Germany pre-paid SIM cards

[crozzfire]

Hi, I'm a student from India, and I'm headed to Germany during the summer of 2009 for 3 months for a summer internship (yeah, talk about recession!). I have a low bandwidth GSM handset (Samsung C170), and I'm still pondering whether I shud carry it with me all the way over there. I was thinking of renting a handset and getting a prepaid SIM card with minimal talktime, say about 10 EUR so I can recharge if I run out of talk value. What are my options? Is it cheaper to rent-a-mobile with SIM card, or do I purchase one so I can continue to use it after my internship period in India? And which service provider is the best for me? Some guys I talked to suggest O2, as it has free incoming and cheap call rates for local and international calls... Is there something called a bundle offer, by which I get a handset for rent along with an O2 prepaid SIM with some initial talk value that I can recharge later? I'll be needing it mostly only for calls and SMSes, as I'll be having an internet connection in my place of stay. Or do u suggest I carry my Samsung all the way over there? Please help...

[inquisitor]

Originally Posted by crozzfire

I have a low bandwidth GSM handset (Samsung C170), and I'm still pondering whether I shud carry it with me all the way over there.

As you are talking about bandwidth - do you want to access the web through your mobile?

I was thinking of renting a handset and getting a prepaid SIM card with minimal talktime, say about 10 EUR so I can recharge if I run out of talk value. What are my options?

You will hardly find a company renting out mobile phones or SIM cards here, as phones and SIMs are cheap. So if you don't want to use your Samsung, you'll need to buy a phone here. There are really cheap bundles of phones and SIM cards, but they do have SIMlocks and come with expensive tarrifs.

Is it cheaper to rent-a-mobile with SIM card, or do I purchase one so I can continue to use it after my internship period in India?

The smartest way would be purchasing a SIM and if required an unlocked phone separately, because all bundles are locked and have bad rates.

And which service provider is the best for me?

That depends on your usage. If you want to call India from your mobile, solomo pro would be the cheapest (€ 0,15/min to India). If you are planning to call only within Germany, others would be cheaper and if you want to access the web from your mobile it again depends on the data volume you will generate per month.

Some guys I talked to suggest O2, as it has free incoming and cheap call rates for local and international calls..

Incoming calls are always free with Europen operators as long as you are in the SIM's country of origin. O2 itself doesn't offer any cheap international rates, but their subsidiary "Fonic" does. However India costs € 0,99/min with them, so neither of them is a good choice for you.

Is there something called a bundle offer, by which I get a handset for rent along with an O2 prepaid SIM with some initial talk value that I can recharge later?

As mentioned above there are no rental offers available here.

I'll be needing it mostly only for calls and SMSes, as I'll be having an internet connection in my place of stay. Or do u suggest I carry my Samsung all the way over there? Please help...

If you just want to call and text to India, take your Samsung with you and use solomo pro. Solomo pro SIMs are currently sold for € 5 incl. € 5 of credit. If you order through this link you'll get an additional bonus of € 5 (and so will I). Please notice that only solomo pro has those cheap international rates, while solomo 0/8/5 is expensive for international calls. So when ordering chose solomo pro.
The only problem is, that solomo do not sell recharge vouchers through retailers, so it can be recharged by credit card and bank transfer only. Also SIM cards can only be purchased online and delivered within Europe.
If you can't recharge through these ways, blauworld would be another option, however they charge € 0,19/min to India + a connection fee of € 0,19/min for each call. blauworld can be recharged by "E-Plus Cash Cards", which are sold everywhere (supermarkets, kiosks, gasstations etc).

[Motel75]

Second what Inquisitor said. You can get a prepaid phone and SIM in Germany for as little as 5 euro, and for example the standard Vodafone 5/15 tariff is perfectly fine for calling within Germany (there are cheaper SIM-only offers, of course). However, if you want to place cheap international calls, Solomo is the way to go - you'll need a phone for the SIM, so either bring yours with you or buy an unlocked one (places like Saturn and Media Markt usually have a basic unlocked Nokia for about 25 euros).

And don't even think about renting a phone - the only companies that do this are a ripoff for foreigners who don't know any better. A colleague came to visit from the US and rented a phone for 40 euros a week - it was the same prepaid deal you can get in the shops (at the time there were prepaid packages everywhere for 20 euros or less). And she obviously had to give it back at the end to avoid being charged a lot of money to "replace" it.

[inquisitor]

I just realized, that by "low bandwidth" you mean the frequency bands your phone supports. No worries, your phone supports both GSM bands, which are used in Germany, i.e. GSM 900 and 1800.
Beyond these both GSM bands we also have UMTS (aka 3G) at 2100 MHz in Germany, but that's irrelevant as long as you don't want to access the web from your mobile.