cellphone
 

Does anyone know if Sprint cells that are GMS work in London and Paris?
Thanks

Here is what a phone needs to work in Europe:

900/1800 mHz frequencies
GSM technology
A Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) for a European network
To use another carrier's SIM, the phone's SIM lock must be OFF

Some Sprint GSM phones may work; others won't. What is the make and model of yours?

<b>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_ranges
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock</b>

Here's some more (from sprint.com):

<b>http://tinyurl.com/ctofh</b>

To the best of my knowledge, and I am a Sprint customer, they only have one phone available that will work in Europe.

The phone is a Samsung, I believe, and it is about $600, depending on the rebate they are giving.

This is the last information the Sprint rep gave me about two weeks ago.

Sher, if you will go to <b>http://tinyurl.com/ctofh</b>, you will find that Sprint sells several phones for European service, the cheapest of which is the Nokia 3120 for $195.

Is Sprint a GSM carrier? The Nokia 3120 is a GSM phone....

We have Verizon, and our phones didn't work, so we rented a phone thru them and it was great. I think it ended up costing $200 for about 4 weeks. You just pay for the calls you make, I THINK. Sorry I don't remember the details.
But, phone cards are very cheap and easy to use. If you don't need a phone, I'd say skip it. (we needed one due to my husband's new job)

Unless I'm wrong I believe any quad band phone will work in Europe whether your cell phone co. is Sprint, Verizon, Cingular, etc. We took our phones and chose to buy their (expensive) calling plan. We had int'l. roaming already. When I split up from my family I used a combination of a phone card and my cell phone. The phone card I used from the hotel room as it seemed cheaper to call that way than to use my cell phone.

Robespierre. Thank you. I guess I was asking them about a phone I could use both here and in Europe.

And then, you don't always get people at those places who really know what they are talking about.

I don't think a tri- or quad-band phone is worth the investment unless you commute between Paris and Peoria. Since this stuff tends to become obsolete in a year, my strategy is to get a cheap Europe-only phone (my present one cost &pound;20 including &pound;5 airtime I got at Virgin Mobile in Piccadilly Circus) and sell it when I get home.

Spoken like a true consumer, Robes!
I bought my GSM phone from Amazon.com at least 3 years ago, and it <i>still works</i>!
;)

We prefer to not buy and sell phones that's the reason we decided on quad band phones.

I would agree one size doesn't necessarily fit all....

A lot of the kind of phone you wish to get would have something to do with your carrier.

Assuming you are from the USA, if your provider is Verizon or another non GSM carrier, your best bet is probably a very simple dual band (900/1800) which was described as Europe only. Actually, it would work throughout most of the civilized and non civilized world except for North America and Japan.

If your US carrier is T mobile, a tri band (900,1800,1900) would do if you wish to use the same phone here and there. In that case, a more sophisticated phone might be one you wish to get.

If your US carrier is Cingular, for best results you would probably want a quad band (850/900/1800/1900)as you need both 850 and 1900 to use Cingular in the US and really should have both 900 and 1800 to be sure of getting a signal throughout Europe.

But obsolete? Phones don't become obsolete....the same cheap GSM dual band phone you got in 1998 to use in Europe will still work perfectly throughout most of the world today. My own feeling is that when on holiday, I really don't need as the whistles. I simply need a simple instrument to make and receive calls and to make and receive text message. Having the camera on the phone is nice as I can send some pictures as multi media message back to friends right on the spot if you will.

But the beauty of GSM, and this is where the US missed the boat a while ago, is the simplicity of switching the sim card and changing the phone from say a UK phone to a French phone etc.

What hopefully will be coming down are the roaming rates and the rip offs they are. It has started a bit what with riiing. I would believe that in the not too distant future, carrying a mobile phone with you when travelling will be as natural as carrying an international credit card.

To me, it makes more sense to continuously upgrade cheap phones than it does to get an expensive one and amortize it for several years. The outlay is the same over time, but I always have the latest technology instead of an aging phone I don't want to let go of because of what I have invested in it.

So if, for example, I want to switch to a PDA phone with built-in GPS and movie camera, the smaller amount I have invested in my current phone makes it easier to walk away from it.

I agree with you for my main phone but then again perhaps you and I are technology types who want the latest and greatest.

As noted, the nice thing about GSM is once you unlock the phone, it can serve as your phone wherever you are.

But most people simply want a phone for their yearly trip to Europe or someplace else in the world. For them, it is probably not that important they have the latest etc. They simply want something they can use whether it be for simply emergencies or as an actual phone to make dinner reservations, call friends, receive calls etc.

But it always reminds me of the time several years ago a friend came to me and I helped him decide on a computer figuration with all the latest stuff. And of course you know what happened, six months later, the system was &quot;obsolete&quot; and the price was probably 1/2 of what he paid.

At that point, I gave up trying to help friends configure electronic and technology devices if I wanted to keep them as friends.

We aren't interested in the latest phones and don't wish to upgrade constantly. The reason the three of us in my family all upgraded to quad band phones this year was because we wanted to be in contact with each other in France and to call home with convenience. We are Cingular customers.

For the benefit of anyone who may stumble upon this thread in the future: it is not necessary to have a 3- or 4-band phone to keep in touch in France or call home while in Europe (see 10/23/2005, 02:38 pm, above).

Having said that, it should be pointed out that you can get a Siemens S46 which will work on Cingular's network here <u>and</u> many European networks for $30-$50 on eBay. It covers 800/900/1900, so 1800 systems in Europe aren't accessible.

You can either switch SIMs if the phone is unlocked, or use your ATT/Cingular SIM for 99&cent; (IIRC) per minute while abroad.

Robespierre, you seem very knowledgable about cellphones. But I've got to inform you that my family members and I are Cingular customers and the Motorola quad band phone was the only type available to us according to our monthly plans. As I said that was the ONLY phone we were offered. You say that one can buy the Siemens phone on eBay and it's compatible with Cingular, but I have no idea if that would affect anything on our plan in particular. Maybe there is nothing that would be affected but we went with what we were offered. And we did not wish to upgrade to Siemens.

I understand, and have understood from the beginning, that the Mo was the only phone <u>Cingular</u> offered. Naturally, they want to sell you a phone that will work on their obsolete TDMA network here and on GSM in Europe, because they're in business to make money. But that's not the only way to do it - and it's the most expensive way I can think of.

Moral: an hour's homework can save you $500.

Well, the mention of the lost funds whether or not it's $500 (or less most likely) is not important to usat this time. It's done and over with. It may get you irritated to know that we actually like those Motorola phones quite alot. And while we're not into the latest phone tech. features and such and don't care to upgrade every moment a new model/make comes out, we didn't care for Siemens (re: eBay) which you mention as being compatible with Cingular.

I don't change US phones all that often. Verizon gives me $100 &quot;New Every Two&quot; credits every two years, and I use them to buy phones having a net cost of $150 or less (which makes them almost free). If a buyer doesn't want or need stuff like MP3 players, cameras, or walkie-talkie features, I recommend this tactic. But do get separate phones for Europe and here so you don't have to buy two cellular technologies in one phone.

I just bought a phone at Costco (T-Mobile) that is prepaid for general usage around home. The salesman at Costco told me that they sell out of these quite frequently because he thinks people are buying them and then taking them to Europe for re-sale. The phone and minutes were really cheap (and refillable here in the US). The big advantage as I understand it is if I want to travel overseas, I can just purchase a SIM card there and use it in that country. this phone is not locked.

Julies...

There are many threads which explain this...GSM does indeed allow you to substitute one sim for another

HOWEVER

The phone has to be unlocked. I don't think T mobile provides unlocking codes for its prepaid phones. Getting phones unlocked ranges from easy (most Nokia models as the calculator for computing the unlocking codes is easily found for free on the web) to more difficult (most others where it will cost around $10 to $15)....but once the phone is unlocked, you are correct. (Oh yes, the phone has to have at least one of the frequencies needed in Europe - what model did you get?)

Just a bit of vocabulary:
US: Cellphone Europe: Mobile
US: text messaging Europe: SMS

It's Nokia 6010 that I just bought. To me, if it will work in Europe, that will be a big plus. However, that's not why I really bought it, so it won't kill me if I was given the wrong info.

I think a lot of money is being spent needlessly to have cell phone capability in Europe. I am a Cingular GSM customer in Ohio. I have a 6010 Nokia phone. It will not work in Europe because it is 850/1900 freq. I asked Cingular what I would need for cell phone capability in Europe (France in particular) They told me I would need their Nokia 3120 with quad freq (850/1900 for use in USA and 900/1800 for use in Europe and I would need my account upgraded to &quot;international roaming&quot;. They sent me the Nokia 3120 for free (yes free) and international roaming is free for the asking. I took the &quot;sim&quot; card out of my 6010 and put it in my new 3120 and it works fine. In France I can call across town or to the USA or wherever I want. Roaming in Europe costs 1.29 per minute but for 5.99 a month you get a discount plan making all your calls while in Europe .99 per minute. I now have a phone that I am using in the USA and Europe that costs me 5.99 a month + .99 per minute for all calls. If I want I can subcribe to the 5.99 discount roaming plan just for a month at a time when abroad.

Be careful when you call Cingular because it took me 3 calls to 3 different reps before I got the results described above. Most of the reps don't have a clue. Also the way the quad band phone works is whenever you power up the phone, it searches for a carrier's signal. It grabs the strongest signal and operates accordingly. When I left Philadelphia I had Cingular and when I powered up in Paris it switched to France Bouygues and in some areas Orange Company.

Larry J

Hi,Larry - T-Mobile does one better, as their rate is $0.99/min and there is NO monthly fee.

I spoke to a clueless Cingular rep. over the phone the first time I tried calling. It's beacuse have a different number to call for international cell phone information.

I also am a T-mobile customer and recently upgraded to a quad band phone along with the free international roaming + .99 a minute. When I got off the plane and turned on my phone in Zurich, it found the provider right away and I had five bars the whole trip in Switzerland - actually much better reception than here in NYC ;) I basically brought it just for emergency use and made less than $20 worth of calls.

Larry J...

While it may seem a trivial point, the Nokia 3120 is not quad band, it is tri band. Since you are a cingular customer, you have the 3120B which is 850/1800/1900. You don't have 900...in Paris that is not a problem but it could be in some remote areas of Paris where there is only 900 service...in some European countries there is only 900 service and that particular phone would be useless.

I don't want to go into a whole thing about the frequency question which I describe in other threads. But to be sure in Europe, you need a phone with both 900 and 1800....in the large cities you can probably get away without 900 but if you get the phone unlocked (which is simple to do with the 3120 since it is a Nokia phone and the unlocking codes are readilly available on the web) and you go say to the UK, your phone would not work if you bought a Virgin mobile sim card as Virgin mobile operates only on 1800.

Now comes the big question and there is really not one answer. I find it reprehensible to have to pay $1.29/minute (or $.99/minute) to have international roaming with Cingular (or T mobile)...and remember these fees are rounded up to the next minute. So if you speak with a griend for 123 seconds, you pay for 3 minutes.

But here's the question and only you can answer it. What do you want the phone for? Do you want it just for emergencies say to have in a rental car or as an emergency number to have the baby sitter reach you just in case. Then the international roaming of cingular or t mobile is fine.

Or do you want a real mobile phone to be able to use to call home and to make reservations for dinner etc. etc. Then you would probably want a local prepaid sim. Remember in Europe with a local prepaid sim, receiving calls is free for you. So if you want to be ble to be reachable 24/7 and speak to your kids every day, you would probably do much better with a local sim. You can use a firm such as kall8 to get an 800 number in the US that ties into your European sim.

I prefer to have a functional phone. I don't particularly trust phone cards as sometimes hotels put a surcharge on their use in the room, some pay phones don't work with some phone cards etc. So with my mobile phone, I can sit in my hotel room with my feet up on the bed and call home to my heart's content. I have discovered methods of cutting my call costs from the mobile phone to 12¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals and describe these methods in other threads (click on my name above and find the incredibly useful and correct information I have dispensed over the past several months on using mobile phones in Europe with riiing and callback world.)

So it comes down to what you want the mobile phone for. If you really intend to use it as well a mobile phone, it might be far better to go in the direction of local prepaid sim cards or the universal riiing card. OTOH if it's just for emergencies, cingular or tmobile international roaming plans are fine.

One other quick point..

If you're into text messaging (sms), t mobile allow you to receive text messages while on holiday in Eiurope at the going rate. I have a plan with tmobile which allows me, for a fee, to receive up to 500 text messages a month with no further charge. That includes Europe...an example, I have a service with espn that furnishes sports scores to me via text messages. I can set what I wish so, I'll just use this as an example, I can set it to notify me every time the Yankees score a run, the notification is instantaneous. So if I'm holiday in Europe and want to keep up with the Yankees I set the service and every time a run is scored in the Yankee game I immediately receive a text message or whatever and the first 500 each billing cycle are free!

Sending text messages from Europe to the US cost something like 15¢ each and it would be very very useful, for example, if both members of a family had t mobile phones, took them to Europe and text messaged each other, you know &quot;meet me at the Eifel Tower at 1530&quot; that sort of thing.

So an extra consideration if you want to use t mobile international roaming; cingular probably has a similar plan but I can't vouch for it.

&gt;to receive up to 500 text messages a month with no further charge.

Do you know if there are there any other phone companies that charge for incoming SMS's while abroad? I did never hear of this and with all my SIM's incoming SMS are free all over the world.

logos999...

The American carriers have various policies regarding text messaging even while at home.

Most give very limited free reception of text messages without buying a packet; it might be a few as 0.

But then again you have to remember that in the USA, customers are charged in theory to receive as well as make calls on their mobiles. The only thing is that most of the contract plans have unlimited calls nights and weekends and a lot of minutes during peak weekday hours so most (but not all) of the time your included minutes cover you..

So foreign visitors roaming on US networks do get better conditions than locals, since incoming SMS for them are free all over the US. (and the world)

to XYZ123

My Nokia 3120 has freq. 850, 1800 and 1900. Last month I was all over Normandy, Paris and surrounding areas, Lyon, Avignon, Marseille and over to the Italian border at Vintamiglia. In all these areas I was on the Orange network and the Bouygues network and my phone worked fine. If the 900 freq. is needed in France I have not yet encountered it. According to Cingular my phone will work anywhere in France and so far this has proved true. .99 a minute would be high for use in the USA where I make many calls but in France I make very few calls and am able to keep them under a minute. It's just a matter of making appointments with friends etc. For emergency use and infrequent calls I think Cingular's plan is great as it is much cheaper than buying a European phone and a European service plan.

The T-Mobile service that some people prefer with under .99 per minute usage in France is of no use to me as I travel the entire eastern half of the USA including Appalachia and T-Mobile service is non-existent in most of these areas. A cheap plan is of little use if you can't talk to anyone.

Larry J

I think I said that you would probably be okay most of the time in France; believe me there are areas of France and of the rest of Europe where not having 900 could be a problem. I did not say it was absolutely positively necessary to have 900 but there are some places where your mobile will not work just not in any of the big cities of most countries.

And I think I did agree with you that if you don't consider a mobile phone to be something you're going to use, the Cingular and Tmobile international roaming are fine. But if you want a mobile phone which is functional in terms of using it somewhat, you're better off with local sims or an all around sim such a riiing.

&gt;If the 900 freq. is needed in France
Riiing only works on the 900 frequencies at least in Germany and Austria. Keep that in mind too, when choosing riiing.
Up to now, I didn't manage to use 1800 mhz providers in a moving train longer than 1 or 2 minutes.

LOGOS...

Let's clear something up which is what I am sure you mean.

Riiing is not inherently either a 900 or 1800 carrier. They have roaming agreements in various countries.it is possible the only carriers they have roaming agreements with in Germany operate on 900; you would know better than me.

It is for this reason that it is always recommended one have a phone for use in Europe with both 900 and 1800,. The problem is that most mobile phone reps know very little about this and give such misinformation.

Will a phone without 900 operate satisfactorally in Europe...well probably especially in urban areas. But there are countries where the only carriers are 900 and lacking 900 could be a problem.

&gt;roaming agreements with in Germany operate on 900
FACT! no riiing in Germany and Austria on 1800 mhz phones.
Cells are a lot larger on 900 plus coverage on 1800 is poor indoors and in cars and trains.