ssarw

Leaving next Sunday for Greece. I need to rent cell phones so that my family can talk to each other within Greece. I have found "PlanetFone" and "RoadPost." Any other ideas and which is best?

tom_h

One possible answer is "neither".

Depending on how long you'd be in Greece and much those companies would charge you, you "might" be better off buying inexpensive "pay as you go" phones upon your arrival.

On my trip last May, I brought along an *unlocked* Nokia 1100 phone that I already owned. Then I bought SIM chip in Greece from the "Germanos" electronics store chain.

Note the phone MUST be an un-locked, GSM, 900 and 1800 MHz frequency phone, if you plan to buy a SIM chip on your arrival. It is rare for a USA-compatible phone to also be compatible with the European standard.

I chose Cosmote as the Greek carrier, although Vodafon and Panafon are also said to provide decent coverage.

My pricing typically was 20-25 US cents per minute for greece calls, and about 60c-75c/minute for calls to USA.

YMMV ...

Also search for the thread entitled "Greek cell phone network operators", useful info there.

Eleni

I'm with tom-h. If you don't have access to an unlocked GMS phones, Germanos (a Greek electronics chain store) sells basic cell phones for about 40 Euro each, plus they also sell the SIM chip you need and the phone cards that you use to load your phone with time/money.

I've used both Vodafone and COSMOTE as my cell phone carrier, and my experience is that COSMOTE has better coverage on the islands. So I buy a Cosmo Carte (the recharge card) or two from Germanos (which has a store at the airport and another next to the Monastiraki metro station in downtown Athens) or from a tobacco kiosk (periptero in Greek) that can be found on the streets of all cities and most towns in Greece.

Plus if you do this, you will have cells phones on hand the next time you travel!

nibblette

Does anyone know anything about Q-telecom service? What is their coverage?
They are running a prepaid SIM special with 60 minutes of call time to US/Canada, Germany, Poland, UK landlines, Greece land for 3 euros.

For the Cosmote prepaids, are incoming calls free?

tom_h

" For the Cosmote prepaids, are incoming calls free? "

Yes. In europe, incoming cell calls are generally "free" to the *receiving* cell phone.

However, the person *originating* the call pays extra, if they're calling a cell phone. This is so, whether the originator is calling from a cell or land line.

Linda74

I have a phone my daughter used when studying in France. Would I be able to buy a card for the phone and use it in Greece?

nibblette

Linda,
As long as it is unlocked, yes.

Anybody know anything about the Q-telecom SIM card? I know they have no roaming.

Their 3 euro special sounds great (5 euro cents/minute from Greece to the 7 listed countries' landlines, also includes cells in US/Canada).
We're headed to the islands and I wanted to make sure the coverage is good there.

Eleni

My understanding is that Q telecom only has a network that covers Athens, Thessaloniki, and Larissa, and that it covers the rest of Greece by agreement with Vodafone. As I said earlier, I did not have a good experience with Vodafone coverage on rural Greek islands. But if you are just in the urban areas, Q Telecom or Vodafone should be just fine.

nibblette

Thanks Eleni.
Sounds like I should get a Cosmote SIM for the islands and if the Q SIM is really 3 euros, get that for the Athens portion.

Heimdall

The following website will answer some of those questions: http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_gr.shtml. Click on the coverage map, and you will see that Q-Telecom isn't much good outside the Athens area.