cell phone purchase
 

My daughter is in Spain for the semester. The school's recommended cell hpone provider neglected to advise that the phone will not work out of Spain unless massive fees are paid. I am trying to find a quad band that I can buy without a service contract or manthly fee as we will be using it a few weeks a year after she is done with it. I would like to have only one phone number and was told that if I country hop the sim phone number will change with each card I buy for that new country.Any advise would be greatly appreciated

I bought a World Phone (http://www.bombasticlife.com/t_world_phone.html) for $49 US. You only pay when you use it. The per minute is on the high side but if you use it just it for emergencies then who cares. You could also call her to say "get on the internet and lets chat on line or I'm going to call you via Yahoo" Or she can call you so say "I arrived, will call you once I get a calling card".

What I'm trying to say, is use the phone for short calls or emergencies and use the internet or calling cards for longer discussions.

Good luck!

Andrew

I really have no idea what you are talking about Missy. It seems there is some confusion here.

Your daughters cell phone will work outside of Spain - if it works in Spain it will work in the rest of Europe.

The Sim card is the link to the service provider. This too will work outside of Spain, but indeed may be expensive. This is called Roaming.

If you buy a new Sim card, you will have a different number.

The cell phone provided for my daughter by the school is locked. To use out side of Spain she has to fax a request 4 days in advance and leave a 250E deposit from which they deduct the cost of calls made. The refund then is returned 2 months later for each of the times the phone was unlocked. It also has to be returned at terms end. She will be traveling in Europe and I want her to have a cell phone..emergencies, calling friends who she is meeting and etc.We already are locked into verizon for all our US cell phones and I do not want to have to carry the expense of another monthly payment and contract thru tmobile or cingular. I am trying to find out the options with a preference to get a phone with a single phone number. I was told that getting a sim card for every country is silly as the phone number would keep changing? Any help would be greatly appreciated

I think we've answered all your questions in other threads...click on my name above and you will find all of my excellent completely correct learned posts on this subject.

In short, she rented a phone from the university's favored provider....she probably could have done much better by

1. purchasing an unlocked gsm phone either on ebay or at a Spanish shop

2. And for the duration of the time in Spain, buying a prepaid pay as you go sim pack (PAYF) from some Spanish provider.

3. Topping up is easy.

Now chances are the Spanish sim will work in the rest of Europe albeit at higher prices including the loss of the free reception of calls although as we have noted the eu may have something to say about this in the near future.

If she is plopping down in one place for a while, yes it may pay to switch sim cards which yes will change the number...or

if she is taking an extended trip in Europe she might consider one of the internatioal cards which give free reception throughout Europe and pair it, as I have suggested, with an account with callbackworld.