How to use a GSM cell phone in Europe to call the USA?
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Join Date: Apr 2004
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How to use a GSM cell phone in Europe to call the USA?
I have a cheap unlocked GSM cell phone that I carry around while in Europe, just for emergencies, to make local calls, etc. Simply buy a new sim card for that country and pop it in the phone. Works great for that use. But, I need to make one or two calls back to the US that I have been making using a public pay phone and an AT&T prepaid phone card. Public pay phones require a coin or yet another flavor of local phone card to activate, and those that still take coins are becoming scarce in some parts of Europe. So this past trip I tried using my GSM phone, calling that countries AT&T access number for the AT&T prepaid card, but this did not work. I kept getting "number not known” when trying to dial the AT&T access number. AT&T customer service was of no help. Should this have worked? I ended up dialing direct back to the US using the GSM/sim, but burnt through the units pretty fast. Any advise on the cheapest way to call back to the USA given my scenario will be appreciated? If it makes any difference I was in the Czech Republic.
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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When I travel in Europe I use an unlocked quadband gsm phone and an international sim, the Passport sim card sold by ekit. Phone calls to the US cost $0.49/minute, and there's a $0.35 charge for each call. Other international sims charge similar rates; see
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html
for a few other international sim cards. The listed rates are similar to the ones I pay. I don't know the rates for local companies.
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html
for a few other international sim cards. The listed rates are similar to the ones I pay. I don't know the rates for local companies.