A Mobile Shop on Every Corner

We are loyal customers of T-Mobile, which offers the best rates of all the main service providers in the US. Shortly before our trip to Germany this past August, we switched from our old, grandfathered-in plan to their Simple Choice plan, which included an amazing roaming package: free data and texting in most countries, and only 20 cents per minute on calls. It worked superbly in Germany. Data was at least 3G speeds in most places we were (read: big cities), texting was useful when Allan and I needed to split up (or when we got separated on a super-crowded bus and I had to text him to let him know at which stop to get off), and when Allan's father passed away while he was still in Sweden on business, it was great to be able to call his family (and have them call him on his US number) without worrying about roaming charges.

I digress. As valuable as this plan was for keeping in touch with each other and with our families back home (and using Google Maps because our rental car's GPS was utterly useless!), it didn't help when it came to keeping in touch with our German friends, whom we were visiting during this trip. I mean, we could call them, but they'd be calling an international number to reach us! So one of the first orders of business was to get a German SIM card. Should be easy, right? Not quite, when you arrive on a Sunday when all the shops are closed and your schedule is jam-packed, with your first day in a medieval town known for its charming Christmas shops and not mobile shops :-P

We finally went SIM card shopping when we toured Nuremberg on Day 3. I had done my research ahead of time to figure out what provider offered the best bang for our Euro, but I was a little concerned about how we would find a shop that sold the best cards. My worries were all for naught, because as soon as we entered the Altstadt, we were bombarded by mobile shops. There must have been at least two on each corner! And we lucked out at T-Mobile, where we were able to get a SIM card for only 10 Euros, which gave us 250MB of data and around 150 minutes of talk/text time. Easy peasy!

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Germany (and much of the rest of Europe, I'm sure) has been ahead of the US in the mobile phone world for some time. When I arrived in Germany in 1998, cell phones were becoming very prevalent, and when I returned to the US in 2001, the US seemed to be just on the verge of embracing mobile phones. I went from a country where everyone had a cell phone to one that, despite being a leader in world technology, still regarded cell phones as a novelty. Things rapidly changed, of course. And during this time, there is one thing about the US mobile phone system that irks me to no end: you pay for incoming calls.

I don't know that any other country in the world does it. When I was in Germany, most of my colleagues use prepaid cards. Once the money ran out, they could no longer make calls until they reloaded their card, but they could RECEIVE calls just fine. Nowadays, with US plans offering variations of unlimited minutes, it's less of an issue, but I remember having to be careful not to go over my alloted minutes each month, even if I wasn't MAKING any calls. How ridiculous is that!?

Even nowadays, I feel like my German friends have so many more options when it comes to phone plans, both pre-and-post paid, than we Americans do. Similar to us, they have 4 main networks, but there's also a wide array of sub-providers that rent the networks and offer sometimes-cheaper, often-more-flexible options. They would balk at what we pay each month for service, and we already pay amongst the lowest rates of all the US providers!!

As with other things, I think the US could learn a thing or two from Germany... alas, as long as money drives the decisions, I doubt that would ever happen. One can dream, though, right? :-)

I'm posting every day in October as part of the 31-Day Writing Challenge. Click here to read more about it and to see the rest of my posts this month!