Telestial Passport SIM card
 

Thinking about purchasing the Telestial Passport SIM card for travel in Germany and Austria. Calls should be $.49 per minute plus $.35 connection charge to USA. If anyone has used it I would appreciate knowing your experience. Also, would like to know about other SIM cards that have worked well. I am taking my iPhone and also my old unlocked phone to use this SIM. I don't want to get involved with the ATT international plan. Have set up Skype to use, but need something in case there is no wi-fi. I have an elderly relative that I need to check on each day. Many thanks.

I have used an AceTelecom SIM and had good luck with it in France. I am planning to use it this fall in the Czech Rep and Austria.

Here is a good article from Today's NYTimes:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/08/01...ravel&emc=tda3

There is some good information in the article about iPhone usage in Europe as well as Skype, SIM cards, etc.

Sorry, I forgot the URL for Ace: http://www.acetelecomstore.com/

Good luck and please post back and let us know what you end up using and how well it worked!

The telestial passport sim card is actually from e-kit. The same sim cards are readilly available on ebay...

See http://tinyurl.com/27hue8s

or

http://tinyurl.com/2df75am

I like the first one better......you can go to the forum on www.prepaidgsm.net You will find for the most part people are quite happy with the sim.

Is this a genuine qustion or an advertisement?

In Germany, you can buy a Lidl Mobile / Fonic SIM. Calls to US and Germany are 9ct. SIM costs 10€ and comes with 75 min to USA or elswhere in Europe.
http://www.lidl-mobile.de

In Österreich, you can buy a yesss SIM. Calls to US need a minimum of 20€ recharge per month and must be activated before you start calling, but only cost 4ct. Local calls are 6.8ct

Both also offer cheap data.

logos is the expert on German sim cards...she always give great advice. Of course one of the problems with German sim cards is well I am intimidated by trying to understand and speak German to the telco's.

Now if you were going to Great Britain, I could tell you lots of ways to get British sim cards for free (sure can't beat that price) and make calls to any place outside the UK for 3p/minute (and all calls to either the USA or Canada, even to cell phones, are considered calls to landlines because of the way the US telcvom system is set up...cell phones numbers cannot be distinguished from landline numbers and in the USA and Canada, you pay to both make and receive calls, in the UK only the caller pays hence calls to UK mobiles are more expensive than calls to UK landlines).

That seems like a great web site logos...too bad it's in German <g>...BTW logos, whatever happened to the US$2 for €1...seem to have missed that one. (Best regards though)

logos999, would the SIM on the Lidi mobile work in the Czech Republic and Austria? That seems like such a good deal - but I can't answer all my questions on that website since I don't know German. It seems it can be purchased online. But I can't tell what the cost would be to the U.S. from Austria or CR. Those good rates may only be from Germny.

xyz, it's just been postponed for a few days. The facts won't change, it'll even be worse. :-)

Yes, the Lidl SIM works in those countries too, but there will be incoming and outgoing fees, incoming from anywhere will be 18ct outgoing to the EU will be 47ct. Since the card is really inexpensive and is sold at any Lidl supermarket in Germany (and there are plenty of them) why don't just throw it away when you no longer need it. You lose 2.50€ and gain 9ct rates compared to...

The Austrian SIM is sold at any Hofer (=Aldi) store in Austria. So if you want to make calls longer than a few minutes, each SIM can save you a lot of money. Fonic has the same rates as Lidl but also offer mobile internet (phone or notebook) for 2.50€ per calendar day and a max of 20€ per month, whatever comes cheaper. What you iphone needs!
www.fonic.de

Thanks to all for your help. The AceTelecom card sounds perfect and I will also check out ebay for the Telestial card.
It would be nice to try the German card, but did that a few years ago and we did not do well with everything to read, etc. being in German. Also, the card we had took a couple of days to activate.

blh-Wanted to let you know I decided on the AceTelecom card.
I had a question about the toll free number and called the
company. They had excellent, prompt and "real person" customer service, which is a serious plus to me. They told me the UK SIM was the best purchase for our trip to Austria and Germany. I will try to remember to let you know after the trip how it worked. Thanks again.

This "UK Sim" will not send a (=your) phone number unless you activate it again whenever you call. When activated, it will send a different caller ID than yours but that should usually be enough to make the call go through, even if the people you call have activated a blocker for calls without ID.

logos999-I wish I had even a bit of your phone wisdom. Thanks for the information, although I am not sure I understand what you are telling me. Are you saying the people receiving my call will not get a number they recognize even if I give the number before leaving? I don't understand the "activate it again"

I promise I did not hit one thing near Submit and the message went away!!!!! Let me try again. If the card is activated on first call, how does one activate again? In the past I have had some calls not go to the person because they have unknown calls blocked. I am sure you are shaking your head and wondering about my mentality at this point,sorry, but thanks.
I appreciate you!!!!

>they have unknown calls blocked.
That's the problem. Quite a few people block calls that do not send the number of the person that is calling. The Telestial SIM does not send a number and therefore may be blocked. However it can be set up to send A number, not yours but in many cases this is enough to make the call go through.

So if the call does not get connected, you fist press *31# and dial, you may even get an error message, BUT if you the dial the number you want to reach afer that, the SIM will send a number and the call may be connected. You have to repeat this *31# every time before you make an actual call, if you want the number transmitted.

That's what logos is saying....these UK sim cards usually come from either Jersey or Isle of Man and while in Europe to call out, you use call back (e-kit that I suggested is the same!)....the way it works, don't know if they explained it to you....you dial the number and hang up and wait for a call back when you answer the phone on the callback you will hear a message to the effect your call is going through and it will probably tell you how much credit you have and how long you can talk but it will not (or at least up till now it hasn't) the UK number you are calling on (usually the number transmitted is a +44 2070 number which is a London number (your UK nunber will be in the form +44 7xx (all mobile numbers in the UK start with a 7...unlike in the USA mobile phones are charged differently than land line calls and you can tell from the number if it's a landline or a mobile)...I don't know if it's a big deal. The recipeient will see a +44 number so will probably know it's you....

logos-

The Lidl website says that you have to have a German address to use the card. Can you use a hotel address? The Reichstag...?

I'd guess the number it transmits is the same for every card, it's a UK number, but it's not your real phone number. I believe this "not showing the number" is to prevent the use of other callback services, since incoming is free, people could save a lot by using a callback service that identifies them through their number (=caller ID)?? Anyway, dialing *31# will send a number the next time you make a call.