[Noisebridge-congress] Data / Cell service and SIM cards in Germany

Fri Aug 7 15:50:48 UTC 2015

Keep in mind the CCC telco network will not provide data, additionally the
service coverage is pretty crappy, only good at Camp, not in Berlin. :p

--
Rubin
rubin at starset.net
On Aug 7, 2015 12:49, "Mitch Altman" <maltman23 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Also, for 5 EUR you can buy a SIM card at CCCamp at the EventPhone table.
> With it you get a 4-digit phone number that works at CCCamp.  (It
> connects with the DECT phone system, where anyone who brings a cordless
> DECT phone can get a free 4-digit phone number for CCCamp.  But, you don't
> need a DECT phone if you buy the SIM card.)
>
> I have a DECT phone.  My number is:  2676  (which spells:  CORN).  You can
> call me on the EventPhone system (with another DECT phone or a mobile phone
> with the 5 EUR SIM card) throughout CCCamp.
>
> Best,
> Mitch.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> From: rubin at starset.net
> Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 11:12:54 +0200
> To: congress at lists.noisebridge.net
> Subject: [Noisebridge-congress] Data / Cell service and SIM cards in
> Germany
>
> Every CCC event I get asked, "How do I German sparkle party cellular
> internet?" and every year I point people to the same place but it's
> generally too late as you're already in Germany and without internet access
> and too fucking high on Mate to figure out how to navigate a website in
> German.
>
> The things you need to know are...
>
> 0 - If you are a T-Mobile US customer, and have a normal non-prepaid
> account, you have free 2G data roaming world wide. Call them to double
> check. In most cases to get this working you simply need to turn on data
> roaming in your phone (which is generally off by default). Keep in mind
> calling while traveling internationally will still cost you an arm and a
> leg. 2G isn't great but it's enough to deal with email and maps. If reading
> 10 more steps is daunting, switching to T-Mobile might be your best bet.
>
> 1 - Bookmark this page, if not this whole site for future travels.
> http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Germany
>
> 2 - If your phone isn't unlocked, or isn't quad band in some form, you're
> fucked. Buying phones from a shitty carrier (such as AT&T) typically means
> its locked and I unfortunately can't help you traverse the hell that it is
> to get it unlocked. Additionally if you're with Sprint or Verizon, your
> phone is most likely not GSM and pretty useless outside of the US, Canada,
> and Japan. Check out this list of which carriers operate on which bands.
> Keep in mind if your phone doesn't do 3G in the bands listed for a provider
> but does to LTE, it will still work but will either be really slow or
> really fast, and suck at coverage when the only thing available is 3G.
> http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Germany#Coverage_and_speed
>
> 3 - You can buy SIM cards almost anywhere. Good spots to get them are
> Media Markts, Saturns, and some of the bigger grocery chains, but you can
> also just walk into a liquor store. You might even end up being lucky at
> the airport and find a kiosk with an English speaker who knows how to help
> travelers.
>
> 4 - The majority of providers you will find are MVNOs, which just lease
> time off of other bigger networks. Check out this handy table for some more
> details on them and costs.
> http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Germany#Survey_of_MVNOs
>
> 5 - Some of these cards will come preloaded with something like €10 - €15
> of credit, however if you don't want to squabble it all being charged per
> megabyte, remember to apply that credit to a data package after registering
> online, before actually plugging in the card and using it.
>
> 6 - After acquiring a SIM card it must be registered. This typically
> happens online, so you must plan on having a laptop (with Google translate)
> with net access after grabbing the card. Trying to register on over wifi on
> your phone is horrible and you will hate life. The majority of the
> providers will ask for a legitimately real German address, and sometimes
> even a valid land line phone number. If you know how to Google you should
> be able to figure this out.
>
> 7 - Many of these providers will allow you to reload the card later online
> through a credit card. Make sure you actually use whatever name you have
> for your credit card as the name for the account with the provider. It's
> still prepaid but they'll use your account name when charging the card, and
> wont let you change it later on when realizing you've painted yourself into
> a corner with a fake name because you're some bad ass hacker from 'Merica.
>
> 8 - You can also buy credit in cash, however I've only once been able to
> find a store selling it for my provider and got it entered in correctly
> into my phone. It's just generally easier to either charge online or buy
> new SIM cards and active one after the previous one runs out of data.
>
> 9 - SIM cards eventually expire. Generally the length of time is 6 or 12
> months. They expire either from non-use, not being topped off, or not
> interacting with the network. None of the carriers list out what their
> criteria is for use, so it's hard to say how you could keep your number and
> SIM active for your next trip. If you want to be an elite h4cker, might I
> suggest looking into Twilio for maintaining a persistent number.
>
> 10 - Before you leave the states, figure out which size of SIM card your
> phone takes (
> http://unevensidewalks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/sim-card-sizes-mini-micro-nano-text-350x237.jpg
> and
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/GSM_Micro_SIM_Card_vs._GSM_Mini_Sim_Card_-_Break_Apart.svg
> ). Keep this in mind when you're shopping for cards, as they'll often come
> in different flavors and not offer all the sizes out of the box. Unless
> you're crafty with a blade or scissors, you might benefit from bringing
> along a cheap SIM card cutter off of Amazon.
>
> With all that being said, I've generally had good luck with Blau. Their
> online registration process used to be horrible but now isn't so bad if
> you're just running the Google translate extension. I believe their SIM
> card starter packs come with €15 credit, €10 of which can go to a 1GB
> package.
>
> Last bit here is a tip. When traveling you will generally use more data
> than when you're at home. This is mainly because you're using more maps and
> searching for more bull shit to go do. Try to precache maps, and turn off
> syncing for things you know you're not using as much (like your work
> email). Setup some sort of monitor on your data usage, so that when you do
> run out it's not a total surprise and you're not suck somewhere wondering
> how the fucking trains work.
>
> --
> Rubin
> rubin at starset.net
>
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