Another cell phone question
 

I know there are numerous posts about temporarily acquiring cell phones when visiting a country, but I'm interested in knowing if the advice applies when you're visiting multiple countries.

We'll be visiting at least three place -- France, U.K., Germany -- and would like to get cell phones that can be used anywhere. Possible?
Thanks.

Yes. You just need 1 unlocked GSM phone enabled to 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies.

When you say "anywhere" do you just mean the countries you listed, or do you mean in the US also..?

>anywhere
The world, except the USA, Canada, Mexico a few southern/central american states, Korea and Japan (that uses it's own standard and the european WCDMA standard).

After doing a lot of research on the topic, I bought a quad-band GSM phone through amazon.com (mine was $99 but there were many cheaper ones) and then bought an international SIM card from United Mobile--I think it was about $50 and included $20 of calling time. It has one phone number, all my incoming calls are free in most European countries, and outgoing calls are usually 49 US cents per minute (charged against the pre-paid sim).

I priced a lot of options and this was comparable to, if not cheaper than, either a rental or an arrangement with a a US company. And there is ONE card with ONE number throughout my trip--no need to keep swapping sim's.

It was very easy and I recommend the approach. Good luck!

Ditto what Overbeck said.

Dear Overbeck--

From what country is your phone number? Does it matter as to the cost of calls?

The same reasons cited by Overbeck are why I use my quad band phone when I travel in Eruope.

I pay more for calls since I use my home provider (Cingular) but it is convenient not to have to change phone numbers, SIM cards, etc., etc.

I got an unlocked quad band on eBay and a SIM from United Mobile for my upcoming trip - I wanted something I could continue to use from trip to trip.

www.prepaidgsm.net is a useful website for information on the different SIM options. They also have a helpful forum.

Sounds good, but what if you run out of time while you are on your trip? How do you charge more time to the SIM?

My phone # is a Liechtenstein number, which makes no difference for me but may affect others' cost to call me. The one minor inconvenience is that I have to dial the + (int'l access dialing) and country code for virtually every number I call, since I am not calling to Liechtenstein numbers.

Recharging is easy with a laptop, which I am also travelling with (have to go to some conferences too). But there's also a way to set up the acct with United Mobile so that you can recharge just by dialing in. The smallest increment is $30, but that seems to work fine.

Ditto what Dukey said!

I just bought a Mobal phone that can be used almost anywhere in the world for $99 including SIM. The call charges are about $1 something per minute. It is a UK number. There was a cheaper version - $49 that could be used in Europe but not USA. The process was very simple - the phone came with SIM as well as a pack of travel converters.

United Mobile calls are 39 euro cents per minute when calling from Europe to the U.S., incoming calls are free. You can now set up automatic recharges but I would be leary of doing that in case the phone gets stolen.

After reading on here extensively over the last several months, I researched vendors of international SIMS and bought a SmartFree card from "In Touch" (www.intouchsmartcards.com). I ordered it on Tuesday afternoon and it arrived by UPS this afternoon. They even included a print-out of the instructions on how to use it from their website, saving me the troule of printing it. :-) They also included troubleshooting info, etc. It was $49.99 and includes 15 Euros starter time--the phone number is in Lichtenstein. Reloads are $89.95 for another 2 hours, but since all incoming calls are free everywhere I'm going, I didn't purchase a reload at this point. I also signed up at home for an extra AT&T international long distance discount which costs $1 per month and lowers the cost of calls to Lichtenstein to only $.18 per minute from home versus $1.95 per minute without it.

I recently bought a new cell phone at T-Mobile since it was time for an upgrade and, based on advice on this board, contacted them to get the unlock code. It probably helped that I have been a customer since before they were in this area--they bought out Powertel (been a customer since 1993 or so) and that I had just upgraded and extended my contract for another 2 years, but I had my unlock code and instructions for how to use it within 24 hours in email. I haven't tried it yet since I was waiting until I received the SIM to do so.

I plan to use my regular SIM to get my international blackberry service while in Europe and then put in this SIM when it is likely that I might receive calls and/or to call home. Hopefully I won't confuse myself. :-)

Hit "post" too quickly. I also was going to mention that this company has a service called "SmartForward" which will let you have a US phone number and forward all your regular calls through it to the European number. That takes the cost burden off those who call you. However, it then costs you to receive incoming calls and probably loses you the advantage of having the international SIM in the first place since it may be close to the roaming charges that your carrier charges in many European countries. It is an option though if you need or want it.

Thanks, all, for responding.

To answer one question, we're (two of us) looking for phones that can be used throughout Europe.

We'll probably make minimal use of the phones -- for emergencies in case we get separated, in case someone from the US has to reach us, or we have to reach someone. Will look at all recommendation you guys made.
Thanks again.

We have 2 Cingular phones on one plan and text message each other when we travel and get seperated for one reason or another. ($.15 per message)

Kellye,
That recharge works out to about 75 cents per minute if I'm doing the math right.

Pretty decent phone for overseas GSM

http://www.cellhut.com/productdetail.asp?ProductID=3335
http://www.crayeon3.com/c3/pc-1268-150-.aspx

I intend buying "a few", they sell rather fast at German post offices unlocked F3s for 19.95€ per piece (incl 5€ T-Mobile SIM) :-). It's a "third world phone" with only the basics but at at good price.

Well, 75 cents a minute is still cheaper than T-Mobile's cheapest rate for me which is 99 cents a minute in two of the countries I'll be in and $2.99 a minute in the other!

Which country has 2.99? Wow. That hurts.

I use United Mobile and it's 39 cents per minute from U.K, Europe, China, Austraila, Isreal and a whole bunch of others.

Serbia...that is where we will spend the bulk of our time in Europe due to the fact that the "purpose" of our trip is a ballet intensive for my daughter which is being held in Novi Sad which is where her ballet teacher is from originally. Since there are only 4 days in Budapest and 3 days in London, I decided that I needed a cheaper option than that offered by T-Mobile. With free incoming and $.18/minute to me from the home phone, my other kids and husband can keep in touch for 10 minutes a day for less than $2/day. That is reasonable in my book.

OK - I am very confused and need some clarification. I currently own a basic T mobile under their prepaid plan. T Mobile told me I need an unlocked quad phone & they offer a Razr for $199 on their website. I am not a heavy user and do not need all the extras on the Razr. I see people here buying quad phones on line to use in Europe and buying a prepaid SIM card before leaving. That looks reasonable. I would need a SIM card for multiple countries as we will be moving around. Only needed for emergency contact and one or two calls in country.

Can I buy any basic quad phone that uses a SIM card usable throughout Europe and also be able to use the phone when I return to the US by switching back to my T Mobile Prepaid SIM card? Or does the quad phone have to be a "T Mobile" phone?
I am a novice with cell phones and would like the convenience of using this Quad phone both here and on trips. Can this be done or do I have to purchase a second phone?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. What are my options?
TIA
ED

If you have an unlocked gsm phone that operates on 1900 mhz, you can put your T Mobile sim in the phone and use it in the US. To use the phone in Europe it should also operate on 900 mhz and 1800 mhz. Either a European style triband, operating on frequencies 900, 1800, and 1900, or a quadband will work, provided of course that the phone is unlocked. The solution my wife and I used was to buy two used Nokia 6610 phones on Ebay (at a cost of about $45 per phone including shipping) and two international sims, United Mobile for her phone and Ekit for mine. Sims are discussed at www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html, and other sims that get good recommendations are RangeRoamer and Cherry Mobile. Good luck.

Tmobile is selling the Moto V195 quadband phone for $39 shipped on the prepaid website. It even comes with a $25 refill. So net cost is $14. Now, that is very good for a quadband phone! I bought 2 (there is a limit of 2 per address) as backups to use on cingular for me and the wife. Tmobile will also unlock your phone after 90 days of service in good standing. That applies to prepaid or contract. I have had a prepaid that I use for backup for a few years so it was not a problem getting tmobile to unlock the phones.

As for sim you can get a local sims or get an internatinal sim that will cover all those countries. As you mentioned, that has been discussed many times.

Hello mrcamp:

Can you (or someone else) supply more info?

I went to the T-Mobile web site and found only a $10 airtime credit for that phone offer--where did you see the "$25 refill"?

Will they unlock the phones after 3 months no matter how little airtime you have used? Can you not even use the phones and still get them unlocked after that time?

In a European country, can you use any brand of local SIM, or does it need to be bought from T-Mobile?

Thanks.

The deal is at tinyurl.com/2el8nm

Once a phone is unlocked, it can be used with any carrier's SIM.

Thanks, Robespierre. I did not see the special offer at first on the T-Mobile web site.

I'm having a little trouble figuring all of this out. I have Verizon as my carrier and they don't seem to have this "unlocked GSM'.

I want to buy a phone on ebay for my travels to Europe and Asia this year. Once I buy a phone do I need to contract with a carrier here? I understand that I will buy sim cards at the locations I am at.

Once I am at my location with my sim card installed in my phone, if I call someone here do they pay long distance fees for incoming calls from a cell to a cell?

Thanks.

Lynnie - all you need to do is put the local sim card in your unlocked gsm phone and you are good to go. Just make sure your phone is set to the European frequency. A lot of people don't do this and the phone doesn't work and they think there's something wrong with the phone.

I have verizon too - useless in Europe.

I like the motorola V66 for Europe, a good simple phone, you can usually find new ones on Ebay for around $35.00 once the betting dust has cleared. There's a vendor auctioning a lot of them now starting at $.01 with $18.00 shipping.

If you call someone in the US on their cell from Europe it will be billed to them like any other European call.

THanks LAwoman

Yes, they will unlock the phone after 90 days of service in good standing, regardless of how much you use or when you topped it up. I have not topped up mine since December of last year. And, have probably used less than $3 on it this year. I use it mainy for international SMS since it's only $0.10 to send.

BTW, the V190 happens to be a very good basic phone. It's being sold for around $70 - $80 and above on ebay.

Could not edit my post. Just want to mention that (not sure if you will be using a UK sim), my Virgin UK (they use Tmoble UK's network) sim worked in the locked V195. Tmobile UK will also probably work in it. Others have posted the same experience at some other forums. This is likely due to the fact that the network lock or whatever is the same.

...and T Mobile UK is literally giving away the sim cards...and they have a new add on where for £2 you can buy 50 minutes (timed in 1 second intervals I believe) of call time to the USA and to Canada.

Hello again, mrcamp:

My wife and I will want to have cell phones in Paris in May 2008. That is why I asked about the time period: Would we have to use the phones regularly after purchase in order to benefit from the approach you outlined. We will need to get French SIMS, probably upon arrival in Paris. Any additional info regarding our specific situation?

I just bought a phone from mobal.com. It is good in 150 countries. You do pay per minute charges, but I think for emergency use and needs it's a good deal. As someone else mentioned, it comes with the adaptors for diff. countries that can be used with other appliances (like laptop) as well.

bookmarking

I have another question along these lines. We used my wife's Motorola V180 in Europe a couple of years ago. As I remember, prior to our trip, I called T-mobile to "sign up" for international calling. Did this call unlock her phone? We're no longer with T-Mobile, but I'm interested to know if this phone is now unlocked so we can use it on our next trip.