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gelie

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 7, 2010
614
214
Hello where is the best place to purchase a prepaid micosim card? Are some services better than others? Also what stores/public areas have free Wifi? Thanks.
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
Thought i'd check to see if you found one. I'm going to Israel this summer. Another post on this forum told me to go to http://www.mrsimcard.com/ipad.html

I haven't used them yet, but they've got a good deal for ipads. It says only for 'unlocked' ipads. Are the ipad 2s locked?
 

poloponies

Suspended
May 3, 2010
2,661
1,366
Thought i'd check to see if you found one. I'm going to Israel this summer. Another post on this forum told me to go to http://www.mrsimcard.com/ipad.html

I haven't used them yet, but they've got a good deal for ipads. It says only for 'unlocked' ipads. Are the ipad 2s locked?

Yes, GSM iPads (the ones that take AT&T microsim cards) are unlocked. Apple's Israeli site says Orange has microsims.

http://www.apple.com/il/ipad/3g/

You can go to an Orange store once you get there and figure out hot to get a prepaid plan.
 

kramerica2

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2009
146
6
All 3 major Israeli carriers have micro-sims (they all sell the iPhone): Pelephone, Cellcom and Orange.
The cellular coverage is excellent with all 3 carriers, and you should expect good 3G signal 99% of the time.
It's anybody guess what pricing and policy they will have by summer, but right now they all offer free micro-sim and pricing ranges from 15$ for 1GB of data to 40$ for no-limit data access.
It's a monthly based contract, but you can cancel after a month or two. There isn't any liability from your part to the contract.
If possible, go with Pelephone. According to speedtest.net, they are the fastest cellular carrier in the world.
Anyway, there shouldn't be any problem, and I advise you to check again closer to your trip. If you're having any problem and need someone local to check things for you, feel free to drop me a PM.
Have a great trip...

EDIT: Never mind, just realized someone has resurrected this post from last year. I'll keep the post for anybody else that might be interested
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
Anyway, there shouldn't be any problem, and I advise you to check again closer to your trip. If you're having any problem and need someone local to check things for you, feel free to drop me a PM.
Have a great trip...

EDIT: Never mind, just realized someone has resurrected this post from last year. I'll keep the post for anybody else that might be interested

Actually, that was me that bumped this thread because i'm going for 6 weeks this summer. I found this page: http://www.pelephone.co.il/web/3G/Corporate/Programs/microsim/.aspx and from my limited hebrew looks like a good deal. I don't mind paying for two months for 5 GB for 95 NIS but i'll have to check the fine print.

Thanks and I may take you up on your offer to check things out for me :)
 

kramerica2

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2009
146
6
No problem... my offer stands.

Mind you, the prices you see there are valid until April 18th. Having said that, those are pretty much the prices in the last 2-3 years, so I don't expect them to change soon. For 2 months they're not that bad, and they include tethering (all data packages here include that).
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
"Include tethering" - i'm not clear on that. I thought that could only be done on a jailbroken iphone to some other wifi-only device. I didn't think iPads could do this too or you're referring to the iphone?

My wife has an iphone 4 but we're not sure we want to jailbreak (not so risky) and unlock it (very risky?) for the trip.
 

jdminpdx

macrumors 6502
Sep 28, 2010
354
0
I go to isreal every summer. Last year I took my iPad 1 and bought a prepaid data SIM and it was easy as pie. A bit expensive though but nice to have. The settings can easily be found online.

Edit. Oh my. Old style.
 

kramerica2

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2009
146
6
"Include tethering" - i'm not clear on that. I thought that could only be done on a jailbroken iphone to some other wifi-only device. I didn't think iPads could do this too or you're referring to the iphone?

My wife has an iphone 4 but we're not sure we want to jailbreak (not so risky) and unlock it (very risky?) for the trip.

My bad, I thought that 3G iPads could tether by USB like the iPhones could before personal hotspot came along. I also forgot that American iPhones are locked to AT&T, and therfore won't accept local sims.

JB & unlocking isn't risky, but if you haven't done it before, I wouldn't do it just for the trip.

However, JB only the iPad (which isn't locked), and then sharing its 3G to other devices you might have, on the same data package is something that should be useful. I would certainly do that.
 
Last edited:

parkerkoda

macrumors newbie
May 9, 2011
2
0
Advice on getting a prepaid Sim here in Jerusalem

Hi all,

I am currently in Jerusalem, day 3!, and have my iPad2 with me. I wanted to get a pre-paid sim card but when I went to the Orange store on Ben Yehuda street they told me i needed to sign up for 3 months, get a number and they said it was not worth it. They said to go to some other Orange store and honestly I think our problem was mainly the language barrier. I don't speak Hebrew, well I know a little, and the salesman spoke English but not enough to understand me.

So I am looking for advice on this. From reading the other posts it seems I should be able to go back to the store and ask for Pre-Paid Sim card for my iPad so what else might I try to tell them? I have wireless where I am staying in the German Colony but really would like to get on the network when away from here. It would be great to look at the map on the iPad!

thanks in advance for any advice.
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
So I am looking for advice on this. From reading the other posts it seems I should be able to go back to the store and ask for Pre-Paid Sim card for my iPad so what else might I try to tell them? I have wireless where I am staying in the German Colony but really would like to get on the network when away from here. It would be great to look at the map on the iPad!

I don't know about Orange, but can someone whose Hebrew is better than mine tell me if these are available as pre-paid monthly plans to consumers?

http://www.pelephone.co.il/web/3G/Corporate/Programs/microsim/.aspx
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
@parkerkoda - did you ever have any success getting one from Orange? Any tips for when I go in July?
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
Following up for the archives - I had a good conversation with someone at http://www.israelsims.com who is going to sell me a pre-paid sim card that he'll cut down to micro-sim for me (I felt good that he knew that when I said 'ipad), and then I just activate it by phone when I get to Israel. I'll report back when I find it all works !
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
Following up for the archives - I had a good conversation with someone at http://www.israelsims.com who is going to sell me a pre-paid sim card that he'll cut down to micro-sim for me (I felt good that he knew that when I said 'ipad), and then I just activate it by phone when I get to Israel. I'll report back when I find it all works !

So sorry to not report back! We had a great summer in Israel. We did have a bit of a hang-up with the Sim cards - they didn't work out of the box, so I went to an Orange service center and had them check them out and they said 'oh, they don't have any credit on them'. So I was a little miffed and called IsraelSims.com again and they apologized and added the credit which they said would take a few hours.

A few hours later it still didn't work, so I called them again and they stayed on the phone with me (from Israel - thanks to Gmail & proxy server for free calls!) and did some tweaking and got one of them to work. We never got the other one to work but ended up not needing it anyway, so they gave us a full refund when we got back.

I left the working card with a friend who was staying in Israel and now that i'm looking at going back again in a few months am hoping to borrow it 'back' from him and pay for the credit and get up and running quickly.

Now i'm looking for another source besides IsraelSims to just buy a cut-down micro-sim card in Jerusalem rather than paying high prices here.
 

iwbyte

macrumors member
Dec 5, 2005
38
2
Thought i'd follow up again to keep this updated. We went back in February 2012 for a 10 day trip and rather than try to re-borrow back my micro SIM and re-up it, I just rented an unlimited use micro-sim card from israelphones.com for $4/day and it worked great in both my iPad and my sprint iPhone 4S. I swapped them back and forth a few times, depending on our schedule and never had a problem with them. I accidentally called voice mail on my iPhone twice (quickly cancelled it) and got hit with a buck or two in call charges but other than that it went smoothly.
 
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