Cell phones in Europe

Buy an unlocked GSM phone with 900/1800 mHz bands.

Buy a SIM from united-mobile.com

We purchased, in this country, a phone from Mobal, www.mobalrental.com, for $49. It works in 140 countries, but not the U.S. and you are charged only for the time used. It works beautifully and the phone is yours forever.

...and if you purchase the mobal phone you pay outrageously high rates both to make and receive calls.

Now if you want the phone just for emergencies that is okay.

If you want a phone because you want to use it, the united mobile option is by far the best...you get free receptionof calls throughout all of Western Europe for the one time outlay...calls made are moderately expensive but there are ways to beat that too.

Do a search on riiing and read all the great but more importantly correct (unlike some of the junk put up here) I have provided regarding this.

BTW your own mobile phone company at home, wherever home is, might do a better job for you than mobal but that is something you can look up.

I use my own phone which happens to work in Europe so cannot help you other than to say that the first thing I think you should do is ask yourself if you actually need a cellphone in Europe (since you don't own one which works there as well as here) or do you just want one?

There are no "wrong" answers to this question but if the "saving money" issue is that major for you then the question may be even more relevant.

There are no wrong opinions...everybody is entitled to their opinion and as I noted the question about what is right for a particular person is dependent on a number of factors. Most importantly when it comes to mobile phones, to give advice, one has to kinow just what the mobile phone is wanted for. Also one has to know whether one's only carrier allows international roaming, whether that carrier is GSM, whether the person has a GSM phone with the proper frequencies yada yada yada.

However, one reads a great deal of stuff thrown out by people on various topics that is downright wrong and those are wrong answers.

If I say that in my opinion mobal is not such a great deal if you really want to have a usable mobile phone, that is an opinion. I can't answer for what people consider to be "convenience" and place a monetary value on that. I also can't answer, for example, what the future holds. Is this a one trip to Europe and never again or does the person go to Europe annually? That might affect the "best" solution to the problem.

Finally nobody knows what the future holds. Currently there is a great deal of controversy going on in the eu as it is apparent the eu will, in the very near future, pass legislation that will curtail the asininely high roaming rates put on intra European calls throughout the eu...that might mean a company such as united mobile AKA riiing may not be the best buy for a muli country visit to Europe but nobody, as noted, can predict the future.

In my opinion, if you want a functioning mobile phone for a multi country trip to Europe and want to be able to be reached, at reasonable rates, 24/7 the best solution is Robespierre's.

Still a bit confused on the cell phone issue and could use a little help, especially on what a SIM card does.

If I'm reading Robespierre's suggestion correctly, I can: 1) purchase any GMS phone anyplace, 2) make sure it's "unlocked" (how can I tell?), and then 3)purchase a SIM card from united-mobile, which will give me one European phone number AND service at the per minute cost they quote on their web site. Is this correct?

(Note--I have tried to "post" this message several times but keep getting an error message...so I apologize profusely if it actually went through numerous times.)

bookmarking

The SIM is what determines which phone rings when someone calls you. I'm leaving out some technical steps here, but the short version is that you can take your SIM out of one phone and put it in another phone and when your friend rings your number, the one your SIM is in will ring.

The remainder of your analysis is correct, provided that the phone will work on 900 and 1800 mHz. The only way I know of to be certain that a phone is unlocked is to install a SIM other than the provider's, and see if you get an error message.

bookmarking

Robespierre--Your answers are so helpful! So when you purchase a cell phone, it's just the SIM card in the phone that "connects" you to a particular provider's service (Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.)...that I can buy any phone, remove the SIM card from it, and put in a different provider's SIM card and the phone will "connect" me through that new provider (such as United-Mobile)? I ask because you apparently can't buy a cell phone around here without it being tied to a provider; and if I can just pop out the card and replace it, this is a whole lot easier than it sounds.

Also, what is meant by "unlocked"?

Thanks again!

A "locked" phone will accept only the providing carrier's SIMs. So if you buy a phone from Virgin Mobile, for example, it won't work with a united-mobile.com SIM unless you get it unlocked.

The only carriers in the U.S. who routinely equip customers with GSM phones are Cingular and T-Mobile. The rest will sell you a GSM phone, but at an exorbitant price.

The best way to finesse the entire issue is to buy a GSM phone for 900/1800 gHz that's been unlocked from a vendor on eBay with lots of good feedback.

Robespierre--You are such a help! Before I buy on e-Bay, I have to ask about a posting I read awhile back, stating that even with the plug adaptors you need in Europe for anything, someone said they couldn't charge their cell phone--it wouldn't take the charge. Was that a lot of bull that I can just forget about?

Not sure if you are referring to the recent thread I was asking about all this.

BUT I did buy a cell phone on eBay that is unlocked - no SIM card at all. The only problem I had with the purchase was that the charger that it came with was only good in US (voltage 120) So I bought a dual voltage charger at Target. This is different than the plugs but that is solved the usual way with the adaptor kit we have. I am not sure if some other seller or some other phone would have had the correct kind of charger. Probably but I was going for a very simple, cheap, no frills phone.

My husband now has the phone in Thailand and he has bought a SIM card there for about $5 and it works. That did not include very many minutes but he can add more and incoming calls are free.

When we get to Portugal in a few weeks we will buy a Portuguese SIM card. Then just email or maybe call home to the US with our new number.

This seems to be the best solution for us - thanks to all the good advice on Fodors.

Hi everyone. I am in this same boat with everyone else. I just got off the phone with Cingular. I am considering getting domestic service with them just so that I can use the phone overseas. Verizon only offers rental GSM phones for (get this) $3.99 a day, plus the minutes. What a rip off! With Cingular, I just need to sign up for regular domestic service (w/ a 2 yr contract) and I can add the international service for like $6.00 a month while I'm gone. Best thing is, I can transfer my old Verizon cell # and have it w/me. I thought of going to the Ebay site and getting an unlocked phone. I asked all my friends for their old phones to see if they took Sim cards and could be unlocked (no luck).I'm not completely decided, but Cingular is looking pretty good and I've been losing a lot of faith in Verizon for some time now.

If you're looking for a domestic carrier for use overseas, check out T-Mobile. They don't charge anything extra to use international roaming. Their phones are all GSM, and you can get a 4-band RAZR free from wirefly.com

Hi,
I would purchase a cheap pay as you go phone and then get people to phone you from the US. You will not be charged for receiving calls and people phoning you can add on cheap international calling for about $3 a month from their long distance carrier (or they could use that 10 10 220 thing that's always being advertised). You can always phone people and ask them to phone you back, or text them and ask them to phone you. This is the method I use when in UK and Greece.
Carolena

I hope I can provide information here that will help others make a decision about the best way to go if you want to have a cell phone while in Europe. Heaven knows I have spent enough time figuring this out!

Can making a cell phone decision be any more confusing?!? After reading everyone's advice, keeping myself up at night trying to decide what to do (we got ripped off on our European trip last summer--ended up w/a $500 charge due to hidden fees), and spending more time thinking about this than about sightseeing (crazy!), I decided to get a grip and sit down with pencil, paper, and calculator and make a chart comparing several options to see what would be best, leaving opinion out of it. These cell phone companies price everything very differently so it is extremely difficult to compare them at first glance (one has a low phone rental fee but high per-minute rate, another has low per-minute rates but high phone rental fee, etc.) Beware, consumer!

A little terminology for others who are cell phone impaired: A SIM card is the part of your cell phone that connects you with a service. It's your phone's software; the phone itself is the hardware. To be able to use a cell phone on your trip, you need both.

First, call your cell phone provider. (If you have Verizon, I can save you this step--forget it). Find out from your provider if you have a cell phone that is an unlocked GSM phone with 90/1800 mHz bands (I sound like I know what I'm talking about, don't I?). If the answer is "yes", you can just purchase a SIM card from united-mobile for $59 (includes shipping and 40 min. of talk time from western Europe) and put it in your phone. If, however, you don't have this type of phone (such as all Verizon phones), you have to get yourself a phone AND service. That's what I needed.

For basis of comparison on my chart, I used a scenario of a 3-week western European Baltic trip with 60 min. of talk time (excludes Russia & Poland where none of these rates from any company applies). If you plan to talk less than 60 min., you'll have to do your own comparison because the most cost-effective way for you will be different...remember those variations in the per-minute charges? Anyway, here's how it turned out using my scenario of 3 weeks in the Baltic talking 60 min.:

Option 1: RENT THE CELL PHONE ALONG W/SERVICE. EZ Wireless and Road Post, two providers I looked at, would cost slightly over $200 (includes all fees including shipping). Votaphone, which is what Verizon recommended I use when I called them about this, costs a lot more. (There are, of course, a lot of other services you can check out, should you have no life and lots of time on your hands.)

Option 2: BUY AN UNLOCKED CELL PHONE FROM A REPUTABLE SELLER ON E-BAY AND PURCHASE THE NECESSARY SIM CARD FROM ANOTHER SITE (per others' advice here, I looked at united-mobile). My cost would be about $180 (you were right, Robespierre--it is less expensive than the rental services).

Finally, Option 3: PURCHASE A PHONE AND SERVICE FROM THE SAME PROVIDER. Mobalrental was recommended by Rick Steves and MSN and--for my purposes--turned out to be the best option. This would cost $149 and includes all necessary adapters (worth a few bucks). It costs less than options 1 & 2 and I'll be able to keep the phone and use it on future trips. In fact, I decided to pay $50 more than the $149 cost I mentioned above in order to get a phone that could also be used in Alaska, Canada, and the U.S. (the phones from the other plans I mentioned above don't work anyplace except western Europe). This means I can use it to make calls from the airports here in the U.S. and can leave my regular cell phone home...and it will work on my next trip (to Alaska). This put the cost almost equal with rental option #1 but I get to keep the phone, which--because I plan to travel in the future--will save lots of money on my next trip. Another plus for me was that I will have time before my trip to get comfortable with the phone--it won't arrive the day before I leave because I have to watch how many days I keep it in an effort to keep the cost down. That happened last year--we were paying by the day so we had it delivered the day before we left. We arrived in Rome and I ended up spending our first hour there not sightseeing but talking to a customer service rep who didn't speak English-- I couldn't get the phone to work per the manual!

One additional note--When figuring the costs, I included the fee my daughters' cell phone provider (Verizon) charges to get international roaming so they can call us (in our case, Verizon charges $3.99/mo. and you can cancel at anytime--no minimum # of months (the only piece of good news from Verizon relative to international calling). If you plan to make all your calls outgoing, this won't matter; just be sure to tell people who might call you to check it out first with their provider because they could get socked with high fees.

Whew!!! I hope I haven't confused anyone and maybe helped.

While a SIM card for the country you are visiting typically has the best rates, one drawback that it expires if not used within a set period of time (two to eight months for the ones I had considered). Since we visit Europe annually, those SIM cards did not make sense for us.

This year, I discovered a roaming SIM card. The rates are a bit higher (e.g.: $0.59/minute for calls from France to the US and for calls within France, free incoming calls), but the card does not expire for a year from your last call. That call could even be within the US ($1.15/minute). The phone number that you receive is a UK number.

The card is a Passport Sim Card:
http://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=MSIM-PP01

I requested unlock codes for our Motorola quad band phones from Cingular and will simply use the Passport SIM cards while we are in France for our upcoming trip.

patth...

Did you consider incoming calls in your calculations?

OK let me see if I got this straight.

I already own a cingular phone (2 actually my DH's and mine) and I did have the int'l feature turned on in March on both phones because my neice took my DH's phone to Italy w/her on her honeymoon. I was mis-informed by cingular that even with the int'l feature on both phones the cingular to cingular was free...

Not so...My bill was $812.00 over my base bill that I normally pay. Beware who you talk to at cingular. I called cust serv to set this up. Afterwards when the bill came in I learned that you need to specifically talk to the international department and that regular cust service while they try to be helpful apparently are not clear on how it actually works.

Now in Sept I go to France.

If what you guys are saying is all I need to do is buy a sim card from France and put it in.

I already know my phone works in europe so do I need to call cingular and have the int'l feature turned back on or is my phone already unlocked.

I am understanding that my phone is unlocked and once I take my sim card out...cingular is out of the picture and dosen't even know what I am doing. I then put in new sim and the phone should work.

Is all the above true or am I still confused?

Still following these excellent discussions. Here's my (really naive) question: Is there an important comparison between Cingular and T-Mobile with regard to black-out spots, or weakness of signal, or number of towers, etc. in Europe? In other words can one of those be more powerful or more dependable than the other? Thanks. J.

jmw

I worried about that same thing when I switched from nextel. I was getting very negative feed back on both but more so on T-Mobile. I was told it depended what area you were in.
At first my cingular was about the same as my nextel in regards to dropped calls and clarity. Since I got my cingular last Dec they put in another tower in my area and I have since had the best service I have had since I have owned a cell phone in 1992. I first was with Alltel for years then switched to Nextel and now cingular, so I stay with a company a long time and am aware of each ones pitfalls. My Nextel wouldn't even work in many parts of Arkansas where I go to visit friends every year. My cingular works everywhere I have been thus far.

I can't tell you about T-Mobile so maybe someone here can enlighten you on their reliability.

Cingular vs. T Mobile in Europe...should be exactly the same as they use the same roaming partners. When you are in say the UK you are not using a T Mobile US or Cingular tower, you may be using a Vodafone UK tower and your coverage will be that of Vodafone UK and in almost all cases you can select the roaming partner although each network might have its own preferred partner.

Cingular charges $1.29/minute vs. T Mobile 0.99/minute both to make and receive calls...for somethng like $6.99/month (or is it $3.99 I don't remember) cingular reduces its price to the same as T Mobile US for international roaming.

As I've always said, if your use of the mobile phone is simply to be reachable in emergencies it's convenient if you are on either Cingular or T Mobile and have a tri band phone.

But even that is not so simple...for a variety of reasons, Cingular in the USA operates on 850 and 1900 bands...so its tri band phones will have 850, 1800, 1900. It will work adequately in the big cities of Europe but lacking the 900 band, in many areas of Europe you will not get a signal.

Up until recently, when T Mobile US sold a tri band phone it was a real world tri band namely it had 900/1800/1900 with both European frequencies. Unfortunately, T Mobile US to enhance its converage in the US, has begun allowing roaming on some gsm partners which use 850 and tri bands they are selling now generally come with 850/1800/1900 which are, at least to me, next to useless for use throughout Europe. Nokia phones, particularly, cause a problem as from the model number it is not clear whether you have the North American tri band or the real world tri band (the model numbers for North American consumption have a b such as the Nokia 3220B but they never tell you that, you have to research the specs very carefuly).

The other consideration, and the reason I asked the question earlier, has to do with receiving of calls and is very important.

On a local prepaid European sim plan, the caller pays. Therefore, for example, if you have a UK sim and are in the UK, if somebody calls you they pay a higher rate and you pay nothing like in nothing...there is a whole brohaha going on in Europe now as the eu wants to extend this free reception of calls throughout the eu and the operators, to whom high international roaming rates is a cash cow are fighting like the dickens against this new "intrusion" by the eu into their internal policies. As it is now, if you have a UK sim, if you go to France, you pay to both make and recieve calls at very high rates. In response to the eu threat, some of th european carriers have begun to lower their roaming rates on their local prepaids.

Now my objection to mobal, which is basically O2 UK rebranded, is their rates are very close to T Mobile US and Cingular rates and they charge for both making and receiving calls except in the UK where you get the free reception of calls.

The international cards, such as united mobile, with the free reception of calls present a unique opportunity provided you understand it. With united mobile (and some others) you get free reception of calls throughout almost all of Europe east of Russia. The caveat is the number you have is in Liechtenstein (country code 423) and some long distance carriers in the United States and in Europe have raised their rates to call Liechtenstein to ridiculous levels. However, as of today, if you have the $1/month AT&T internaional plan, their price to Liechtenstein mobiles is only 11¢/minute far cheaper than the 30¢/minute charged for calls to most other European mobiles.

The other big advantage of the free reception of calls is a firm called callbackworld (www.callbackworld.com)...with this company, you set up an account for free, no monthly charges or anything like that, and they give you a number to call in the USA (this is called the triggering number)...when you call that number you hear a ringing tone and you hang up. No charge because the call has not been completed..seconds later you get a callback on your mobile phone you keyed to the trigger number (in this case the United Mobile number)...no charge from United Mobile as you are receiving and you make the call. At present the charge from callbackworld to call from Liechtenstein mobiles (which is what you are charged wherever you are) to the US is 14¢/minute timed to the second...talk for 30 seconds and you pay 7¢...talk for 61 seconds and you pay 15¢...there were questions of the reliability previously but it seems to be working pretty reliably right now...some say connections are not all that great as they use internet providers but I haven't had any trouble. Some European mobile operators have tried to block calls (Logos can speak of that) but at this point in time it seems to be functioning adequately. At the same time, also for free, they give you something called a PIN2DEST. They give you a US toll free number that you can give out to your friends and when a friend calls that number if they enter a pin you provide, the call rings through at the above noted rate of 14¢/minute.

To me, and I emphasize to me, being reachble on the mobile phone is absolutely important. As a matter of fact, with call forwarding available to me on my landline which I use at home anyway to forward to my mobile phone, I have one universal number, my home number. If I'm in Switzerland and have call forwarding set to United Mobile, the call goes through (and AT&T connections are excellent and quick)...the caller pays to call my local number and I pay 11¢/minute.

I know there are those who think they don't want to be reachble while on holiday and I respect their opinion on this. Also some people just want the most convenient way and it doesn't matter if it cost them a few extra dollars. To me as I travel a great deal and for example have friends in London and visit them several times a year, it is awesome.

And it is important to keep in touch with development regarding the roaming situation in the eu which might change the best way.

But what will be ture is that with an unlocked gsm phone with the 900 and 1800 frequencies, no matter what happens, you will be in a position to take advantage of whatever comes down the line.

>cingular works everywhere I have been thus far.
You havn't been to many places in the US.
When it comes to coverage in Europe, there is no difference, simply because both conpanies roam on most european networks. That means both can be connected to the same network cell of the same european network at the same time and place with the same quality. The price may differ!

xyz123

True I haven't been all over the US, but I live in Florida and have been to GA, Ar, TN, KY, OH, MI, Il, SC and a few others I think and again..no problems..no dead zones or dropped calls, thus far...

As for the european rates...I have my bill right here from when my neice went to Italy in March. They charged her phone ( I let her use my hubby's) $5.99 for the int'l feature and my phone $3.99 for the int'l feature since no calls from my phone would originate in europe. I turned these features on just before she left and then off again after she returned home.

As for the minutes. Her phone was charged .99 cents per minute for all incoming and outgoing calls to either USA or in Italy. My phone when calling her was not charged anything to make a call to her or to receive a call from her because I had the int'l feature turned on on my phone.

HOWEVER, Both her phone and my phone were charged .50 cents for pics sent not received. She was also charged .50 cents for each txt msg as well either incoming or outgoing.

This is not how I understood this was going to be until I got my bill and spent over an hour on the phone with cingular having them explain all charges on my bill to me exactly.

I have contacted callbackworld and here is their reply to me:

Patricia,
Firstly, the least expensive thing you can do while in France is
either use our callback system from a land phone, or, use a good
phone card. If you want to travel with and use a cell phone you
will need to modify your own phone by taking out the little SIM
card that is in and replacing it with another that will turn it into a
European phone. This is a very common practice and, though
you must check that your phone is a GSM phone, most Cingular
phones are today.

You can turn your phone into a French mobile phone and the
rate will be 46.3 cents a minute to call the US. Better still, you
can turn it into a Liechtenstein number (no joke) and the rate
becomes 14 cents a minute. Incoming calls are free and if the
latter selection you can "roam" for free (ie, use it) in many other
countries. A roaming charge is something like you pay now
when traveling with your unmodified Cingular phone.

You can read about these things on an internet forum at:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/
You will no doubt read about us there as we have a lot of
customers using the Riiing Global SIM card, the Liechtenstein
one. We do not sell SIM cards but we refer interested persons to
this site, which specializes in them.
http://interneka.com/affiliate/AIDLink.php?BID=8101&AID=17477

Hope that helps.

Barry
Callback World


So I think I will do both so if I just want to chat I will use the callbackworld from a land line in my hotel and for calling on the road I will use the Liechtenstein SIM card.

Wow...Barry is really on top of things...and BTW he is great and has worked with me in resolving some difficulties and is well aware how much we push his service on prepaidgsm.net...

Customer service at callbackworld.com is excellent.....

Thanks very much for replying to my questions. (I still drive around with a Motorola bag phone I bought ten years ago.) I visited the T-mobile website to see if I could understand the options (courage gained from you folks), and here are a couple more snags: When you place a call in Europe, do you first have to determine which band to use or is it automatic somehow? Second, the T-mobile coverage maps contain a chart of various 'carriers' and their coverage. Do you have to select a carrier when you arrive? Counting on your patience. J.

Just to clarify a couple of things that might not be clear...
1. Riiing (note 3 i's) was always branded by united mobile separately from its own service. About 6 months ago it was also consolidated into one big happy family and riiing is now called united mobile.

2. United mobile sim cards are readilly available at www.united-mobile.com.

3. The cards can now be denominated in euro, US dollars and sterling..recharging is very simple at the web site too.

4. Callbackworld would be worthless if you are roaming with either cingular or T Mobile US as you don't get the free reception of calls. It is the free reception of calls that makes the system work.

5. To use callbackworld from your hotel room, you would have to have a direct dial number in your room and the call to number has to be set either by calling cbw or via the internet.

But as noted, their customer service is excellent and Barry indeed will do most anything to assist you.

thanks xyz123

As you know sorting this out has not been an easy task so I feel better that you have worked with Barry over at callbackworld...the vote of confidence in him is very encouraging.

Although his advice seemed very good to me on the surface...until you try and find out for yourself your never really sure...but this helps me feel more confident.

As you also know we will need to keep on top of this because in the ever changing world of cell phones, services and technology we will probably be seeing a lot of changes over the next few years so next year al this maybe all wrong and not the best way to go...you never know....

I ment to add that this was a very costly lesson for me to learn..$812 to be exact...$812 can make a lot of people wake up and try and figure out a better way. Hopefully, my $812 lesson can be passed on to others planning on traveling in europe with their cell phone.

jmw44..

Good questions...most modern tri band and quad bands you do nothing to select the frequency. I will simplify what happens with modern phones...previously you had to select the frequency (and I still have a couple of old Motorolas where this was necessary)...

Basically when you turn on a mobile phone it boots up much like a computer. The first thing it looks for is if there is an authorized sim card in the phone (assuming we are talking about gsm phones of course)...this is where companies can lock their phones. If the phone is locked say to Cingular it will only continue on if there is a Cingular sim card in the phone otherwise you get a message unauthorized sim card....when the phone is unlocked the line of code in the boot up sequence is removed and any sim card will do.

Assuming it passes this test, the phone then looks for your home carrier, it may take a few seconds and if it finds it, the phone registers and you will see say Cingular in the window and the phone has registered on your network and voila you're in.

Now when you roam in Europe, let's say you're roaming on a Cingular phone in the UK....you land at Heathrow and after clearing immigration and customs (use of mobile phones in the customs and immigration areas is illegal) you turn on the phone...okay the phone has an authorized sim card and it looks for a Cingular signal, none exists...it then starts knocking at the door so to speak of various mobile providers changing the frequencies if necessary saying (figuratively speaking of course), "Hello I am your friendly Cingular US sim card, will you take me in?" And each provider checks its data base to see if it has an agreement with Cingular and if Cingular is authorizing your use of the card (international roaming is activated) if it says no, it goes to the next and tries again. In the case, for example, almost all of the mobile operators do allow roaming on Cingular so it will register on the first carrier it tries...this could be Vodafone UK...you will know the phone has registered if you see the name of a carrier in the window...you need do nothing. (just as an aside, different carriers have different preferred networks in various countries, not that it matters on current US international roaming plans...surprise surprise T Mobile US's preferred roaming partner in the UK is....ready for this...T Mobile UK which is why high charges for international roaming is a farce but that's another story for another day)...and you can manually choose a provider (as my own symbolic protest I use my T Mobile US phone to get lots of sms messages of baseball and football scores which are free to receive and deliberately set the phone to any carrier other than T Mobile UK) but that doesn't affect the rates.

All this takes place transparently to you so basically if your phone is enabled for international roaming when you turn it on, it will register after a few seconds on some network.

xyz123--No, I planned on mostly outgoing calls since that's the bulk of what we will use it for. My husband calls his office and I call the kids, usually dashing off calls when it's convenient to us based on our schedule--would hate our phone to ring while we're at the Hermitage or another site. I have my phone turned off more than it's turned on due to this plus the phone won't work once the ship leaves port (I know about satellite phones, which are way too expensive), so arranging incoming calls is impossible. It's easier for us to call home than home to call us because we know everyone's schedule and when we are likely to get them on the phone--they have no clue where we'll be and when (we don't even know). Home knows to call us only if an emergency. I suppose we could play that "I'll call you and you call me right back" game but as I said, I already spent too much time on this topic and created a probable scenario based on how we would use a phone. F.Y.I: for others: Incoming calls on EZ Wireless are 1/2 of outgoing and using united-mobile's SIM card gives you free incoming.

Thanks, xyz! You are a good teacher! J.

I appreciate all the inputs here.
I am also looking for the most cost effective way to stay in touch with our collage age son, who will be traveling this summer throughout Europe. After which we plan to meet him there.

Fortunately, we already have two Siemens GSM phones (S40 & S46) left from our subscription with Singular.

What I was plannng to do is.
1. unlock the two units ($20 - $25 a piece).This way no having to rent or buy another one.
2. As it was recommended here, buy 2 sim cards from united-mobile and just insert them in.

After reading patth and thevegobondLady horrible experiences, I prefer not having to deal with these phone companies. Rather buy a card with no string atached.

To save money for us calling our son from U.S., I plan to use the cheap services of internet phone skype (www.skype.com), which we are already using. ($0.03 / min to Europe, including to Mobile phones)
We intent to use the cell phone while ourselves are in Europe.

I would very much like to read if anyone has a better idea.

thanks
Meir

Do the phones have both gsm 900 and 1800 frequencies? That is the key issue...also the ld provider, does it have cheap rates to Liechtenstein cell phones.....doesn't matter where in Europe your son is you pay the rate to a Liechtenstein cell and some of the ld carriers have very very high per minute rates.

xyz,
I just checked the spec's on these phones.

S40 has: GSM900 Class 4; GSM1800 Class 1; & GSM1900 Class 1

S46 has: GSM 900 Class 4; GSM 1900 Class 1; TDMA 800 Class IV; TDMA 1900 Class IV.

You point of expensive calls to Lichtensein is an interesting one. I need to research it.

btw. I run into this Israeli website which offers a very attractive service. has anybody used their services.
http://www.amigo-us.com/index.cfm

Is there still a semaphore network that covers most of Europe?

I'm wondering if someone could clear something up for me. Here in our area the GSM coverage is pretty bad, so we use a non-GSM company for our mobile phone use. I've noticed, though, that this company (US Cellular) and all the others in the area offer GSM-capable phones for use with their networks, such as the Razr. Are these phones somehow disabled for GSM use? Is is possible to get them unlocked then buy a SIM for Europe? Right now I'm looking at picking up a phone on Ebay, but if I could get it unlocked, I could get a Razr from US Cellular for about $50 (with their contract).

bookmarking

Regarding unlocking phones, T-Mobile will unlock for you after 90 days of service. Cingular will do it if you nag them - explain that you need to have a SIM card for Europe but aren't going to dump them domestically. (T-Mobile might do that also.) When my daughter bought a Treo a week before going to the UK, she badgered Cingular into giving her the codes, though it took 3 calls.

You can get an existing phone unlocked at independent phone repair shops in most cities and in Europe, prices ranging from $25-$50, my husband tells me. You can also buy unlocking codes on eBay, I understand. Some phones are easy to unlock and free codes are available via a Google search. My husband has generally used Nokia phones (till he recently got a Treo) because they're usually the easiest to unlock and codes are available free, though he says my 3220 was a bit trickier than most.

If for emergency use only, a pre-pay plan works fine and they can be had for around 10 Euros (with a small amount of time) in many countries. And will work in other countries, so the expense of a united SIM may not be necessary if for emergency use only. Some of them - Vodafone for sure - are good for a year and you can easily top them up when needed. The cheapest way to get your phone number to people at home is to text-message it to another cell. (We send ours to our daughter and have her e-mail to anyone who needs it.) Last year we got a Vodafone SIM in Greece at a kiosk for 8 Euros with 6 Euros of talk time (a promotional offer while Vodafone was trying to make inroads into the Greek market). We sent and received about 30 text messages and still had more than 2 Euros of time left.

A cheap option for people who want to be able to chat a bit with people at home and are taking a laptop (with a mike) with them is to use Skype. I use it at home for my international calls. At 2 Euro cents a minute (more for mobile phones, free to computers with Skype installed), you can do a lot of chatting for the 10 Euro minimum pre-paid plan, which you can purchase on a credit card or PayPal. Obviously not useful if you are not online, but my husband has installed my Skype on his laptop as well and when he's on a business trip, we often use that to save our cell minutes to make calls home or when making arrangements with friends in the countries we're visiting.

This might be a little late but worth the information. Last August I purchased 2 mobile phones from mobalrentals.com. They had a special deal if you were a frequent flyer with Ameracan Airlines, which I quickly joined. You buy the phone(cheap) but you supposdly need to use their sims card and pay their rate.
They were Nokia phones that were supposedly locked, so I went to an unlocking website to unlock them. After 3 trys and failing, you can no longer unlock the phone, so I gave up. I brought them with me anyway to France figuring maybe I could find a place that could unlock them for me. At the airport there was a sales person who worked for a compary that you could rent a sims card from. No start up fee you just paid .50 euro per minute versus a much higher rate that mobalrental was charging(I forget the exact charge).You tell them how long you want to use the service and they discontinue it on the experation date.They bill you credit card for time used. I told her the phones were unlocked but when she inserted her sims card it worked. The moral is I think the phones come through unlocked but the company doesn't want you to know. That is why I was unsuccessful when I tried to unlock them. I don't promice that mobalrental is still shipping unlocked phones but it's worth a try.

Now that I have unlocked phones I'm heading back to Europe and visiting 3 countries(Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic).What's the best way to get a sims card for use in all of these countries and be able to call the USA.

Sorry about the last message I sent. I told the sales person at the airport the phones were "locked" not unlocked as my previous posting said.

Your best bet would probably be an international sim card.

Now I have been most partial to united mobile based in Liechtenstein but there are several new ones based in the UK with UK numbers.

There is also a brand new one currently being discussed on the international forum of prepaidgsm.net.

Something called yackiemobile. The owner has been participating in discussions regarding this and it sounds very good...it comes with a US number that forwards to your mobile anyplace in the world so you can give everybody a US number (I assume you are in the US) to reach you and you receive in Europe for something like 24¢ US/minute. Haven't tried them yet but they sound very promising.

You can read about the various international card on the international operators section of prepaidgsm.net and go to various web sites to buy the sims...again I am most partial or have been to this point to United Mobile which is the one I have but developments are moving very quickly every day and you will have to do your own research as to which one best meets your needs; United Mobile will meet your need but yackiemobile might better meet your needs if it can deliver everything it promises.

Don't waste any more time here unfortunately...few people on this forum really know all the ins and outs of this...go where the experts reside as noted www.prepaidgsm.net

BTW for anybody else...

There is a very simple way to tell if a phone is (sim)locked...insert a sim card of another company...even if the phone is a dual band (900/1800) and you are in the USA this test will work...

If the phone is locked you will immediately get a message unauthorized sim card or something to that effect. This will tell you the phone is locked. If you get no such message the phone will attempt to register on some network....if it's a 900/1800 phone of course it will find no network to register on and you will either get a message to that effect or nothing will happen but again if the phone is locked it will never get that far.

This is a very helpful and informative discussion.

I have 2 questions for xyz or anyone using the United Mobile service:

1 - Is it correct that the only way to add minutes to your phone with this plan is via the Web site? — i.e., you can’t call a number from the phone itself to add minutes?

2 - Do the minutes ever expire if you don’t use your phone for some period of time?

1. yes

2. One call is required every 9 months...easy enough to do..simply call your voicemail.

Thanks ... the web thing strikes me as a possible problem if you don't have enough time loaded before you leave home. You'd probably have to find an Internet cafe to add more time, and I am a bit reluctant to do a credit card transaction at a public Internet site.

of course, after reading over this again and again, I am still a little confused.

So, I purchased an unlocked gsm tri-band phone off ebay. It should arrive early next week. I am traveling to the UK, France and Portugal.

What is my best option for a SIM card;preferably one card for all three countries?

Thanks!

I thought I would check with United Mobile to make sure that the web was the only option for reloading minutes, and found that in fact you can add minutes from your phone. Here is what their customer service department responded (and by the way, I was pleased to see that I got a very prompt answer to my email):

"To recharge your sim card with your credit card you can also call 00423663099911 from any phone or 094 from your United Mobile phone."

After reading all 53 posts on this thread re Cell phones in Europe, in addition to posts on same subject in another forum, I have 3 questions:
1. To buy a SIM card at CDG airport T1, what vendor(s) would you recommend?
2. How much per minute for outgoing calls within France and to outside of France?
From what I read here, all incoming calls (int'l or not) are free.
I have a quad-band GSM phone from Cingular and have received a 8-digit "subsidy unlocking code" from C. Charger is dual voltage.
At time of SIM card purchase, the shop will unlock my phone and insert new SIM with a new phone #. I am all set to go, Right? (this is my 3rd Q). Thank you all very much for sharing your experience.

You can unlock the phone and should do so to make sure it is unlocked and the correct code (you will get a message to the effect after the code is entered sim lock removed) There is no need to wait till France.

You can check local charges in France by going to www.prepaidgsm.net

Go to the national operators and look up France...there are several different French mobile companies and you may not have a choice at the airport.

You will be informed of your French phone number when purchasing the sim...the country code for France is 33 and the number will be presented to you in the form 0699999999 (this is not a real number)...to call you from the United States one would dial 011 33 699999999...(remember you drop the lead 0 when dialing almost any European number from the USA)...and yes all calls you receive will be free on your end...your callers will pay a surcharge to call a French mobile (check international long distance rates....you will see a low rate listed to France and a somewhat higher rate listed to France Mobiles)....

As far as a merchant at CDG, I'm sorry I can't help you...you'll have to ask..I'm sure you'll be able to find one.

nonnafelice...

I wouldn't know about recharging a United Mobile sim card...I've never done so in the 14 months I've had one..I've made 2 calls with it, both to my voicemail to meet the one call every 9 months rule.

Oter than that, I use callbackworld to make calls back to the USA...14¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals sure beats 0,39€/minute timed to the next highest minute along with a 0,25€ fee for each call as a set up fee.

You should look into this to make calling back to the USA very economically (or wherever you are calling)....

Can I only buy united-mobile sim online? I'm leaving in a few days, live all the way in Asia so shipping is not exactly a good option for me. My first stop is London - where can I buy it there?

bookmarking

xyz123,

I will definitely look into callbackworld for calling the States. But our next trip will be with another couple, and we'll each have our own car -- sharing a villa but often going our separate ways. We will probably need to keep in touch via cell phone, and so expect to be using our phone more in Italy than we ever have in the past. We also travel quite a bit to France, so I was attracted to the idea of a card that I could use in either country.

Previously we have used our Mobal phone, and up till now have probably spent less than $10 for all the calls we've made in about 5 trips, since we've only used it for very brief calls. We've had Internet connections in many places we've stayed, so could call the States very cheaply via Skype. But we won't have that on our next trip, so I think the unitedmobile plus callbackworld sounds like the best combination.

We purchased two cellphones on ebay from a private party.

They were Motorola V66 worldphones with tri-band coverage (900/1800/1900) and came with dual voltage chargers (110/220) and two European adapters (beside the standard US plug). They cost us $30 each (the limit we were willing to pay).

They were originally offered through T-Mobile and even though the person that sold them thought they were unlocked, they were not. We found this out by purchasing two Cingular Pay-As-You-Go activation cards on ebay and inserting their SIM cards into the cellphone SIM slots.

After researching on google last Saturday morning, I found a place in Salt Lake City that would unlock the phones for $12 each plus $4 for Priority shipping ($28). It cost me $4.05 to Priority ship them to Salt Lake City.

I got them back Friday morning and tried the Cingular Pay-As-You-Go activation SIM cards and they work excellently.

We want the Cingular Pay-As-You-Go cards to use the phones coming and going in the US airports.

When we get to Switzerland, we will purshase SIM cards for that country. When we get to Italy, we will do the same.

All along in our experience, we were willing to take the risks in our purchase, etc. in order to have a little adventure before our real adventure begins. It has worked out very well for us.

Six months ago, I didn't even know there was something called a SIM and I knew nothing about Bands. My thanks, gratitude and appreciation go out to those on this Forum that generously helped (patiently and impatiently) with their knowledge and experience. As demonstrated here, xyz123, you go the distance. I apologize for not remembering the names of others that helped.

VS :-"

Okay, I'm remembering some...

Thanks Robespierre and blackduff and laclaire.


VS :-"

ttt

Just an update and a couple of questions for xyz123, or anyone who might know:

We did buy a United Mobile card (good service; it arrived via Zurich in just a few days), and inserted it in our Mobal phone.

A message then came up and asked me for my PIN. I entered it, and it was accepted, and I'm not getting any error messages.

So can I now assume that the phone was unlocked and once we get to Europe, it should be good to go?

The other question is: I have a friend who also has a Mobal phone, purchased somewhat later than ours. Can that person put my SIM card in his phone just to find out if his is also unlocked? I mean, if he put the card in his phone, it wouldn't make it stop working for me when I put it back in my phone, would it?

>>Can that person put my SIM card in his phone just to find out if his is also unlocked?<< Yes

>>I mean, if he put the card in his phone, it wouldn't make it stop working for me when I put it back in my phone, would it?<< No

VS

topping..... (I'm still using a Motorola Timeport tri-band phone with an Oskar SIM card. As long as it's replenished once a year, I can keep my phone #)

Oskar was bought by Vodafone, first thing they did: Triple!! roaming fees

But if I'm not roaming out of the Czech Republic, then it wouldn't matter, correct?

Yes, correct. Oskar has always been my fav. choice in places like Mexico. Inexpensive, unlimited free SMS via Web interface. It's all over now.
Well, 09.is is an alternatve.

Robespierre is very helpful. There's one thing, though...he states you can get free razr phones from Wirefly. That's true - wirefly offers t-mobile deals that even t-mobile doesn't offer. But here's the thing - I looked Wirefly up on rateacompany.com and out of 19 responses, they were given a rating of 0.5, the worst! Nearly everybody had enormous headaches dealing with them! Don't bother.

I haven't had a single issue with Wirefly. Perhaps the bad rating was the creation of competitors who can't touch their deals. It's not unprecedented.

rateacompany.com doesn't come up.

"buttoncat" has never posted here before.

Hmmm.

Robespierre: The fact that I have never posted here before is neither here nor there. I'll try to get a valid link for the ratings page. Wirefly can be looked up on any ratings page.)

Meanwhile, do you work for Wirefly?

Hmmmm...

Doesn't feel too good, does it?

(The reasons I'm spending any effort at all on this to inform people are: (1) I went up on Wirefly and found "deals" I couldn't find with the cellphone companies themselves, which sounded suspicious, and which involved the handing over of sums of money to someone I'd never done business with before, (2) I really am a sincere, nonaffiliated reader of Fodor's website who rarely posts, and (3) Robespierre has - perhaps inadvertently - taken upon himself the role of authority in this area, and many people may follow his advice.

Sorry, Robespierre, and others, if there was any discomfort generated by my posts. I'm finding this a very informative section, and would like the conversation to continue.

Saw this little bit on MSNBC yesterday..or was it CNN Headline News? Either way, here's a site that might be helpful: http://www.cellularabroad.com/

The fact that I have never posted here before is neither here nor there. Maybe, but it's interesting - and a little suspicious.

I'll try to get a valid link for the ratings page. Surely it can't be that hard.

Wirefly can be looked up on any ratings page. Then why can't you seem to manage it? The ones I saw were all 7s and 8s.

Meanwhile, do you work for Wirefly? They don't need me to pimp for them. Their reputation speaks for itself.

Doesn't feel too good, does it? What, being the subject of a clumsy smear? Hardly.

(The reasons I'm spending any effort at all on this to inform people are: (1) I went up on Wirefly and found "deals" I couldn't find with the cellphone companies themselves, which sounded suspicious, if you knew the first thing about how the cellular business worked, this wouldn't surprise you and which involved the handing over of sums of money to someone I'd never done business with before, your credit card agreement protects you against fraud.

(2) I really am a sincere, nonaffiliated reader of Fodor's website who rarely never posts, and

(3) Robespierre has - perhaps inadvertently - taken upon himself the role of authority in this area, and many people may follow his advice. Never said that. I bought a phone from them, which even you could probably manage. No authority required.

Sorry, Robespierre, and others, if there was any discomfort generated by my posts. You overestimate yourself.

I'm finding this a very informative section, and would like the conversation to continue. There are dozens of threads about cell phones for travel. What's a "section?"

Cellular abroad, like telestial, is one of those rip off American firms that offer sim cards for triple the price and try to lull you into thinking it is difficult to get a sim card upon arrival in a foreign country or that it is a big advantage to have your foreign number in advance. They triple and quadruple the prices you will pay for sim cards if you wait for arrival in the country involved and for the most part their prices for international cards are way out of line.

Example, they want $50 plus shipping for an Irish sim card (O2) + some absurd amount for shipping...the same card is readilly available on arrival in Ireland for perhaps €10 to €15....and it's real tough to let people know your local phone number (like e mail and sms have not been invented)...not only that in some cases even if you get the sim card in advance, you won't know your number until you register for the first time on the network in the country of the sim card.

This is simply not rocket science...if you are going to be in one country for any period of time, get yourself an unlocked gsm mobile phone either dual band (900/1800 please) or tri band (hopefully 900/1800/1900) readilly available on ebay or at some internet merchants.

Then upon arrival in the European country, go into any mobile phone store, and they are just about on every corner, and you can get a local sim...and the clerk will help you set it up and go over such things as setting the voice menus to English if it is possible and how to set up voice mail...I have read some people say this is a pain as they don't want to waste a single minute of their precious holiday time...fine go off and let yourself be ripped off by these rip off merchants. Some European sims are also available on ebay at very low prices.

If you're going to be in 2 or more countries, probably an international sim such as united mobile is for you. We've described them, they are described on a real gsm message board (www.prepaidgsm.net) where experts cal help you, not people here who throw out wrong information or information that can cost you a lot of money (nobody rents a mobile phone in the 21st century as buying phones is so cheap). You can read all about united mobile at www.united-mobile.com.

Do be aware there are otjer internatonal cards and a new one just starting out that seems promising for Americans is yackie mobile...(www.yackiemobile.com)...in this one you will get a USA number which will forward to your mobile wherever you are in Europe at very advantageous rates (no need for a local sim, the sim you get from yackie handles everything)...they are just starting out and we have no great benefit of seeing how well they can deliver what they promise. Again, information is available at www.prepaidgsm.net

Also as we have noted, with a United Mobile sim card which at this point seems to be the best (yes that can change as the industry is undergoing a lot of pressure from eu regulators regarding the high cost of roaming) you can open up an account, for free, with callback world (www.callbackworld.com)....basically it will allow you to call back from any country where receiving calls on united mobile is free (and that includes all of Western and Central and much of Eastern Europe, Australia, South Africa and China) to the USA at the rate of 14¢/minute billed in 6 second increments not raised to the next highest minute. I was just in Europe for the entire month of June and it worked perfectly as described and call connections were excellent throughout Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and the UK...I got my bill from them and for the entire month, my cbw bill which must have been a hundred calls to the USA from wherever was $31...plus countless calls I received for free...callback world also gives you a US 800 number with a pin which charges the same 14¢/minute (so I paid for those calls to me).

If you want a functional mobile phone, not just one for emergencies only, this is a direction that bears your investigation. Trust me, this 21st century technology works.

This is amazingly helpful and very clear. I am one who needs it all spelled out, and now I think I am beginning to understand. I have an upcoming trip to Romania in September. We will need a cell phone to make/receive calls back in the US as well as inter-Romania calls to various relatives.

I have a Nokia 6102i phone with Cingular service, which is gsm 850/1800/1900.

I also have two O2 X1b pay as you go phones that I purchased in the UK last year (which we use for inter-UK calls when we travel there fairly frequently). They are tri band 900/1800/1900 mhz. Is it possible to unlock these phones?

Almost all phones can be unlocked...the Cingular phone you can call their customer service and they might provide the unlocking code for you.

The O2 phone...might already be unlocked. Many O2 phones are sold unlocked; if not you can do a little research on the web to find several unlocking services (I am not familiar with the brand of the O2 phones) or you can bite the bullet and purchase for less than $50 US a perfectly good functional unlocked dual band (making sure it is 900/1800 and absolutely not 850/1900 which work only in some places in the Ameruicas)..also somebody on this forum recently pointed to quad bands available on ebay for not too much.

I asked the Cingular folks for the unlock code for my Motorola V180. I was told that my service is still under the old AT&T network and that AT&T will only give unlock codes when service is terminated. Mine is a company phone and apparently my employers have not requested that their account be moved over to the Cingular side. If you have an account directly with Cingular, their policy is to provide the unlock codes after 3 months of service.

Does anyone have experience or know someone who does with yackiemobile? After learning about them in this forum, I ordered a SIM on Saturday. I received a "no reply" automated email with a link to print my order that doesn't work. The email stated my order is being processed and I'd be sent another email. None received so far.

Tonight I called their support line and after 6-7 rings received a recording that all representatives were busy and to either leave a message or call back another time! Wasn't given the option to hold - left a message that I want a status and left 2 numbers where I can be reached. They don't list a support email address and their chat line is closed. I'm questioning if their support is really 24/7.

Don't have warm and fuzzies from this so far.

I selected yackie because the rates seemed reasonable and I'm able to get a local US phone number which will make it easier and cheaper for callers to contact me when I'm in Europe.

Any guidance would be appreciated, including if there are any other options for purchasing a prepaid SIM to use in Europe with a US number.

On the prepaidgsm.net forum, there has been a whole discussion. Their deliveries have been somewhat delayed. Several who have gotten the sim card say it works pretty much as advertised. They are not willing to give up on them just yet, they are a start up company. They seem to have been a bit overwhelmed by response to them. I would give it a little more time.

Not to be totally dense, xyz, but where can I get a dual band phone for under $50? I'm finding mostly the $100 range.

Try ebay (you might have to go to the British or German site); at least that's what I've been told.....

As I posted above, the phone I bought from Mobal for $49 was unlocked and I was able to put the United Mobile sim card into it. However, I bought mine (a Nokia) a couple of years ago, and they are selling a different $49 model now -- a Motorola C117. So I don't know whether you would need an unlock code for that phone.

>dual band phone for under $50?
I've got 10 Boschs stocked in the basement, brand new cost me 6€ each. Shipping to the US would be expensive,but 5€ phones on ebay aren't a problem. (perfectly legal

I know people who go overseas & buy used or older model cell phones once they get there. It's a cheap way to go,if you can't locate an affordable dual or tri-band one here.

First, a big thanks to xyz for the incredibly patient and updated info.

I will take a 3 month solo trip in a leased car to France and Italy in late August. I've researched phone options till my eyes glaze over. I'm thinking of using either United-Mobile or callbackworld, but am not sure if they are the same thing. Clarification appreciated.

Since I don't have a cell phone here at home (CA), I wanted to get a phone which would be good for Europe use, but also can be used back home.

Does anyone know if the Mobal $99 phone would serve this purpose? And, if so, can I buy their phone but use United-Mobile or callbackworld services instead of Mobal's? I'm reluctant to call and ask, for obvious reasons

Needs of phone and service:

1. calls within France and Italy for res's, info, calling acquaintances--hopefully free or cheap incoming from within those countries

2. Ease and cheapness of calls from U.S. to me in Europe

3. Can receive messages

4. Ease and cheapness of calls from me in Europe to US

5. Capacity to use phone once home in US

I am leery of doing the eBay thing for various reasons.

I would so appreciate input on which phone options and/or services you think would best suit this package of needs.

Thanks,

Karen

Just to be clear - what I'm getting from my reading the above messages - if I:
1. Buy an unlocked quad band phone.
2. Get a United Mobile SIM card (or any other that has free incoming calls from US)
3. Set my home land-line phone to forward to my United Mobile SIM card number,
then
4. My children (or others) could phone my home phone number, and I would not have to pay for the call (free incoming from US), and my children would be charged whatever they normally have to pay to call my home?

Is that how it would work? If so, that's what I'm planning to do!
Thanks ahead for replies.
Lucy

Sorry - but to clarify a bit to the above message, we will be in Italy for 2 weeks in the fall. Not expecting to do a trememdous amount of calling back to the US, but do like to hear from our children every few days or so....
Thanks again!

Lucy...

The only thing wrong with your scenario is possibly #3 and #4....

What you describe is what I basically do when I'm on holiday but I have 2 advantages that you might not have

1. My primary long distance carrier is AT&T long distance and for $1/month they have a special international rate. Believe it or not the country to which their rate is cheapest for mobiles is.....Liechtenstein. I pay 10¢/minute to call Liechtenstein on this plan.

2. My landline company, to the best of my knowledge, is the only one that to the best of my knowledge allows remote call forwarding to international phones...normally my landline is set to call forward to my US mobile phone wherever I go...when I get on the plane say at JFK just before the announcement to shut all mobile phones I change the forwarding number to the united mobile number...from that moment on anybody calling my landline in NY has the call forwarded to my united mobile phone (totally transparent to them BTW) and they pay to call the landline and I pay 10¢/minute...of course when I call home I use callbackworld and pay 14¢/minute.

Now as an alternative if your landline allows remote call forwarding to domestic US numbers (I assume you're in the US) from callbackworld you can get for $1.50/month a US toll free number that you can program to ring to your united mobile number...so you set the call forwarding to your US toll free number and people in the US don't pay (it's toll free) and you pay 14¢/minute for each completed call!

That will work!

Neat isn't it.

Oh BTW Lucy, my home landline is on Verizon.

You can also get, I think it must be somewhere in the thread. for free a US toll free number that works with a pin...so you can key this number to the united mobile number, give it to your kids....they ring the number enter the pin and the call goes to you again at 14¢/minute...for the inconvenience of a pin, you save $1.50/month....plus the cost of remote call forwarding (Verizon charges me $6/month for it but I use it for other things say if I'm at work or staying at a friend's place, I constantly change the forward to number remotely)...

Hope that helps!

Thanks xyz123. My long-distance carrier is AT&T, so I can sign up for the $1.00/month, .10/min. plan. What I guess I need to do first is make sure my landline provide (Comcast) will allow me to forward to an international number... hadn't thought of that. As both of our children live local to our home, there is no very little cost (if any) for them to "phone home". Off to call Comcast!
Thanks so much....

This is a fantastic thread and just as I am starting to do my research into telephones etc for Italy, Spain, France and England. I just checked out callback world as recommended by xyz123 and have a question. I live in Australia. Can I join from here or do I have to be a US citizen? From what I read it seems available to all. I can send them an email and ask but am so excited at the prospect of finding a solution so soon I am keen for an answer.

Cheers

I have a GSM phone (unlocked) and I'll be in Paris and Barcelona. Anyone know if SIM chips are readily available in stores like they are in the UK? I just picked one up at a convenience store for 30GBP which included 20+GBP worth of credit as well.

bay - Paris yes they are everywhere. Barcelona I don't know.

xyz123 - Great tip on the international call forwarding.

Monda...

Absotively posilutely you can use callbackworld....you will be billed in US dollars and your credit card issuers will convert to AUD (unless CBW uses dcc but I doubt it!).

I want to say that I read all the reports here and elsewhere regarding how to buy and use a cell phone outside the US. I purchased an unlocked GSM quadband phone. I purchased a SIM card in French Polynesia. They never worked together. We eventually rented a phone in that country to use. I'm not saying the advice is incorrect, just that things don't always work out the way they are "suppose to". So if you really NEED a cell phone, you might want to consider renting one in the country you are visiting -- just to be sure. JMHO

Well, you need to be able to operate the phone you've bought. Sometimes and for some it's really difficult. Even if everything is technically correct, sometimes there's a band (frequency) setup which is incorrectly set. Easy for most people after reading the manual, for others it's close to impossible. As is changing the SIM, some highly educated people fail, performing this "simple" mechanical task. For those, renting (or asking some kids) is better

Logos -- just to clarify, I asked everyone I came in contact with for help. No one could get the two (phone and card) to work together - including the "geeks" at the phone stores. We all finally just gave up. Sometimes things just don't work .. no matter how knowledgable one is. My point in the post is that its impossible to test the phone and card together before you leave home if one buys the SIM in the visiting country. If a phone is of urgent need, best to know before you go.

You can be sure that it'll work if it's GSM, unlocked and has the right frequencies. It's not rocket science

Hi
This gets more confusing. Several months ago I renewed my Cingular contract, bought a quad band phone. We went to activate the other day for Europe and was told it is automatically activated and will cost us $1.29 per minute. As we don't plan on making many calls this will be good enough for us. Plus we could buy a phone card as we did last year. Last year we supposidly had Cingular activate our phone for Europe, which was great until we went to use it. Found out they had screwed up. wish us luck this year, with a new quad band phone, Cingulars assurances that it is operational. For anybody who is thinking that we should use T-Mobile, we live in an area where there is not signal for them. In fact a few years ago we had to switch over from Verizon for that reason. It's better now, but I'm satisfied.

You have the phone, it's quad, unlocked so there's no need to use the SIM supplied by Verizon, it only complicates things for you. Why not buy a united-mobile SIM, it costs 15ct/min to call the US from (almost) anywhere in Europe. Or get a local SIM when you arrive, they only cost a few €.

Add to list:

Some phones have settings that decide whether and which networks they'll look for. Every one is different, but a knowledgeable phone store clerk should be able to sort yours.

"You can be sure that it'll work if it's GSM, unlocked and has the right frequencies. It's not rocket science."

O.K. Logos -- so what went wrong? My phone was quad band, GSM, unlocked, and we tried several different SIM cards in several different shops in French Polynesia. Nothing worked. Seemed like rocket science to everyone who shrugged and said "I don't know"!

Just send me the card an the phone.

bookmark

I have read all of the posts about SIMS, phones, etc. I only have a brief understanding of all of this and of course have many questions.
My biggest question is about the SIM cards. Do all SIMS give you access to the phone PLUS prepaid call time? Do some only give you access?
To make my question clearer, in order to make PREPAID calls, do I need a phone + SIM, OR phone + SIM + prepaid card?
I will be traveling to AMS, France, Italy and Czech Republic on this trip.

Both. Some companies sell you a SIM with no airtime, and some with. The SIM is your authorization to use the network.

Companies like Mobal bill your credit card for airtime, and other companies require that you "top up" your account before you can use the time.

COMPANY NAME;UNIT MOBILE TELECOM
EMAIL ADDRESS;UNITMOBILETELECOM@YAHOO.COM
EMAIL ADDRESS; UNITMOBILETELECOM@HOTMAIL.COM
We have all brands of Mobile Phones,Ipods,Sidekicks,Nextels phone,Laptops for sell at cheap and affordable prices, they ranges from Nokia/Samsung/LG/Sony Ericsson/Motorola/Alcatel/panasonic With Bluetooth, all Brands and Models of Nextel Phones, we want you to get back to us with your quote so that we can begin a good business relationship. Note they are all Brand New T2 Euro specs, unlocked, no operator logo, come in their original sealed box, With 1 year international warranty from the manufacturer, English & Spanish manual, Finland made. We want to assure you that you will never regret buying from us because the delivery will be to your doorstep via FedEx Courier service.And the Tracking number shall be sent to you upon acknowledgement of your payment. Kindly acknowledge the reciept of our mail and get back to us at
unitmobiletelecom@yahoo.com
unitmobiletelecom@yahoo.com
unitmobiletelecom@yahoo.com
we have assorted brand New Gsm
Phones/Ipods/Xbox360/Notebook/Laptops/PDA/Psp/TV Etc.We are using
this medium to look for buyers of mobile phones, Ipods, Laptops,
Cisco, Psp, Xbox360, LCD and Plasma TV, CD, DVD, Digital Camera
ETC and also offerring buyers/customers our yearly bonaza.
We are offering very low discounts for our new customers/buyers,so place your order with your full address, zip code, and phone contact numbers to enable proceed with the transaction.

THE NEW NOKIA N95 AT JUST 300USD
THE NEW NOKIA N93 AT JUST 250USD
HP iPAQ rw6828 Multimedia Messenger........185usd
Buy i-Mate JAM SIM Free Phone / PDA.....170usd
Buy i-Mate PDA2 Phone /PDA .......200usd
i-mate JASJAR QWERTY PDA ...........190usd
i-mate K-JAM Phone PDA SIM Free........175usd
i-mate JAM 128 Phone PDA SIM Free.........180usd
i-mate SP5 Smartphone..........170usd
i-Mate JAMin Phone / PDA.....175usd
Buy i-Mate PDA-N GPS Pocket PC..200usd
Buy i-Mate PDA2K (XDA III)........220usd
O2 XDA Mini Pro S / MDA Vario IV / SPV M6000
O2 XDA Neo
O2 XDA / T-Mobile PPC / Siemens SX56
O2 XDA Atom
O2 XDA Exec, SPV M5000, MDA PRO4
O2 XDA II / XDA IIi
O2 XDA IIs
O2 XDA II Mini
HP IPAQ HX2750 ................180USD
PDA HP IPAQ Pocket PC hx4700,SD, ...169.00USD
Palmtop PDA Pocket PC Bluetooth WiFi...175USD
PDA POCKET PC CELULAR 200MHz WiFi......210USD
iPaq rx3417 Pocket PC Bluetooth WiFi....300USD
PDA HP iPaq Hx2750 Pocket PC Wifi ...190USD
PDA Acer n311 Samsung400MHz 3,7 .......200USD
Qtek 9100 GSM GPRS PDA Pocket PC - ...210USD
PDA HP iPaq Hx2750 Pocket PC Wifi ...220USD
PDA POCKET PC HP IPAQ RX3715 ...185USD
PDA Acer n50 Premium 520MHz 3,5 TFT ...195USD
Dell Axim X3 Handheld..............190USD
PDA MOBILE PHONE POCKET PC XDA .....175USD
HTC Prophet ........................170USD
Dell Axim X50 X50v Pocket PC.........200USD
Pocket PC e800 WiFi..................180USD
FOR SELL NOKIA 9500 MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $160usd,
FOR SELL NOKIA 9300 MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $130usd,
FOR SELL SAMSUNG D500 MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $140usd,
FOR SELL SIDEKICK II MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $100usd
FOR SELL SIDEKICK III MOBILE PHONE AT JUST $120usd
NEXTEL i870 AT JUST $100usd
NEXTEL i860 AT JUST $110usd
NEXTEL i930 AT JUST $130usd
MOTOROLA RAZR V3 AT JUST $140usd
PINK MOTOROLA RAZR V3 AT JUST $140usd
MOTOROLA RAZR V3X AT JUST $150usd
MOTOROLA MPX 220 AT JUST $140usd
MOTOROLA MPX 300 AT JUST $180usd
SONY ERICSSON W800i AT JUST $160usd
SONY ERICSSON w600i AT JUST $160usd
SONY ERICSSON W900i AT JUST $200usd
SONY ERICSSON K700i AT JUST $150usd
SONY ERICSSON K750i AT JUST $160usd
SONY ERICSSON S700i AT JUST $160usd
SONY ERICSSON P910i AT JUST $160usd
SONY ERICSSON P990 AT JUST $200usd
NOKIA N90 AT JUST $200usd
NOKIA N91 AT JUST $210usd
NOKIA N92 AT JUST $250usd
NOKIA N70 AT JUST $170usd
NOKIA N80 AT JUST $180usd
NOKIA 8800 AT JUST $180usd
NOKIA 9500 AT JUST $200usd
NOKIA 9300 AT JUST $180usd
NOKIA N93 AT JUST $230usd
NOKIA N95 AT JUST $350usd
TREO 650 AT JUST $140usd
TREO 700W AT JUST $200usd
Sprint Products Smart Device SP-i600 AT $170usd
Sprint 6601 Pocket PC (US) AT $190usd
PPC6700SP Sprint PCS Vision Smart Device PPC-6700 AT $200usd
Sprint PCS PPC 6600 Camera Cell Phone PDA Pocket PC AT $140usd
SIDEKICK II AT JUST $120usd
MICROSOFT XBOX 360 AT JUST $160usd
SAMSUNG D600 AT JUST $200usd
SAMSUNG D500 AT JUST $180usd
Brand New Qtek 9000 .................................$150
Brand New Qtek 9100 .................................$180
Brand New Qtek 8100..................................$135
Brand New Qtek 2020i.................................$120
Brand New Qtek 1010..................................$100
Brand New Qtek 8080..................................$120
Brand New Qtek 8310..................................$130
Brand New Qtek 9090..................................$140
Brand New I-MATE Smartflip ....... $140
Brand New I-MATE JAMin ......... $220
Brand New I-MATE JASJAR ........ $240
Brand New I-MATE K-JAM ......... $180
Brand New I-MATE SP5 ......... $150
Brand New I-MATE SP5m ......... $155
Brand New I-MATE SP4m ......... $120
Brand New I-MATE JAM Black ........ $150
Brand New I-MATE JAM ......... $160
Brand New I-MATE PDA2 ......... $190
Brand New I-MATE PDA2k ......... $160
Brand New I-MATE SP3i ......... $130
Brand New I-MATE SP3 ......... $135
Brand New I-MATE Pocket PC ......... $140
Brand new I-MATE Smartphone2 ........ $110
Brand New I-MATE Smartphone ........ $120
APPLE IPOD NANO PRICE LIST
Apple iPod nano Media Player 2GB -- $100
Apple iPod nano Media Player 4GB -- $150
Apple iPod nano Media Player 6GB -- $200
X BOX 360 PRICE LIST
Xbox 360 Core System -- US$200usd –
Xbox 360 Platinum SystemUS$190usd
Xbox 360 Platinum Bundle Console -- US$230usd.00
PLASTATIONS
playstation 1 ....120usd
playstation 2...150usd
playstation 3 ...200usd
LAPTOP
All Toshiba laptops
Toshiba Satellite PRO L10 $320
Toshiba M200 $500
Toshiba R100 $450
Toshiba Qosmio E10 $750
Toshiba Satellite PRO L20 $250
Toshiba M100 $680
Toshiba M300 $740
Toshiba Portege A200 $320
Toshiba Satellite L10 $330
Toshiba Qosmio F20 $500
Dell Laptops
Dell Latitude D600 $290
Dell Latitude D500 t $200
Dell Inspiron 6000 $350
Dell Latitude D505 $340
Dell Latitude D610 $460
Dell Latitude D510 $320
Dell Inspiron 9300 $530
Sony Laptops
Sony VAIO VGN-T1 $680
Sony VAIO VGN-FS315 $420
Sony VAIO VGN-S3 $450
Sony VAIO VGN-TX1 $840
Sony VAIO VGN-FS215 $ 310
Sony VAIO VGN-S4 $470
Sony VAIO PCG-K35 $550
SONY VAIO A217S-- 100GB-- 512MB RAM-- XP HOME-------------$500
SONY VAIO B1VP-- 40GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP PRO--------------$430
SONY VAIO T370P/L-- 60GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP----------------$400
SONY VAIO A215Z 60GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP------------------$6450
SONY VAIO A397XP-- 80GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP----------------$700
SONY VAIO B100B08 60GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP---------------$450
SONY VAIO B100B08 60GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP---------------$600
SONY VAIO FS295VP 80GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP---------------$550
SONY VAIO FS215Z 100GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP---------------$650
SONY VAIO A417M 80GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP-----------------$650
SONY VAIO B1VP-- 40GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP PRO-------------$300
SONY VAIO T370P/L-- 60GB HD-- 512MB RAM-- XP PRO----------$600
SONY VAIO LAPTOP-- VGN-A117S--------------$600
SONY VAIO LAPTOP-- VGN-S1XP--------------$800
ALPHASMART DANA PALM POWERED LAPTOP----------$330
APPLE G4 POWERBOOK 1.5GHZ SUPERDRIVE WITH 15 INCH DISPLAY--$700
APPLE G5 POWERMAC 2.0GHZ DESKTOP COMPUTER-------------$700
APPLE G4 POWERBOOK 1.5GHZ SUPERDRIVE WITH 17 INCH DISPLAY--$600
APPLE G5 POWERMAC 2.5GHZ DESKTOP COMPUTER---------$100
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- P20-102--------------------------$500
APPLE 5GHZ SUPERDRIVE DESKTOP COMPUTER WITH 20 INCH MONITOR-$4500
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- P10-803-----------------------------$500
ALPHASMART DANA PALM POWERED LAPTOP------------------------$350
ALPHASMART DANA PALM POWERED LAPTOP PACK WIFI VERSION-$400
OQO MODEL 01 ULTRA PERSONAL COMPUTER (XP PRO)--------------$450
TOSHIBA SATELLITE PRO A60 40GB-- C2.8GHZ-- 15INCH-- DVD/CDR$450
FLYBOOK NOTEBOOK - WI-FI-- GPRS-- BLUETOOTH-- 1GHZ (BLACK)----$550
FUJITSU SIEMENS LIFEBOOK P7010 60GB-- P4 1.1GHZ-- 10.6INCH-- DVD/CDRW
$600
ASUS A4744K-LH AMD64 POWER WORKSTATION LAPTOP--------$450
FLYBOOK NOTEBOOK - WI-FI-- GPRS-- BLUETOOTH-- 1GHZ (RED)------$610
FLYBOOK NOTEBOOK - WI-FI-- GPRS-- BLUETOOTH-- 1GHZ (BLUE)-----$500
ALPHASMART DANA PALM POWERED LAPTOP------------------------$300
FLYBOOK NOTEBOOK - WI-FI-- GPRS-- BLUETOOTH-- 1GHZ (YELLOW)--$500
TOSHIBA TECRA M2 40GB-- PM 1.5GHZ-- 14INCH-- WIFI-- DVD-CDRW----$500
FLYBOOK NOTEBOOK - WI-FI-- GPRS-- BLUETOOTH-- 1GHZ (SILVER)---$500
TOSHIBA PORTEGE R100 40GB-- 512MB-- XP PRO------------------$500
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- M30-742-------------$550
APPLE G5 POWERMAC 1.8GHZ DESKTOP COMPUTER--------------$500
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZD7145EA-------------$500
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZD7255EA--------------$500
APPLE CINEMA HD 23-INCH TFT LCD MONITOR----$500
SONY VAIO LAPTOP-- VGN PCGK21 5Z----------------------------$500
SAMSUNG LAPTOP-- X30 LWC 1500--------------------------------$500
G4 POWERBOOK 1.33GHZ SUPERDRIVE WITH 12 INCH DISPLAY-$600
SONY VAIO PCVW2 DESKTOP---------------$450
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZX5151EA PHOTOSMART-------------------$400
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- M30-832-----------$400
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZT3215EA--------$550
SAMSUNG LAPTOP-- M40 HWM 745----------$500
APPLE G4 POWERBOOK 1.3GHZ COMBO WITH 15 INCH DISPLAY-$700
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- P20-801---------$500
APPLE GHZ SUPERDRIVE DESKTOP COMPUTER WITH 20 INCH MONITOR$450
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZX5275EA------------$400
SONY VAIO LAPTOP-- VGN PCGK21 5S--------$400
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZT3350EA---------------$400
SAMSUNG LAPTOP-- X15PLUS HZM--------------$350
APPLE G4 POWERBOOK 1.33GHZ COMBO WITH 12 INCH DISPLAY$550
SONY VAIO LAPTOP-- PCGK215M--------------$400
SONY VAIO DESKTOP-- RS504-----------------$400
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZX5030------------------$400
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- M30-106----------------$400
HP MEDIA CENTER DESKTOP COMPUTER-- M1080 PHOTOSMART---$400
APPLE IBOOK 1.2GHZ COMBO WITH 14.1 INCH DISPLAY---------$400
APPLE GHZ SUPERDRIVE DESKTOP COMPUTER WITH 17 INCH MONITOR$400
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZV5230EA------$300
SAMSUNG LAPTOP-- P28 LTC 330-------------$300
SONY VAIO DESKTOP-- V1-------------------$300
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- A40-231-----$300
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZV5169EA---------$300
APPLE GHZ COMBO DESKTOP COMPUTER WITH 17 INCH MONITOR-$300
APPLE IBOOK 1GHZ COMBO WITH 14 INCH DISPLAY---------------$300
TOSHIBA SATELLITE LAPTOP-- A40-892----------$350
APPLE IBOOK 1GHZ COMBO WITH 12 INCH DISPLAY--------------$300
HP PAVILION LAPTOP-- ZV5213EA-----------$300
NOTE: ALL PHONES ARE IN FACTORY SEALED BOXES, WITH
CHARGERS, ACCESSORIES, MANUALS INCLUDED.
NOTE IF YOU BUY 10UNITS OF OUR PRODUCTS YOU GET 1FREEWe have assorted brand New Gsm
Phones/Ipods/Xbox360/Notebook/Laptops/PDA/Psp/TV Etc.We are using
this medium to look for buyers of mobile phones, Ipods, Laptops,
Cisco, Psp, Xbox360, LCD and Plasma TV, CD, DVD, Digital Camera
ETC and also offerring buyers/customers our yearly bonaza.
We are offering very low discounts for our new customers/buyers,so place your order with your full address, zip code, and phone contact numbers to enable proceed with the transaction.
REGARDS
MICHEAL