I phone 4s usable in Switzerland France and UK
 

Hello all,
Just wondering what is the best option for a phone for Switzerland , Paris and the UK. Is an iPhone 4s adaptable to the cell phone service over there?

Depends on your current carrier and if the phone is either unlocked, or can be unlocked. Generally speaking, though... Yes, you should be able to use it just fine. What you will need to do though, in each country, is purchase and install a pay-as-you-go SIM card for each country you visit. These are widely available in the UK, but I'm not sure about the other countries.
In the UK, find a Carphone Warehouse or other mobile phone store, and for about £10-15, you can get a free SIM card and plenty of minutes/txts/data. I've done that on my last 2 trips to the UK with my iPhone 5s, and its worked great. The 4s was the first iPhone to support both GSM and CDMA (previously, it was one or the other) so the hardware is compatible.

Thanks griz_fan . My carrier is Verizon and I will call them to find out . My daughter has a iPhone 5 and I could always take hers if hers is unlocked . I wonder if Switzerland and France have the same type of SIM cards ?

Just went through setting this up. I have iPhone5 but don't think it makes any difference. Verizon will charge you $4.99 per month for Global Plan and then you pay rates listed under each country on their Global chart. They used to charge around $70 for a month of Global coverage so cheaper now. Switch to Roaming when you arrive overseas. Texting is the cheapest option to/ from USA.

Dump Verizon and switch to T-Moble. No roaming fees for (unlimited) data or messaging when traveling and calls are only $0.20/minute (back home and local) and free with the 4S and 5 (WiFi Calling) when used in a WiFi hot spot.

We've experience no problems, but if you want the fastest data service (4G), then you can add it while you're traveling outside of the country.

" free with the 4S and 5 (WiFi Calling) when used in a WiFi hot spot. "

From what I have read, that is not correct. You are still charged for the minutes.

You don't necessarily need a different SIM for every country if you have enough minutes because there is capped roaming within Europe (where you would keep the same number and country code as you had in the first country). If you have a SIM such as Lebara they have English-speaking operators who will activate your card and top up with your credit card, or you can top up via internet.

There are PAYG SIMs pretty much everywhere in Europe; in the UK you can get them from convenience stores, and also credits through the same.

Lavandula

We switched to T-Mobile before our trip to Paris. Having free unlimited data is fabulous!

What you've read is incorrect unless it was referring to a "pay-as-you-go plan". I've made and received dozens of calls when in a hot spot over the last year while in Ireland, Spain, France and Portugal without any additional charges on my T-Mobile account. With free messaging and data, it makes it rather difficult to beat for anyone traveling outside of the States.

If you need to message someone who doesn't use an iPhone, you can download the "WhatsApp" and use it free for a year. After that it's only $0.99/year.

Read the fine print at the end:
<i>Wi-Fi Calling: Capable phone and Wi-Fi connection required for Wi-Fi Calling; may decrement plan minutes. Most devices will not transition between Wi-Fi and the wireless network. See your selected service for details. Global Coverage: Additional charges apply in excluded destinations; see www.t-mobile.com for included destinations (subject to change at T-Mobile’s discretion). Qualifying postpaid plan and capable device required. Usage taxed in some countries. Voice and text features for direct communications between 2 people. Communications with premium-rate (e.g., 900, entertainment, high-rate helpline) numbers not included and may incur additional charges. Calls over Wi-Fi are $.20/min; texts over Wi-Fi are $.20 each (no charge for Wi-Fi calls or texts to US). Coverage not available in some areas; we are not responsible for the performance of our roaming partners’ networks. Standard speeds approx. 128 Kbps. Not for extended international use; you must reside in the U.S. and primary usage must occur on our U.S. network.</i>


http://how-to.t-mobile.com/wi-fi-cal..._travelers_txt

With some key points bolded:
Wi-Fi Calling: Capable phone and Wi-Fi connection required for Wi-Fi Calling; <b>may decrement plan minutes</b>. Most devices will not transition between Wi-Fi and the wireless network. See your selected service for details. Global Coverage: Additional charges apply in excluded destinations; see www.t-mobile.com for included destinations (subject to change at T-Mobile’s discretion). Qualifying postpaid plan and capable device required. Usage taxed in some countries. Voice and text features for direct communications between 2 people. Communications with premium-rate (e.g., 900, entertainment, high-rate helpline) numbers not included and may incur additional charges. <b>Calls over Wi-Fi are $.20/min; texts over Wi-Fi are $.20 each (no charge for Wi-Fi calls or texts to US). </b>Coverage not available in some areas; we are not responsible for the performance of our roaming partners’ networks. Standard speeds approx. 128 Kbps. Not for extended international use; you must reside in the U.S. and primary usage must occur on our U.S. network.

Don't get hyper, but as I said, it all depends on which plan you have. I have yet to receive any additional charges for local or long distance (international) calls using the iPhone 4S in a WiFi zone, and we do this quite often. It was the same a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver, B.C. My plan includes unlimited calling, messaging and 2.5 GB High-Speed Data for each phone on the plan (4).

The following is from T-Moblie:
T-Mobile Free Wi-Fi Calling gives you unlimited Wi-Fi minutes, unlimited high speed data and when travelling internationally free calls back to the USA – all at no additional cost.

Beat it if you can!

I am posting this from a SBB train off Zurich airport using Samsung Galaxy on t-mobile USA simple choice. As soon as I got off the plane, I turned on my phone and it connected to Swisscom at steady 3G. I get usual msg from tmobile assuring me that the data roaming is included. Unless you make a lot of local calls, the tmobile plan is about the simplest and probably the cheapest especially for those on their plan in the U.S.

I also have Verizon. This is a lot easier than some people make it out to be...

First, ask Verizon to do a travel unlock on your phone. Don't mess around with their Global Plan or other BS, it is just a way for them to squeeze you for more money. If your account is in good standing with Verizon, they will do a travel unlock for your phone. Then, when you arrive, get a free SIM preloaded with £10 in credit. It takes about 5 minutes to install and activate. at that point, you will have a new, local, phone number and probably more minutes/text/and data than you can use.
Now some European mobile providers do offer plans that you can take from country to country. For example, when I'm in the UK, I use a SIM card from Three. For £10, I get more data than I really need, unless I'm staying for more than 2 weeks. Also, http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phon...ain_hp_rbn1652 Free roaming to France and Switzerland using Three.

T-Mobile is great, but I doubt you want to switch carriers just for your vacation (I seriously considered it myself, but T-Mobile is missing coverage in key areas for me). But again, overkill for what you need. I think Three.co.uk has the perfect solution for you, and their rates are:
3p/min voice
2p/text
1p/MB data

Works great for me when I'm in Europe :)

Having my phone unlocked and then buying a SIM in Europe would be the easiest solution. We are landing in Zurich first and will be in Lucerne and wengen so I would have to buy the SIM there. UK is our last destination after Paris. Is it a hassle to get the card in Switzerland?

In the past, I've used Google maps and explored around the hotel I was staying at, looking for mobile phone providers. Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with Switzerland, but hopefully someone can recommend a good mobile phone store for you to look for...

I am in Luzern right now. I used to obtain a SIM card in each country as many mentioned as an old way. I hated it as I had to 1) find a place offering prepaid SIM for people without local address 2) get there during the business hours and 3) possibly wait in long lines until served in every country. In some country, there are only a few offering SIm cards for non residents. So for those who travel only to one easy-to-get-SIM country, getting a local SIM in each country seem to be a good solution, but that is not the case for every country. As for Luzern, I saw several phone stores in old town. BUT even if they offer SIM cards, you have to hit them during the business hours. I arrived just befoe businesses close on Sat at 4pm. I would have had to choose which one store to go. Since this time, I already had a t-mobile plan usable for voice/text/data while my plane was taxing to the Zurich airport terminal, I did not have to make chose a phone store or another kind of store in Luzern. If you miss the 4pm Sat business hour, you have to wait until Monday.

The cheap roaming across Europe applies to voice and text. I have yet seen a card that allows cheap/no roaming DATA plan across Europe.

Got my iPhone unlocked . So once I purchase the pay as you go SIM in Zurich or Lucerne will I need to synch the phone? Can I buy the sim here in the us?

The EU has capped roaming costs within the EU. I would ask your Swiss provider what calls and data will cost you outside of Switzerland, because it's no in the EU, hence has no obligation to offer cheap roaming.

As for data roaming, my Italian provider (TIM) has plans for cheap data roaming within Europe and the USA. The EU wants to do away with inter-EU roaming costs eventually, including data roaming.

bvlenci,
You mentioned several times a TIM plan for cheap data roaming. If the plan is limited to the residents of Italy only, it would not be relevant to most folks in this forum.

I was using internet on my phone today as I travelled from Switzerland to Germany on train. As the train crossed the boarder, the signal changed automatically from Swisscom 3G to t-mobile Germany 3G like magic using my t-mobile USA Simple Choice plan. This, of course, took place at no cost over what I already pay in the U.S. to use my phone at home. It would be difficult for me to go back to the old way of not being able to use data in new country until the train arrives in new city, keep looking for a cellphone store with prepaid data capable SIM available to non-residents, wait in the queue to get serviced, and perhaps having to wait until the next business day as well as perhaps having to memorize yet another SIM card lock PIN.

greg- do you keep the phone setting the same as when home in US? Or do you put the phone in airplane mode?

We will use Viber for free phone calls as free beats 20 cents/minute but will use T Mobile for text and data.

Okay let me admit I am really confused ! Do I need to get a new phone plan with T Mobile? Will I be able to get this great free unlimited data and texting with a new plan? I currently have Verizon and my phone is unlocked . I was thinking of just buying a aim in each country . Will I have to synch my phone ?
Lost and confused .

To get the benefits of T Mobile, you have to switch carriers. And a new phone. We actually did this because we are going to 8 countries in Europe for 3 months and didn't want to have to mess with various SIM cards etc. We also wanted the other benefits of T Mobile at home - or so we thought. Lower monthly bill, unlimited text, calls and data. No contract...blah blah blah.

Honestly, we are less than thrilled with our home coverage with T Mobile. Wifi calling isn't great and there are lots of places with no cell coverage.

While they don't have any contracts, you must buy new T Mobile phones and if you want a new iPhone or Galaxay S5, it will cost you several hundred dollars to do so. And if you don't stay long enough, you have to pay in full for phones, almost $600 a piece! So, you are pretty much locked in for 2 years, even if there are "no contracts".

So, I would not switch to TMobile just for the usage in Europe, unless you are going there a lot and know for a fact they have great coverage where you live.

You set the phone as if you are at home. That is why the T-Mobile Simple Choice plan is so easy use.

Setting the phone is airline mode even AFTER landing in Europe is an old way to using the phone.

Several people mentioned staying away from t-mobile USA because of poor coverage at home. I don't even get one bar at home! How can a t-mobile be usable in the US for me? They also include a service called WiFi calling on their t-mobile branded phones. With that, all my calls and texts are routed to Wifi when I am at home. So even though I get one signal bar at best and Verizon/ATTwireless get two bars, because of the Wifi calling, I get better "reception" at home using t-mobile than the Verizon/ATTwireless users. This Wifi calling has an interesting behavior in Europe. If I am at hotel connected to Wifi, my t-mobile phone would swich to Wifi-calling. There is a mental gymnastic needed because Wifi has no country/area code, so as soon as I step back into my hotel in Switzerland, etc, my phone thinks I am in the U.S. I call U.S. numbers, at no cost, using U.S. local dialing sequence, without international prefix. As soon as I step out of my hotel and the call is done over the mobile network, I would have to add international prefix to call U.S.A.

DebitNM , so what is really involved with getting a SIM in each country. We want to be able to make calls home - need to check up on my elderly mother everyday and DH will need to make a few calls business related. Probably use some texting and internet for google maps and finding restaurants and such . Will it require additional steps to set the phone up with the new Sim?

It is not necessary to use t-mobile U.S.A. branded phone to use the Simple Choice plan. I initilaly used a Google Nexus phone and verified that the Simple Choice free data roaming works in several European countires.

What t-mobile branded phone get you are the followings:

1. T-Mobile uses UMTS band 4 in the U.S.A. for 3G. Only a few non t-mobile branded phonen operates on this band. The Google Nexus is one of the few. However, most phones operate on European UMTS bands, so outside the U.S.A., lack of band 4 is irrelevant.
2. A handful of t-mobile branded phones can do Wifi-calling. This is built into their ROM. If you always make calls using cell network, lack of this capability is irrelevant.

NE - As far am making phone calls using SIM card, I am not sure how many different actual SIMS cards you need. I have only used a Lebara SIM in France, which was easy to do. You need to have a minimum on each card - maybe 10 euros? - so loading a lot of cards seems silly. I know there are those on here who are much more cognizant of using SIM cards in different countries, I will yield to them. It seems that using a single SIM for calls, even if in a different country may be easy.

I used VIBER while in France, even though I had the Lebara SIM to save money and to be able to text. I used SKYPE in Italy for calls.

That may be the easiest thing for you.

greg- I used the T Mobile up in Newfoundland this summer and even when I had wifi, the phone didn't want to make calls. DH used his in northern reaches of New England and had similar difficulties.