cell phone rental
 

we are planning a trip to Ireland in May. We are going to be as spontaneous as possible and would like to use a cell phone to arrange our lodging for the next night or maybe even THAT night. We do that here in the States and it works like a charm. I would take my cell phone to Ireland with me but Verizon told me that it costs $1.29 per minute to talk. So, How much is a cell rental and per minute charge in Ireland? I understand Vodafone is the place to go. Any thoughts on this matter will be apprecaited. Thanks.

Just buy the cheapest unlocked phone that you can, and buy a pay as you go Sim when you get to Ireland

Ditto what alihutch said. A while back we bought a mobile -- as they say in Britain -- in Glasgow for about L10; IIRC that included a SIM with some time. We added more time to the SIM (topped up the SIM) during our trip. We still take that phone with us to Europe. But had to buy a UK-to-continent plug adapter for the charger.

The only problem with this plan was the salesman in Glasgow who spoke inpenetrable Glaswegian.

First, you are not in the US.

Only a few Verizon phones with dual telephone standard (CDMA+GSM) can operate in Ireland. Unless your Verizon phone is such model, even the $1.29 number is irrelevant.

ok,, looks like I'm buying a mobile. Thanks.

If you do not want the hassle of buying an unlocked phone in advance and then looking for a sim card in Ireland when you arrive, you could just rent one from Rentaphone Ireland www.cell-phone-ireland.com

They will organise it so that you can collect the phone at Dublin Airport or at your hotel. The are on the vodafone network. Calls to the us just cost 15 cent per minute.

Hassle? Please....oodles of inexpensive unlocked gsm phones are readilly available on ebay with about 5 clicks of the mouse...the only question is do you want just a bare phone or a few bells and whistles such as mp3 players (does anybody walk around with a walkman anymore and besides you may want different ring tones for different callers), a camera (albeit with only 2 or 3 megapixels probably) or whatever you want to your heart's content. As far as the "hassle" of buying a sim card...well as I was walking through the arrivals hall at Dublin airport, there was an O2-IE store....got an Irish sim card with €10 worth of credit for €10...the day of ripping people off for renting a mobile phone for international travel are long gone.

I agree. Sim cards and unlocked phones are cheap these days. And they are all over the place. I will NOT advice anyone to rent in this day and age.

One thing I forgot to mention. The T-Mobile SIM card we bought in Glasgow didn't work on the Isle of Skye. No coverage. So one caveat is to research the coverage in the area you're going to be visiting before buying a SIM card. Especially if this area is somewhat remote.

That particular issue is being corrected, I think. Orange UK and T Mobile UK are in the process of merging and you can now use Orange towers with a T Mobile account and vice versa. So if Orange has coverage on the Ksle of Skye, you will be able to use your T mobile phone. You just set the carrier manaually.