loisco

We leave this coming Thursday. My husband never looked into buying the cell phone on ebay (was going to buy it at the CDG airport as advised by Europecar)... ... Now he is saying he wishes he had gone the ebay way. Is it too late????

Thanks.

cmt

Unless the auction ends tonight, you pay immediately, the vendor gets notification and checks e-mail immediately, and you're positive that the vendor will ship by some expedited method early tomorrow, so it will arrive by Wednesday, yes, it's too late.

djkbooks

Probably, unless you use the Buy It Now feature.

At this very moment, for example, there are several Sony Ericsson T610 phones available for under $100. You'd want to check that the seller lists the item in excellent condition, and that it's a 610 (not 616) with GSM 900/1800/1900. Also, take a look at the seller's rating.

You could e-mail the seller about faster shipping options. I'd recommend contacting several just for quick response and to compare.

I mention this model because I purchased two of them earlier in the year for a trip to Paris. They are very easy to operate and the reception is fantastic (my boss in New Hampshire told me I sounded like I was standing right outside when I phoned him from a Paris hotel room). My husband and I loved being able to keep in touch while out and about, phone ahead to make sure a restaurant was open and reserve...

At CDG, these same phones (brand new, of course) were selling for 249 €. (I checked, just out of curiousity.) I did not notice any stores for purchasing phones on arrival, rather in the duty-free shops upon departure.

We looked at phones all over Paris and they were much pricier that I would have thought.

Once there, you can go to any phone store and get a SIM card. The most popular and readily available seem to be SFR and Orange. Typically, the clerk will insert the card for you, show you your number, change the language to English (on the SIM), give you some quick instructions, and you're good to go. You can easily find out remaining time with a free text message. When low, you just go to any tabac or phone store for a "refill". Very easy.

loisco

Thank you so much ...good information..

glk11b

This sounded so good that I rushed to eBay where there are these phones listed for around $50. An article (a little information is dangerous) said that the phone had to have these features to be used in France: unlocked, tri-band and GSM. No where in the ebay writeups were any of these mentioned. Am I looking at the wrong phone? Help would be appreciated. Jerry

ira

Hi Lois,

Go to www.mobal.com

I think they can get the $49 phone to you by Wednesday, but ask them.

rkkwan

Mobal phones are not necessarily unlocked. Some are and some are not. Using their SIM is expensive.

If a ebay description doens't say "tri-band" (and list the bands), and "unlocked", then they are not. Do not bid on them.

xyz123

Take a look at expansys-usa.com...their price for a good Nokia 3100 which is unlocked and has the right 3 bands runs about $120...perhaps they can ship it to you overnight.

Suki

I am waiting to receive a Motorola dual band (GSM 900/1800) phone that I purchased last Thursday on e-bay. The seller noted that it was unlocked, but is the fact that it is a dual band and not a tri-band a problem? I didn't think so, but I'm getting a little nervous now. My husband plans to take it with him for his solo bike trip in Ireland.

Suki

Oh, I forgot to say that I know that the phone won't work in the US, but we only need it for European travel. Thanks.

xyz123

Dual band I assume means 900/1800 which is perfect for everywhere in the world with the exception of Japan, USA, Canada and some Latin and South American countries so if your plan is to get European prepaids or riiing, the phone will be fine for use in Europe.

Suki

Thanks, xyz. That's what I thought. All your phone posting info has been extremely help so thanks for that as well.

Biscotcha

I was told by Cingular here in NC that my Nokia 3120 (850/1800/1900) would work in the UK. So I guess I have the option of using Cingular's roaming plan or getting the phone unlocked and purchasing a new sims. Can anyone confirm if I'm understanding this correctly? I'm not sure how much I'll use the phone so trying to figure out which way to go.

LAwoman

You can check whether a phone is gsm, dual band, triband or quadband by checking the manufacturer's website for the model. The ebay seller doesn't dictate those features.

To make sure the phone is unlocked, buy from a dealer who specializes in cell phones, has a high rating & and notes in several places that the phone is unlocked. They usually have some sort of description like "this phone is unlocked and can be used in most overseas destinations"

Some sellers include "unlocked" in the "item features" section when it really isn't, probably because they don't know what it means.

xyz123

1. You can easily unlock the phone yourself for free by going to unlocking sites and downloading the Nokia unlocking calculator which will generate the unlocking code for you.

2. You don't really have the 3120, you have the 3120B. As a product of the American refusal/inability to standardize their frequencies with the rest of the world, American gsm operates on 850 and 1900 while European GSM operates on 900 and 1800. Thus phones sold by Cingular need 850 and lack 900...is that important? Yes and no...No in the sense that in most European countries if you are roaming on Cingular you will get service in most (but not all areas) as the phone automatically chooses the roaming partner but if you use the phone for a local prepaid, you have to check whether the carrier you check operates on 1800 or, as in some countries, uses 900 exclusively in which case your phone would be useless.

djkbooks

I probably should have mentioned that one should always search for UNLOCKED phones on EBay for using in Europe.