Cell Phone in Europe

[imported_KuJaX]

I have some relatives going into Europe for 4 weeks on a educational tour. During the time they need a cell phone so that they can have contact to work in the USA. For those of you that know, what type of temporary plans or "pay as you go" plans for USA/Europe providers? What about specific needed cell phone?

Currently I know they use t-mobile on a piece of junk Samsung phone. I was thinking that their normal cell phone number will forward into this European cell phone. Open to suggestions, who you have tried, rates, experiences, etc.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

1. Take a phone that accepts a sim card
2. Get prepaid sim card in Europe
3. Phone a friend
4. Win

Edit: Unless there's a simple way to forward your number, I would make a voicemail message with the new phone number.

 

[yours truly]

not 100% sure, but they might need a tri or quad band phone. the network provider is not so important, i think (?)

 

[imported_KuJaX]

bump

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: hopeless74
not 100% sure, but they might need a tri or quad band phone. the network provider is not so important, i think (?)

Quad band is better, tri will have both US frequencies but only one European frequency, so it won't work everywhere.

What AgaBoogaBoo, get a phone that accepts sims and get a prepaid sim IN EUROPE. In many parts of Europe it's free to accept incoming international calls, but they're expensive outgoing.

International roaming charges are ridiculous, make sure they know that. They shouldn't be using US minutes while in another country.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

I bought a phone from Mobal World Sim for $99. Works anywhere in the world, and comes with charging adapters for, well anywhere in the world. I used it throughout southern Europe with no problems, likewise, when I loaned it to my daughter for her trip through northern Europe. There are NO fees at all for this phone, and customer service is free. All routing is done by English speaking operators. This phone can also be locked with a password, so no one can use it but you. The per minute rates are a bit steep, so this is NOT a phone for those who want to chit-chat.
www.mobal.com

 

[zoiks]

This is good to know. I'm also leaving for Spain in 2 weeks and I'll need a phone to get in touch with other people.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: hopeless74
not 100% sure, but they might need a tri or quad band phone. the network provider is not so important, i think (?)

Quad band is better, tri will have both US frequencies but only one European frequency, so it won't work everywhere.

What AgaBoogaBoo, get a phone that accepts sims and get a prepaid sim IN EUROPE. In many parts of Europe it's free to accept incoming international calls, but they're expensive outgoing.

International roaming charges are ridiculous, make sure they know that. They shouldn't be using US minutes while in another country.

Tri means 3 frequencies, Quad means 4 frequencies. It does not mean 3 US frequencies or 3 overseas frequencies.

You need to check. Typically phones made for the idiotic US market that are triband are 850/1800/1900. Triband for the rest of the world is 900/1800/1900 like my K750 and K700 phones. You can typically get away with those triband phones especially if you use T-Mobile where the 850 frequency isn't used. Even with Cingular, you can get away without 850 most of the time. So what I'm saying is make sure which phone you have and then if you happen to have an international phone that's triband, then you will be ok overseas, but if you have US frequencies only, that 900mhz frequency might be important, although my experience in Asia is that 1900 is quite widely used, and I was able to get reception just fine.

 

[fstime]

Get the phone unlocked or buy an unlocked phone and get a prepaid sim card from a carrier in the country you're visiting.

Trust me, it is the best way to do it.


Just dont use it to call the USA, you'll eat up your minutes fast.

For outside calls, I know many european public phones use a card that has minutes in it and you insert into the phone. They're like 4 euro.

 

[WarhammerUC]

Int calls are rip off...

at work, avg price of blackberry monthly is 1k, tmobile service

tmobile uk charges up to 3.5 / min in area like Romania, etc, 2.5 Italy, etc..

this is with int roam turned on... imagine without int roam...

 

[erub]

Originally posted by: WarhammerUC
Int calls are rip off...

at work, avg price of blackberry monthly is 1k, tmobile service

tmobile uk charges up to 3.5 / min in area like Romania, etc, 2.5 Italy, etc..

this is with int roam turned on... imagine without int roam...

without international roaming turned on, you won't be able to make or receive any calls with your US # (either they will be blocked from registering on the network (most likely) or it'll just give an error msg every time)

Make sure that the samsung phone is unlocked if they are taking it..yes they could just turn on their US phone (assuming international roaming is on) and make calls that way, but its expensive fast (think at least $1 per minute). But then again, it depends on how much calling they are going to do, because it costs about $25 to get a SIM card when I checked in in Hungary with Vodafone..didn't try in W. Europe.

AT&T offers a World Connect plan that gives discounted per minute rates internationally for a $6 monthly fee, don't know if T-Mobile has the same idea, but this is the simplest (people just call their regular # and it rings..of course you could end up wasting money on people who didn't know you were out of the country).

Per minute rates even with a local prepaid SIM card are not that cheap..my friend in France was paying ~0.40 Euro cents for FRANCE calls (forget about international calling)..calling is just more costly in a lot of places than the USA.

Best is to use something like Skype/email to communicate back to the US (most Internet cafes have setup). When we were in China my friend got a Voipbuster US # to forward to his Chinese cell phone, that was pretty cheap too (but requries giving everyone a new #).