cell phones-yes, again. Pay-as-you-go vs. unlocked GSM with SIM.
 

I was going to post this on the current thread, but it's gotten so long....

I am a very light cell phone user at home. I have a Cingular plan (no contract) for the minimum amount I could find, 60 national minutes/mo. for $30. With taxes it's $40/mo and I barely use the minutes most months.

I have been considering switching to a pay as you go plan which I think makes more sense for me. Also, my phone is ancient. I'd like a nice camera phone and as long as I'm getting something new, would like to be able to use it economically in Europe. It occured to me maybe I should get an unlocked phone for both home use and use abroad.

So my questions
1) what's the difference, if any (or pros and cons) of pay as you go service vs. buying an unlocked phone and buying SIM cards?

2) If I want to stay with Cingular, pros and cons? Where's a good place to buy an unlocked RAZR?

ttt

No one can help?

I have a pay as you go with Cingular and so far I like it. I hardly ever use my cell phone and it's mostly for emergencies on the road, or to let family know if the ferry or train is going to be late, that sort of thing. I have a little Nokia camera phone which is a tri-band, but locked. I'm hoping to find someone to unlock it for me. I pay $15 mo, or you can pay $25 for 90 days. Any time unused will be carried over as long as you buy more minutes before the end of the time period. I have a little Italian cell phone that I use for Europe, so far just Italy, but I can use it for other countries as well. It would be nice to use this little Nokia as it has all my numbers programmed and everyone would know my number.

Thanks for the response Barb. So can I get some details? Did you buy the phone at a store or online? Why did you chose to pay $15/mo vs. $25 for 3 months? Is there a difference in service/minutes?

This is one of the most complicated and frustrating subjects. First, to use it in Europe it will have to be at least tri-band and preferably quad-band. If you buy it on-line and it's tri band pay attention to which 3 bands it has - the two European plus one US, or the two US plus one European (sorry I can't remember the numbers, xyz or someone will probably be able to give you the info). But also, and this is the really frustrating part - just becasue it's unlocked doesn't mean it will work with a Cingular sim card. We bought an unlocked triband phone for my daughter to take to London, got it here in the US on ebay. Worked great with her Virgin mobile sim card over there. Came home, and tried to get a Cingular pay as you go sim card and it wouldn't work. The Cingular person said she's seen that happen often. No explanation though. If you buy a phone from Cingular, you need to make sure it's unlocked, or be able to get it unlocked. I bought a Cingular Motorola quad band phone, which was unlocked (most of the Cingular reps didn't know this fact, it was about the fifth guy I talked to who said the motorolas were unlocked but the nokias, etc were locked). My Cingular, unlocked Motorola quad band phone works great in the US with Cingular sim card, and also works great in Europe with British, Italian, etc sim cards. I just got a global mobile sim card that is suppossed to work all over Europe - don't need to buy individual country sim cards. But I haven't actually used it yet, I will in 3 weeks. (By the way, all sim cards work in all countries, it's just the cost of using them in another country that causes people to buy cards for each country).

I told you it was complicated. There are several sites with pretty detailed explanations, you really need to pay attention to the details. There have been a lot of discussion here about it also.

If you are a light user here in the US, and travel to Europe frequently, and like Cingular service, I would go to Cingular and ask if they currently have any unlocked phones (and try several cingualr stores, their reps don't get very good training and you may have to search for one who knows anything, don't take the first answer you get). Then I'd get a Cingular pay as you go (cheapest though works out to $25 for 90 days, very few minutes) sim card, and then pay as you go sims in Europe. Cingular international roaming is only $5.99 a month (you can do just one month then take it off), but calls are over a dollar a minute (in coming or outgoing)so it's just for emergencies.

Barb - just reread your post. If you took your Nokia to Europe (if you could get it unlocked), and bought European sim cards, you would not have the same phone number - that is on the sim card, not the phone itself. If having the same phone number is important you can have international roaming activated (but not with pay as you go, only with a plan) but then the calls are expensive. I did it on my last trip becasue I was meeting someone at the airport and needed to have a way she could contact me right away, in other words, I needed the same phone number. We used it a few times but the calls were all a couple of bucks each for only a minute or two. If you will be talking five or ten minutes a call it's best to get a Sim over there (or a global mobile, in which case you CAN know the number ahead of time).

Isabel, thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I know the subject has been "done" to death but had never quite seen this question asked or answered (but it might have been). I'm still trying to absorb what you've said. I think I'm with you until your last sentence.

If I understand you correctly, there is really no difference b/w pay as you go service and an unlocked phone with SIM <i>in the US</i> apart from one phone is probably locked (pay as you go) and the other obviously isn't. I think you hinted at the answer to my question to Barb. I'm assuming you get more minutes for $15/month vs. the $25 for 90 days.

The difference I gather is in Europe and it's here I'm still a bit confused. Are you saying with a pay as you go SIM card bought in/for Europe I'd also have to pay the $5.99/mo. roaming charge? Is there a diff. b/w a &quot;pay as you go&quot; SIM and a SIM?

Isabel, you said the sim cards you buy in Europe work everywhere but it is more expensive in other countries than the one in which you purchase it. Since incoming calls are not charged with the sim cards, does this mean I can buy a Spanish sim card for the first part of my trip and still get incoming calls for free when I get to Portugal?

In Europe you can buy a Sim card in say, Italy, for about 10-15&euro;, put it in your unlocked tri or quad band phone and you will have a new &quot;Italian&quot; phone number. With the card you get a certain amount of euros worth of talk time. Calls within Italy are cheap, incoming calls are free. If you then travel to Spain, the calls become more expensive and, in most cases, incoming calls are now charged. I'm not sure how much but I took my Italian sim card to Prague a few years ago, was able to receive a call from the US, but ran out of time quickly. Another time I had a French sim card, traveled to Amsterdam and had the same experience. I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere, but it was in those two instances.

As far as I know (not 100% sure), you can only get international roaming from Cingular if you have a plan (with monthly bill, contract, etc). I have a regular Cingular account so last spring when I wanted to be able to use my phone in Paris to receive a call, but before I would be able to tell the person my new French phone number (had I just bought a French sim card) I had them activate Internatinal Roaming. It worked fine to make and receive a couple of calls but each call was a few dollars, plus the $5.99. I would only suggest that for short calls or emergencies since for the price of just a few minutes of calls with International Roaming you can buy a French, ITalian, whatever, SIM card and get unlimited free incoming calls, and very cheap outgoing calls. You just have to wait till you get there to find out your phone number.And it's only really cheap if you stay in one country.

If you are traveling to multiple countries it seems the cheapest way is the global mobile card, which you buy on line, they mail it to you, you get to know the number ahead of time and incoming calls are free in any country. Your phone number is a Lichtenstein number. Sounds good, I'll let you know how it works after my trip in July. I have received the card but haven't activated it yet.

&gt;Spanish sim card ... get incoming calls for free when I get to Portugal?
No
&gt;The Cingular person said she's seen that happen often
It probably lacks the 850mhz fequency used by cingular in your area. (no quadband)

An unlocked standard dual band (900/1800) phone works everywhere in Europe. No tri- or quad bands needed. Why don't you get one of those and leave it in the closet when you're at home. These are cheap, and used all over the planet (except North America and Japan/Korea).

I have a CDMA Nokia phone for North America which I use over there. Here at home, it's stored in the basement. You can do the same and stop worrying about frequencies.

mclaurie: just getting back to my computer - re the $15 mo v. $25 mo - I don't think there is any difference in minutes/time and obviously $25 for 90 days is a much better deal. As I said, I don't use it that much and I've accummulated quite a few minutes, so lately I've just been getting $15 for a mo. If I ever have a few really long calls, I will switch back to the $25/90 day plan. For me this works out to be much cheaper than a contract. I think I will stick to my little Ericsson for Europe. Unfortunately my year period will be up by the time I get back to Italy this fall, so I will have to get a new TIM and will have to get a new phone number. Not a big deal really. I will be in Paris for a few days and then in Croatia for a week before ending up in Rome. Not sure if I will try to use it for Paris, but I would like to use it in Croatia. Does anyone know about cell phones in Croatia?

must visit

www.prepaidgsm.net

part of the family is in croatia using a unlocked gsm phone with a united mobile sim. (riiing.com)

we are able to talk everyday even when they are in the middle of the sea on the sailboat. amazing!

Hi

We are &quot;light&quot; cell phone users too. After trying to figure out the complexities of using it on our first European trip we now just use SMS. It only costs 20c a message. Very easy!

I know this is dumb but what is SMS? How does it work?

SMS - Short Message Service.
You can type in a text message and send it to another phone. Can be ackward if you are not used to it since you are using the phone keypad to type in letters.

Thank you.

My reponse is hopelessly late, but I have a $25 per month basic T Mobile cell phone service, and a very basic NOKIA phone which I don;t use often at home. It is unlocked, so it takes the TIM Sim chip in Italy. When I arrive, I just go to the TIM store (They partner with TMobile in Italy) in the airport and buy an Italian SIM- then I switch SIMS back and forth to make calls home. This time though, I may use a phone card for my USA calls.

Isabel - how can I tell if my Motorola is unlocked? It is a quad band V220 GSM. As you stated, the people at Cingular don't know much - especially about unlocked phones!

&lt;&lt;&lt;Isabel - how can I tell if my Motorola is unlocked?&lt;&lt;
Do you know someone who has a GSM phone frpm another provider ?
If yes, borrow his/her SIM card for a minute, insert it in your phone, if it works, it meansd your phone is unlocked

Thanks, Noreen! I'll give it try!

Does anyone beside Cingular here in US use sim cards?

How appropriate. We just bought a Motorola V190 GoPhone from Cingular. We will drop our current Verizon cell which I only use about 20 min per month and use it as our on-the-road phone here. We will have it unlocked before we go to France &amp; Spain next month and get Sim cards in France and Spain.

Cingulars on line forum is not bad for getting the particulars -- I am pretty sure this is going to work out well for us.

StephenG - If you're still reading this thread, T-Mobile USA also uses the GSM network, and their phones all take SIM cards. So, if one has a Cingular phone and wants to confirm that it's unlocked, ask for something who's using T-Mobile. Same for reverse.

All this info has been very helpful and I thank you all. I still haven't bought a new phone but intend to do it <i>soon</i>. Thanks again and any further input welcomed.

rkkwan, thanks I will give it a try.