One easy and inexpensive way is to pick up a quad-band unlocked phone on eBay (usually around $25-$50, depending on the quality and features). Then also on eBay you'll find the EKit merchants. You can usually get a $10 airtime SIM card for $5. This provides you with both a UK and USA number. Incoming is about 50 cents per minute.

dave

Europe is awash with cheap second-hand mobile phones and you could pick up one of those and get a local sim card with its own number. If you have any friends in France, they could get it for you so that you don't have to go looking.

Jeremy
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/books/learn-french-with-jokes/

thanks - guess I'll find a cheap prepaid phone and then load that number into my out of office message on email and voicemail.

I had wKit card couple of years ago and experience wasn't that great. Reception was hit & miss. Card was registered to a telco in the Isle of Man and had UK#. It worked very well in London but not so much in other places (were on the cruise). Best bet is buying SIMs in each country but that will be costlier than the eKit card.

We are still using a 25€ top-up phone we bought at a Virgin Megastore 4 years ago. It actually cost 50€ as it came with 25€ in calling time. You can top up on line or buy top up cards in tabacs and grocery stores.

Regarding incoming call, I am not sure if your business phone system is capable of calling you on caller's behalf.

If the caller has to make calls to the number referenced in your email and voicemail, is it ok to have an international number?

There are many ways to deal with this. One way I have been addressing this is to get a VOIP number. I have a Google voice number (U.S. prefix) and give away this number to others. Since it is a virtual number, I can reprogram to redirect calls to any real phones on a fly. I change my cell numbers all the time, but nobody else need to know since I reprogram Google number to point to whatever phone I am carrying at that time. I have done this with U.S. based cellphones since my phone is a quad-band GSM model, and the charge is acceptable if the usage is low. It appears you can redirect calls to international numbers by adding fund to your google account, but I have not done this yet. If you miss a call, it does not matter if you have an internet device of some sort, laptop etc., to access your google voice message box.

I thought the Google voice phone outbound calls were restricted to calls from U.S., so I got an SSL VPN setup to be able to make a google voice call from Europe. But I was surprised that I could make Google voice calls using hotel Wifi with or without VPN.

For Skype users, I have a funded Skype account. I program in European number in the forwarding field when I am in Europe. If I don't answer Skype calls on my Laptop, it forwards Skype calls to my forwarded European cellphone number. The cellphone charges are deducted from my Skype account.

CMeyer, I have the same problem. I want a phone that I can use immediately upon arrival because a traveling companion is arriving at CDG at the same time we are (in theory) but on a different airline.

I just purchased a $19 phone from www.telestial.com. Rather than using their SIM card (which has a UK and a US number), I have ordered a SIM card with a French phone number from Lebara that can be activated and topped up online. Another alternative is to order a SIM card from lefrenchmobile.com, but their rates are higher than Lebara's.

Other than meeting up on our arrival day, and the occasional times when we may go separate ways, we won't be using the phone very much, so this seemed like a good and inexpensive solution for our situation.

The first time we went to Europe, we bought a phone, and then sold it on e-bay when we were finished. The second time, we bought a phone card to use at pay phones. I wouldn't do that again. It was difficult to use and there were times it wouldn't connect.

This time, I have Verizon and they will rent a phone for 30 days for the cost of shipping - $19.99. Then it's .99 per minute.

$.99 per minute is an outrageous fee and you pay that both to make or to receive calls. For 20€ you can buy a phone and Lebara charges 0.15€ per minute for calls to the USA, all incoming calls are free.

Even cheaper for those just wanting to call or to receive calls from the USA is the free T-Mobile VoIP option. Use one of their newer phones and by using its wifi capability you can make/receive calls on your normal US number for no cost other than the normal minute usage you would have at home. It´s a great solution for those with internet access which many hotels, apartments, cafés, or McDonalds offer at no charge.

None of the French phone plans will charge you for inbound minutes so if that´s all you need, I should avoid initiating those roaming plans that charge for inbound calls.

Sarastro - you have piqued my curiosity since I'm a T-mobile customer. Are you talking about Bobsled? That's the only reference I find on their website...it says something about having to be on Facebook....please explain when you have time. Thanks!

I am not sure what Bobsled is Mara. T-Mobile offers this free service with their newer phones. I have the Amaze model and made calls from London to the USA just last week using only a wifi connection. A friend of mine who was with me also was making calls to the US via a wifi connection with his T-Mobile phone; a model that looked something like a Blackberry.

The best plan might be to check with T-Mobile because this is a very new feature and is not available with all phones. Interestingly, T-Mobile has not said much about the service but it does work.

Thanks, Sarastro - I did search further on the website and found some info - it seems that it will work calling from US numbers to US numbers even if you are out of the country, but if you call an international number you pay the usual international calling rate. Interesting and thanks again.

That is correct. These phone will dial and receive calls just as if they were in the USA. This is only a partial solution; for those needing a local phone number I might suggest changing the SIM to a Lebara SIM or carrying two mobile phones; your usual phone for calls to/from the USA and a second phone with a local SIM.

Or you could buy a replacement US phone that is quad band and transfer your number.

@ardithl - I found a website...mobal.com. I ordered an very inexpensive phone from them with overnight delivery to my home. It will have a UK # attached but you can give it to your travelling companion before you arrive in Paris so he/she can contact you. The phone itself was quite cheap and you are only billed for the minutes you use the device - no base charges or monthly committment. Incoming text messages are free and outgoing ones are 80cents each. Calling to the US is around $1.50/minute so a quick text is actually cheaper. I'll just access email via internet cafes - when we get home, I'll turn this phone off, put it in a drawer and wait to use it for the next trip.

TTT

I think ardith's suggestion of Lebara is the best here.

This is probably a dumb question, but if I buy the $19 Telestial phone that ardith mentioned, is the phone definitely able to accept a non-Telestial SIM card? Telestial's rates are very high, and as mentioned, Lebara's are better.

Not a dumb question but the answer is no. Telestial knows that allowing anyone to easily change the SIM would mean a lost customer. You can buy 20€ phones in France tied to companies such as Carrefour, La Poste (yes the Post Office), Auchan (there is one at la Défense), Ortel, or Lycamobile, but the easiest solution is to purchase a used phone with 900/1800 mHz capability and buy a SIM in France.

Sarastro, I am curious about your answer. The SIM card from Telestial comes separate from phone. Why wouldn't any other SIM card work just as well as that one? The Lebara SIM fits into the phone.

Thanks, Sarstro! I thought I remembered that being the case when I looked into it a few years ago.

Oops, sorry for the typo, Sarastro.

Because the operator can lock operability of the phones he sells or provides to a his specific network. Placing a SIM, other than the original, into the phone will not give you access to a competitor´s network. Physically, all GSM SIMs (other than the micro models used by Apple) are interchangeable but they in themselves do not guarantee universal access to all networks.

French law requires providers unlock a phone, upon the request of the owner, after a period of 6 months. Most countries have a similar arrangements for SIM to phone unlocking.

The phone that I purchased from Telestial is an unlocked phone. (Their website says that all their cell phones are unlocked.) Telestial customer service told me that I can use a SIM from another company in the phone. Do you still think I will have problems with the Lebara SIM?

(I don't mean to sound argumentative; I know much less about this technology than you do, and I value your opinion.)

I just noticed this on telestial's website: "Every GSM wireless phone we sell is unlocked and will work with any SIM card from any carrier in the world."

ardithl - for only 20 bucks you have little to lose. You can put any SIM in the phone (maybe from a friend´s phone) and see what happens. If the phone is locked to Telestial it should immediately indicate that, usually on the display. If you do not see any network incompatibility or lock messages, you should be ready to go when you get your Lebara SIM.

Ardithl, I'd love to hear what your outcome is when you know for sure. I have one unlocked phone that I bought two years ago, but I need a second one to use in Paris in May.

Nice responses so far. I just want to add a few things.

- I saw mention of google voice for forwarding. However, the forwarding only supports US numbers for now. No international forwarding yet.

- renting a phone in this day and age makes no sense. Especially as cheap as phone+sim packages are these days.

- The mobal sim mentioned above is probably one of the most expensive international sims out there. Their rates are insanely high!

-As for unlocked phones. Once it's unlocked it will take any sim.

Bottom line, get a basic unlocked phone, get a local sim card at your destination, or if you will be visiting several countries, get an international sim card like the ekit sim, I believe it's called "Ekit USA/Canada" on ebay. It will give you a US/UK numnber and has very good rates in europe. I have used mine to receive calls in UK, Nigeria, Jamaica, etc, all at $0.19/min.

Hi,

I'm going to Romania next months for an internship!! I'm going to need a phone, too! I will definitely get myself a prepaid card and phone since that really seems to be the cheapest option! Does anybody know which carrier is the most popular/cheapest in Romania??