I tried to search for info on cell phones in Europe with no luck. I will want to be reacheable by cell and able to make a couple of calls to the states each day. What are my options? I leave Thursday 9/12, returning 9/23. Thanks.

buy one when you get there - preferably pay as you go. easy, and cheaper than renting. where are you going?

I Fly to Paris and immediately (I have 3 hours)take a train to Avignon. So I won't have much time.

hmmm. last I checked vodafone wasn't in much usage in France - they are compatible with most other countries though, which is why I would recommend them. perhaps a rental would be easier, although not cheaper. I really can't recommend a specific place to buy a phone, there. nor have I had experience with anything other than vodafone.

Assuming that you arrive in Avignon during business hours (presumably you will if you leave within 3 hrs after a typical morning trans-atlantic arrival), then you should be able to buy one in Avignon. It isn't THAT small a town.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Great! That's what I will do the day after I get there. Do you know about how much this will be? Thx.

You are looking at around 100 euro for a basic phone with some call credit. You have a choice of several operators, and they all work in much the same way with similar call charges. You'll need to register your name and address to enable you to call abroad, so don't forget to take your passport with you.

I have a Sprint cell phone (current ) and Nokia (not activated) -- would it be useful to bring either of these?

Lisa, if they're phones you purchased in America, chances are minimal they'll function in Europe. I'm on the bandwagon with the "buy it there" folks.<BR><BR>Happy Travels,<BR>BC

Lisa:<BR><BR>We have had a thread on this a while back. Basically European cell phone technology is a zilion years ahead of the US and the phones are incompatible so don't bother bringing your phone.<BR><BR>The best solution is as somebody suggested is when you arrive in Avignon, go into a cell phone store and buy a prepaid cell phone and plan. They start around 70 to 80 Euro. The one I used was from Orange France and the plan called a mobilcarte. With the plan, you get 10 Euro credit which you can refill by buying a recharge card for 15 Euro. You get 10 Euro worth of credit and while you can call the US, it is suggested you do not only in an emergency as phone costs directly from French cell plans are expensive. However, you will have a French telephone number and all incoming calls are free to you...the caller pays a slight surcharge.<BR><BR>For calls back to the US you buy a phone card from a Tabac. You can use the cell phone to call the local number in France and then follow the instruction. You will pay for the cell phone call in France and whatever the calling card you purchase will charge.<BR><BR>Sounds complicated but it really isn't and you'll really enjoy having your own cell phone and be reachable 24/7

Lisa,<BR>Sprint uses PCS technology not supported in Europe. And unless your Nokia is a tri-band phone (900, 1800 as well as 1900 MHz), that too will be of no use. You can buy an 'unlocked' SIM-free 'world' phone in certain phone stores and on e-bay, but it's much easier to get a bundled basic phone when you get there. You can always keep the phone for the next trip, or give it (or sell it) to someone going to France after you. Then they will only need a new SIM-pack (around 30-40 euro, about half of which is call credit) to activate it.

Thanks so much!

After reading these reponses about France and cellphones, I am wondering about the same for London and Ireland. We will be in both places during our trip and husband will need to be on call for some business negotiations. We have a pre-paid phone card from Sam's we plan to use, but now this business stuff adds a new wrinkle to our trip. Two questions....should we purchase a cell phone there (flying in and out of London, with some time in Ireland in between) and if we do, will the plan work in both London and Ireland? Appreciate your help..leaving next week!

I'll give you the answer to the best of my ability.<BR><BR>English cell phone rates are among the most favourable there are. If you are going to be in England for at least 7 days, it is by far the only way to go.<BR><BR>I recommend Virgin Mobile to my friends. They have a very simple rate structure and no registering of the phone is required. Calls from the UK to the US are relatively cheap (very cheap as a matter of fact...cheaper than most landlines although calling cards are cheaper). The problem is you cannot roam with Virgin mobile (unless you are UK resident and register the phone), roaming being defined as using the service outside the country of origin. <BR><BR>There is another company called Orange. They allow roaming on prepaid plans and to some degree their rates are a little bit cheaper than Virgin (not much). The problem is Orange requires the phone be registered before service is established. Registering requires a UK address. I liked their prices and wanted an Orange phone for the roaming ability. Well at the Orange shop when I bought the phone, they didn't want to register the phone using my hotel address. At least the first operator didn't. The salesman called back, got another operator and the phone was registered. Do not know if there is any policy about this. <BR><BR>Roaming, however, is not cheap. So when you take your phone to Ireland, you pay a pretty hefty rate but you would retain the UK number.<BR><BR>OTOH you could buy a SIM service pack in Ireland giving you an Irish number and all you have to do is switch the SIM card which is a little card containing a chip with all the information about the phone account But you can't do that readily as most phones you buy in England are locked. That is if you buy a phone from the Virgin store, it will only take a Virgin SIM card (not quite true, it will take a T-mobile card but that's another story). So if you bought a SIM service pack in Ireland, it would not work in the Virgin phone unless the phone were unlocked. Many phone stores can unlock most phones for a fee.<BR><BR>Now here was the solution I hit on. I did a Yahoo search and found many merchants in the US sell unlocked GSM phones for prices far cheaper than available in the UK. I bought a Nokia 3310 for a little over $100. It is an unlocked phone. Whenever I go to Europe, no matter what country I go to, I can buy a service pack. So when I go to France I buy a French prepaid pack...in England I've been using Virgin and they are one of the few services that doesn't put a time limit on use of the minutes etc. When my friends go to Europe, I loan them the phone and they buy their own prepaid pack. <BR><BR>As between me and my friends, we visit Europe 4 or 5 times a year, it was very very economical for me.<BR><BR>Failing all that, if you have an account with Voicestream, their phones use GSM technology. If you have a European unlocked cell phone, you can simply switch the SIM card (after calling Voicestream to activate international roamin) and your phone will work perfectly in Europe as they have agreements with phone companies in every European countries. The advantage is you have the same US cell phone number. The disadvantage well for roaming purposes rates are really not that bad, 99 cents a minute to make and receive calls in Western Europe, but still somewhat more expensive than getting a cell phone in Europoe.<BR><BR>Long winded but I am pretty sure all the information is correct.

XXX....Thanks for all the great info! I think I'll go for the unlocked GSM phone here and buy the pack over there. I really appreciate you taking so much time to research and explain!

Terri:<BR><BR>Just to add a little info to xxx's excellent post.<BR><BR>Virgin mobile in the UK has the best prepaid plan. The service pack only costs &pound;10 and it comes with &pound;5 worth of calls. As xxx pointed out, no registration of the phone is necessary although if you don't register, you can't use the phone in countries other than the UK. And registration requires residence in the UK.<BR><BR>Call costs are 15p a minute for each of the first 5 minutes of use each day...5p a minute for each minute thereafter. They charge you for calls in 1 second intervals so if you call and speak for 30 secons you are charged for half a minute on the above rates, if you speak for 40 seconds 2/3 of a minute etc.<BR><BR>Calls to the US with Virgin are 20p a minute; also timed to the second and the calls to the US count towards the five minutes of use noted above. You also get free voicemail.<BR><BR>Virgin mobile's coverage in the UK is very very good although I have read some on this board claim it is not as good as the others because it doesn't have its own cells; rather it uses the network of T-mobile for the actual service. It is for that reason that even though a phone is loced onto Virgin it will take a T-mobile SIM card.<BR><BR>Finally Carphone Warehouse in the UK will sell you service packs for either Ireland or France at prices pretty close to what you would pay in the country so that when you go from the UK to the Republic you just switch the sim cards and you then have an Irish cell phone.<BR><BR>Also of note with the Nokia 3310 that xxx referred to, they sell an accessory called a dual sim card cover. This cover replaces the regaular cover of the phone and one end slips into the phone's sim card slot the other has 2 sim card slots. Guess what....you can put the Virgin sim card in one slot and the Irish one in the other and can switch between the 2 services by turning the phone on and off so that when in the UK you use the Virgin sim card and when you get to Ireland you use the Irish SIM card. Really convenient.

if you go on line and search "international phone rentals" you will get a list of companies that specialize in that.<BR><BR>the cost is anywhere from 4$-6$ per day. Some have a minimum day usage, usually 5 minutes a day.<BR><BR>Hope that helps.