miketaf

Anybody used any of the three companies that Fodor's recommended? Mobal (tel. 888/888-9162 www.mobalrental.com)
Cellular Abroad (tel. 800/287-5072 www.cellularabroad.com)
Planet Fone (tel. 888/988-4777 www.planetfone.com) .

Please let me know if you have and how they worked

Travelnut

There are a lot of posts about Mobal. I don't think anyone rents from them - I think 'we' all bought the $49 o $99 phone. They just charge your credit card for the fees for the minutes you used; rates are on the website but are around $1.75-2.50 average /per minute. It worked fine for us for very few, very brief calls from Netherlands/France.

For most travelers who want to talk more and spend less, an unlocked phone and the purchase of a local SIM works better.

gracejoan3

I bought the $49 Mobal..it suits me fine. I will be taking it to France again in September.

phieaglefan

Hubby used to have a GSM phone but AT&T Wireless got bought by Cingular who was forced to get rid of some states and now we're Alltel.(*#%&!)

No more GSM! So last trip we used WorldCell who was referred to us by Alltel. Not sure how they compare price-wise, but we had absolutely no trouble with them at all. The service worked flawlessly all over Germany and Austria.
H

xyz123

Golly, I wish people would read the advice given by experts such as myself on this board.

Once again, for the umpteenth time, renting a mobile phone in this day and age is pretty stupid...sorry to say...mobile phones today are very very cheap and you can buy a perfectly usable dual or tri band phone for less than $50 in this day and age from various merchants including ebay. Just make sure the phone is unlocked (most sold on ebay are as well as the merchants who brag themselves as internatioinal phone sellers) and make sure it has both European frequencies of 900 and 1800 (could be a problem with tri band phones on ebay but read up on it)...

As far as mobal service, if the mobile phone is just for a call or two and/or for emergencies, their service works which is the best I can say. Paying $1.50 minute or more to make and receive calls while in Europe is ludicrous...just think if you get a call from home or from a business associate and you speak for 5 minutes a night for 6 days, you're talking $45 for not much talking as these people round calls up to the next highest minute.

Read up and depending on your needs either get a local prepaid sim card if you're going to be in only one country (I think you said Germany) or if you're going to be visiting several European countries, read up about international sim cards such as United Mobile...read up about using a callback service or a local ld card to call back to the USA for next to nothing on the mobile phone...with either a local sim or an international sim, while in Europe you will pay nothing like in nothing to receive calls...you can pair it with services which allow call forwarding to your local sim so people will be calling your home number and not have to worry what your foreign number is.

Yes it requires a little bit of research but the answers from some experts such as myself are plastered all over this board.

And then if you need even more advice, go to the forum on www.prepaidgsm.net where you can hear from experts from all over the world with specific questions. Recently there was a whole thread about the best sim package in Germany which you might find helpful.

And then after that you still think you want to rent a mobile phone, well it's your money and I certainly can't tell you how to spend it.

Travelnut

Thanks, xyz... I do appreciate the detail that you provide (often) on this subject.

scatcat

XYZ123

I have found a triband GSM unlocked phone on Ebay. It states that it is a world phone. Can you tell me where to buy a Sim card and...DUMB question-is it easy to install? what about recharging the battery or just take an extra lithium battery?

xyz123

sim card for what country? Local sim cards are usually best bought upon arrival in the country...international sim card such as united mobile can be bought directly at www.united-mobile.com.

Installing sim cards is very easy...the phone's manual will explain how.

Most of the world phones sold on ebay come with dual voltage chargers but you might need adapter plugs readilly available at Radio Shack to match up with the electical outlets in various countries (continenatl Europe being different than Ireland and the UK)....

Also are you sure the phone has 900/1800/1900 and is not one of the bastardized American non world tri band phones which are sold which have 850/1800/1900...sometimes the sellers don't know the difference or don't want to tell you the difference.

scatcat

I will be traveling in Germany and the Netherlands in September. The seller states that the bands are 900/1800/1900. It is a V180 Motorola. I call home at least once a day so I would like to get a good rate per minute. Do I buy the Sim at a department store or a cell phone shop?

xyz123

You could buy the sims at a department store but the best places are probably mobile phone stores which are found throughout Europe...both Holland and Germany eh....you might want either a Vodafone DE or Vodafone NL sim (wherever you go first) coupled with a long distance card from Bizon (www.bizon.com) and sign up, if they're still offering it, for Vodafone Passport for the other country....the other alternative, as noted, is a United Mobile sim which you can buy directly while you are here coupled with a callbackworld account (www.callbackworld.com) which will allow you to call the USA for 14¢/minute rounded in 6 second increments I might add not raised to the next highest minute plus you can get for free a callbackworld toll free number which coupled with a pin will enable people to call you toll free from the USA and you will back callbackworld (not United Mobile, calls you receive while in Europe are FREE like in FREE) the same 14¢/minute rate.

If you click on my name above, you can find many of the threads where I have given absolutely true and helpful advice on the topics of united mobile and callbackworld or as noted, go to a real mobile phone forum at www.prepaidgsm.net and ask the people there, who know what they're talking about unlike many on this board, their opinions and you will find people from Germany, Holland and wherever who can give you advice as to where it's best to buy...yada yada yada.

scatcat

THANKS xyz123. I know absolutely nothing about international cell phones. I have always used the prepaid AT&T card, but in May some of the pay phones in Germany and Switzerland would not work with that card. It has worked for years but this last trip was a nightmare.

xyz123

Do you notice how scarcer and scarcer public phones are becoming now that every kid over 8 years old walks around with his or her own cell (or mobile if in Europe) phone?

And there are so many competing long distance cards available, most of which use ISP's that it's a wonder that phones in hotels take them all...and then you have to differentiate between ld cards that require a local number which hotels might charge for or those that use toll free numbers that hotels usually don't charge for but some might...and then a card bought in Germany may or may not work in Holland etc. etc. etc.

It is, as you noted, an ever changing world and of course advice I give today might be dated tomorrow. Currently the mobile phone companies in Europe are under increasing pressure from the eu regarding international roaming rates within Europe and if one of the bureaucrats had had her way, nobody would have paid to receive a call on a mobile phone anywhere within the eu but the mobile phone companies, at least for the time being, were able to stop it.

New mobile phone companies are coming out all the time...a particularly apparently attractive one based in the US is called yackie mobile...they give you a local US number and allow you to roam in just about every European countries and while incoming calls are not free, they are relatively cheap at 24¢/minute (unfortunately rounded up again) so you can give people a US number (assuming you live in the US although they now have numbers I believe in Canada, UK, France, Germany, Poland) and they will be able to reach you for the cost of a domestic US call (which in many cases is now free thanks to free roaming on cell phones here) and you pay only 24¢/minute to receive...callbackworld would even work with them but it might be a great answer for people who just want to receive. Where can you get information about Yackie Mobile...why on my favourite mobile phone forum at www.prepaidgsm.net.....the system is new and still has bugs they are working out but next month, I might be on this board advocating yackie...right now today it's United Mobile if you are visiting several countries.

But the one thing you have to remember and please no yelling at me, European mobile carriers are eons ahead of US mobile carriers in terms of coverage, phones and the ability to globalize which occurred when they selected GSM more than a decade ago..the US, and the reasons may well have been understandable, was left in the dust and is still trying to catch up.

ira

>...just think if you get a call from home or from a business associate and you speak for 5 minutes a night for 6 days, you're talking $45 ...<

Which is why I recommend buying the Mobal phone only for people who want a phone for emergencies or the occasional call.

We've had a Mobal phone for Europe for a few years and have not used it.

We have a Virgin Atlantic cell phone here in the US, and have used it twice in the last 3 years.

Not everyone needs to be connected 24/7.

xyz123

Ira...

I always preface my remarks by saying exactly what you just said...your choice depends on just what you expect to use the mobile phone for and all the rip off international roaming sources such as mobal, t Mobile USA and Cingular USA to name a few are fine if you never make a call, or receive perhaps 1 or 2 calls in an emergency.

OTOH most people I think want the convenience of being rechable or being able to reach people 24/7....I know I do and if this is so, then Mobal or international roaming on T Mobile USA or Cingular is not the way to go, most assuredly not. Nor is renting a mobile phone. With all the tricks of the trade I have suggested and shared on this forum, using a mobile phone in Europe can be only very marginally more expensive than getting phone cards in each country, trying to figure out the phone system in the hotels, hoping the hotels don't surcharge for calling even a local or national toll free number, finding a working public phone etc.

Once you realize how convenient it is and how truly inexpensive it can be by following the suggestions of experts such as myself, you may find yourself never wanting to be without it again.

Gardenstogo

Hello,
I just returned from a month in Scotland and I was NOT happy about my new $99 Mobal phone. I was on the West coast quite a while and there seemed to be a lack of service in many locations.
Also my daughter tried many times to reach me and never could, even in Glasgow. I could reach her in NY though.
Yes, I did have the phone turned on!
Yes, it was charged up.