Since I arrived in Germany, I had been looking for a good phone plan.  I figure I should just stick with a prepaid phone plan since I can’t imagine myself getting a lot of phone calls.  I ended up using one of Vodafone’s prepaid phone plans.  The closest phone plan from Fido is their prepaid plan.  Below is a comparison (as of January 18, 2011).

It seems that everything is mostly the same in terms of making calls and sending text messages.  But the biggest perk in Vodafone’s plan is the fact that receiving international calls is free.  That’s the same as Fido’s “unlimited incoming calls feature”.  The expiring date is longer too.  But as with most better features, they almost always cost more.  Here €10 is just about $3 more expensive than Fido’s plan.

To be specific, here are all the options that are included:

• Services information
  • Model information – what model your phone is (mine just says P1i)
  • Software information – PDA, phone, and Bluetooth software version, and CDA version
  • Hardware information – IMEI number
  • SIM locks – I’m guessing this tells you whether your phone is locked or unlocked (reasonable assumption)
  • Configuration – Speech codec rate, and GSM bands
• Services tests
  • Display – shows abunch of weird lines and colors to see if colors look right I guess
  • Camera – shows an image of the front and rear camera
  • Touchscreen – gives a blank drawing canvas to test the stylus
  • Illumination – screen brightness
  • LED’s – lights up the light near the phone charger port red and green
  • Keyboard – lets you type different keys and reads your input
  • Vibrator – vibrates the phone letting you know that function still works
  • Speakers – makes sounds with the front and rear speakers
  • Microphone – records sounds
  • FM radio – didn’t try this one, since I didn’t have my handsfree with me
  • Memory Stick – tells you if its attached
• Format internal disk – it is what it says

Accessing the Services Menu

1. Go to the Main Menu
2. Select Phone
3. Select Phone again.  Once you do this, it will show a blank space for typing a number
4. Turn the jog dial up once, then type a *
5. Turn the jog dial down twice, then type a *
6. Turn the jog dial down once, then type another *
7. The services menu will now open