It's "vay-lan" actually or "veh-lan" depending on how you pronounce your English.

No seriously. I live here, you had incredible good luck if you got free WiFi. Most Germans I speak to are amazed when they find out the rest of the planet gets this stuff for free.

However, if you're only interested in using the phone and sms the rates while roaming within EU countries are limited. It's only 13c per text message!

I have both Vodafone callya and Blau. Honestly vodafone (and O2) is ridiculously expensive without a contract. Simyo http://www.simyo.de/ is another cheap alternative. All the cheap ones are pretty much the same price and adequate quality. The reason Vodafone et al get away with having the expensive prices is because Germans have this strange notion of paying extra for imagined 'quality' (the reasoning is along the lines 'it's more expensive so it must be good')

Dave.

Actually very few places in Germany have free Wifi. The going rate is €8 per hour! (If you are asking about it, they call it Wlan)

I agree about waiting until you arrive though. I think you'll have a lot of problems buying before you travel unless you sign up for a special tourist phone network that costs an outrageous amount.

Dave.

I find http://www.blau.de/ quite good. Aldi (http://www.aldi-nord.de/aldi_aldi_talk_95.html) are also good.

"...which the US is co-developing." Slightly biased don't you think? It's a global project with a lot of nations contributing major bucks.

Mine was the same, I was completely locked out. I guess they lied on their press release.

Unfortunately, Eircom are the only realistic option for broadband connections for the vast majority of users in Ireland. And don't forget, if they are successful at identifying downloaders those are exactly the users an ISP can live without; they use a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Eircom will be left with cash-cow customers, like grandma.

D