NEXTEL IN EUROPE?
 

Has anyone recently used Nextel International Worldwide Service in Europe? We will be in Netherlands, Germany, and possibly Belgium, and communicating between these places as well as back to the US. I am thinking of buying 2 of Nextel's cheapest "international only" phones (Motorola V180) for $74.99 each, inserting my current Nextel SIMs, and activating Worldwide calling on each of the phones involved for an additional $4.95 per phone per month. I have been told I will then I be paying around $0.21 per minute for calls between the phones in Europe. Is Nextel coverage good in Europe? Are there any other charges I should be aware of here?

Also, these are listed as quad band phones, but then the text says they will only work internationally. Is this possible, or do you think it is advertised this way to stop people from buying them cheaply for use in the US?

I've been using Nextel in Europe (England and France) for the past seven years or so.

It's worked great for me except when I was traveling around Burgundy (but the French friend I was traveling with was also getting No Service at the same time on his cell phone).

I'm guessing these phones will not work in the US but I can't remember exactly the reason (what's the technology in Europe? GSM? Anyway, different than what Nextel uses in the US). Anyway, I have a phone I use in the US and a different phone I use in Europe. I just put the SIM in the appropriate phone, fire it up and it's ready for action.

Janeygirl - Thanks for the reply. Nextel made it sound relatively straightforward, but I knew there'd be a Fodorite to confirm. Any suprises on the fees or charges I should be aware of? OUr poarty will be potentially calling between Amsterdam, Brugge, and Germany, as well as calling back to the US.

No surprise charges that I can recall. I've never called between countries so can't advise about those types of charges. When I'm in Paris, all calls are charged as local calls (and that's how you dial outgoing calls, too).

Calls to and from the US are expensive ($1.29/minute) but it's convenient if someone needs to reach me. They just dial my US phone number as if I'm there locally.

If someone is in Paris and is calling me while I'm in Paris, they have to dial as if it's an international call to my US phone number. Calling from Europe to the US I have to dial as if it's an international call.

If you buy a phone card in France, it costs 1 euro cent a minute to call the United States (or 1 euro an hour).

So in my opinion, it is a good enough reason to use land lines during a trip, if you really want to save money.

(So I would just tell people to call my answering machine in the U.S., which I would check for messages as often as necessary, thereby saving everybody money.)

Just to update everyone, last year the Nextel strategy for our Amsterdam trip ended up being a problem. It took 4 hours the first day to finally get it up and running as the customer service persons setting up the service did it incorrectly. The coverage was fine - we had excellent coverage even when my son traveled solo to Halberstadt, Germany and we traveled to Brugge. However, when I returned home, I was whacked with an incredible $300 US as compared to a normal bill (4 phones) of $122. Fortunately I documented every call/online chat with Nextel prior to the trip and was able to negotiate this down a bit. I'm not certain what we will do for our upcoming Greece travel, but not sure it will be Nextel.