BillOBrien

I am looking at renting a mobile phone while in Ireland.<BR>Do you know anything about &quot;Rent a Phone&quot; There website is <BR>www.ireland-doolin.com/mobilerental/<BR> <BR><BR>Thanks,<BR> <BR>Bill O'Brien<BR> <BR>

Dave

Don't bother,,,,just purchase either: 1) a &quot;pay-as-you-go&quot; cell phone (called mobile over there)....and bring it back so that a) either you can use it on another trip, or b) lend it to a friend.<BR><BR>2) Buy a phone card that can be used at your convenience...<BR><BR>I actually prefer option 1, but if you can't find a &quot;relatively&quot; inexpensive SIM unlocked phone perhaps you'll end up with option 2...<BR><BR>Renting will end up being a rip-off IMHO. <BR>Best wishes, Dave

Hiroshi

I tried to rent a mobile phone in the UK (not Ireland) but gave up. I couldn't find a place to rent it. However, the Link, a store at Gatwick (above the Ground Floor, South Terminal, landside-no need to go through security) sold me a &quot;pay as you go&quot; mobile phone. It was so convenient!<BR><BR>Unlike what Americans are accustomed to, in the UK one can receive calls on their mobile free. The person who calls has to pay.<BR><BR>I have given the phone to a friend who used it on another trip to the UK. I hope they are not al-Qaeda because I used the phone on a subsequent trip.

itswoody

Renting cost a fortune once you add up the shipping charges, etc. You can purchase a gsm phone here for about $70; then buy a SIM card over there. Search Google for gsm cell phone. If you plan to ever have more than 1 Europe trip, it's the way to go.

wojazz3

Hi Bill:<BR><BR>Yes, rental is too expensive. If you travel for 2 weeks or you'll pay a ton in rental and a ton in per minute charges.<BR><BR>I did a little research on this and contacted the two major companies in Ireland, vodafone and O2. The phones that they sell are locked to their network. An unlocked phone was $300-500. I found a company called telestial on line. I don't know if they have the best deals, but they are cheaper than the Irish companies and they use the vodafone network in Ireland. A phone costs about $100 and an irish SIM costs an additional $50. The phones are NOT locked. You can also get a UK SIM if you spend a substantial amount of time in NI. The SIM prevents you from having to pay roaming charges which mount up fast. The other advantage of telestial is that there is no charge for incoming calls, so you could take a call from the states and only the caller would have to pay. they are at<BR>http://www.telestial.com/<BR><BR>Hope this helps.<BR><BR>Bill

Lesli

I saw a thread recently about a rental service for the UK that was only about $25/week, but am currently unable to locate it. You could try an text search for &quot;mobile and rent&quot; or &quot;cell and rent&quot; and see what you come up with.<BR><BR>Here's a thread that mentions *buying* a prepaid Virgin mobile phone at Gatwick airport for only about 29 GPB: http://fodors.com/forums/pgMessages....p;tid=34383722 <BR><BR>Virgin Mobile's UK site is at: http://www.virginmobile.com/mobile/<BR><BR>Maybe they have a location at your airport in Ireland?

BillOBrien

I looked at two phone options on the telestial web site.<BR><BR>The Motorola 3788 with Irish sim card and US delivery was $158.5<BR>The Nokia 3310 (much better) with Irish sim card and US delivery was $237.5<BR><BR>Renting a Nokia 3310 with Rent a Phone was Euro 72.00 for 1 week. and Eur6:00 per day extra.<BR><BR>The per minute call rates are identical with both companies and both allow you to receive calls in Ireland for free.<BR><BR> I prefer the Nokia, as it has a lot more features and better reception, plus better battery life.<BR><BR>So its a toss up between $237 or Euro 72 depending on if you do a lot of <BR>european travel or not. I plan to visit for one week, hence that is why I was thinking of renting.<BR><BR>My origional query was if any one had used Rent a Phone www.ireland-doolin.com/mobilerental/<BR><BR>Thanks for all the input so far,<BR><BR><BR>Bill