Either have the international SIM sent to your Paris hotel, or buy a local SIM which will cost at least 28ct/min incoming in other EU countries. Incoming with a French SIM is only free in France. Outgoing from the French SIM to the US will cost A LOT, if you don't use a calling card. If you order today from Germany (www.globalsim.net) will most likely be there in 4 days.

In western Europe the new United Mobile sim charges about $0.40 per minute to call land lines in Europe or the US. The sim costs about $42. The sim costs more than a local sim and the calling rate is higher, but you have a phone number before you go and you can keep the sim alive indefinitely by making a call every nine months.

Hi 1239, there is definitely no reason to purchase an international SIM before you leave!

Check out this thread I just found (via Google, not the Fodors flaky search function):
"Call Centers in Paris, Rome"
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35020551

This info from the official French tourism site provides a coupon for Cellular Abroad, which it says you can pick up at any int'l airport:
http://www.france.com/articles/display_item.cfm?id=58

This is a pretty informative thread, though of course biased to the company who's board it's on!
"For Americans Going to Europe or Overseas"
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1085

Look for major wireless providers like Orange Fr, SFR and Bouygues Telecom. There should be kiosks at the airport.

I hope this helps!
ggreen

If you want an international SIM, purchase now, sent to hotel, local SIM no problem.

The first website for a sim is not working, the second, United Mobile, lets me get all the way to the purchase page and then will not move forward....nothing can be easy, right????

http://www.globalsim.net/de/1/home.html
or
https://www.united-mobile.com/umo_shop/product.do?lc=en

Try again, it's working. It's 3am, the "usual time" for maintenance work on many websites.

Wow, I sure have gotten lots of info, and I really appreciate it. I need to sort through it and decide what's best to do.

I did go to Cingular store (now AT&T) this evening, and the fellow there said my phone is triband but he was not very knowledgeable about what I wanted to do. (He had to use the internet to find that info!) He doubted that my phone would work w/o going through AT&T, but my guess is that they're not trained to know much about customers using their phones in this manner. Much better for them if we buy their international service, natch.

Again, thank you for your patience with this; I know it's been addressed many times before. Maybe this will humble me enough not to groan when I read another post about whether one can wear jeans in Paris

And I can't promise that this will be my last question on the subject!

grandmere,I too have Cingular (AT&T) and use my phone whenever I travel to Europe. I do have the World Traveler feature switched on, think it's 5.95 per month and it drops my call down to usually .99 per minute, however, the charges are different depending on which country you are in. There are a few advantages to using my own cell, one is that it is convenient for my Mom to call me if there is an emergency, rather than having to try to find my SIM number she only needs to dial my regular cell phone number. The other advantage is that you will need to change the SIM card when you go from one country to another, if you are staying in one country only that is not a problem, however,if you move about it can be a problem, you will get a different phone number with each SIM card. Anyhow, I know that I do pay more per call but it gives me peace of mind, maybe a false "sense of security" but my main concern is being able to be located if need be. I do call my Mom every 2-3 days to say Hi and check on her but seldom have to make any other calls. Please check online with Cingular on the World Traveler feature, also read closely the charges, especially if someone leaves a voice mail and you retrieve it in Europe. Hope this helps some. Have a wonderful trip.
Susan

As my wrap up to this posting, I was unable to complete a transaction on the website for united-mobile.com. What we discovered is that it is not compatible with microsoft explorer when it is time to pay, so we went on Mozilla firefox and were able to successfully complete our transaction. Be forewarned, you must have a paypal account setup prior to purchasing from United Mobile and when the paypal first screen appears, it asks for your password in french. Once you complete the screen, the balance of payment information is presented in English. good luck to other cell researchers and feel free to email me with any questions! It wasn't that easy to navigate through and should have been!

SuzieCll, and others who don't understand the terminology in some of these posts, I you how you feel. I have gone through the same steep learning curve with computers and digital photography. There are websites that explain the subject in simpler terms, and once you understand the basics you can move forward and learn more. I went to www.ask.com and typed in "how do cell phones work" (without the quotes) and got several hits. One of them was http://www.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm. I don't have time to review it this morning, but hope that it helps.

Grandmere - The answer the Cingular representative gave you is incomplete. There are two kinds of triband phones used in the US, domestic tribands, operating on frequencies 850, 1800, and 1900, and European tribands, operating on frequencies 900, 1800, and 1900. Domestic tribands don't work well in Europe, European tribands do. Tribands used by Cingular in the US are almost always domestic. So, I'm almost sure that your phone is not the kind you want for your trip.

First of all, I want you to know how much I appreciate everyone's unflagging help.

Ok, bottom line seems to be:
1. My current triband phone won't work in France.
2. I need to buy a quadband unlocked phone here.

From what I was reading on the various posts above and other threads referred to, I need to buy a SIM card here b/c if I buy one in France, it will still be very costly to call the USA, which is what I want to be able to do. Or perhaps I'm misunderstanding this piece?

OTOH, I could just chuck the idea of having a phone and buy a calling card in France, as I've always done before, but as has been mentioned, phone booths are increasingly harder to locate, just as here in USA.

Since I will be solo for over a week of the 16 day trip, I would be most comfortable with a phone. I will begin by looking at Amazon, Motorola, etc.
Does this seem like a good plan?

And then on to the SIM cards!

>unlocked
key word here, but you need at least a european phone (=world except northern America and Japan), 900/1800 Mhz frequencies. (="bands&quot If you have those two, the phone works. Read the manual.

>b/c if I buy one in France, it will still be very costly to call the USA

You would want an INTERNATIONAL SIM, which you can buy anywhere by mail order or in VERY FEW places in France. This has free incoming all over Europe and about 40 Eurocent to the US.

OR


a local frech SIM, free incoming in France, VERY expensive to US, UNLESS you use an additional french calling card. In that case, you dial a local french number from you mobile to access the international switch.

Hope this helps

Okay, I am a neophyte to cells in Europe, too. I have Cingular and went to the store last Sat. They told me to call Cingular to discuss international with them. I called on Monday (yesterday) and spent over a half hour on the phone with them. Bottom line is I have a basic Nokia phone and Cingular told me that it will work in Europe. I went ahead and purchased the $5.99 plan for one month (and I have to remember to call them later and have it removed from my account) and will get $.99 a minute for my calls. I did ask for an unlock code but was told it would take 7 to 10 days and it would be emailed to me. I could not get the unlock code over the telephone. I intended to get the unlock code and then just buy a sim card in Europe, but since I am leaving this Friday and have no assurance that I can get the unlock code before I leave, I opted to buy their $5.99 plan. Would it still be worthwhile to unlock the phone if I get the code in time or get it during the early part of my trip? Thanks.

CCMP,

As Posted yesterday. I called the Cingular International number listed on their wbsite, explained what I was doing, provided the IMEA and was immediately provided with my unlock code.....

All the questions and different responses provide the reality testing that I am not alone in finding this a bit of a challenge.

Logos999, your last post seems to sum it up and makes sense; I've learned a lot in the last 24 hrs.

"Upward and onward . . ."

CCMP, the level of customer care at Cingular varies widely, and somebody there telling you your phone will work in Europe doesn't make it so. If your phone is a quadband, it will work in Europe. If it's a triband, it's almost certainly a domestic triband (otherwise it wouldn't work with Cingular), and a domestic triband doesn't work in Europe. There's an identifying number underneath your phone battery, the IMEI number, that's unique to your phone. If you supply the IMEI number to your phone manufacturer and ask what frequency bands your phone operates on, they'll tell you.

If it is a domestic triband it <i>will</i> work in Europe. One of the frequencies will be either 900 Mhz or 1800 Mhz, both European frequencies. Coverage will be limited to that one band, though.