Has anyone gone abroad with the major US cell phone carriers?

[Eeezee]

I will be spending a few months in Switzerland this summer, and then I will be spending a year there (summer 2009-summer 2010). I'm a grad student in High Energy Physics.

My Sprint SERO account is up for renewal at the end of May. Naturally the Sprint website is incredibly vague on how much it will cost to keep a phone overseas. If there is a provider that is more accomodating to me spending 3/4 of the next two years overseas, I'd like to know who they are.

I'm already aware that I'll need a phone that actually works in Europe. That's not so bad, they're not that expensive. My current phone is definitely not one of them.

I'm interested in knowing if any of the main carriers in the US offer affordable plans that you can use overseas to call back to the US. In particular, I'd like a plan that I can use in BOTH places.

Does T-Mobile's Favorite Five gimmick work if you're in Switzerland and calling people either in Switzerland or in the US? That could be just what I need. If it does, I'd go with them in a second.

My other option is to just get a Pay-As-You-Go style phone for the US and leave it here when I leave. European phone companies and phones are typically much better and cheaper than their counterparts in the US anyway. Unfortunately, this means I have to have several phone numbers at any given time; that's inconvenient. I'd rather just have one phone and one plan that is usable in both places, but not at a ridiculous price (that might be too much to ask)

Cliffs
1) Current 2-year Sprint plan will expire in 3 weeks
2) I will be living in Switzerland for my job for 1.5 out of the next 2 years
3) I need to keep in touch with certain people stateside, such as parents, friends, GF
4) I'd also like to have a phone
5) Which US carrier might be the best?



Edit: It looks like my question on the myFaves minutes with the T-Mobile network was easy enough to find out. They must be US domestic numbers. It's nonspecific as to whether it's still free if you're outside of the country

Edit 2: I'm going to head into a T-Mobile store and see if they can get me covered for the next 13 months. During that time I will only be in Switzerland for two months. After that is the year stay. If I can just get 13 months of coverage (or even just 12), then I can just get a Swiss phone for the year that I'm there, and then I can get another US plan when I get back.



Moved to Gadgets, Gear, and Phones.

minendo
Forum Administrator

 

[Colt45]

Sprint doesnt work in europe, it has to be something GSM (T-mobile, AT&T). And you need a phone with the european bands, as well.


Buy a local SIM, otherwise you'll get assraped $3 or $4 per minute. Plus recieving calls on a swiss sim, in switzerland, is free, afaik. Make your stateside buddies call you

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: Colt45
Sprint doesnt work in europe, it has to be something GSM (T-mobile, AT&T). And you need a phone with the european bands, as well.


Buy a local SIM, otherwise you'll get assraped $3 or $4 per minute. Plus recieving calls on a swiss sim, in switzerland, is free, afaik. Make your stateside buddies call you

Yeah just buy a SIM there. Email your number to people you need to keep in contact with.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I turned my phone on in Taiwan to check something out and because I was swapping sim cards and then I got a retarded text from my friend. "Happy New Year." Wasted $0.50 ><

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Colt45
Sprint doesnt work in europe, it has to be something GSM (T-mobile, AT&T). And you need a phone with the european bands, as well.


Buy a local SIM, otherwise you'll get assraped $3 or $4 per minute. Plus recieving calls on a swiss sim, in switzerland, is free, afaik. Make your stateside buddies call you

Sprint claims that they do work in Europe, so long as you have the right kind of phone (they cell 4-band phones). I'd be just as happy switching, though.

I'm not really familiar with SIM cards. I've only read the wikipedia article, which at least brought me up to speed. Would I own a US SIM card and a Swiss SIM card then? Also, I know it's inevitable that I'll spend some weekends outside of Switzerland (Geneva is right on the border of France, and I'd like to see Venice and Rome eventually as well).

How much could it cost to call from Switzerland with a Swiss SIM?

Thanks for helping me out with this

 

[Colt45]

dunno, look at the carriers.. forget who is all is active in switzerland.

Here's orange:
http://www.orange.ch/priceplan...Plans?ts=1210575147356

 

[Turkish]

Well, it's been long since I moved out of the U.S. but IIRC, the two GSM providers were Tmobile and Cingular. Just get a plan with either one of them and call them to open your line to international roaming/calling. Considering Tmobile has a major customer base all around Europe, I'd guess Tmobile may offer you better rates between CH and the U.S.

See, this is why I love Vodafone I have a Vodafone line in Turkey and can call any Vodafone customer around the world just as I am calling one in Turkey So when I move to Spain on August, my phone bills will not be raping me

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Turkish
Well, it's been long since I moved out of the U.S. but IIRC, the two GSM providers were Tmobile and Cingular. Just get a plan with either one of them and call them to open your line to international roaming/calling. Considering Tmobile has a major customer base all around Europe, I'd guess Tmobile may offer you better rates between CH and the U.S.

See, this is why I love Vodafone I have a Vodafone line in Turkey and can call any Vodafone customer around the world just as I am calling one in Turkey So when I move to Spain on August, my phone bills will not be raping me

Yeah, I just got done comparing the rates. Everyone offers $1.29/min in Switzerland except Tmobile, who offer $0.99/min. That's definitely the best.

And they have a domestic plan that I could get on board with for the time that I'm NOT in Switzerland. That's what makes this so hard; I need a way to talk in both places.

I'd be specifically interested if T-mobile didn't charge a roaming fee for their 5-person deal. Their website really isn't specific for this issue

 

[foges]

Hey,
I live in switzerland. In my experience you are much better off getting a swiss pay-as-you-go (called prepaid here). The cheapest one you can get is one from tele2 look here: http://www.comparis.ch/telecom...=TC_ProductInfo_512390

You can get this phone including the SIM-Card and 10CHF already on the SIM-Card for 60CHF

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.tele2.ch/Private/Mobile/Prepaid/Sony-Ericsson-K320i.html#">https://shop.tele2.ch/Priva......icsson-K320i.html#</a>

Calling to the states will cost you 1.99CHF per minute. Calling from Italy or France to the states will cost you 2.20CHF per minute.


Where in switzerland are you going to be btw?

 

[Terabyte]

Just buy a prepaid phone when you go there? Or buy an unlocked phone.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: foges
Hey,
I live in switzerland. In my experience you are much better off getting a swiss pay-as-you-go (called prepaid here). The cheapest one you can get is one from tele2 look here: http://www.comparis.ch/telecom...=TC_ProductInfo_512390

You can get this phone including the SIM-Card and 10CHF already on the SIM-Card for 60CHF

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.tele2.ch/Private/...y-Ericsson-K320i.html#"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://shop.tele2.ch/Private/Mobile/Prepaid/Sony-Ericsson-K320i.html#">https://shop.tele2.ch/Pr.........on-K320i.html#</a></a>

Calling to the states will cost you 1.99CHF per minute. Calling from Italy or France to the states will cost you 2.20CHF per minute.


Where in switzerland are you going to be btw?

Thank you for your help. I will be living in Geneva, I'll be working at CERN.

I might just get a Swiss prepaid phone for when I move there then. Now to find a US carrier that will just cover me for one year and not two.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Working at CERN? Is that the place where they are going to destroy the world by creating a black hole?

Those devious swiss should just stick to making holes in cheese, not the space-time continium!

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Working at CERN? Is that the place where they are going to destroy the world by creating a black hole?

Those devious swiss should just stick to making holes in cheese, not the space-time continium!

That's the one. It's the experiment I'll be working on, in fact (along with several thousand other people).

Errmm, did I just say that? No, I meant to say, it's the experiment that I'll be working to prevent. Or maybe I shouldn't call it an experiment...

In any case, we are definitely not going to hold the world ransom with a doomsday device that creates black holes.

 

[ElFenix]

whether you can use a sprint phone elsewhere depends on if you have a 'world' phone, which has both CDMA and GSM radios in it. they're not particularly common.

unless you really want to be raped on the charges a prepaid phone will be a better bet. if your sprint phone is a world phone you can get just a prepaid sim card and put it in your sprint phone. then maybe you'll be able to use your phonebook.

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: Eeezee

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Working at CERN? Is that the place where they are going to destroy the world by creating a black hole?

Those devious swiss should just stick to making holes in cheese, not the space-time continium!

That's the one. It's the experiment I'll be working on, in fact (along with several thousand other people).

Errmm, did I just say that? No, I meant to say, it's the experiment that I'll be working to prevent. Or maybe I shouldn't call it an experiment...

In any case, we are definitely not going to hold the world ransom with a doomsday device that creates black holes.

I for one welcome our new Swiss overlords with a black hole creating doomsday device. Just don't go opening a portal to Xen, mmkay?

 

[Vehemence]

I put a cell phone in a broad once. Called it while it was on vibrate. It kind of jacked up the phone, really. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I miss that phone...

 

[Turkish]

Just get a Swiss mobile phone and use Skype/MSN to call home while there.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: Turkish
Just get a Swiss mobile phone and use Skype/MSN to call home while there.

That's the other idea, but I still need to be covered while I'm in the US for 9 of the next 12 months.

 

[Muadib]

If you go with T-Mobile and plan to use your phone in Switzerland, you need to get a phone that will have the bands that are also used there. T-Mobile uses the 1900 MHz band for the most part in the US, but they carry tri & quad band phones.

You also need to have your phone unlocked, so you can use it in Switzerland.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Wait until you get there and get a new iPhone from a local carrier.

 

[pm]

Wait until you get there and get a new iPhone from a local carrier.

Aha! A convert. Guess you like your new iPhone then. It's been what? Less than a week?


My advice to the OP is to get a cell phone over there - ideally one with something 3G and then use an IM client on it to stay in touch, for calls use VOIP on your laptop (like Skype or another laptop SIP client if you want better-than-Skype call quality). If you need to make calls to the US from a cell phone, then you'll have to be ready to ante up some money, but it will be cheaper to call the US from a EU cell phone than it will to use your US cell phone remotely over there. But I'd just do 3G on a decent cell phone that can handle an IM client and laptop-based Skype/VOIP with a headset... by far the cheapest.

 

[uli2000]

Also, look into a callback service. What you do is call into a local or toll free number for the area you are in, dial the number you want dialed, and the hang up. The service will call you back. And since most cell phones in Europe have free incoming calls, you will use little airtime, and the callback service prices are ususally not much higher than a calling card.

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: onlyCOpunk
Wait until you get there and get a new iPhone from a local carrier.

It's not officially on sale yet and once it is, it'll cost more than in the US.

 

[Eeezee]

What about for the 9 months of this year that I won't be in Switzerland? I'm only going for the summer, and my Sprint contract expires at the end of May!

What's the best value for a domestic phone for a one-year contract? I can't find one-year contract details on any of the major carriers' websites. I don't want to drive around to various stores asking in person. Do you guys have experience with one-year contracts?

After the year ends, I'll just do the Swiss phone like everyone suggested. Thanks for all of the help

 

[chcarnage]

Eezee ? You could read some of the threads in this forum and then ask any specific questions. I've found it a helpful community in the past.