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Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to post about your wisdom, ideas, & suggestions for getting international cell phones & SIM cards over the years. I've been reading through a lot of the posts & trying to figure out what kind of phone & phone plan would be best for my college daughter & us.
My daughter will be traveling to 3 different host families in Austria over 5-6 weeks in July & August. She would like a phone to use in case a family doesn't meet her at the train station or if she needs to contact them because of her plane being late or missing a train connection, etc. She anticipates using the phone seldom, but would feel much better having a phone instead of just a calling card.
I'd like her to have a phone, too, & would prefer that the minutes be reasonably priced so that she would feel comfortable calling us if she needed to. Under $1.00 a minute to the US, or the minutes could be expensive from Austria to US if the minutes were free or cheap from the US to Austria.
We don't need a phone with anything special---just a GSM phone that works in Europe
Appreciate everybody's ideas & suggestions re how to best do cell phones in Europe.
Liked xyz123's suggestions re the ekit US simple card---sounds perfect
What do you all recommend for what kind of phone we should buy?
Thanks!
International Cell Phone for Daughter to use within Austria & Austria-USA
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I know a guy who is traveling around the world and blogging about it. What he decided works the best for him is an un-locked Motorola Razr since it is quad band I think (at least tri band). I recently upgraded to a smart device but kept my 2 razrs and worked with AT&T to unlock them. Now we can just bring them to Europe and pop in a pay as you go SIM. So that would be great for local. I would use skpe or something else like that for Intl though.
Yesss, fially an easy question. Go to Hofer (=Aldi) and buy a Yesss starter kit. You'll have to activate the cheap international calling tariff otherwise it will cost 49ct to call the US! The minimum recharge for that tariff is 20€ per month or 10€ for 2 weeks. So recharge at the same time you buy the card. And don't forget to activate it again after one month. Unused money after that time can still be used at standard national or international rates
Tariffs are 6.8ct to all Austrian fixed and mobile lines
and 4ct to the US. They also offer cheap mobile internet.
You need an unlocked international bands GSM phone (900/1800)
DIY unlocking is legal in Austria and you can openly ask for it, except at the company that sold the phone of course
https://www.yesss.at/
Thanks very much. Buying a Yess starter kit at Hofer sounds perfect. We googled it & it seems like a perfect solution since she'll be in Austria the whole time
We'll get her the phone here in the States before she leaves.
Unfortunately we just have Verizon phones & will need to buy a 900/1800 GSM phone.
Something inexpensive without bells & whistles since she'll just be using it this summer.
Is a highly rated seller on Ebay the best place to get an unlocked GSM phone?
Thanks again for the help & suggestions!
ttt
One more question:
Does a dual band GMS phone work well in Austria & Europe overall?
Or, would a tri- or quad-band phone be more reliable?
Thanks
Well, a fast and safe way would be the Walmart store.
This one is $69 and works out of the box. Needs to be pre-ordered with site-to-store.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Samsung-SGH-A237-Flip-Style-GSM-Cell-Phone-Black-Unlocked/14550198
There are many cheaper options and ebay has a huge selection too.
>Does a dual band GMS phone work well in Austria & Europe overall?
A 900/1800 dual band works almost everywhere on the planet incl. all of Europe, exceptions are the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea and a few southern american countries.
ebay is a good solution as well. I have seen Motorola razrs posted there-just make sure they are unlocked.
Like already mentioned, these phones are very cheap these days. ebayu, amazon, bestbuy, etc. all sell unlocked phones for dirt cheap, especially the basic quadband ones,. The dual band phones you buy here will not work in Europe, since they will have 850/1900 instead of the 900/1800 bands. Since you want to get the phone before she leaves, just get a quadband such as the Motorola v190/195 on ebay or amazon. You can get an unlocked one for about $40 or less. And she just pops a prepaid sim in it at her destination. A locaal prepaid sim is definitely the way to go, since she will be in only one country mostly.