I am looking for a prepaid SIM (without handset) probably Orange or Swisscom, to call within Switzerland and receive international calls on. The gotcha is there could be periods upto 6 months when I don't use it. Can someone suggest a provider and call plan for prepaid where it does not get terminated because I've not made a call in 6 months?

Thanks
Toby

By law numbers have to be inactivated after 12 months of inactivity but I haven't heard of operators applying a briefer timespan.

During my first months of stay in CH, I used prepaid from http://www.lebara-mobile.ch/en/index.php and my bh still finds it cheaper to phone overseas than Swisscom rates. I guess like with every prepaid you have to charge your SIM card balance so it will not be deactivated after ceratin period of time.

+1 for Lebara where rates and validity ( 12 months ) is concerned.

swisscom can also do this for you.

my wife uses a swiss liberty subscription with swisscom and jan 2007 we asked them to downgrade it to a pre-paid account (i think this is natel-easy) because the phone will only be used for emergency purposes and the sim card was already in Manila. The longest period it was not used was 5months.

You can then reload it via their website using your cc.

Theres an offer currently going on from Sunrise.
They are offereing a sim card 'free' with 5 chf talk time.

Also
On any day, sunrise will charge 1chf for first call and then rest of the calls for that day are free ..... but only to Sunrise network.

Max 3 sim cards are offered per person

Thanks, I had a go on their billing site, but my credit card is UK and it didn't seem to like that. It would have been superb otherwise. Do you know if I can talk to them over skype?

Check out the yallo site www.yallo.ch. They have an online option where you can deactivate it yourself, so I assume they might be a bit more lenient. Check the help section, or call them.

I have a Sunrise prepaid. Using it once a year would keep it valid.

I'd also recommend www.yallo.ch - been using them for two years, very convenient and you can send free texts if you like from the website too.

I think best would be to visit one of thier customer centers. I know of in Zurich they have a shop next to HB.
I am not sure of online, but surely can talk to them through skype.

Thanks for the feed back I found http://www.mobilezone.ch/de/private/shops gives a list of where their shops are. They needed my passport as ID. Having discussed Swisscom and Sunrise I eventually went with www.lebara-mobile.ch. The service I chose requires a topup within a year to prevent the sim being cancelled. There is a small call setup charge and a low-cost max of 30 mins per call. What I really liked was the free calls between lebara sim users. Not sure if the call setup charge applies to this? They like you to top up within any 6 month period. I am not sure this is the best supplier/service, but I could get my head around the T&Cs!

Aldi mobile (Runned by Sunrise) have a good price and works fine.

Here the details:

http://www.aldi-mobile.ch/

We signed up with yallo, so far no problems. I'll post if there are.

CK

My friends recommended Lebara from http://www.lebara-mobile.ch/en/index.php. Rates are cheap and international call are great too.