Has anyone had good/bad experiences with Global's GSM World Phone. My wife and I want to keep in touch with each other and make local calls in France and maybe Italy, Germany, etc. during 5 weeks in Europe (and other European trips in future years). We are not interested in calls to/from the US during our trips.

It looks as if buying two phones from Global and paying for the usage might be a good idea. Any advice?

We are looking at this phone, too. It
as good reviews. We are also going to
check out one at Costco.

The service is reliable and the phone usable from our brief uses of it in Netherlands and France.

For such a long trip you might read up on buying unlocked GSM phones from eBay or such, and then buying perhaps a 'multicountry' type of SIM card. The per-minute rates will be much lower than those of Mobal.

If you enter 'cell' into the forum search, you will get a library full of expert advice.

I've had one for a few years and have used it in France, Italy, Germany, UK, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic without a problem. Paid $49 and I've probably spent about $30 to $50 each vacation.

I can't advise on the other countries, but www.Smobil.de will sell you airtime in German for <b>&euro;.01</b> to another Smobil subscriber. This is perfect for a traveling party.

Right now, they're featuring a Nokia 2310 for &euro;69.99 including a startup kit (chip with &euro;15 airtime on it). Here's that deal: tinyurl.com/27ujqu

Hi D,

The Mobal service is perfectly OK and the phone works.

You pay about $1.95/min to make calls, so we use ours only for emergencies.

If you are going to use it 3-4 times a day, I think that there are better alternatives.

Have you entered &lt;cell phone&gt; in the &quot;search this forum&quot; box. There are at least two good threads on the subject.

Thank you, Ira. I have looked at those threads, but I am specifically interested in hearing from anyone who has used Glabal's service.

Oops--that should be &quot;Global's service.&quot;

I think there are many better options than Mobal. Their incoming and outgoing rates are quite high. In your case you are best off buying 2 unlocked GSM phones on EBay. Make sure you get phones made for European bands only (900 &amp; 1800 MHz) or phones made to work in the US and overseas (tri-band: 900/1800/1900 MHz or quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz). They can be found for as low as $20.

Buy local SIM cards in each country you visit. They usually cost a few Euros and come with a few Euros credit. Most local SIM's offer free incoming calls and pretty rates for outgoing calls. Some even have programs where you can list another subscriber to the same service to whom you can place calls for free. You can each list one another and all calls between you will be free. France has about the highest mobile rates in Europe. Prepaid SIM cards in other countries offer more competitive rates.

With Mobal you will pay $1.50 incoming and outgoing. That means that you will be paying $3.00 per minute to talk to one another. With a French SIM you will pay about &euro; 0.55 outgoing and the incoming will be free.

We use TMobile, phone is GSM ready and all calls are $.99/min, either local or back to the states. Have used it Italy, Germany, Ireland and several other countries witout problem

Dear engr1943: Our US cell phone contract is with Verizon, and they don't yet have acceptable service in Europe (although they may do this soon), and it would be expensive to switch to TMobil. Thus we are looking for a trip-specific solution.

Your thread title says &quot;Mobal&quot; but then you ask about &quot;Global's GSM World Phone&quot; and later &quot;Glabal's service&quot; which you corrected to &quot;Global's.&quot;

Are you talking about globalphoneworks.com?

I have had a Mobal Nokia phone for 4 years and it works fine for me. I also have Verizon Wireless and don't want to switch. I use my Mobal primarily in case of emergencies or for calling the bank, VISA, etc. You will have a UK phone number and won't have to bother with SIM cards either.

I also have a Mobal phone for the past 4 years. Works well and never had a problem, but as Ira says it can get rather pricey if you are using it quite a bit. We also basically just use it to stay in touch with our kids on a very limited basis (as one of our children, 30 years old has MS) and they can always get us if they need to. Fortunately, they haven't ever needed to get ahold of us for any emergency.
dave

Used the Mobal GSM world phone on our recent trip to Croatia/Slovenia/Italy and it worked fine. Clarity is excellent and our calls went thru without any delays. Although their are cheaper options, it was convenient not having to purchase a SIM card for every country.