I looked around for a while and tried to figure out what the best deal for me would be. Normally I use about 1GB of 3G data per month. Since I just arrived in Switzerland I can't have a monthly/yearly deal. I would guess that many people arriving here are in a similar situation so this is what was needed for for me:

Address of the nearest Swisscom shop
40-60 SFr in cash or a credit card
Passport
Any address (hotel wasn't ok so they wanted my foreign address)
Access Point Settings

Walk to the shop, ask for a prepaid SIM with the option of 2GB data packet. Pay 20 Sfr for the SIM including 20 Sfr credit for text, data and phone calls. Add min. 20 Sfr credit to your SIM in the shop. I added 40 Sfr to leave some money for calls. The 2GB data package for 30 days costs 39 Sfr. 300MB is 19e. All this can all be paid with a credit card.

Plug in you new SIM.
Enter pin.
Type a text message: START DATA2GB and send it to number 444.

In reply you WON'T get the data access point settings for your phone (at least I didn't get) but a message saying which web page to go to or what phone number to call! So you are out of luck if you don't have another web surfing device handy. I didn't want to try my luck with the call center either since I had no idea what the call would cost. Here is a link to a page you might want to print in case you need the settings: http://www.swisscom.ch/res/hilfe/mob...gprs/index.htm

This is for Android but settings for other phone models seem to be in the nearby links.

And here is a link to the different data packages and their details. http://www.swisscom.ch/res/mobile/ta...kete/index.htm

Polar_Panda happily surfing in Switzerland

Nice write-up - I'd take a VoIP solution and CSipSimple so calls only occur over data.

I have UK, US and Swiss VoIP on my OSF. I also have Google Voice and of course the mobile line.

FWIW Switzernet works well with this solution and is 9 francs per month. Free calls to US (all) and UK (not mobile) addresses the needs of many expats - and other countries are also very cheap (or free).

Interesting...

Currently on an Orange contract (SIM only, so compulsory contract duration was just a few months IIRC) which has 1 GB of data pcm (and I use between 300 MB and 1 GB a month).

Few calls or SMS, so I think I'll look into this when I have some time.

Thanks! I will definitely take a look at the VoIP applications! I sometimes use Skype but mostly on my computer.