International Cell phone
 

My husband needs to have a work cell phone on our travel. Any suggestions on the best and least expensive way to do this?

He currently has verizon.

Thank you in advance.

If you have a quad- or tri-band GSM phone, it will probably work in Europe. There's not any truly inexpensive option unless you just use phone cards. But some posters here rent or buy phones from one of the so-called "international" cell phone companies. If you can get your phone unlocked, you can buy a local SIM card in Europe, but then you still pay international rates to call home, and people calling him have to pay international rates as well.

For this reason, my friend, who travels a lot in Europe and is a consultant, almost always just takes his phone and accepts that there's going to be a $200 bill when he gets home. It's for business, and people will want to call him at his regular number. I'm not sure this is the answer you want to hear, though.

Here are a few words that I hope you find useful: fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?tid=34986388

We purchased the $49 Mobal World phone earlier this year and used it without encountering any problems in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. There's also a $99 model, but the $49 version suited our needs perfectly. You purchase the phone outright, and you won't have any rental fees, nor are there any activation fees. The model we purchased can only be used in Europe and doesn't include a voice mail option, whereas the more expensive model can be used in the US (assuming that's where you live) and has the vm option. What you get with either phone is your own UK phone number, and you pay for both incoming/outgoing calls. Call rates tend to be more expensive than if you purchased a SIM card in every country you visit, however, all you do is turn on the global phone once in Europe and away you go - no need to purchase any SIM cards. Again, this may not be the most economical option, but it worked well for us. The clarity of the calls was excellent. You purchase the phone using a credit card, and your calls are charged to the card - you have access to viewing your account information at Mobal's website as well as finding out what it will cost to place and/or receive a call to your destination country - this model works in 130 European countries, while the more expensive model works in (something like) 160 countries, including the Caribbean.

I second Debs' endoresement of Mobal. We bought the $99 version so that we could carry just one phone traveling to Europe/Asia from the U.S. Used it last year and it was easy. No dealing with SIMS cards. Taking it with us to China in Sep and France in April.

I just got back from Europe and my Cingular (now AT&T) worked just fine. They charged me $1.00 per minute. Glad I wasn't long winded. I spoke to people who have Verizon and they said their cell (and by the way in Europe it is called a mobile) didn't work. Perhaps they had an older model.

Verizon phones sold in the U.S. don't work in Europe (unless you rent one of their obscenely expensive GSM models).

AT&T charge $1.29 per minute unless you pay them $5.99 per month OR FRACTION for the privilege of paying 99¢ (what T-Mobile charges without a monthly rip-off).

Buy a phone on eBay or from T-Mobile for half what Mobal charges.

Try PicCell.com. They specialize in business travelers, and students who study abroad. We used them for one semester in Italy, and it was the best deal we found. They have a number of different options, and you can call and speak with a live service rep if necessary.
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