Roaming rates are generally very high for European carriers. One of the larger multinational carriers like Orange MIGHT offer something a bit more favorable if you stay on their networks, but I doubt it.

Honestly, if you don't want to get a new SIM in each market, I'd just see what kind of package your regular carrier provides.

It depends on your definition of cheap. Certainly the eu has brought down roaming rates within the eu significantly so that receiving calls within the eu is something less than 0,20€ and it is the eu's stated goal to bring that to €0,00 in the near future (which depends on your definition of near future) like in the next few years. Also calls within the eu have become much cheaper. Hoever calls from any eu mobile number to say Nortth America have become much more expensive to make up for the lost revenue and they've also done subtle little things. For example T Mobile UK used to charge 5p on one of its plans per minute to call North American from within the UK (much more expensive from outside the UK but within the eu). They haven't raised that however they now jump the rate to the next highest minute. Talk for 61 seconds which used to cost 6p as they used to time the calls to the nearest second now costs 10p. Whether that's significant or not is another story.

There are work arounds for some of this. As noted the receiving rates within the eu with eu sims are fairly reasonable. Make a quick call, pay the outrageous first minute rate and have the person call you back (assuming you are calling from within the eu to outside the eu). Or get a calling card with a local eu number and these come in all sorts of varieties (within a country, within a region). You pay the lower intra eu rate on the mobile and pay whatever the calling card charges. Of course telcoms are aware of this and in many cases block calls to the numbers used by calling cards.

There is e-kit which gives you a +44 (UK although not really in the UK byt I think the Isle of Man but no matter, most but not all ld carriers charge such calls as UK calls) and also a USA +1 number. Calls made to the former from wherever cost you nothing and they pay whatever their carrier charges for a +44 call. If they call on the +1 number, they pay whatever their ld carrier charges to a USA number, you pay 19¢ per minute (rounded up naturally). E-kit cards are available on ebay. Calls to North America are not dirt cheap but far cheaper than the European roaming rates.

But the much cheaper roaming rates established by the eu have driven many of the international carriers out of business. The days of United Mobile and its +423 calls where for some strange reason one could call on USA ld carrier AT&T for 9¢/minute with a 1¢ termination fee, the charge for calling a mobile number, are long since over.

xyz123 & PinBud
Please let me know the SIM you recommend to use as I will also be visiting Europe for 14 days next month
Thanks
Arshad

Hard to give you a definitive answer as it really depends on where you wish to start. The easiest answer to give you is a British sim card for several reasons. First of all (I don't know where you are from but I assume you are from an English speaking country) obviously is language. You can talk to the person selling you the sim card, read the instructions (if there are any) and do things like setting up your voicde mail without a language problem. But the other point is English sim cards cost the most desirable price of all namely they are FREE like in FREE and readilly available You can go to their web sites and order that FREE sim cards be posted to any address within the UK and be waiting for you to arrive. To that end, I recommend myself T Mobile UK. They are in the process of mnerging with Orange UK and so while in the UK you can use either T Mobile or Orange towers making coverage pretty good, certainly excellent in London. They have a tie in with a firm called yourcallworld (you can go to their web site) which allows you to make cheap calls say to North America at the rate of 3p/minute (and lto landlines throughout much of the world. Calls to mobile numbers are more expensive but all calls to North America even to cerll phones are consiidered landline calls). They follow the eu roaming rates rules, cheap to receive calls while you are within the eu from anywhere, somewhat more expensive to make intra eu calls while in the eu but outrageously expensive to call outside the eu (smetimes Switzerland and Norway are considered eu for these purposes even if they're not technicaly part of the eu). The con is that once you leave the UK, it's very difficult to top up. Vodafone UK is good too but doesn't tie in with yurcall world so rates to places outside the UK are higher (although they do have some plans that allow relatively cheap calls to North America while you're in the UK). Their biggest pro,though, is you can top up with a vodafone voucher in any country that has a vodafone affiliate. So if you're in Germany and have a vodafone UK sim card, you can get a vodafone DE voucher and top uyp, while in Germany, your vodafone UK sim card

Logos here pushes several German sim cards which seem like good deals but alas setting them up might be difficult if you are language ignorant like I am who knows about three words in German (ja,m nein and danka schoen. Also just say bitte every time you say something else)....but again you'll get free reception in Germany, fairly cheap calls to plays outside the eu and a cap on intra eu calls when outside Germany.

Lebara has affiliates in many countries (England, Spain, France, Holland to name a few) and have cheap calls outside the eu within the country of issue (say a Lebara UK card for making overseas calls while you're in the UK) and they all follow eu roaming rules but hey can be a pain to get, a pain to set up and a pain to top up.

So in a lot of words, I haven't helped you much probably.

Thanks A Lot!
I am from India and English is my Primary language.
We start our tour from London and so I can go with your advice and pick up a SIM in London.We are going to be in Holland,France, Switzerland and Italy.
I would primarily be calling home in India and receiving calls from my parents in India.
So do you think Lebara /lyka or T mobile would be a good choice?
Regards
Arshad

I have been travelling around Europe and over the last few times tried several options. Finally I settled for Vodafone UK for all the reasons xyz123 mentioned. I have been using it for over a year now for all my Europe trips and I find it a good balance between cost and convenience.

I would strongly recommend against trying any of those pre-paid cards with numbers from Estonia or Isle of Man, they are just plain rip-offs. The worst of them is Worldsim - while the name is so international ( and hence deceptive).

I even tried getting pre-paid Vodafone SIM from Spain, where I need to go often, but the language, customer service language, website etc made it impossible after sometime.

Hence having circled through all options, I would recommend Vodafone UK - and BTW if you happen to have a UK credit card, you can even top it up over the net.

Thanks a lot again!

I've decided to use Geosim: http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/index.php

I got a permanent UK phone number, free incoming calls & text anywhere, low cost outgoing roaming costs, very low costs when calls are initiated using their web interface. No connection fees, no expirations. I believe there is a low annual re-activation fee.
I have the dual-sim (UK & US numbers). Calls to the UK number are supposed to be free incoming calls in USA/Canada, but during a recent trip to the US I had problems connecting to local networks using the recommended setting for free calls. However it did connect using the other setting so I ended up paying for incoming calls, but much cheaper than if I had used my Canadian roaming. I have to contact geosim to inquire about the "free" US setting. It does work in Canada on the Rogers network but did not work on AT&T and the other GSMs in the US.
Next I will use it in Europe during my two months trip, but so far this is the best solution ever for long-distance/roaming calls, especially when using the web interface.

Goo luck ! Let us know how does Geosim work out for your trip.

I'm glad that you found a reliable option! I would have probably chosen Orange or Vodafone in any of those countries. Maybe because I am so familiar with them! However, thanks for sharing. I will definitely give it a try when I go on an European tour!

I've just started to use toggle mobile when roaming in Europe. Incoming calls are free in most countries and they also give you a local number in the UK, Switzerland, Spain and a few others I don't remember right now. All other UK networks are expensive (i've ended up with bills in the £100's before now.

I am happy to report that Geosim works perfectly in Europe. So far I've been in several countries, Germany, Luxemburg, France, Belgium, Austria, Czech Rep, more to come. 100% coverage, great reception, free in-calls, 46 cents outcalls, much cheaper if you can call using the web interface. Best roaming solution period.

yep i got my sim from geosim also. i had to unlock my phone though, got a blackberry code from here http://www.unlockscodes.com/

when I was in a bus tour around Europe, I used comfortway com application for cheap calls without roaming, very comfortable - one price in different countries- 0,04 eur per minute. And 1 euro - free starter's balance.

Whatever type of card you get, don't lose the information that contains your PIN and other important info!! In spite of my obsessiveness with keeping all my things together and organized, I misplaced the card that came with the Edeka SIM card I bought so when the phone (a day or so later) asked me to input the PIN a second time when I turned on the phone, I couldn't find it and was therefore unable to use the phone. I thought the website with my login information would contain the PIN but it did not so I was unable to retrieve it. I didn't try to call Edeka and straighten in out since I don't speak German, but still.

Lesson learned: Write down the important info in a second location!!

there is a good list of FREE sims here.... http://smsclist.com/forums/showthread.php?1870-FREE-SIMS-August-2012-%28UK%29