This Motorola C115 is unlocked and covers both European frequencies. It's €29.99, which is pretty hard to beat, even on eBay.

Couple it with a prepaid <b>smobil</b> SIM chip and you can talk to another customer for 1&cent; per minute.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/23fcb5

Those sell fast ;-) You can order it online and have it sent to a specific Schlecker store where you can pick it up. The good thing with Schlecker: - Their stores are always empty, plenty, diapers are cheap ;-), as are prints of your photos. Smobil is actually using the Vodafone network AND their SIMs are good indefinitively.

Does NOT expire .

That link is not working (for me).

Start with www.schlecker.de, click on &quot;smobile prepaid&quot;, then &quot;handys&quot;.

&quot;Germany&quot; comes first

I think they just reorganized their server pages. Here, try this: http://tinyurl.com/34mlq4

I bought two of them today, wasn't as easy as expected but anyway. The SIMs cost 14.99 each, a 5&euro; coupon can be found attached at the shelf for instant refund.
You have to pay with a german!! Maestro/EC card or write your passport number on the form. It specifically asked for the &quot;german residential address as given to the local residents registration office&quot; (Einwohnermeldeamt). The card itself was credit card sized and with the SIM in one corner and a magnetic stripe. She swiped the card in their CC reader, it was activated instantly and I recieved a printout confirming number and activation.
So I'm not sure, if non residents or people giving fake adresses can use those SIMs. Aldi and Penny SIMs require only a simple online activation without passport!

Just recieved an email saying, &quot; Dear Customer, contrary to our printed AGB, you SIM card is valid indefinitively. And credit left will not expire.&quot; You can choose between German and English for notifications and the service menue, mailbox btw.

That's bad news about having to provide one's pedigree. I'll let you know how an <i>Ausl&auml;nder</i> is treated when I get back.

In other news: this link usually gets the SIM page: smobil.com

I don't think they would deactivate the SIM if you give a fake address. Wish you luck! It's the terrorism nonsense that makes everybody crazy!

OK - I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why are there so many threads from Americans asking about buying or renting cellphones to use in Europe?

Over here we all have roaming tri or quad band phones that can be used worldwide, and we just take 'em with us wherever we go? What's the difference across the Big Pond? 8-)

&gt;What's the difference
You pay $1 per minute and we across the big pond pay 1ct per minute. That's basically it.

I can assure you I don't pay anything like a dollar a minute!

So how much are you paying using your phone in Europe ;-)

Orange have certain packages where 25 mins worth of international calls are already included in your monthly rate. If you have to pay separately, then I think O2 (for example) is 28p per minute to make or receive calls.

Assuming you're not going to be making hours worth of calls every day, that's got to be cheaper than buying a whole new phone?

That's incredibly expensive. Why is it so much more than a penny a minute?

Hi Logos...

I think I read somewhere that German prepaids are no longer allowed to deactivate the card and take away minutes.....

BTW how was your trip to Egypt and the use of United Mobile where there?

Regards,
xyz

But you aren't including the cost of the phone! Who cares if it's 1 cent a minute if you've got to fork out $50 for a phone to start with!

Surely most people only use their phone on holiday for very occasional use/emergancies anyway? Are you really expecting to make so many calls that it's going to be worth buying a new one?

I don't fork with the cellular carriers. I have a GSM phone and a GSM PDA that work just fine here and in Europe for &euro;.01 per minute.

So I don't really know what the objection is.

My point is that a lot of Fodorites seem to be buying EXTRA phones just to use in Europe, rather than bringing their existing cellular from the US. Whilst I can see that this would make sense for a business user or very frequent traveller, I can't see the point for someone visiting for just a couple of weeks - it's all very well saying calls cost pennies with these prepaid chips, but you have to add the cost of actually purchasing the NEW phone as well to see if it's truly cost effective. But I don't seem to be able to get my point across, so I'm off to the Yorkshire Pudding thread for some more stimulating conversation. 8-)