I can't get Internet or Swiss phone until my Ausweiss comes in the mail in another three weeks (or so). I am either going to go crazy or pay international roaming charges out the wazoo wracking up a huge bill on my phone.

No internet cafes or free wifi?

If your residence has a cable connector, get online at eg an internet cafe and order your Cablecom without your Permit - that was the way I did it, and it all arrived within 4 work days DYI installation.

http://www.upc-cablecom.ch/en/b2c/ko...bote/expat.htm

do they even ask you for your permit?

they didn't ask me if i remember correctly.

Mods, ban this poor soul and save him some money... Two weeks, that's all.

Dial up, internet cafés. What's the problem?

Yes you need your permit

There are actually a few places around Basel with Wifi access, some free, some "free" for customers.

I believe I've seen some electric outlets positioned in such a way to make it fairly obvious they're intended for laptop using customers at McDonalds and Burger King.

Also, asking hubby now, he says that if you are "eating" at Tibits you can request a password to access their Wifi. He says getting a snack and a drink is enough to "qualify" you as a paying customer...


May not be so great for your diet but it is better on the wallet than paying for accessing internet via cellphone I'd think.

__________________
The Joys of Opticianry

Unlimited free wireless internet plus power sockets to charge up at Unternehmen Mitte, Basel - decent chairs and tables, all for an optional purchase of a cuppa.

Gerbergasse 30
CH-4001 Basel

http://www.mitte.ch/unternehmen/

I never had to provide a permit when I signed up with Cablecom.

Cheers,
Nick

me neither! I never gave a copy of my Permit.

Before the internet, people had something called 'friends' and spent time 'outside'. I'm not sure what they're talking about but maybe you could do some of that.

I Googled it. Weird.

Well... thanks to everyone for their advice and recommendations.
For reasons of personal preference I did not follow any of it. (don't be hurt)

Spending time with friends and being outside requires some form of communication, which I didn't have. I can't text, email, phone, usw. Unfortunately society has become very dependent on these modes of communication. It's just not acceptable anymore to send a letter with a courier and announce your intended arrival to come calling days in advance.

Cablecom would have been worth looking into, but thanks to another thread on here I was aware that if I should at some point during the contract period move outside of BS, then I would have to pay a contract termination fee to Cablecom.

Swisscom, of course, was the provider that was unable to offer me any services whatsoever without a permit ID number. (using dial-up also requires a Swisscom account, and my computer hasn't got a phone plug anyway). All of the phone companies were the same way, including Orange and Sunshine.

I went down to Markplatz to try and find this free wifi spot at Mitte near Fumare Non Fumare, but once I got there I was distracted by all of the shopping. It's the ADHD. So that was a non-starter, and somehow I lost 300CHF in the process... but I have these really nice shoes now...

What I ended up doing though was this:
I purchased a no-contract USB modem from Swisscom for 99 CHF. This 99 included a 20 CHF credit of pre-pay. You can add more time in many ways. The rate for usage is 1 CHF per megabyte up to a maximum of 7.50 CHF/day. All I needed was my passport to do this.

This wasn't ideal (who wants to spend that much money on a temporary solution? I didn't either). Since I probably won't have my permit ID for some time, and will move in a couple of months to an unfurnished apartment, this made the most sense. Then I will be free(r) to choose Swisscom, Cablecom or whatever provider serves the area I end up in.

Thanks again everyone for the recommendations! I really appreciate it.

You definitely don't need your permit to get a prepay sim card from Swisscom to text your friends to meet up.

Lots of solutions...the only problem is you.

I can't just change the sim card in my locked iPhone that easily (and I'm not going to buy a prepaid phone, either). But thanks for throwing the insult at me anyway.

See. Lots of solutions....but the only person standing in the way is you.

YOU went looking for the free wifi then YOU got distracted and spent 300CHF on shopping so YOU decided to waste money on a dongle.

You even wrote in your own post that you're not listening to anyone due to personal preference! If you signed up for cablecom and moved then you're cablecom would move with you and you wouldn't pay a contract termination fee because you didn't terminate a contract!

that was tongue-in-cheek humor.

...but clearly I DID listen, because I cited all of the ideas provided and why they were not practical for my situation. I was also excited to come back here to EF and let everyone know the solution that DID work for me, which nobody else mentioned, not even YOU!!!

I am not going to have a flame war with you, Porsch, but neither am I going to allow you insult me or my intelligence.

Have a great rest of the weekend (be sure to text your friends).

Why? Ive seen prepaid phones for around 20chfs. Its a temporary solution but much cheaper than the temporary solution you found

A phone wasn't what I needed.