Aussie603

Am going to Ireland and the U.K. in July and would like to rent or buy a cell phone to call back home. Does anyone have any suggestions on companies??

jpm

I've rented a couple of times but recently bought a phone to use in Europe. A phone should cost you about $80 and then you will need to buy a &quot;SIM&quot; that will cost about $50 for the country in which you are travelling. It usually has some talk time included. On future trips, you can use the same phone and just buy a SIM for the appropriate country. I used a company called telestial.com but there are many others. <BR><BR>good luck,<BR>jpm

MIkeStump

I agree with jpm.<BR><BR>I was just at www.autoeurope.com and they are charging $99.00/week for cell phone rental, excluding call charges which are probably in the area of $1.00-$2.00/minute.<BR>You can get a Virgin Mobile Nokia 3410 for &pound;79.00(&pound;1 ~= $1.60 ) which includes &pound;25.00 worth of airtime. Virgin mobile charges &pound;0.15/minute for the first 5 minutes/day and then just &pound;0.05/minute for the rest of the day. Calls to the US are only &pound;0.20/minute. <BR><BR>Wait until you get to the UK to buy the phone. You can get them at Virgin Superstores plus may other lcoations. They can activate the phone immediately and provide instructions on how to use it. <BR><BR>You can then use the phone on your next trip to the UK.<BR>

ginny

My Mom used TravelCell when she went to the UK this past June and will use them again this spring! <BR>Their website is http://www.travelcell.com/<BR>All incoming calls are free and calls within the UK are .49 per minute. Their rental charge is $25 per week.

weski

THIS IS THE BEST DEAL! We are going to England June 1 for a week and needed a phone - researched a variety of companies and deals -- called Cellhire (866-246-6546)as they are UK based and had a good simple deal. Was about to rent for 10 days when service rep asked if we were renting a car from Hertz (we are for just a couple days) and she said if I gave her the confirmation number, there would be a free rental plus regular charged (incoming free, $2.40 outcoming, .90 in country). Don't know how to beat that, sure worth it! Not sure if it is available in other countries.

xyz123

I know how to beat that very easily...imagine $2.40 for an outgoing call...call home 3 times and speak for 5 minutes and $36 lost and gone forever..

Ten days in the UK...buy an unlocked GSM phone from an internet merchant here...you can perfectly good ones for under $70...the phone is now yours to keepfor later trips to Europe or to give to friends, or to auction off at Ebay.

Upon arrival in the UK, buy a Virgin Mobile service pack. Cost...&pound;10 ($16)...now incoming calls are stillfree and calls to the US are 20p(32 cents) a minute...calls within the UK are 15p a minute for the first 5 minutes of use each day and then 5p a minute threafter...all calls timed to the second not rounded up to the next minute.

Still don't understand what people see in renting a cell phone if they are staying in any one country for at least a week. Go to the internet and do a search in yahoo or google for GSM phones an you will see lots of internet merchants who will sell you a dual band (the ones you need for Europe an most of the rest of the world) for prices beginning under $70. A hassle? You've got to be kidding.

tada

I'll chime in on this.

I wanted a cell phone that would work internationally and that I could use as my main cell phone in the U.S. I looked into buying an unlocked GSM phone (tri-band, be careful what will work here and there). So I searched on-line including Ebay and found suitable phones in the $70 range. Then I searched for SIM cards. You can get country SIM cards and international SIM cards, but the international will give you a permanent Swiss phone number (really long distance when used in US).

Then I contacted my current cell phone carrier (AT&amp;T - no plug, just who I use) and asked about upgrading to a GSM phone that was tri-band and useable overseas. They upgraded my plan for $70, which paid for a new Nokia 6360i, full usable at $29.99 a month here in the US, and $1.29/minute in Europe (incoming and outgoing). Not as cheap per minute as the Virgin phones, but I like not having the hassle of having to have or rent a separate phone when traveling.

Just my 2cents, something you might consider.

Travelnut

I switched to T-Mobile in April, and got a tri-band phone on Amazon for $0.01 (Sony Eric.T300). After I establish payment history of 3 mos., I can have them add the WorldPlan calling service (no fee) and then my phone will work in Europe for $0.99 / call. This per-min chg is higher than tada's rate, but is simpler to use for multiple countries than switching SIM cards 3 times. Also, the SIM cards apparently expire after a few months if you don't use all the prepaid minutes; I only plan to use my phone to check home a couple of times, and for emergencies, if any.

T-Mobile coverage has been OK so far, although I could not get service in New Smyrna Beach or Cedar Key, which are very small coastal communities. Others on this board have used T-Mobile's international roaming with success, so I'm counting on having the same.

xyz123

Tada:

Let' take your thoughs one step further..get the phone unlocked. Now AT&amp;T are a bunch of bas--rds in unlocking their phones but if you search theinernet, you will find sites that can provide the unlocking code. Then you can continue to use AT&amp;T here and when in England, simply buy the Virgn service pack for &pound;10, remove the AT&amp;T SIM card, insert the Virgi SIM card (takes about 12 seconds) and voila you have an English cell phone. Go onto France and buy a Mobicarte switch SIM cards and you have a French cell phone...when you return to the US re-insert the AT&amp;T SIM card and you are back to where you started.

To another reply, don't buy the SIM packs from Telestal; they are terribly overpriced. Wait till you get to the country, go into a cell phone store and you will do much much better.

Travelnut

woops, I meant my 99-cent rate was a little higher than xyz123's rate (it's lower than tada's rate!)

usbeauty

These are all good ideas...with regard to the Swisscom International Roaming Card.. they are discontinuing this service in December 2003, so if you spend $100 or so on one of these &quot;World Roaming Cards&quot; they will no longer be valid at the end of the year.

xyz123

Travelnut..

The one advantage T-mobile gives you is, after a very short period of time, they will unlock the phone so if you desire you can use SIM cards in various countries easily enough and if you are doing one of those if it's Tuesday it must be Belgum trips, then paying 99 cents a minute to make and receive calls is a good deal. I usually use 7 days as my guide...if I'm to be in a country for 7 days or more, I get the SIM pack. Fewer than 7 days, you can rely on T-mobile.

Another good thing to know about T-mobile is they only charge 29 cents/minute to call Western Europe from the US. Now that can be beaten on many alternative carriers as long as you don't call cell phones (or mobile phones as they are called in Europe). But calling a European cell phone from the US no matter what the carrier costs in the vicinity of 40 cents/minute (except 1016868... which charges 13 cents/minute to call mobiles in the UK and 16 cents/minute to call mobiles in France).

So T-mobile's international plan is not the worst choice to make but by plnning ahead and researching, you can do better.

tada

Travelnut-

I took your suggestion and searched for ways to unlock my Nokia 6310i. Almost every service wanted about $30 to unlock it.

I mainly carry the phone for emergency use or directions, so I can very little. $30 is kind of high just to unlock it.

Do you know of better sights?

tada

Anyway leaving tomorrow for a week in the UK. Kind of late to try to unlock

xyz123

Tada..

When you get to the UK, you might try some of the phone shops which might unlock the phone for as little as &pound;5..

florida_dee

xyz123,

Where can I get more details on this? I have been calling my husband on my home phone to his hotel room in England, and I will probably have to re-mortgage the house to pay for it. Oh well, I am learning as I go. This information is fabulous. I have AT&amp;T wireless service, so I am going to look into this further. I will be going over to join my husband on Tuesday, and I would like a way for my kids to reach me at will (within reason of course.)We will travel to Scotland on the 30th, but that should not mattere, right? Wow, I love this site!

xyz123

The alternaive phone services..the ones that start with 101... charge ridiculously low rates to call the UK from the US. They work in most areas of the US...try it and if it works, you have it.

For the UK to landlines, one of the least expensive rates is to use the prefix 1016400 so if your husband's telephone # in London is 020-7555-1212 you would dial 1016400-011-44-20-7555-1212 costs about 3 or 4 cents a minute..

If you are calling a mobile in London, then you dial using 1016868 as the prefix and pay 13 cents a minute.

clbc

I've learnt so much here - BUT I'm Australian and need to know about using my mobile when in Europe to call home, or to receive calls from Oz. Can anyone help with this???

Alec

Australia uses GSM and provided your phone is dual-band (most are), you can use it anywhere in Europe. First call your service provider and enable international roaming, so that your family and friend can phone you by simply dialling your mobile number. You'll pay to receive, but useful for short messages or in emergency. To call Australia, simply dial 00 61 and then area and local code, omitting the first '0'. It will be cheaper to use a calling card from a fixed line, sometimes you can use it with your mobile. Text message is a cheap way to keep in touch. It's not worth getting a separate SIM card for each country unless you're going to stay a month or more. Hope this helps.

clbc

Thanks Alec, now I understand better. I'll be with my daughter for a week each in Paris, Lisbon and Madrid. If we both take our Nokia mobiles (vodaphone) will we be able to ring or text each other also when we're not together (in Lisbon where I'll be working) or will they just work sending and receiving calls to Australia?