Cell Phone Needed?
 

We're leaving in one week for a two week self-driving tour of Ireland. Our US cell phones won't work overseas. Anyone know if it is worth renting one? Will it work on the backroads? Am I being neurotic? :-)

Hi Marci-We just got back from Italy, and I rented a cell phone through AutoEurope because we were staying in a villa with no phone and I worried about emergencies. No emergencies, thank God, but it did come in handy in the following instances:<BR>- One day we had NO water in the villa. Used the cell to call the owner. Otherwise I would have had to drive to the nearest town to call.<BR>- Flat tire one day and problem with the spare. Used phone to call AutoEurope for service. Could have found pay phone, but this way I didn't have to deal with the Italian phone system.<BR>- Called our limo company in US from Rome airport when our flight was delayed to change our pickup time.<BR><BR>As you can see, I found it very convenient to have and cost was minimal (I think-haven't gotten phone bill yet) as long as you use it judiciously. I also called my mother in Vermont once from Siena just to check in, but only stayed on phone for a few minutes. To me, the peace of mind of knowing I wasn't completely out of contact with the world in case of emergency was well worth it!

I used a rented cell phone in Ireland two years ago and coverage was pretty good -- we were in Sligo and Connemara. However, it was expensive: rental fee $100 for two weeks, plus per-minute charges , plus about $25 to FedEx it back to its owner. We rented a dual-system phone in the US, but you might do better to line up a Europe-only one to pick up when you get to Ireland. <BR><BR>I probably would not rent a cell phone again because it is so easy to make calls with the handy and cheap prepaid cards you can buy there and use pay phones. We made our rental arrangements on very short notice because my father was hospitalized suddenly and I wanted my mother to be able to reach me.<BR><BR>If you are worried about safety on back roads, relax. If you have any car trouble, someone will stop to help you and s/he will probably have a mobile and can call for a tow.

For a two week trip, it is far far cheaper and better to buy a cell phone upon arrival in Ireland with a pre paid plan.<BR><BR>Renting cell phones include obscenely high charges for each call and you even have to pay to receive calls.<BR><BR>If you are in Ireland and buy a bottom of the line cell phone with a pre paid pan, your per call charge is far far cheaper, you do not pay to receive calls and you can always use the phone again if you return to Ireland.<BR><BR>I just don't understand why anybody making at least a 1 week trip to a single cuntry would even think of renting a cell phone if they would just take 15 minutes to investigate the web sites describing buying a cell phone.

Can I bend the subject a little? If you were to buy a cell phone for use in many European countries, where would you buy? I understand one can buy it in the US with GPS or whatever chip and use it in Europe. Or, buy directly in Europe. What would you do? Many thanks.

Curious:<BR><BR>I'll try to help you. European countries operate on a system called GSM which depends on a small card called a SIMS card that programs in the company, you number, your phone book etc.<BR><BR>Now i you go to Englnd, for example, you would buy a pre paid plan with an inexpensive cell phone. The European cell phones operate on frequencies different than in the US so US GSM phones offered by firms suc as Voicestream and Cingular will not work.<BR><BR>The phones are inexpensive and the plans are good but here's the rub. The cheapest phones are locked into one company. So if you buy a plan with say Vodafone in England, it will only take Vodafone SIM cards and if you go to France, you will not be able to simply buy a French SIM card and switch companies that way.<BR><BR>Unlocked phonesare available but they are somewhat more expensive. Now if you are making multiple trips to Europe, it might pay to buy one. They run, in London, something like &pound;100. You can they buy a SIM pack and when you go to France you buy a French SIM pack and switch the SIM cards and you have a French cell phone. Go on to Holland and you can do the same thing.<BR><BR>If you are staying at least a week in each country this might pay. But of course then you have the problem of notifying your friends each time you switch phone numbers.<BR><BR>You can also if you subscribe to Voicestream or Cingular buy a tri band phone. I bought a Motorola timeport from some outfit I found on the internet for about $80. I put my Voicestream SIM card into it and it was a Voicestream phone (Voicestream will sell you such a phone but for a much higher price). Go to Europe and clear it with Voicestream and you can use Voicestream (international roaming). Calls cost $.99/minute for calling and for receiving from the US. You keep your US number and calls are forwarded to you. Not too bad; especially compared to the prices you pay for renting such phones which are outrageously high; especially for the calls.<BR><BR>But you can also do as I advised above. So when you arrive in the UK, you bravely march into a British phone store (Carphone Warehouse, Link, Phones4U, Virgin Megastore) and buy a service pack which consists of a SIM card and a British phone number. Virgin is the one I used as they require no registration. The service pack cost &pound;10 and came with &pound;5 worth of calls. Trunk calls in Britain cost 15p a minute for each of the first three minutes and 5p a minute for each minute thereafter.<BR><BR>Calls to the US on this plan cost 20p a minute and there is no hassle. The phone will call the US without any registering. Another nice thing is that calls are billed by the second so a 30 second call to the US costs 10p. Also calls to the US count in determining the first 5 minutes indicated above. In the London area, the Virgin network is as good as any other although some expert on this board feels that Virgin which really just piggybacks on another network has poor coverage through the rest of the country. But I've had no trouble. The other nice thing about this is that incoming calls are free to you. Calls from the US when dialed with the prefix 1016868 to your cell phone cost 7.9 cents a minute just like any other calls to England.<BR><BR>Now when I went to France and I was going to be there for a week, I went into a French phone store and they sold me a mobilcarte. Cost 30 Euro with 15Euro worth of calls. Sad to say, French phone rates are not as favourable as the British ones but still far far better than using a rented phone. Also of course I had to notify everybody of my French phoe number but it worked and was hasle free. Was great to have the ability to call to make reservations. Did not really call the US on this plan as calls were expensive but my friends easily could call me and the incoming calls were free.<BR><BR>Hope this helps.