If you happen to be traveling to Germany, whether on business or pleasure, then you should read on. Did you know that you can buy a pre-paid SIM card that is meant for Germany and you can use your GSM phone along with that card in that country? The SIM card for Germany saves 80% of your communication expenses. To understand this saving, go back to those days when mobiles phones were not available. It was the time when such network did not exist. If you went abroad and stayed in a hotel and had called home or made any local calls, think about the charges that you had paid. Having thought of that, now try to recollect your next visit abroad, when you carried your mobile along with the SIM card provided by your service provider. That cost of calling was in no way that much cheaper than your calls from your hotel. In fact it had cost you more. Each time you called home or a local number, you had to pay roaming charges on top of the usual costs. Not only that, you had to pay for the incoming calls, topping it up with your roaming charges. Do you remember that?

Now, with this pre-paid SIM card for Germany, you do not enter into any contract with your service provider and you do not get a bill at the end of the month. There is lot more coming! All incoming calls are free, regardless where the call generates, and you pay your call charges as the locals do. There is no cost what-so-ever for roaming. When you call home, it is much cheaper than what you would pay if you brought your mobile phone with the roaming facility. More-over, this SIM card gets you a local number. What about the calls received at the mobile you left home? Well, you could leave a voice mail for the caller with a request to be called at your new German number. It is that simple. It brings you a world of convenience on your visit to Germany, when you use a SIM card for Germany, along with economy in your communication expenses.

But there is one thing you would need to know. You got to have a GSM handset available for it to work when you go abroad. Even if you are using a GSM handset at home, it is very unlikely that you would be able to use that abroad. It should ideally be a quad band or atleast a tri-band, remembering that tri-band handsets do not work in certain countries. If you are not a frequent traveler, it is ideal to rent a quad GSM mobile phone and take that with you. For more information on buying a SIM card for Germany, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml and you will find details about renting a GSM quad handset at www.planetomni.com/RENT_INFO.shtml

After you have bought the prepaid SIM card for Germany, its the question now to set-up your mobile. This is what you would generally do:

  • Prior to leaving home, make sure you have enough credit for the SIM card.

  • Make sure you have a quad band mobile handset. If you do not, you may like to rent one.

  • When you reach Germany, open the back of your mobile and insert that SIM card for Germany in your mobile. Put back the cover and switch on your mobile.

  • Place a call to activate your SIM card.

    • One more word about your handset - along with the necessity of being a quad band handset, make sure that the handset you have is not SIM locked. If it is, then none other SIN card will work with that mobile except the one given by your original service provider, where you must have signed a contract of being with them for a certain period of time. An alternative would be to rent a quad band GSM phone and this would be an economical solution for you if you are not a frequent traveler abroad. In such cases you may consider buying such a GSM phone.

    To learn more about what you should do, you can look up http://www.planetomni.com/RENT_INFO.shtml and for buying a better priced SIM card for Germany visit http://www.planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml

    Cell phone use overseas.
    In 99% of the world the local cellular service standard is called GSM. We use this in the states as well. When combined with a SIM CARD (which usually goes under the battery of the phone) the phone is able to communicate and the SIM CARD also holds the telephone number and memory for pre-paid credit. Rates can be extremely low using this system. For example in 99% of all SIM CARDS incoming calls are free and calls to the states can cost a trifle. Such as, from the UK to the USA 7 cents/minute, from Israel 22 cents, from Australia 27 cents. Yes, USA Dollar cents! There are today even prepaid service providers in the USA offering rates of 10 cents per minute to call anywhere in the US to any type of phone. No contracts, no credit card checks, no bills. Pre-paid always means no minimums no contracts, no obligations. You only pay for the calls made. You’ll need an unlocked GSM tri-band or quadband UNLOCKED phone. You can buy factory unlocked phones and sim cards for more than 170 or the 193 countries on earth from http://www.planetomni.com Tel. # 800-514-2984