Regarding unlocking phones, T-Mobile will unlock for you after 90 days of service. Cingular will do it if you nag them - explain that you need to have a SIM card for Europe but aren't going to dump them domestically. (T-Mobile might do that also.) When my daughter bought a Treo a week before going to the UK, she badgered Cingular into giving her the codes, though it took 3 calls.

You can get an existing phone unlocked at independent phone repair shops in most cities and in Europe, prices ranging from $25-$50, my husband tells me. You can also buy unlocking codes on eBay, I understand. Some phones are easy to unlock and free codes are available via a Google search. My husband has generally used Nokia phones (till he recently got a Treo) because they're usually the easiest to unlock and codes are available free, though he says my 3220 was a bit trickier than most.

If for emergency use only, a pre-pay plan works fine and they can be had for around 10 Euros (with a small amount of time) in many countries. And will work in other countries, so the expense of a united SIM may not be necessary if for emergency use only. Some of them - Vodafone for sure - are good for a year and you can easily top them up when needed. The cheapest way to get your phone number to people at home is to text-message it to another cell. (We send ours to our daughter and have her e-mail to anyone who needs it.) Last year we got a Vodafone SIM in Greece at a kiosk for 8 Euros with 6 Euros of talk time (a promotional offer while Vodafone was trying to make inroads into the Greek market). We sent and received about 30 text messages and still had more than 2 Euros of time left.

A cheap option for people who want to be able to chat a bit with people at home and are taking a laptop (with a mike) with them is to use Skype. I use it at home for my international calls. At 2 Euro cents a minute (more for mobile phones, free to computers with Skype installed), you can do a lot of chatting for the 10 Euro minimum pre-paid plan, which you can purchase on a credit card or PayPal. Obviously not useful if you are not online, but my husband has installed my Skype on his laptop as well and when he's on a business trip, we often use that to save our cell minutes to make calls home or when making arrangements with friends in the countries we're visiting.

This might be a little late but worth the information. Last August I purchased 2 mobile phones from mobalrentals.com. They had a special deal if you were a frequent flyer with Ameracan Airlines, which I quickly joined. You buy the phone(cheap) but you supposdly need to use their sims card and pay their rate.
They were Nokia phones that were supposedly locked, so I went to an unlocking website to unlock them. After 3 trys and failing, you can no longer unlock the phone, so I gave up. I brought them with me anyway to France figuring maybe I could find a place that could unlock them for me. At the airport there was a sales person who worked for a compary that you could rent a sims card from. No start up fee you just paid .50 euro per minute versus a much higher rate that mobalrental was charging(I forget the exact charge).You tell them how long you want to use the service and they discontinue it on the experation date.They bill you credit card for time used. I told her the phones were unlocked but when she inserted her sims card it worked. The moral is I think the phones come through unlocked but the company doesn't want you to know. That is why I was unsuccessful when I tried to unlock them. I don't promice that mobalrental is still shipping unlocked phones but it's worth a try.

Now that I have unlocked phones I'm heading back to Europe and visiting 3 countries(Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic).What's the best way to get a sims card for use in all of these countries and be able to call the USA.

Sorry about the last message I sent. I told the sales person at the airport the phones were "locked" not unlocked as my previous posting said.

Your best bet would probably be an international sim card.

Now I have been most partial to united mobile based in Liechtenstein but there are several new ones based in the UK with UK numbers.

There is also a brand new one currently being discussed on the international forum of prepaidgsm.net.

Something called yackiemobile. The owner has been participating in discussions regarding this and it sounds very good...it comes with a US number that forwards to your mobile anyplace in the world so you can give everybody a US number (I assume you are in the US) to reach you and you receive in Europe for something like 24¢ US/minute. Haven't tried them yet but they sound very promising.

You can read about the various international card on the international operators section of prepaidgsm.net and go to various web sites to buy the sims...again I am most partial or have been to this point to United Mobile which is the one I have but developments are moving very quickly every day and you will have to do your own research as to which one best meets your needs; United Mobile will meet your need but yackiemobile might better meet your needs if it can deliver everything it promises.

Don't waste any more time here unfortunately...few people on this forum really know all the ins and outs of this...go where the experts reside as noted www.prepaidgsm.net

BTW for anybody else...

There is a very simple way to tell if a phone is (sim)locked...insert a sim card of another company...even if the phone is a dual band (900/1800) and you are in the USA this test will work...

If the phone is locked you will immediately get a message unauthorized sim card or something to that effect. This will tell you the phone is locked. If you get no such message the phone will attempt to register on some network....if it's a 900/1800 phone of course it will find no network to register on and you will either get a message to that effect or nothing will happen but again if the phone is locked it will never get that far.

This is a very helpful and informative discussion.

I have 2 questions for xyz or anyone using the United Mobile service:

1 - Is it correct that the only way to add minutes to your phone with this plan is via the Web site? — i.e., you can’t call a number from the phone itself to add minutes?

2 - Do the minutes ever expire if you don’t use your phone for some period of time?

1. yes

2. One call is required every 9 months...easy enough to do..simply call your voicemail.

Thanks ... the web thing strikes me as a possible problem if you don't have enough time loaded before you leave home. You'd probably have to find an Internet cafe to add more time, and I am a bit reluctant to do a credit card transaction at a public Internet site.

of course, after reading over this again and again, I am still a little confused.

So, I purchased an unlocked gsm tri-band phone off ebay. It should arrive early next week. I am traveling to the UK, France and Portugal.

What is my best option for a SIM card;preferably one card for all three countries?

Thanks!

I thought I would check with United Mobile to make sure that the web was the only option for reloading minutes, and found that in fact you can add minutes from your phone. Here is what their customer service department responded (and by the way, I was pleased to see that I got a very prompt answer to my email):

"To recharge your sim card with your credit card you can also call 00423663099911 from any phone or 094 from your United Mobile phone."

After reading all 53 posts on this thread re Cell phones in Europe, in addition to posts on same subject in another forum, I have 3 questions:
1. To buy a SIM card at CDG airport T1, what vendor(s) would you recommend?
2. How much per minute for outgoing calls within France and to outside of France?
From what I read here, all incoming calls (int'l or not) are free.
I have a quad-band GSM phone from Cingular and have received a 8-digit "subsidy unlocking code" from C. Charger is dual voltage.
At time of SIM card purchase, the shop will unlock my phone and insert new SIM with a new phone #. I am all set to go, Right? (this is my 3rd Q). Thank you all very much for sharing your experience.

You can unlock the phone and should do so to make sure it is unlocked and the correct code (you will get a message to the effect after the code is entered sim lock removed) There is no need to wait till France.

You can check local charges in France by going to www.prepaidgsm.net

Go to the national operators and look up France...there are several different French mobile companies and you may not have a choice at the airport.

You will be informed of your French phone number when purchasing the sim...the country code for France is 33 and the number will be presented to you in the form 0699999999 (this is not a real number)...to call you from the United States one would dial 011 33 699999999...(remember you drop the lead 0 when dialing almost any European number from the USA)...and yes all calls you receive will be free on your end...your callers will pay a surcharge to call a French mobile (check international long distance rates....you will see a low rate listed to France and a somewhat higher rate listed to France Mobiles)....

As far as a merchant at CDG, I'm sorry I can't help you...you'll have to ask..I'm sure you'll be able to find one.

nonnafelice...

I wouldn't know about recharging a United Mobile sim card...I've never done so in the 14 months I've had one..I've made 2 calls with it, both to my voicemail to meet the one call every 9 months rule.

Oter than that, I use callbackworld to make calls back to the USA...14¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals sure beats 0,39€/minute timed to the next highest minute along with a 0,25€ fee for each call as a set up fee.

You should look into this to make calling back to the USA very economically (or wherever you are calling)....

Can I only buy united-mobile sim online? I'm leaving in a few days, live all the way in Asia so shipping is not exactly a good option for me. My first stop is London - where can I buy it there?

bookmarking

xyz123,

I will definitely look into callbackworld for calling the States. But our next trip will be with another couple, and we'll each have our own car -- sharing a villa but often going our separate ways. We will probably need to keep in touch via cell phone, and so expect to be using our phone more in Italy than we ever have in the past. We also travel quite a bit to France, so I was attracted to the idea of a card that I could use in either country.

Previously we have used our Mobal phone, and up till now have probably spent less than $10 for all the calls we've made in about 5 trips, since we've only used it for very brief calls. We've had Internet connections in many places we've stayed, so could call the States very cheaply via Skype. But we won't have that on our next trip, so I think the unitedmobile plus callbackworld sounds like the best combination.

We purchased two cellphones on ebay from a private party.

They were Motorola V66 worldphones with tri-band coverage (900/1800/1900) and came with dual voltage chargers (110/220) and two European adapters (beside the standard US plug). They cost us $30 each (the limit we were willing to pay).

They were originally offered through T-Mobile and even though the person that sold them thought they were unlocked, they were not. We found this out by purchasing two Cingular Pay-As-You-Go activation cards on ebay and inserting their SIM cards into the cellphone SIM slots.

After researching on google last Saturday morning, I found a place in Salt Lake City that would unlock the phones for $12 each plus $4 for Priority shipping ($28). It cost me $4.05 to Priority ship them to Salt Lake City.

I got them back Friday morning and tried the Cingular Pay-As-You-Go activation SIM cards and they work excellently.

We want the Cingular Pay-As-You-Go cards to use the phones coming and going in the US airports.

When we get to Switzerland, we will purshase SIM cards for that country. When we get to Italy, we will do the same.

All along in our experience, we were willing to take the risks in our purchase, etc. in order to have a little adventure before our real adventure begins. It has worked out very well for us.

Six months ago, I didn't even know there was something called a SIM and I knew nothing about Bands. My thanks, gratitude and appreciation go out to those on this Forum that generously helped (patiently and impatiently) with their knowledge and experience. As demonstrated here, xyz123, you go the distance. I apologize for not remembering the names of others that helped.

VS :-"

Okay, I'm remembering some...

Thanks Robespierre and blackduff and laclaire.


VS :-"

ttt

Just an update and a couple of questions for xyz123, or anyone who might know:

We did buy a United Mobile card (good service; it arrived via Zurich in just a few days), and inserted it in our Mobal phone.

A message then came up and asked me for my PIN. I entered it, and it was accepted, and I'm not getting any error messages.

So can I now assume that the phone was unlocked and once we get to Europe, it should be good to go?

The other question is: I have a friend who also has a Mobal phone, purchased somewhat later than ours. Can that person put my SIM card in his phone just to find out if his is also unlocked? I mean, if he put the card in his phone, it wouldn't make it stop working for me when I put it back in my phone, would it?

>>Can that person put my SIM card in his phone just to find out if his is also unlocked?<< Yes

>>I mean, if he put the card in his phone, it wouldn't make it stop working for me when I put it back in my phone, would it?<< No

VS

topping..... (I'm still using a Motorola Timeport tri-band phone with an Oskar SIM card. As long as it's replenished once a year, I can keep my phone #)

Oskar was bought by Vodafone, first thing they did: Triple!! roaming fees

But if I'm not roaming out of the Czech Republic, then it wouldn't matter, correct?

Yes, correct. Oskar has always been my fav. choice in places like Mexico. Inexpensive, unlimited free SMS via Web interface. It's all over now. :-(
Well, 09.is is an alternatve.

Robespierre is very helpful. There's one thing, though...he states you can get free razr phones from Wirefly. That's true - wirefly offers t-mobile deals that even t-mobile doesn't offer. But here's the thing - I looked Wirefly up on rateacompany.com and out of 19 responses, they were given a rating of 0.5, the worst! Nearly everybody had enormous headaches dealing with them! Don't bother.

I haven't had a single issue with Wirefly. Perhaps the bad rating was the creation of competitors who can't touch their deals. It's not unprecedented.

rateacompany.com doesn't come up.

"buttoncat" has never posted here before.

Hmmm.

Robespierre: The fact that I have never posted here before is neither here nor there. I'll try to get a valid link for the ratings page. Wirefly can be looked up on any ratings page.)

Meanwhile, do you work for Wirefly?

Hmmmm...

Doesn't feel too good, does it?

(The reasons I'm spending any effort at all on this to inform people are: (1) I went up on Wirefly and found "deals" I couldn't find with the cellphone companies themselves, which sounded suspicious, and which involved the handing over of sums of money to someone I'd never done business with before, (2) I really am a sincere, nonaffiliated reader of Fodor's website who rarely posts, and (3) Robespierre has - perhaps inadvertently - taken upon himself the role of authority in this area, and many people may follow his advice.

Sorry, Robespierre, and others, if there was any discomfort generated by my posts. I'm finding this a very informative section, and would like the conversation to continue.

Saw this little bit on MSNBC yesterday..or was it CNN Headline News? Either way, here's a site that might be helpful: http://www.cellularabroad.com/

The fact that I have never posted here before is neither here nor there. <b>Maybe, but it's interesting - and a little suspicious.</b>

I'll try to get a valid link for the ratings page. <b>Surely it can't be that hard.</b>

Wirefly can be looked up on any ratings page. <b>Then why can't you seem to manage it? The ones I saw were all 7s and 8s.</b>

Meanwhile, do you work for Wirefly? <b>They don't need me to pimp for them. Their reputation speaks for itself.</b>

Doesn't feel too good, does it? <b>What, being the subject of a clumsy smear? Hardly.</b>

(The reasons I'm spending any effort at all on this to inform people are: (1) I went up on Wirefly and found &quot;deals&quot; I couldn't find with the cellphone companies themselves, which sounded suspicious, <b>if you knew the first thing about how the cellular business worked, this wouldn't surprise you</b> and which involved the handing over of sums of money to someone I'd never done business with before, <b>your credit card agreement protects you against fraud.</b>

(2) I really am a sincere, nonaffiliated reader of Fodor's website who <s>rarely</s> <b>never</b> posts, and

(3) Robespierre has - perhaps inadvertently - taken upon himself the role of authority in this area, and many people may follow his advice. <b>Never said that. I bought a phone from them, which even you could probably manage. No authority required.</b>

Sorry, Robespierre, and others, if there was any discomfort generated by my posts. <b>You overestimate yourself.</b>

I'm finding this a very informative section, and would like the conversation to continue. <b>There are dozens of threads about cell phones for travel. What's a &quot;section?&quot;</b>

Cellular abroad, like telestial, is one of those rip off American firms that offer sim cards for triple the price and try to lull you into thinking it is difficult to get a sim card upon arrival in a foreign country or that it is a big advantage to have your foreign number in advance. They triple and quadruple the prices you will pay for sim cards if you wait for arrival in the country involved and for the most part their prices for international cards are way out of line.

Example, they want $50 plus shipping for an Irish sim card (O2) + some absurd amount for shipping...the same card is readilly available on arrival in Ireland for perhaps &euro;10 to &euro;15....and it's real tough to let people know your local phone number (like e mail and sms have not been invented)...not only that in some cases even if you get the sim card in advance, you won't know your number until you register for the first time on the network in the country of the sim card.

This is simply not rocket science...if you are going to be in one country for any period of time, get yourself an unlocked gsm mobile phone either dual band (900/1800 please) or tri band (hopefully 900/1800/1900) readilly available on ebay or at some internet merchants.

Then upon arrival in the European country, go into any mobile phone store, and they are just about on every corner, and you can get a local sim...and the clerk will help you set it up and go over such things as setting the voice menus to English if it is possible and how to set up voice mail...I have read some people say this is a pain as they don't want to waste a single minute of their precious holiday time...fine go off and let yourself be ripped off by these rip off merchants. Some European sims are also available on ebay at very low prices.

If you're going to be in 2 or more countries, probably an international sim such as united mobile is for you. We've described them, they are described on a real gsm message board (www.prepaidgsm.net) where experts cal help you, not people here who throw out wrong information or information that can cost you a lot of money (nobody rents a mobile phone in the 21st century as buying phones is so cheap). You can read all about united mobile at www.united-mobile.com.

Do be aware there are otjer internatonal cards and a new one just starting out that seems promising for Americans is yackie mobile...(www.yackiemobile.com)...in this one you will get a USA number which will forward to your mobile wherever you are in Europe at very advantageous rates (no need for a local sim, the sim you get from yackie handles everything)...they are just starting out and we have no great benefit of seeing how well they can deliver what they promise. Again, information is available at www.prepaidgsm.net

Also as we have noted, with a United Mobile sim card which at this point seems to be the best (yes that can change as the industry is undergoing a lot of pressure from eu regulators regarding the high cost of roaming) you can open up an account, for free, with callback world (www.callbackworld.com)....basically it will allow you to call back from any country where receiving calls on united mobile is free (and that includes all of Western and Central and much of Eastern Europe, Australia, South Africa and China) to the USA at the rate of 14¢/minute billed in 6 second increments not raised to the next highest minute. I was just in Europe for the entire month of June and it worked perfectly as described and call connections were excellent throughout Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France and the UK...I got my bill from them and for the entire month, my cbw bill which must have been a hundred calls to the USA from wherever was $31...plus countless calls I received for free...callback world also gives you a US 800 number with a pin which charges the same 14¢/minute (so I paid for those calls to me).

If you want a functional mobile phone, not just one for emergencies only, this is a direction that bears your investigation. Trust me, this 21st century technology works.

This is amazingly helpful and very clear. I am one who needs it all spelled out, and now I think I am beginning to understand. I have an upcoming trip to Romania in September. We will need a cell phone to make/receive calls back in the US as well as inter-Romania calls to various relatives.

I have a Nokia 6102i phone with Cingular service, which is gsm 850/1800/1900.

I also have two O2 X1b pay as you go phones that I purchased in the UK last year (which we use for inter-UK calls when we travel there fairly frequently). They are tri band 900/1800/1900 mhz. Is it possible to unlock these phones?

Almost all phones can be unlocked...the Cingular phone you can call their customer service and they might provide the unlocking code for you.

The O2 phone...might already be unlocked. Many O2 phones are sold unlocked; if not you can do a little research on the web to find several unlocking services (I am not familiar with the brand of the O2 phones) or you can bite the bullet and purchase for less than $50 US a perfectly good functional unlocked dual band (making sure it is 900/1800 and absolutely not 850/1900 which work only in some places in the Ameruicas)..also somebody on this forum recently pointed to quad bands available on ebay for not too much.

I asked the Cingular folks for the unlock code for my Motorola V180. I was told that my service is still under the old AT&amp;T network and that AT&amp;T will only give unlock codes when service is terminated. Mine is a company phone and apparently my employers have not requested that their account be moved over to the Cingular side. If you have an account directly with Cingular, their policy is to provide the unlock codes after 3 months of service.

Does anyone have experience or know someone who does with yackiemobile? After learning about them in this forum, I ordered a SIM on Saturday. I received a &quot;no reply&quot; automated email with a link to print my order that doesn't work. The email stated my order is being processed and I'd be sent another email. None received so far.

Tonight I called their support line and after 6-7 rings received a recording that all representatives were busy and to either leave a message or call back another time! Wasn't given the option to hold - left a message that I want a status and left 2 numbers where I can be reached. They don't list a support email address and their chat line is closed. I'm questioning if their support is really 24/7.

Don't have warm and fuzzies from this so far.

I selected yackie because the rates seemed reasonable and I'm able to get a local US phone number which will make it easier and cheaper for callers to contact me when I'm in Europe.

Any guidance would be appreciated, including if there are any other options for purchasing a prepaid SIM to use in Europe with a US number.

On the prepaidgsm.net forum, there has been a whole discussion. Their deliveries have been somewhat delayed. Several who have gotten the sim card say it works pretty much as advertised. They are not willing to give up on them just yet, they are a start up company. They seem to have been a bit overwhelmed by response to them. I would give it a little more time.

Not to be totally dense, xyz, but where can I get a dual band phone for under $50? I'm finding mostly the $100 range.

Try ebay (you might have to go to the British or German site); at least that's what I've been told.....

As I posted above, the phone I bought from Mobal for $49 was unlocked and I was able to put the United Mobile sim card into it. However, I bought mine (a Nokia) a couple of years ago, and they are selling a different $49 model now -- a Motorola C117. So I don't know whether you would need an unlock code for that phone.

&gt;dual band phone for under $50?
I've got 10 Boschs stocked in the basement, brand new cost me 6&euro; each. Shipping to the US would be expensive,but 5&euro; phones on ebay aren't a problem. (perfectly legal :-)