Roaming in Greece

[m25man]

It's half term and I got away for a few days, here in Rhodes Orange Data Roaming is £2.55 per Mb plus vat....

I spent £50 in two days just checking my email.

There are a few bars offering open access wifi but most are carefully set up to radiate only within the bar itself and with a beer @3.50€ you could spend a fortune getting drunk whilst surfing the web.

 

Luckily we brought with us an unlocked HTC 3 Branded MiFi with us but just finding a shop to purchase a no contract sim was a challenge.

 

Fortunately after a 2hr boat trip to a remote island called Simi I stumbled off the ferry straight into a mobile phone shop with a really helpful local who sold me a Wind 3G Sim for 5€ and added a 2gb 7day mobile Internet package for 20€

 

Everybody here got caught by mobile roaming charges, except our party all iPad/iphoned up sharing our 2gb wifi hotspot.

 

Since Monday I have also found a Vodafone visitor package for 19€ for 10days (5€ for the Sim) the guys in the shop will give you the APN settings which is all we needed they activate the sim for you in the shop.

 

So don't get caught out, take an unlocked MiFi and a local Internet sim pack!

[bodminman]

I'm off to Zante next month so this post is excellently timed for me!

 

Muchas Grassyass

[m25man]

The official Wind.gr Dealer for Zante is,

33 AL.Roma 29100 Zakinthos Town, this is the road along the Waterfront

 

Zante isn't that big so I'm sure you'll find it.

 

You need your passport or photo drivers license to link the SIM registration to.

 

Greece: Cheep 3G Mobile Internet access via pay-as-you-go | Website Traffic

Edited June 5, 2011 by m25man
Link to external article

[m25man]

Well fellow Geeks, my Greek Wind 12Gb 7 Day Non-Stop mobile data Plan ran out at midnight on the 7th day so my next challenge was how to get a top up!

 

Here in Rhodes I found the Wind Dealer about 150 yards down the road from the Vodafone dealer in Archangelos.

They had never seen a MiFi before, so it was a joint effort as I couldn't read Greek and He didn't read English so we managed to sort it between us!

I'm pretty happy with how it all works now but these are the vital points...

Use the Wind website to find the closest dealer to where your staying in Greece or the Islands.

There is at least one dealer on each Island as this is where the locals pay their bills or top up PAYG.

Take your passport or photo ID to the Wind Shop, you need this to buy the SIM but it is not needed for top ups.

You by a data sim which costs €9 and had a 500mb non expiring credit available on it.

You then buy an Non-Stop Internet Pack either 2 Days (3Gb) or 7 Days (12Gb)

The dealer takes your cash and adds the credit to the Phone Number of the SIM... This is where it's important.

The number they need to add any credit is on the sticker that seals the SIM envelope!

YOU NEED TO KEEP THE PACKET THAT THE SIM COMES IN OR AT LEAST PHOTOGRAPH IT WHEN YOU BUY THE SIM PACK!

Do not loose it.

Fortunately the wife is far more sensible than me, so when it came to top up she had it covered, I heard other stories about tourists being stitched up and having to buy another SIM well that's why no number no top up!

If you plan to cut down your SIM and fit it directly into your iPAD make sure you are going to be able to send the activation SMS requests from the iPad or iPhone first.

 

The correct APN settings are:- gint.b-online.gr

 

Our party all used the MiFi all of the time, Facebook email and even VPN and RDP Sessions, we even used it in the car for SatNav and on the boat with GPS.

If your travelling to Greece I would recommend it as my Roaming Data Charges for the same usage on my home network Orange would have been over £2000.00 plus VAT

 

Wind - ADSM

 

With the summer holidays well underway I hope that fellow geeks will benefit from this little post..

Edited June 7, 2011 by m25man
Added APN Info