I'd like the names of a few companies that rent cell phones for use in Europe. Thank you.

Susan

just buy one for $49
www.mobal.com

Looks good. Does anyone have experience with this company. How much do they charge per minute (within France). I wasn't able to find that info on the site.

If you use cingular or T-mobile here in the states you can just call and add the international package on for $4.99 per month and then cxl it when you get home. I use cingular and just take my own phone calls to US are the only ones that cost me.

My neice took my phone to Italy in March on her honeymoon and txt'd me 104 pictures over a 3 week period plus called me 2 or 3 times a day and the total bill was only $28.00. Not bad.

http://www.mobalrental.com/gsm/hands...006DN07NMOBWEB
I found a place to check rates in each country on this page. $1.25 per minute in country, $1.50 U.S. or Canada, $2.95 other countries.

Vera

Pushed send too quickly. That info I posted is for Mobal.

If your carrier is T-Mobile, all you have to do is add the WorldClass service (which is free) to your account. You can do this yourself on their web site. Calls made from outside the U.S. are 99¢ per minute.

If your phone has the right bands, T-Mobile will unlock it so you can use local SIMs in Europe.

You can get a free RAZR and headset on a T-Mobile subscription here:

http://www.wirefly.com

Does Verizon have something similar?

Verizon (owned by Vodafone UK) uses different technologies in the U.S. and Europe, so you need different phones for here and there. They do offer "world phones" that work in both places, but they're rather more expensive than single-technology ones. Verizon may be multinational, but since their phones don't work everywhere, I don't think they count.

I chose T-Mobile because they're totally GSM and truly international (they're owned by Deutsche Telekom - the "T" in T-Mobile).

Travelnut--Re the mobal phone:is it unlocked?

I don't want to hijack the thread but after reading lots of the information posted on this board re cell phones, some things are still not entirely clear to me. There have been several posts about the card available from united-mobile, formerly riiing, which has less expensive per call charges than mobal. However, the offer I've seen for united-mobile on the web is for the card only. Does it make sense to buy the mobal phone but replace the SIM card with the united-mobile card?

If it makes any difference, we expect to be in eight or more countries in Europe and Africa on trips in the next year.

Not usually - we went thru a phase last year where numerous people bought one. Some came unlocked, most did not but could be unlocked with a free code found by searching internet or a paid code ($4 or so). I was not successful in unlocking mine. But we used it just the same, for maybe 8-10 very brief calls. Mobal charges the c.c. you bought the phone with - no problems with them. It comes with a UK SIM/phone #.

I have Verizon so I'm looking at something else for France. I'd prefer not to have a SIM card. I don't really understand them but it sounds confusing and with Mobal I think you need a Sim card.

Sue

p.s. the Mobal was for my husband to use; I've been using my T-Mobile phone for a couple years now, 99cents/min. Also - no problems.(it's my regular phone all the time).

The place I rented from 2 years ago--and I didn't have a SIM card, unless one was in there and I didn't know it (but doesn't it have to be changed when you go from Italy to Germany and I didn't do that?),--is no longer in business apparently. Rent-a-phone. A search brought up these--rentcell.com, rent-mobile-phone.com, phonerentalusa.com and internationalcellular.com. But how does one check out a company?

Susan

I have Verizon so I'm looking at something else for France. <i>Good, because Verizon doesn't do France.</i>

I'd prefer not to have a SIM card. <i>Sorry, not an option. You must.</i>

I don't really understand them but it sounds confusing and with Mobal I think you need a Sim card. <i>It's not confusing. Your <b>S</b>ubscriber <b>I</b>dentity <b>M</b>odule is a chip you plug into a phone. It contains your number and the information the phone needs to connect to the network provider. You can plug your very own personal Mobal (or O2 or Orange or Virgin...) SIM into ANY European phone, it will connect to the network you bought it from, and you'll have the same phone number.</i>

The most economical way to have a cell phone that will work all over Europe is to buy one on eBay and order a SIM from United Mobile. The specifications to look for are very simple:

GSM
900/1800 mHz
Unlocked

The make and model is unimportant. Find something with features you like. There's a chance your Verizon phone already has those three characteristics, but it's a very slime one.

The mobal phones are all ready to go. There are 2, one covers 140 countries and one covers 160. I am no a gadget person and decided to go with this phone. I have alltel and they don't have an international phn. All incoming calls in the UK are free since it is a UK phone essentially.

Check out http://www.fonquest.com/
You can rent the phone or if you have your own (as I do) just arrange for the SIM. The charges are billed AFTER the trip and in doing research on the company, seems a lot of businesses, trade shows, etc. use them. In the past I have purchased the SIM before leaving,and yes, you still have to buy more time when there.
My flight (Air Tahiti Nui-the best from Los Angeles) arrives Terminal 2A which is where they have their booth-perfect!
I calculated the costs against what I have spent in the past (3 years, 5 trips) and I will save money this way.
I'll add comments after I'm back (late May).

&quot;I am no a gadget person and decided to go with this phone.&quot;

Do you use a Macintosh computer, perchance?

No. My husband loves any sort of computer/electronic gadget and I usually have him take care of that area.

Everyone sounds so knowledgeable about the SIM card so I thought I'd ask this question. I've read that if you have an unlocked GSM phone you can buy a SIM card for wherever you are going in Europe with prepaid minutes on it which are much cheaper BUT any incoming calls from home (U.S.) are charged to the person placing the call. Is that true? That would defeat the purpose of getting a cheaper rate with a local SIM card would it not or am I missing something?