Hey all, Are there prepaid GSM (900/1800) cards available in the CR? The idea is that I could buy a few hundred Kč worth of connection time, a local number with no charge for receiving incoming international calls and preferably also inexpensive text messaging. Of course, a possibility to make international calls would be a bonus (I think most such cards in Estonia don't allow it). Any suggestions welcome, thanks in advance. Henrik
I don't understand your question. But the best possibility for calling abroad from the Czech republic is using prepaid phone account SMARTCALL : http://www.smartcall.cz/en The quality of connection is very good even for calling to New Zealand. You can use it also for calling to mobile phones or for calling within Czech republic too. You can use it from any fixed phone and the expences goes from your account.
Thanks, but this is not really what I had in mind. I would just like to have a local Czech mobile phone number that people can call to, but I don't want to subscribe to a contract service. The way this works in many countries is that from any newsstand or store you can buy a GSM card, which is ready for use right away and has some calling minutes with it, depending of course on the price of the package. I can then use it as I would use any normal GSM service and when I run out of credit, I can purchase more and add it to be used with the same card and number. H.
You sure can get it - as far as I know, there are three main providers in CR: Oskar (or Vodafone), Eurotel and T-Mobile. You just buy a GSM card with local phone number (you can also get roaming for international calls) and when you run out of credit, you can 1. buy a card in any grocery store or tobacconist´s and add the money on your cell phone, 2. recharge it using your ATM card and ATM machine of a bank (I guess most of them offer the service now). I am using Oskar service with so-called Oskarta (the cheapest card is 500.00 Kc) , but some other people might have better experience with other providers.
I bought old cell phone from someone very inexpensively and all I have to do is to take it to Tabaco store to recharge it from time to time. I do not pay any mothly fee so I just leave it there till I come to Prague next time. If that is what you have in mind, then you can buy used cell phone there. Not sure though how it would work for out of country calls.
In Ireland we call this a Pay-as-you-Go SIM card. Here you can buy one for 10 euro, which already has 10 euro call credit on it - effectively it's free! All three networks in Czech republic are GSM 900/1800 btw If you want to swap the Czech SIM card with the one in your own phone, just be sure your phone isn't 'locked' by your home network When I was in Prague last time, I took my Irish pay-as-you-go mobile phone, and although I couldn't make calls, I could receive calls and also receive and send texts! Although every time I sent a text, it cost about 35 cent (normally about 10 cent in Ireland) and obviously I was charged for receiving roaming texts too So if you are going to Prague with a pay-as-you-go mobile be sure you have plenty of credit if you want to send/receive texts
Telefónica Eurotel Go packs - http://www.mobilgo.cz/jnp/en/goPacks/index.html (small Go pack: 495 Kč = 300 Kč credit + 50 Kč if you fill a form) Vodafone Oskarta - http://www.oskarmobil.cz/en/price_plans/oskarta_flexi.php T-Mobile Twist - http://t-mobile.cz/Web/Residential/TarifySluzby/Twist/Default.aspx Zde je přehled v češtině: http://www.mobilmania.cz/Operatori/AR.asp?ARI=108477
Thanks everyone. Buying a phone etc is not needed. I could easily just use my own Estonian card and number in the CR, the only problem is that I would have to pay around 10 Kc/min for incoming calls (not for text messages though). So I just thought it would be better to get a local number provided there are easy options available. szarkafarko, mockrát Ti děkuju za zmínku o tom přehledě, to se mi určitě bude hodit. H.
OK, just as a note to others who might need this information in the future - I've been using Oskarta for 2 weeks now and it works perfectly (with just one exception - cannot exchange text messages with a specific Latvian network) and has reasonable prices, but not so reasonable pricing policy - if I call someone and their mobile is switched off, I get the notification message and still have to pay for a whole minute's call, which is a little over 7 Kc when I call to other local networks! So watch out for that. H.
