gingschultz

We are traveling to Geneva and Munich in October. How is cell phone service? Can we even use our phones and call home to United States?

altamiro

> Can we even use our phones and call home to United States?

If you have GSM 900/1800 able phones - probably yes (I could phone from US to back home). Check with your phone provider.

Nowadays almost all newer phones are tri- or quad-band, able to receive and send anywhere in the world with cell coverage.

dmlove

I see you have a verizon email address. Is your cell phone service verizon, too? If so, then the answer is probably no, since verizon phones are not GSM.

Reisender

My quad band Motorola with service from T-Mobile works well most anywhere in the world. Very happy with it - and T-Mobile does not charge anything for the international access (except for the per minute roaming fees!)

xyz123

...except for the per minute roaming fees which are aininely high and you pay for both making and receiving calls while roaming internationally. Ouch

RJD

You have to talk to your cell phone carrier to find out if your phone will work in Europe and if you need a new sim card(s). You probably do need a new card.

LindainOhio

If your cell phone does not work in Europe or the roaming fees are too steep:
On recommendations from this forum, I bid on an unlocked quad band cell phone from ebay ($25) and when we got to Ireland, I bought a SIM card for 10euro--I bought the smallest amount just to make sure it worked. You buy additional minutes at grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores. Worked great.

My friend recently borrowed the phone for Scotland and Paris--worked great for her too.

blondiepopo

Just returned from Rome. I have never brought a cellphone with me to Europe before, but since there were 6 of us going and from different cities, I felt the need this time. Boy was it the best thing I ever did. When one of my sons landed in Rome (not with me) the Rome police gave him a hard time about his passport & wouldn't let him into the country (that's another UGLY story in itself). If it wasn't for the fact that we had phones and could communicate with each other and call the US Embassy, I'm sure he would have been on the next plane back to the US. They were a lifesaver! I have Verizon and my phone does not work outside the US. Go to their website and look up global phones. For $9.99 (shipping costs) you can rent a phone for a month. As long as you're in the US, your plan works, and outside the US you then go to roam charges which you can control by not using it except in emergencies (like we had). Before you leave the US, call their global number and they will activate your global phone and that's all you have to do. When you return, you call them to deactivate it and mail it back to them in a prepaid Fed Ex box. You can't get some of your services out of the US (like V Cast and Internet access) but I still had voice mail and could text message. It literally saved our trip for all of us and was worth whatever roaming charges I will have to pay. I never again will go out of the country without a phone.

SUMMAGOLD

i believe all blackberries have global capabilities. my husband has one from work, and it never has any problems receiving or calling US while we are in europe. it also picks up the local network. dont ask me how, but it did automatically. you just have to turn it off and back on when you get into the country you are in.

elcon

I have a phone, presumably unlocked since my cousin used it in Italy. I am going to Prague/Vienna in December and would like to use it there, but don't know how. Can anyone advise? I know I need a sim card, but can I buy one here? If so, how are you then charged? All of the instructions with the phone are in Italian, which doesn't help me much.

Robespierre

For talking to one another within Germany for 1¢/min, there's smobil.com

mrcamp

I am sure you can change the phone's instructions to english. You just need to know enough italian to naavigate to the settings menu. English will be one of the languages. As for sim card, just get a local sim card in your destination. If you are going to several countries, get one of the global sim cards that will work in several countries.

Barbara5353

I will only be in Germany for 1 week. I want family to be able to call me on my "regular" phone number in case of emergency. Since I am traveling solo, I might also make 1 or 2 short calls home just to check in. I am hoping my T-Mobile phone will work this way. I don't want to purchase another phone or SIM card for such a short trip; would rather just suck up and pay the roaming fees.
I do intend to call T-Mobile, but have more faith in Fodorites than in the customer service reps who have given me wrong information on other occasions. Hoping someone will say "Yes, I've done it and it works".

Travelnut

I absolutely use my T-Mobile phone in Europe and it works just fine. Calls are $0.99/min and texting is free for incoming and $0.20/msg for outgoing, based on my last bill from early November.

You do have to be in possession of a tri-band or quad-band phone, however. You can usually upgrade if you extend your contract, or you can shop for an eBay quad phone and just switch it to your T-Mobile SIM. Also, you probably will need to request them to 'activate' International Roaming on your plan.

I find it to be a reasonable expense over buying another phone and a foreign SIM which typically costs more than the few calls I make using my own phone. (I agree that a country or global SIM would be cheaper for longer periods and more frequent/longer calls).

Robespierre

Yes, T-Mobile works in Europe when you've activated WorldClass International Roaming. The easy way to do this is to log on my.t-mobile.com and do it yourself. I've done it many times - even sending a "safe arrival" text before my plane got to the terminal.

http://www.t-mobile.com/Internationa..._RoamWorldwide

I believe outgoing texts are 35¢ and incoming are 20¢. In any case, there's no monthly rip-off like AT&T charges to get 99¢ voice minutes.

https://support.t-mobile.com/knowbas...ic/tm20120.htm

Racer042

My wife and I recently spent a week in Rome and Florence. I had just bought an Apple I phone (3g) and was curious about how useful it would be in Italy.

The service is ATT and I signed up for the world service plan so useage would be 99 cents a minute, plus international data plan.

The voice service was iffy, when people called me from the states, sometimes it went through, sometimes it didn't. When it didn't, it would not go to voice mail.

However, the data worked great! I put the phone on downloading email once an hour and got all my emails.

I had put into the address book the addresses of our hotels, museums, etc and when I touched the address, it came up in the google maps and I could get directions.

Once I had pasta amatriciana in Rome and loved it. No one in the restaurant spoke English so I looked it up in Safari web browser and it came back with a recipe. I asked if they used Guanciale and they said that they cured their own.

The I phone was a big help and I was able to keep up with things back home. With the time difference, email was better than voice anyway.

Bob T

Robespierre

<i>The service is ATT and I signed up for the world service plan so useage would be 99 cents a minute, plus international data plan.</i>

AT&amp;T charges customers $5.99 per calendar month for the privilege of matching T-Mobile's 99&cent; voice minutes. And it's not a <i>pro rata</i> month: if you make ONE CALL in a calendar month, they nail you for six bucks. I think AT&amp;T is a rip-off outfit.

Using Google Maps to navigate in Europe is the most expensive way to do it - every time you change location, a fresh map has to come from Google's server at international data rates. Much better to have a dedicated mapping application in your handset.

Robespierre

Unless you're in the UK, in which case T-Mobile will sell you a Web'n'Walk SIM that gives web access (unlimited for non-intensive purposes) for &pound;1 a day, or 5 days for &pound;2.50 (first ten days free: www.t-mobile.co.uk/goodybag)

xyz123

Unless they've changed it recently, incoming texts on T Mobile are charged as per your plan.

I have an unlimited plan for texting with T Mobile (I get oodles of texts with sports score even when I'm home) so I get unlimited incoming even when I'm in Europe at no charge.

Also with this plan, my outgoing mms to e mail addresses are also free...I send lots of pictures or use an mms to send text message to e mail addresses and don't pahy anything because of the unlimited plan I have (I think I pay $10.99/month but it covers all the lines I have on the family plan)...

One of the few good things I have to say about T Mobile USA.

xyz123

Unless they've changed it recently, incoming texts on T Mobile are charged as per your plan.

I have an unlimited plan for texting with T Mobile (I get oodles of texts with sports score even when I'm home) so I get unlimited incoming even when I'm in Europe at no charge.

Also with this plan, my outgoing mms to e mail addresses are also free...I send lots of pictures or use an mms to send text message to e mail addresses and don't pay anything because of the unlimited plan I have (I think I pay $10.99/month but it covers all the lines I have on the family plan)...

One of the few good things I have to say about T Mobile USA.