Hi Emilio

I use Yallo prepaid sim which I swap with my british pre-paid on unlocked.

I found it to be the cheapest.

Hi again

I forgot to point out that Yallo is a swiss server.

Because I live in the french /swiss border I can have the phone set to the server Yallo Therefore it's cheap to call and text.

However when roaming the costs are similar to those you'll find with other servers.

Check their website to get a lowdown of call costs.

Thank you Robi.  In your experience how extensive is their network coverage area, and do you have to pay roaming when calling/receiving calls from France.

Hi,

Sunrise & Yallo are known of having good coverage in neighbouring France, so one of them would be probably a good option. AFAIK it is not possible to order SIM card remotely, but you can go straight to one of MobileZone points (in most of commercial centers) and have it done within couple of minutes.

Very useful, thank you all.

You can order your Yallo SIM from the web, and have them ship it to you by mail.  Based on my experience, it's a very good mobile operator; I can also manage to grant you a 10 CHF free credit if you choose it (it's the parrainage option).

Note that French mobile operators are allowed to use a stronger signal than Swiss ones, so even in Geneva downtown you can connect to a French network (therefore with no roaming costs).  However, always based on my experience and my friends', Swiss mobile operators offer a better service.  Your mileage may vary.

When you use your Swiss mobile phone in France or viceversa, make sure your phone is set up for manual network choice, in order to avoid unnecessary roaming costs.

Thank you for the offer I will be happy to take you up on it.  Please do let me know how I can  go about choosing the parrainege option and how I can have the SIM delivered to the United States prior to my departure.

Emilio,

just send me your email address via private message.  I'll manage to have a Yallo recommendation sent to you.  Note that when you order the SIM you'll need to specify the same email address in your personal data.

There are 3 operators in Switzerland: Swisscom, Orange and Sunrise, Swisscom definitely has the best coverage and both Orange and Sunrise have problems in remote areas and also in central Geneva as well as some other old cities (permit problems when building networks). Coop Mobile uses the Orange network, Yallo uses Sunrise and Migros' uses Swisscom, all are a bit cheaper than the original operators but I guess you pay a little for the name and possible service.

I have used all networks here and for the last couple of years have used M-Budget from Migros, it's pay as you go, costs about 25ct / min and 10ct / text. Best of all it nearly always has coverage, whether skiing or in buildings in the old town.

All operators charge when roaming and all have a limited amount of coverage just over the borders, typically you have to pay for a minute minimum and mine costs 40ct to receive and about 70ct to call, not sure but think they are all about the same price for roaming.

BTW- getting the SIM is very straightforward, you can pick it up in a shop and it should be useable straight away so there maybe no need to get it shipped to the US. Normally you would need ID to register even a pay as you go SIM as the law changed a few years ago.

Hope this helps and it's not too late

Regards

Sandy

Thanks for all the information exchanges, all very helpful.  When a phone is up for manual network choice to one single carrier,  does it mean in-network roaming is less expensive than out-of-network carrier roaming? 

Does anyone have info on how if data (i.e. email/websurfing) services are available on any prepaid SIM card? I was told by one company that it's not. 

May have been bit of an overkill, but I actually brought 2 phones here anticipating the border issue.  Am experimenting with both Swiss (Lebara) and Fr (Orange) SIM cards but have inconclusive result since I make few local calls.  Calls to North America, Asia, and Africa are quite inexpensive on Lebara, purchsed from the post office.  But then Skype is an even cheaper alternative. 

Jenny

Be careful with Lebara- it seems very cheap (I think 9cts / minute?) but there is an additional call setup charge of, I think, 29cts. This makes it great if you make long calls to foreign countries but expensive for day-to-day use within Switzerland, especially if you just get someone's voicemail or, like me, your average phonecall is about 45 seconds.