Guten tag,

I'm Amin and as I have introduced myself before, I'm gonna move to Zurich on Sep. and live for at least one year.

Now, I'm wandering to know if there is any website for SimCard Operators in Zurich. I want to buy a chargable SimCard so I could easily make calls from Swiss to Swiss and very little calls from Swiss to Iran.
Which kind and brand do u suggest? the price is an issue!

The CH-CH calls will depend on where you are calling:

fixnet, or to another mobile operator?

If your primary destinations are another mobile operator, then get the same network.
Calling all inside the same operator is always the cheapest

CH has 3 x mobile operators:
Swisscom
Sunrise
Orange

plus a smattering of re-branded networks (Migros, Coop, etc). They all piggyback of one of the 3 main operators.

For calls to foreign countries the best way (if your friends/relatives don't have Skype) would be to buy a phone card.

I've found M-Budget (Migros, pre-paid) the simplest - same rate for everything.

When calling from within Switzerland it's 0.10 per SMS, 0.28/min calls to any phone.

When roaming outside Switzerland it's a lot more expensive: 0.70 per SMS, 0.40/min to receive calls & 0.80/min to make calls.

International calls (calls to phones outside Switzerland) are the same as calls within Switzerland to the following countries:
Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Faroe Is., Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Canada, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Sweden, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Czech Rep., Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary, USA, Vatican, Belarus, Cyprus.

Strangely, Iran is not on that list, but more distant countries (eg, Australia & USA) are ... must be a special agreement thing, rather than geographical. It is possible that this list of 'local' countries has changed, so would be worth checking when you go to ask about the SIM card.

Another benefit of M-Budget is that, as well as being able to get credit at Migros stores, you can get credit from any SBB ticket machine.

I cannot compare the service with other possibilities, as this is the only mobile SIM I've had while in Switzerland. Given my low number of calls/texts (and no internet use, although this is also possible on M-Budget) I can make my pre-paid credit last a long time ...
Also, M-Budget has a post-paid option you can get (ie, a monthly charge for access, including a certain amount of calls/SMS/data transfer), but again I have no info for that.

Hope this helps!

Does the M-Budget card also have any Data 3G plan on offer, or is it only GPRS(100kbps approx) with very limited data?

No idea - as I said, I don't do data on my mobile, just calls & SMS.

Why? Skype can call all sort of phones.

M-Budget uses Swisscom's network, so it's EDGE in most areas and 3G in some urban centers.

As for data packages: if you get the pre-paid card, they don't have any decent data options. You might want to check out Sunrise instead - they have a 250mb / month option for 7.50.- that's available to pre-paid customers as well.
But beware: if you plan on using your phone as a modem (tethering), stay clear of Sunrise as they ban tethering on their network. They also ban VoIP / Skype calls.

Peter

I have sunrise and used to tether without a problem. Been a few months since I tried, though. But Skype still works.

I know it works, it's just against their ToS and might get you kicked out / billed:

Sunrise bans tethering and VoIP on their mobile network

What kind of real speeds can I expect in EDGE? I will be buying a sim for using for 7 days only
150kpbs would be enough for me needs. Since I have a smartphone, I will be using the plan only on the phone, so no issues.

Hi,
the cheapest to call Iran: Mucho Mobile. 0.15CHF/min => calling from any fixed line or M-Budget or even phone card will be much more expensive.
It is a SIM that you can buy at any Post office. Then you recharge when you use it. The recharges are very easy to find (all post offices, the newstands K, the SBB ticket machines).
To call Switzerland, the price is very similar to M-Budget (0.29CHF/min). But if you call another Mucho than it is 0.19CHF flat per call (they say 0CHF/min, but they charge a set-up of 0.19CHF).
They use the same network, Swisscom, so quality is tip-top. Nothing to compare with Skype!
Roaming : same price as M-Budget.
SMS to Iran are also cheap (0.12CHF).
But they have no data at all.
www.muchomobile.ch
Cheers,
Cicc'

If want to use a particular network (ie swisscom due to its good coverage all over Switzerland) you can use the following post to work out which companies are using swisscoms network.

Swiss Mobile Phone Company List