Which is the best mobile network in Poland?

Hello,

I'll be moving to Poland in a week's time and I would like to avail a pre-paid SIM and later convert into post-paid once I have a permanent address. Can you please advice which is the most popular and reliable mobile network in Poland? My usage would be mix of data and voice (national & international).

Thanks

I've been very satisfied with Orange.

I have been using plus gsm for years am very happy with it.

Play na karte

i'd day plus or orange but not play, it can be really expensive. For example, if i called my friend who is with Play, i pay 80g per minute and the same with a sms, but if i call any other network or sms, it's only 18g per minute. Play is new on the market and came into the market with a bang, but not the cheapest. T-mobile, plus and Orange through money at Play to get them into the market and not a UK competitor ( i won't mention any names ), so it will take time for Play to come down, but be carefull what type of package you take out. Orange on the other hand will stop your pre paid account even though you have money on your phone....They give you a certain date to do your next top up and if you don't the rest of your money on your phone is frozen until your next top up....and it sucks, my wife is on orange and never phones a lot, but this happens at the worst of times, when you really need to call....but internationally i think they are good though. But there are better ways to call overseas by using different international call cards, way more minutes for much less, so really look at that. Wow i just said a mouth full, let me go....good luck chuck :)

I wouldn't say that Play is new. It's newer than other networks but not new. Play is on the market since 2007. Other networks (Plus, Orange/previously Idea and T-Mobile/previously Era) - since 1995-1996.

If you call from Play to other networks, Play is the cheapest one. From other networks to Play - it's the most expensive.

Please Tell Me , Which Is The Best Mobil Net Work In Poland , And What Is Charge To Get 50 Prepaid Sim Card

It depends how much you'll be using internet, # landline/ cellular calls, abroad talk, etc... You can buy SIM card from 5-10PLN up to even 500PLN value.

They're all pretty similar........except, Play, Play is useless. Heyah is cheap, but you'll be bombarded with spam, I'd go for Orange or T-Mobile.

I use Play and find it to be fairly good. I prefer it to Orange (spam) and to ERA which I used for years. It does tend to lose coverage out in the sticks but so do the others.

Try using it in the countryside, it's dire.

My missus has Play, I'm Orange. Down in Wisla last weekend, she had zero 3g, mine was full.
Same in bieszczady a month ago..worse actually, she didn't even have phone reception, let alone 3g

Same story in the east of Poland. Near Wlodawa I had full strength 3G signal and the Mrs had no reception at all. The problem is that Play phones used to just automatically domestic roam onto the Plus network but now it seems to take a lot longer to switch to that.

And Play has a particularly unpleasant racist twat as their frontman, so fcuk them.

A lot depends on your phone model. My other half and I were down in the absolute boondocks last weekend, on the border with Slovakia right in the hills. He got no signal from Play but mine was fine. He was on an expensive Nokia, I was on a mid range HTC.

We were there last month. No problems with our Orange network, both nothing-special Nokias.

Plus pretty decent pay as you go I think. internet good (on my older blackberry). decent reception everywhere.

I pay 10zl a week for 1000sms . talk eats it up Very quickly. but a great plan for someone who mostly SMSs people or receives calls

Hi

To file up on this topic, I would appreciate if members can help me to get answer to the below questions:

1. Where can I find tariff comparison of different mobile networks? I tried finding tariff in English websites but the information is minimal.

2. In T-Mobile website I found that I can get prepaid card for 20zl in a month. Does it mean that I must use all the credit in a month otherwise I will lose the credit?

Ad. 2.
Probably yes, it is so with most pre-paids in Poland. If you want to have such conditions that you charge your account with so many PLN as you want and then have almost unlimited time, look at the Play "Rok ważności konta" offer (you must charge the account within a year with any amount, so it's almost nothing). The prices are then a bit worse, you don't have access to so good special offers, but this is the cost of that. You can activate it having any Play pre-paid card with a code *111*692*1# - but with a card sold specially for this offer you don't have to use any codes.

Ad. 1.
It's rather difficult to find such a thing even in Polish, not to mention English. The best is just to look at all the offers, at least of main operators, and compare on your own. There are 4 main operators (Orange, Plus, T-Mobile and Play) and many MVNO's, but worth looking at are, in my opinion, Red Bull Mobile (this is in fact not an MVNO, it's an offer of Play, but sold under a separate brand) and Virgin Mobile. Others didn't offer anything special from what I remember, and they like to disappear after a few years (Virgin Mobile is not likely to disappear since it's an international mobile network brand, RBM is in fact not an MVNO).

Highly appreciate your good response. The problem is that I never heard of anything good about play. Almost everyone is complaining about its coverage.

How about postpaid contracts? Do e gave something like x ninety of free SMS and x number of free calls in a month? I could not find any on their offers either. As a matter of fact I am disappointed to see their English websites.

I use Play and I have never had coverage problems. At least for calls and SMS'es. It might be different with mobile internet (in the past it was so, I have no idea how it is now). But for calls and SMS'es it's perfect. If you don't like Play, other operators also have such offers, but i case of most of them you have to pay something every month - here is quite an old comparison of such offers: gsmonline.pl/artykuly/roczna-waznosc-konta-na-karte (in Polish)

In Plus GSM: plus.pl/uslugi/rok-waznosci-konta
- you need any pre-paid SIM card and at least 10 PLN on the account (it will cost 10 PLN to start this option)
- you use the code *136*11*18#
- you charge your account with at least 5 PLN within 30 days
Then your account is valid for a year.

I recommend pre-paid rather then post-paid, it's just cheaper in most cases.


Yes, it's usually so that you can make calls and send SMS'es up to the level of your monthly fee. Often you have some SMS and calls more for free, or even totally for free (to the same network, to all mobile phones in Poland or to all the phones in Poland).

I'm afraid you must try to use Google Translate and study Polish versions of their websites.

Pre-paid is "na kartę", post-paid is "abonament", "mix" is something in between (either you sign a contract that you will charge your pre-paid account regularly with for example 30 PLN for a month - it's so in Plus and Play - or you pay a monthly fee based on a bill and you can make calls and send SMS up to this fee without any extra charges - in Orange and probably T-Mobile, although I am not sure about the last one; but in any case, if you use it up, you can charge your account like with a normal pre-paid).

Thank you a lot kpc21. Very descriptive response. So basically either I am forced to spend some amount or get something limited like the one you mentioned in play.

I will get a t-mobile from company so I was asking this to decide which operator to get for my wife. She most probably wont call but it seems she has to now.

T-Mobile doesn't have an offer with a year-valid account for free (with some limitations), so I think a good idea for her could be one of the offers mentioned by me before - from Play or Plus. In T-Mobile she would have to pay 3 PLN every month for this service.

Although maybe it's worth this taking into account the offer from T-Mobile that you will have? Maybe you will have cheaper, or free, calls to T-Mobile, and more expensive to other networks?

It also depends on whether she will be using mobile data transfer.

Thank you. I think for time being I will consider plus. It sounds reasonable and in forums I have not had heard any complain about it.

I am not a fan of Plus and Polsat (this is the same company) from the time of the recent attack on their bank (yes, they have a bank too) when they didn't do much to make their system more secure and to get the money stolen from the accounts back on them, but they did much to make the information about the break-in not to spread.

But as a phone network they work OK.

I am hearing very interesting things happen in Poland! It seems quite different!

Your reply made me more conscious about choosing the bank (referring to the ought thread you replied)
should be looking for more secure bank.

I'd suggest he or she go for Play, considering the fact that calls to other Play subscribers are almost free of charge. I used Play for a year then switched to Plus because I thought their internet plans were much better than that of Play but now I'm regretting it. I intend to go to one of their outlet to port my number back to Play. I miss their services.

I like Play they charge me 110Zs a month and am very happy with them.Plus sux.

Hi, I will be visiting Poland next month, I will only be there for a few days can anybody tell me the best mobile network for calls to a Ukraine mobile number as my wife is meeting me in Krakow before continuing to Ukraine, I will also need it to call her when I return to Poland a couple of weeks later on my way back to England.

Thanks.

I am not sure about which network has actually cheapest international calls, but Play is usually a good choice.

If you go to Ukraine (I don't really get it from your post), using a Polish SIM in Ukraine is expensive, get a local one there.

In Germany (no idea if you return to England by car or by plane) - it will be comparable with using local German SIM cards. Using a Polish SIM in roaming in Germany can be even cheaper than using a local German SIM without roaming.

Because the new Polish SIM cards have to be registered, the best idea is to purchase one in a store of the operator, for example Play - you should find one in any shopping mall. Some newspaper kiosks and, in some cases, post offices can also do it, but it depends on the operator. So the best idea is to go to a shop of the operator and say you need a pre-paid SIM and you want to register it.

Thanks for that information, I am flying to and from Krakow, but will only be there for two or three days in total, my wife is travelling from Ukraine to Krakow to meet me then we are travelling by bus to Ukraine. I think it will be best just to make arrangements where to meet rather than buying a pre-paid sim card and having to register it.

Thanks again.