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Jun 28 2009, 10:40 AM EDT inquisitor 2 words added, 1 word deleted
Jun 28 2009, 10:34 AM EDT inquisitor

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Overview:
In Germany, supermarket discounter Aldi, to be found in most cities and villages in Germany, offers a prepaid GSM/UMTS SIM card which runs under the name of "MedionMobile". In addition to reasonable prices for voice calls (13 cents a minute to all fixed and wireless destinations in Germany), the SIM card offers an attractive prepaid Internet access for low to medium or daily usage.
The SIM card itself can be bought in any Aldi discouter for 10 or 15 euros with 5 or 10 euros of prepaid balance already included.
Alditalk is using the eplus network, which does not provide HSDPA, but just regular UMTS with 384 KBit/s and eplus also suffers from frequent congestions on their 2G- as well as 3G-network, which resultsmay result in low data throughput and in inability to place and receive voice calls.


Data Tariffs:
There are three alternatives:
  • volume-based billing: € 0.24/MB, billed in increments of 10 kb. (APN to use: internet.eplus.de)
  • dayflat: € 1.99/day, bandwidth throttled to 56 KBit/s after exceeding 1 GB per day (APN to use: tagesflat.eplus.de)
  • monthly flat: € 14.99/30 days, bandwidth throttled to 56 KBit/s after exceeding 5 GB per calendar month (APN to use: internet.eplus.de)

Activation of Data Options:

  • volume-based billing: activated by default
  • dayflat: just use the appropriate APN: tagesflat.eplus.de
  • monthly flat: send the following USSD-command and use APN internet.eplus.de :
    • activate: *121*004#
    • cancel: *122#
    • check status: *123#

Roaming Prices:

  • In the EU: 0.19 euros per 100 kb block.
  • Outside of the EU (including Switzerland!): 0.49 euros per 100 kb block.
  • For details on prices and roaming countries see 4) and 5) of this document

How to buy Top up Cards:
Only in Aldi shops, 15 Euros or 30 Euros available.


SIM activation:
It is required to go online once and register with a German postal address (no ID card number required). The SIM card will then be activated within a couple of minutes.

Misc:


  • All services are open, e.g. web surfing, SMTP and POP3 works just fine.
  • APN to use: internet.eplus.de for volume-based billing and monthyl flat or tagesflat.eplus.de for dayflat, username: eplus, password: eplus
  • Medion Mobile is a MVNO and uses the German E-PLUS GSM and UMTS network. The UMTS network is 3G only (no HSDPA at this time). GSM is pure GPRS, no EDGE capabilities.

Links:
http://www.medionmobile.de/content2009/mi_flatrates.htm
Medion Mobile
Test on Martin's Mobile Technology Page
Dayflat Info (in German)