Roam4Zero?

[andy]

Originally Posted by sng

We are traveling to Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. Which SIM-cards for our GSM compatible phones would work in these three countries for our primary purpose of calling between our two cell phones, and secondary purpose of calling local numbers. Calling USA is unlikely. Should we get SIM-karte when we arrive in Germany (1st country on our itinenary) or get one in USA (for example roam4zero)? I think the latter is UK based and has free incoming calls but we do not know which German (or Czech and Austrian) network is being used to connect. We think that all calls are US $0.50 per minute which is lower than $1.29 to 1.99 rate from Verizon. Our German friend recommend T-mobile and Vodaphone over Telefonica (which may not work in Austria any way). When you recommend SIM-karte, please be specific in name and cost. Thank you very much.

Most of the global SIMs roam on most main networks in many countries, and so too would most single country SIMs, which aren't restricted to needing a network of the same name in the visited country.

It depends a bit on how much use you expect, but if it's more than only a few minutes I'd say that given your preference order, calls between you, then local calls, not much international, I'd say get a pair of local SIMs in each place

In Germany you'd get 3 cents a minute calls to the same network on some brands, including Solomo (order online) or Aldi (supermarket chain), 6 cents local landlines with Solomo, and 9 cents for local landlines and mobiles on several brands

Czech Republic and Austria, I'm not so sure about, but see the National Operators link at the top of the page

I'd be quite tempted by yesss in Austria, but most bramds have calls for single figure cents a minute