Cell Phone Question
 

I would like to have a cell phone in Ireland mainly for emergency contacts (we will be hiking in the Dingle Peninsula) and to be able to check messages from home now and then. It would be nice if we purchased a phone that we could use in Italy on another trip. Any suggestions?

Hi RC,

Check out the $49 phone at www.mobalrental.com

((I))

RockCrest: I rented a cell phone in Ireland so I wouldn't worry about my climber when he was out alone. He had it with him when he was out for the day on Dingle Peninula. He did check in with me when he hiked down enough to get reception. I'm glad I had it anyway. Have a wonderful time.

There are oodles of threads here regarding mobile phones in Europe...

You want an unlocked dual band (900/1800) or tri band (900/1800/1900) phone available easily on the web.

On arrival in Ireland, there is a Vodafone IE store in the arrival terminal just after customs. You buy a prepaid sim for whatever and voila you have an Irish phone. You will have to communicate your number to others...look at the threads regarding such topics as callback services to cheapen calls to North America and kall8 to have a US 800 number which forwards to your Italian sim. You will pay nothing to receive calls while in Ireland...

When you go to Italy, you buy an Italian sim package and simply switch sim cards and voila you have an Italian phone with an Italian number. look at the threads regarding such topics as callback services to cheapen calls to North America and kall8 to have a US 800 number which forwards to your Irish sim. You will pay nothing to receive calls while in Italy...

Or if you don't like the idea of switching sim cards, read up on riiing which is an international gsm carrier with free roaming everywhere in Western, Central and most of Eastern Europe. Insert the sim card and voila you will have a Liechtenstein number..look at the threads regarding such topics as callback services to cheapen calls to North America and kall8 to have a US 800 number which forwards to your riiing sim. You will pay nothing to receive calls while in most of Europe...

What you probably don't want to do is rent a phone as it is absurdly expensive and there have been many horror stories on this forum regarding getting billed for not returning the phone or for calls that were never made or completed. Also most rental phones charge you asininely high rates both to make and receive calls.

Mobal might be a good bet if you are going to the UK as you get a UK number with the free receiving of calls while in the UK but you pay an arm and a leg to both make and receive calls outside the UK. You can look at the threads regarding such topics as callback services to cheapen calls to North America and kall8 to have a US 800 number which forwards to your UK sim. You will pay nothing to receive calls while in UK...

>Mobal might be a good bet if you are going to the UK as you get a UK number with the free receiving of calls while in the UK but you pay an arm and a leg to both make and receive calls outside the UK.<

It's $1.99/min, which is high (but not quite an arm and a leg), but if you only want a phone for occasional use it's well worth condsidering.

((I))