymobil surf" option online or by customer support, otherwise € 0.49/MB is billed) or a plain Vodafone CallYa SIM, through which you can get unlimited web access for 24h for € 4.95 (so called WebSessions).
T-Mobile has a similar offer to the Websessions, but they charge not by 24h but by calendar day, so T-Mobile is less attractive as long as you don't start sessions exactly at midnight.
Fonic (O2-based) will also start a dayflat for € 2.50/day on September 15th and they will sell their SIM bundled with a HSDPA-USB-stick for € 89,95 (http://www.fonic.de/html/surfstick.html). But I don't know if this bundle will be sold at retailers or if it can be ordered online only. Anyway, that's presumably a too big investment for 2 weeks.

[GreyPaint]

Thank you. AT&T turns out to have a decent roaming deal - $30 for 20MB, which should be plenty considering the hotels mostly have WiFi (which the phone also does.) Would you expect the Nokia N95-4 to be able to use AT&T for data roaming?

Thanks

[inquisitor]

For € 30 you can get 30 days of unlimited 3G/GPRS-access, see http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/germ...-30-t4283.html

[VladS]

Do any of the german members happen to have any updates on Fonic's data SIM? Is it available by itself or just with the stick (modem)? Do Lidl stores sell the standalone data SIMs (if available) and/or data kits? Are the regular Fonic refill cards good for the data cards too? Last but not least, can a voice SIM be converted over to the dataplan?

Thanks!

[inquisitor]

Generally there's only one SIM for voice and data and so there are no different topup vouchers. The difference is only the initial data tariff: While those SIMs sold bundled with the USB-dongle come with the dayflat-tariff activated, for regular SIMs the volume-based € 0.24/MB-tariff applies.
But you can switch between the data tariffs for free by contacting customer care. I've done that with my SIM before.
However neither data bundles nor SIMs with dayflat tariff activated are sold at Lidl or other retailers.