New to Europe: Any Recommendations for Phone and SIM card service?

[manil]

Hey all,

I am living in Europe now for two years. Right now I am in Austria, and will be moving to Italy in 5 months, and Germany in one year.

I need a cell phone, and have been trying to do some research on the best options/solutions. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which SIM card and cell phone would be the most affordable (I am a graduate student ), or even if a contract would be better? I will be mostly calling Austria and the United States, and will text a lot.

Has anyone tried 3ReLoad? I have heard mixed reviews about them. I would have to buy a UMTS phone for that, but the cost per minute is great. Does it have good service/coverage? My roomate has Vectone, and it seems to be expensive.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

Cheers,
Manil

P.S. My roomate is looking for a SIM card to call Ethiopia. He has Vectone, but has trouble connecting and it seems to be overcharging him. It should be 0.29 euro/min for the call then 0.19/min afterwards. Anyone know of a better service?

[9eor9]

How many minutes you'll call per month? Landline? Mobiles?
There are cheap offers with 1000 free minutes under 10€/month in Austria.
Contracts usually go for 1 year, but you'll leave after 5 months.

I prefer a different way: I use a Klax (T-Mobile AT) Prepaid SIM with tariff My Faves activated.
This option is 1€/month basic fee and you can call 5 numbers of your choice (need to be registered on the website t-mobile.at and can be changed after some time) for 1ct/min.
This is possible for landline numbers and also for mobiles.

With this plan I call a VoIP access number, i.e. rynga.com or dialnow.com.
In Germany I use a EDEKA D2 Prepaid SIM with flatrate option (10€/month, Landline and Vodafone) to call the VoIP access. E-Plus has blocked the access numbers!!!
For data I use a second phone and a data SIM, T-Mobile or A1, in Germany blau.

Do not use a Yesss! data Prepaid SIM for data on your phone, they have increments of 6MB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With this option you can call Austria landline for 1-2 ct/min from your mobile, USA the same.

What do you mean with "text a lot?" Emails? SMS?

For Germany you'll find more info here: www.prepaid-wiki.de

[bylo]

Originally Posted by 9eor9

Do not use a Yesss! data Prepaid SIM for data on your phone, they have increments of 6MB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another issue with Yesss! is that their coverage isn't as good as other carriers, especially in more remote parts of the country like in the mountains. When I experienced this first hand, locals said, "Oh yes, you must be using a discount carrier's SIM. We have no problem with A1 or T-Mobile." My Mobal SIM worked fine too, because it roams on both of those carriers.