CELL PHONES
 

I plan going to Italy this year and I want to purchase a cell phone that I can use there and elseware in europe.After reading all the comments and recommendations on cellphones I am still confused as to:
1.Who I should I purchase it from ? Who is the best source?
2.Should I puchase a sim card for useage in Italy or just pay for the time I use?

It IS complicated and, as always, the answer is "it depends". Do you want to rent or buy? Which countries besides Italy? How long is trip? How often do you plan to return to Europe? How mch use would you guess? 5 mintes a day? 120 minutes a day?

Pronto

I want to purchase a cellphone that I can use in Europe. I plan on using it 15 - 30 minutes a day.

I can't vouch for these vendors, but

http://www.samstores.com/Store.asp?CtgID=26

http://welectronics.com/gsm.shtml

sell unlocked gsm phones that can be used in Europe. Your choices are: 1) a European style dualband, operating on frequencies 900 and 1800. These can be used in Europe but not in the US. 2) A European style triband, operating on frequencies 900, 1800, and 1900. These can be used in Europe and with T Mobile in the US. 3) Quadbands, operating on frequencies 850, 900, 1800, and 1900. These can be used in Europe and in the US with T Mobile and Cingular. You can also buy unlocked gsm cell phones on ebay, which can be a little risky, and directly from Motorola at the site

http://www.store.motorola.com/mot/en...irect/motorola

Motorola sells their v190 and and v235 for about $100. As regards sim cards, with your projected usage I'd go an Italian shop and buy an a prepaid sim for one of the Italian companies if you're sure you can get phone menu instructions in English. You can also buy an international sim at

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html

I read many forums on this before I bought my phone for use in Italy. I bought an unlocked quad band phone on Ebay and also a SIM (TIM) card on Ebay for use in Italy. I have my Italian phone number and can buy more time if I need it when I am travelling. Will find out how well it works very soon.

If I may piggyback on this thread with another question -- In Paris, is it possible to rent a cell phone or buy one of the really cheapie ones that come with some minutes (like the trackfones in the US)? It wouldn't be practical to buy something -- and my own cell won't work there -- but it would be nice to have something in case of emergency.

Khermann,
I've never seen cheapie ones like the trackfones for sale in France. Unfortunately, France is one of the more expensive places to activate cell service. If you want local service while there, your best bet is to buy an unlocked dual band (900/1800) phone on eBay for around $20 and then buy a sim in France (around 40 euros). The sim will come with a small amount of credit, 6-8 euros. Incoming calls will be free. Calls to the US will be around 75 cents/minute. If you want more details about the service we recently used (SFR) you can email me.
[email protected]

We used a unlocked gsm cell, actually two. One phone was unlocked by T-Mobile for us and the other was from purchased from www.tigerdirect.com
SIM cards, I think that you can purchase a card in Italy or a prepaid from http://www.telestial.com. Telestial has a good tutorial on European SIM/GSM.
You will need the phone to GSM and at a minimum of triband or quadband.

khermann, look at www.mobal.com. $49 and you only pay for the calls you make.

I use Mobal, in truth it has great coverage but it is not cheap. The week we spent in France the cell cost approx 100 USD, you pay for both incoming and outgoing calls. The quality and coverage was great even on the TGV or the middle of French farm country.
A draw back to Mobal is that their phones are locked, meaning you cannot pickup a local SIM card to put in and use in their phone.
Some European cell providers do not charge for incoming calls.
Also with Mobal you must set up and account which is tied to either a credit/ATM/debit card or checking account.
A plus for Mobal is that it works not only in Europe but also in the Americas and parts of Asia.

Sorry,
Puppy decided to jump and posted my reply before I was finished.
You can buy just the SIM card from Mobal and manage your account on-line.

stormin280...

One correction...all European gsm carriers (which in reality means all European carriers) give you free reception of calls while you are in the country the sim card was issued in...example if you have a French sim card, while you are in France, you do not pay to receive calls...caller pays a premium to call you.

I struggled with the same issue and after MUCH research chose to add on a "World" feature through my Cingular carrier. Much simpler!! Perhaps you have a similar option with your phone carrier?

Stormin280,
I'm curious as to which phone you purchased from Tigerdirect.com and if you had good experience buying from them?

I'm looking at the Siemens - A75 - Unlocked GSM Cell Phone, tri-band for $54.99 on Tigerdirect.com. but I was wondering if this statement should be of concern:
"All of our unlocked GSM phones come from around the globe. As such, features and accessories may vary. Some require US adapters. In some cases, language needs to be reset to English from the default language through manual setting on the phone."
This phone will be used just for travel to Europe, but did not want to get a phone with a plug for some remote country that requires an adaptor other than US-Italy power converter!?

The statement is not terribly ominous...what they're referring to is the charger which it is true comes in all shapes and forms...you can easily buy a US charger for the phone from a company such as www.cellphoneshop.net which has lots of mobile phone accessories for very little money or the charger may be one with say a European plug when you need a UK plug....it will probably be dual voltage so that's not the problem but you might need an adapter plug (which you might for almost everything you bring to Europe anywa)...

As far as the language is concerned, it is easy to change the phone's language by following instructions in the manual....the problem might be if the set language is one that doesn't use Roman letters in which case hopefully there is a manual in English or you can download one but that really isn't usually the norm...most phones default to English as the phone language.

The price, $54.99, is pretty good for a tri band phone and it seems like an okay buy.

xyz123
Mobal issues their own sim cards and charges for incoming/outgoing calls, thus the reason I rate the service as PRICEY! It is a world service concept which issues you a British phone number that will find you in a great number of countries.
You are right that European providers do not charge for incoming and most of their sim cards come with some minutes.

Ladybug01
I bought a Blackberry from Tigerdirect.com, service was good.
The phone was factory reconditioned and matches my T-mobile phone and it worked excellently.
The phone you picked sounds good and the price for a tri-band is good. Tigerdirect's caveat is about accessories, which you can find plenty of after market for name brand phones from places such as http://www.factorydirectcellular.com. I have used them and their service is good.