logos999

All look11 is saying is that eye-phones are crap and his jailbreak didn't work properly.

ggreen

Pretty much what logos said.

As a side note, make sure your North American GSM phone is quad band, or it won't work overseas...

travelfridge2

DOes anyone have experience just buying a cheap non-carrier specific pay as you go phone in the US, then buying the SIM card in Italy? Would this work?

I am going to Italy in 1.5 weeks and I have a BB as well but when I called verizon they said it would not work overseas and I would have to rent one from them. Looking for other options.

logos999

You need a tri or quadband phone with at least 900 or 1800 Mhz frequencies, preferably both. Will be available at Walmart.

ggreen

travelfridge, as I just said above your comment, as long as it's a <b>quad band</b> phone, you'll be fine.

Also, no need to look for a pay-as-you-go phone in the US, since you won't need the US sim. Just purchase an <b>unlocked</b> phone (e.g., make your purchase from an electronics store where the device is not tied to a particular carrier).

If you were on AT&T or T-Mobile, the carrier will unlock the phone for you unless it's a brand-new phone.

logos999

Search for unlocked and check frequencies. Most are only site2store or mail order.

ggreen

<i>Most are only site2store or mail order.</i>

Depends on where you live; going online is not the only option in a major city. A large electronics store like Best Buy should also be able to accommodate you.

nukesafe

I bought a couple of unlocked, refurbished, Motorola quad band cell phones on eBay for around 20 bucks each. Few bells and whistles, but worked just fine for us all over Europe. Just add Sims when you get there, or get an eKit, as advised above.

Sher

logos999. I guess I didn't get the iphone reference. My phone is not an iphone just a quad band unlocked T-Mobile phone.

xyz123

sher...your phone will work with an Italian (or any other sim in Europe) provided it is unlocked....T Mobile, if you've been a customer for a while...will issue for free an unlocking code. Call T Mobile cutomer service and tell them you would like to unlock your phone and they will provide the code to unlock it.
After that, you're set. Just buy a local sim and enjoy.

Travelbound44

I laughed out loud when I read the heading to your question. I can't offer any help but can tell you that you are not alone. We were Cell Idiots also. We called the customer service line several times before we were able to make a single call. That is the only one we made. Good Luck

lmont

Bookmarking as our trip is five months a way and it'll take me at least that long to figure out the cell phone issue. Thanks for all the help !

mrcamp

Plenty of cheap unlocked quadband GSM pones on ebay. A lot of other online stores amazon, tigerdirect, etc. also have them. Just one and get a sim at your destination. This is as easy as it gets these days.

logos999

Even more, even cheaper dual band phones on international ebay sites. Planet earth uses dual band GSM 900/1800, north america uses something else. Gat a phone, the planet uses, ;-) Dual band, earth style.

elnap29

Another question from a cell-phone "dummy" : Would this phone work if I got the TIM card in Italy? I bought a prepaid phone with SIM card from Vodaphone at the Sydney airport. I have no idea what its bandwidth is and I have no idea what locked or unlocked means, especially in relation to this phone. Just trying to figure out if taking this phone would help me in Italy or France. (I live in the US)

logos999

>prepaid phone with SIM card from Vodaphone at the Sydney airport.
Yes, this phone will work all over Europe. Locked means, it can only be use with a certain "SIM card" from the phone company from which you bought your phone. This company can unlock the phone by telling you a code that you have to enter before you use it with anohter SIM card from an European company. Most cheap phones are sold at a discount from a phone company such as Vodafone Australia. If you pay them some extra money or wait long enough, they'll tell you this "magic" code you have to dial once to unlock to phone for use with other phone companies.

logos999

You can unlock your Australian Vodafone phone for use in Europe or elsewhere on the planet (except America and VERY few other places) on this site. It will tell you how much it costs should it not be free.

https://unlock.vodafone.com.au/voila...=selectService

tcreath

Okay, here is my status update: I ordered a global SIM card from Telestial through amazon.com. Long story short we could not figure out how to unlock my Blackberry despite getting the unlock code. I really fee like a dummy, and apparently my hubby is too because neither of us could get it to work. After numerous calls and such we returned the SIM card and I ordered a $29 phone/SIM card set, again from Telestial and through Amazon.com. It should be here tomorrow.

We decided to just go this route because the phone would only be used for emergencies and really short calls since plan on using Skype/web calls with our laptop. It doesn't appear to be anything fancy, but as long as my in-laws can reach us in an emergency it should do.

Tracy

susanna

Ok, I have another "idiot" question.

I bought a cheep phone from Orange in France. It is a pain the a$$, I loose the number if I don't use it for a few months. I then have to go to Orange to get another #, but, I cannot buy the minutes there, I have to go to the tabac and buy a card with minutes, of which I can't understand the directions to load the car, they speak too fast, so, I have to wait and find someone willing to listen to the instructions and load my card. One time the guy at Orange didn't "reregister"" the phone ?? and I could 't make calls...I hate the little bugger.

Question, can I buy a sim card for the Orange phone?? Does it need to be jailbroken or since it is a french phone does it just easily take the card. Where exactly does one buy a sim card??

Wow, if this could work I would be in heaven!

xyz123

The phone is probably (sim) locked. That means there is code in the boot up menu that tells the phone to only recognize an Orange France sim card. It is easy to tell if a phone is locked. Simply insert any other sim card. If it's locked you will immediately get a message saying unauthorized sim card or something to that effect. I it's unlocked, you won't get such a message; later in the process you might be told sim card registration failed or the phone my register on some network.

Each country has different traditions with its mobile service. The French way has always been, at least with Orange FR and SFR FR (which is partially owned by vodafone but that might be changing soon), that you buy a top up for a specific amount and a specific period. Last year, their €10 top up was valid for 15 days...their €15 top up was good for one month. After that period, unless you top up again, they steal your credit. But your number remains active to receive calls ithin France for an additional six month period. After that, the card is cooked, history, kaput, whatever.

Contrast that with the UK's policies on most of its telcoms. One billable event every 180 days (with Orange UK it's one year) keeps the card active. No top up necessary so I have kept my UK card active by sending a text message every 8 or 9 months (I'm with Orange UK)...I still have the same number as when I first got the sim card in 2001.

If it's important for you to retain the French number, what you can do before leaving France is to pick up a top up slip as you said from a tabac for the minimum amount say €10...before the six month grace period runs out, even if you're not in France, you can turn on the phone and provided you are in a country which has the gsm bands your phone uses (example if your phone is a dual band European model with 900/1800, it will work throughout most of tyher civilized and uncivilized world but won't work in North America because the Yankees and the Canucks use different frequencies; if it's a quad band, the phone with the French sim card will register one one of the US networks even if you have no credit on it (because they stole your credit at the expiration of the 15 days or whatever)...anyway, if you remembered to purchase a top up slip from a French tabac, once the phone registers punch in 224 followed by the 16 digit number on the top up slip and then (here I'm a tad hazy but you can try it both ways) either press # and then press send or after entering the 16 digits press send. You will receive a confirmation sms a few moments later that your credit of €10 has been applied and the 15 days then the six month clock starts running.

If you're inside France and purchase a top up slip at a tabac, the procedure is a tad different. You dial 224 and you'll hear a message in French telling you to enter the 16 digit top up code followed by the #...the voice will repeat the numbers (in French of course) and ask you to press 1 to confirm. Again that will top up the phone and the 15 days or one month or whatever starts to run followed by the six month grace period (if you top up the phone while there's still credit left in other words before those French thieves steal your credit, the clock starts running again and they don't steal your credit). That's simply the way the French telcoms work despite efforts on the part of the eu to put an end to this theft of credit (German courts have ruled this practice is not legal and if they inactivate your credit, a call to customer service of the telcom, provided you speak German or the operator speaks English, gets your credit back. The countries are all different in that respect.

One other thing. In many countries, you are given your choice of language for many of the voice prompts. On most German telcoms, you can choose English, same is true for many Italian and many Dutch and even the Polish telcom I used once. And the UK telcoms allow you to use English too as do the Irish. But the French, so proud of their language, stopped that practice about seven or eight years ago. At one point on Orange FR you could set the voice prompts to English but no longer.

Hope this info helps you out in understanding what is going on. Now whether it is important to keep say a French mobile number any longer is problematic thanks to eu roaming rates. I now use my British sim to roam in France...incoming calls are not free but only about 12 or 13p with that scheduled to fall again in July. Outgong calls within the eu are 38p, not too bad considering you are roaming. Also lebara, the champion of cheap mobile rates, has come to the land of the French and while their cards expire pretty quickly, they only charge 0,09€ to call North America, far better than the large French telcoms.