My husband will be traveling to Paris on business and assumes he will not be able to use his cell phone because he does not have international service. What are the best options for him. He will only be staying for 5 days.

We use an MCI calling card. Just make sure you check how to call from France. My husband is there now and that is what he is using.

so you just buy a calling card here and use it at any phone while in France? What about for the UK and Portugal; does the same go for those countries as well and is it just to call the states or to use while there?
I realize my questions are probably dumb, but if I can just as easily get a calling card, then it would save me the trouble of buying a new cell phone, getting it unlocked and then buying SIM cards. Could this be the answer to my phone call prayers?

The question of calling cards vs. mobile phones comes up a great deal and the answer is it depends.

Yes getting a calling card as a first outlay is probably cheaper and is easy, just go to most any tabac in Paris and they will sell you one but..

1. Europe is beginning to show some of the same symptoms of mobile phoneitis we do in the US (assuming you are from the US)...what is mobile phoneitis I hear you cry...well every 10 year old kid and up has a mobile phone so phone companies are losing money on public phones so guess what, they are being removed. Now we are not yet at the point where they have disappeared completely but we are certainly getting there.

In addition using a calling card ranges from easy to impossible depending on the public phone...and in some cases, hotels have added surcharges to call the local number needed to make the calling card call, similar to the way many hotels in Las Vegas charge a surcharge for all 800 calls depsite the fact in theory 800 calls are free which are used to access ld services on calling cards. I've been to some places where hotels had such surcharges, other places they don't. But there is no general rule.

But I am not denigrating use of a calling card. It is a solution however,

...it does not necessarily resolve the issue of receiving calls. Now I suppose if one is simply staying in 1 hotel during a long visit to Paris, that is not a big problem simply call the hotel. But with a working mobile phone, one can be reached 24/7, like in the hotel, like when sightseeing, like anytime. But you don't want to be reachable 24/7, after all you are on holiday. Fair enough...really tough solution. It is called the on/off button...works all the time. Of course, there is always voice mail on mobile phones so you can get messages.

Incidentally, apropos of all this, Virgin Mobile has started a new service in France called, get ready for this, Virgin Mobile France. Sim packages are dirt cheap (15€ with 5€ of call credit) which come with the usual GSM stuff (free reception of calls throughout France)...should make the issue of getting a French sim package easier to deal with and more economical and better for convenience.

JMHO

You can tell people to leave voice messages at your home or work phone number, and then pick them up using your calling card, when or if you feel like it. People can also leave messages for you at your hotel, if you give them the phone number. For people I want to talk to every day, I just make sure they have a calling card at home so they can phone me cheaply. (I won't use hotel phones for long-distance calls after a bad experience a few years ago with supposedly toll-free calls.)

I know in some instances cell phones are a necessity when traveling, but you might decide that the above options will be sufficient.

I was in Paris last October and decided I wanted to call home. I heard you could find phone cards at a Tabac, but just when I decided I wanted to call home I spotted a little shop that sold only phone cards. (Near Les Halles.) I simply told the man I needed to call Canada and he sold me the appropriate phone card. It cost me 7 euros and gave me a whopping 50 min.! I then walked a few paces to one of the many pay phone in Paris and dialed the number on the card, punched in the card number and then dialed the number I wanted to call. Simple, simple, simple and a good value compared to the hotel call I made on my last trip (ouch!).

Many thanks to those who replied to my post concerning phone calls in Paris. Each message was very helpful. It's good to know we have several options.

is the costco phone card a good deal w/ international calls (eg: paris?) thanks

Plambers, the cheapest phone rates will be with a card purchased in the country where you will use it. Each card has different terms, but the inexpensive phone card that I sometimes use in the US can be used overseas, at about 6 times the cost per minute as for intra-US use, so I purchase a local card for 5 Euro for calls from there to the US.
My most recent experience in France is about 5 years ago, but in the past year I've had cards in Italy and Spain that cost me less than 4 cents a minute for calls to North America.
Also, when you have a local calling card, it has local access numbers printed on it. If your card is from the US access may be more difficult.
I think it all depends on how much you will use the card. For one or two brief calls, I'd just pay the higher per minute cost for the card I already have. To make a call every day, it is worth seeking out a local card.

kayd, thanks. we are taking our first trip w/o the kids (ages 4 and 2) so i guess we'd be using it daily. i don't speak much french at all-will i be able to figure out what i need at a tabac shop?

I have a Costco card too. MCI...would that work?

I can't remember the details about France, except that the card was inserted into a pay phone and a screen showed its value declining as you talked. But with the pace of change in telecommunications, things could be quite different now. The cards I used in Italy and Spain worked from any phone but you had to enter lots more numbers (still easiy to use, but more convenient to do it from hotel room than from phone boot on the street). Just make sure whatever card you buy can be used to make a local call without charge from your hotel room.

The calling cards sold in the poor sections of town, particularly the Indian neighborhood in the 10th, give you 15 hours to North America for 15 euros. That's 2 cents US per minute.

I have a t-mobile cellphone in the states and it cost me 99 cents/min to use my phone in Europe, no extra charges for an international plan or anything like that. I just called t-mobile and told them what weeks I'd be in Europe. My friend paid a $5 one-time charge for Cingular, then paid 99 cents/min to use his cell in Paris. I liked that I could be contacted in an emergency if necessary, and when I wanted to talk to my boyfriend I'd just call him (for 99 cents) or text message him (35 cents) and he'd call me back at the hotel. I spent $15 USD over the course of a week which was well worth it for me. I also paid less than $10 and had data access for email and internet with my blackberry.

The calling card in Europe is very convenient if you're staying at an apartment with a phone. But I can't have leisurely discussions at a payphone, and hotels charge more than 99 cents for using the toll free # with phone cards, anyway.

Bingo, I think you just answered my question. So, a calling card is a good alternative to purchasing a unlocked cell phone and Sim card if I am renting an apt?

If you're staying at an apt, then yes, I would absolutely use a calling card. I think you might have to purchase one for each country, however, since the number you dial (to punch in your card # and phone #) is a local number.

BTW, when in Europe I used the same cell phone that I use in the U.S. No buying of an unlocked phone, SIM card, another plan, etc. I just took my regular cell with me and made a call to t-mobile before I left to let them know I'll be Europe.