Contact
It's some five or six weeks I've been in the New World already. Granted, it doesn't always feel that new, but that's not the topic of this post.
The other week, my mom told me how everybody and their grandma have tried or wanted to try to reach me, but couldn't due to obsolete phone numbers, moving, and a general lack of up-to-date information. So, what follows is a list of contact possibilities; hopefully there is something for everybody in there. Unless I forgot about something, all other previous ways of reaching me (including German mobiles, German landlines, or in Bayreuth) won't work.
If now somebody still claims that I'm not reachable, I can't help it.
Still, there will be people who'll try to convince me that something is not working right. For these obnoxious fellows, here's the long story.
There were a few requirements that constrained the possible solutions regarding any phone contract when I came to the US. If it had to be a phone contract, its duration should preferably not be longer than twelve months. Once I had tasted the benefits of Google Maps mobile (including public transport routing and schedules), it was clear that any solution should cover mobile unlimited data as well. Calls to Germany should be as cheap as possible, and calls within the US should at least be possible. And finally, something I had not anticipated, the final solution should be available for me - a new resident without any credit history whatsoever.
In fact, this last issue proved to be lots of trouble; I've been denied contracts or service by several providers, which includes AT&T which happens to be the sole provider carrying iPhones in the US. More specifically, I wasn't technically rejected, but kept on hotlines for several days before finally being told that without a credit history, I'd have to pay a deposit in addition to the up-front price for the phone. How much this deposit were to be I wasn't informed of, however - this took me several more hours on the hotline (AT&T is infamous for their customer service). In the end the up-front costs added up to 800$, for which price I could get an iPhone on Ebay without contract obligations, so I respectfully declined their offer.
To make a long story a bit shorter, finally I settled on a "T-Mobile myFaves 300 with FlexPay" pay-as-you-go plan which, surprisingly, offers month-by-month coverage and includes unlimited data, even over 3G (although, as I found out later, "3G" encompasses at least two incompatible sub-standards, one for Europe and one for North America). Nevertheless, this plan includes lots of free airtime minutes and unlimited weeknights and weekends calling. As it happens, in the US you pay for outgoing and incoming mobile phone calls, unlike in (most of) the rest of the world. Furthermore, the "myFaves" are up to five numbers the subscriber can choose to his liking and which are free at all times. What this meant is I could combine my mobile phone with Skype...
... where I signed up for two other contracts: One monthly Skype subscription offering free German landline calls from Skype (also called "SkypeOut"), and one Skype-to-Go number in the US which connects me to my Skype account via the phone (and which I chose as one of my, uh, myFaves). Finally, the Skype subscription also includes a SkypeIn landline number in Germany, which redirects anybody's calls to that German number to my Skype account (which means, either to my computer when I'm online, or to my mobile phone when I'm absent). (Unfortunately, this whole intricate scheme has one drawback - T-Mobile has very good coverage within Baltimore, except for the house I'm living in and a 50m radius around it... But! Luckily my phone has WLAN, and runs a bastardized version of Skype called Fring - which means, even without cell phone coverage, I can still call and be called without using my computer! In fact, since this Fring also runs over the unlimited data connection I have with my mobile phone contract, it is online almost all the time, and calls to my German SkypeIn number therefore don't even cost any free airtime minutes when they reach the Fring on my phone while I'm on the go.)
What all this comes down to is - from Germany, I'm easily reachable via the SkypeIn number which even happens to have an Idar-Oberstein prefix (this costs me at most 2ct/min for the Skype-to-cell redirection). From the US, I can call any German landline phone for free, and worldwide for next to nothing.
The only times I am not reachable are when I am not online on my computer, not online on my phone, and have no cell phone coverage.
It might be of interest to calling parties that I don't use and will not make use of answering machines or voice mailboxes.
Phew.
I hope this made everything clear to everybody. Good luck!
The other week, my mom told me how everybody and their grandma have tried or wanted to try to reach me, but couldn't due to obsolete phone numbers, moving, and a general lack of up-to-date information. So, what follows is a list of contact possibilities; hopefully there is something for everybody in there. Unless I forgot about something, all other previous ways of reaching me (including German mobiles, German landlines, or in Bayreuth) won't work.
If now somebody still claims that I'm not reachable, I can't help it.
Still, there will be people who'll try to convince me that something is not working right. For these obnoxious fellows, here's the long story.
There were a few requirements that constrained the possible solutions regarding any phone contract when I came to the US. If it had to be a phone contract, its duration should preferably not be longer than twelve months. Once I had tasted the benefits of Google Maps mobile (including public transport routing and schedules), it was clear that any solution should cover mobile unlimited data as well. Calls to Germany should be as cheap as possible, and calls within the US should at least be possible. And finally, something I had not anticipated, the final solution should be available for me - a new resident without any credit history whatsoever.
In fact, this last issue proved to be lots of trouble; I've been denied contracts or service by several providers, which includes AT&T which happens to be the sole provider carrying iPhones in the US. More specifically, I wasn't technically rejected, but kept on hotlines for several days before finally being told that without a credit history, I'd have to pay a deposit in addition to the up-front price for the phone. How much this deposit were to be I wasn't informed of, however - this took me several more hours on the hotline (AT&T is infamous for their customer service). In the end the up-front costs added up to 800$, for which price I could get an iPhone on Ebay without contract obligations, so I respectfully declined their offer.
To make a long story a bit shorter, finally I settled on a "T-Mobile myFaves 300 with FlexPay" pay-as-you-go plan which, surprisingly, offers month-by-month coverage and includes unlimited data, even over 3G (although, as I found out later, "3G" encompasses at least two incompatible sub-standards, one for Europe and one for North America). Nevertheless, this plan includes lots of free airtime minutes and unlimited weeknights and weekends calling. As it happens, in the US you pay for outgoing and incoming mobile phone calls, unlike in (most of) the rest of the world. Furthermore, the "myFaves" are up to five numbers the subscriber can choose to his liking and which are free at all times. What this meant is I could combine my mobile phone with Skype...
... where I signed up for two other contracts: One monthly Skype subscription offering free German landline calls from Skype (also called "SkypeOut"), and one Skype-to-Go number in the US which connects me to my Skype account via the phone (and which I chose as one of my, uh, myFaves). Finally, the Skype subscription also includes a SkypeIn landline number in Germany, which redirects anybody's calls to that German number to my Skype account (which means, either to my computer when I'm online, or to my mobile phone when I'm absent). (Unfortunately, this whole intricate scheme has one drawback - T-Mobile has very good coverage within Baltimore, except for the house I'm living in and a 50m radius around it... But! Luckily my phone has WLAN, and runs a bastardized version of Skype called Fring - which means, even without cell phone coverage, I can still call and be called without using my computer! In fact, since this Fring also runs over the unlimited data connection I have with my mobile phone contract, it is online almost all the time, and calls to my German SkypeIn number therefore don't even cost any free airtime minutes when they reach the Fring on my phone while I'm on the go.)
What all this comes down to is - from Germany, I'm easily reachable via the SkypeIn number which even happens to have an Idar-Oberstein prefix (this costs me at most 2ct/min for the Skype-to-cell redirection). From the US, I can call any German landline phone for free, and worldwide for next to nothing.
The only times I am not reachable are when I am not online on my computer, not online on my phone, and have no cell phone coverage.
It might be of interest to calling parties that I don't use and will not make use of answering machines or voice mailboxes.
Phew.
I hope this made everything clear to everybody. Good luck!
posted by PJS at
Saturday, October 25, 2008
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