<BR>My wife &amp; I are travelling to 7 European countries for a month. We thought it might be convenient to rent a cell phone while we're over there. We are flying in and out through Amsterdam so we could pick it up and drop it off there.<BR><BR>Has anyone had any experience with this sort of thing?<BR><BR>Any recommendations on vendors -- good or bad?<BR><BR>Was it prohibitively expensive?

Steve. When renting a car through AutoEurope, they would provide you with a cell phone free for the term of the car rental. I was curious, so I called them to find out the terms. I would have to pay for the postage both ways of $30. total. That is over a $60 savings. I would only need it for a week. So I asked them the cost of calls in regards to France. Calls within France would be .99 per minute. Calls to the US from France would be $1.99 per minute at any time. A prepaid phone card could be used with the phone, but there would be a service charge of .99 per call. You may not even be going to France, but this can give you some idea. Also, they would put a $500 block on a credit card to secure the phone. When it was returned in good condition, the block would be removed. I did not know if this was expensive for the service. I decided it was more than I cared to spend.

I've been checking out cell phones for a month, it seems. I had made up my mind on who to use, when they upped the antee and wanted to put a huge hold on my cc. Most of the others had unreasonable local and LD use fees(compared to phone card there), so I decided to check out buying one when I get there. Maybe not. I'm trying to get away from the phone, but family thinks otherwise, so if you find something reasonable before next Monday, Please post it!

There have been many threads on this through the months. There are many different ways to get a cell phone for Europe.<BR><BR>I personally have used Omnipoint on my last 3 trips to Europe. They have a web site at Omnipoint.com or call 877.666.4246. You rent the phone here for $49.00 per month. They ship it to you with a prepaid fed-ex to ship back to them. There is a deposit hold on your card. The calls home are not cheap. The main thing I liked was that I receive the phone before I leave the US with my telephone number. I can then leave that number for people to reach me anywhere. If the phone is turned off, it has voice mail. I never use it a lot to call home, but it is much better than the hotel phone hassle. Give them a call and see what deals they have going now.

Here are a bunch of companies providing cell phones. Check with them and see if they have what you're looking for. The first two work in all countries. The others may or may not - you'll have to ask.<BR><BR>CELLHIRE<BR>45 Broadway, 20th Floor<BR>New York, NY 10006<BR>Tel: (212) 376 7373<BR>Fax: (212) 376 7383<BR>Toll Free number : 1-888-476-7368 <BR>http://www.CellHire.com/<BR>This one can be used from any country<BR><BR>Rent-a-Cell Express<BR>Suite 440<BR>116 bis Ave des Champs Elysees<BR>75008 Paris<BR>Tel: 011-33-1-53-93-78-00<BR>Works all over Europe<BR>Reserve from here<BR><BR>OMNIPOINT <BR>Tel: 1-877-OMNI-2-GO<BR><BR>International Phone Rentals<BR>1-888-252-4837<BR><BR>Univercell <BR>Tel" 877-991-CELL.<BR><BR>Rentaphone <BR>Tel: 888-309-8560<BR>They will deliver the phone to you before you leave.<BR><BR>FONEHOUSE (sp?)<BR>at different locations in Paris<BR>One of them is Rue des Mathurins near Rue Auber.<BR><BR>GLOBAL PHONEWORKS: <BR>Tel: (800) 556-0530<BR><BR>CELLULAR PHONES: http://www.kemwel.com/index.html<BR><BR>ACTION CELLULAR RENT-A-PHONE: <BR>Tel: 415 929-0400<BR>For more Paris information e-mail me- [email protected]<BR>

I was recommended to Record Phone International on this site. The phone worked great in Europe.They fed-ex the phone to you with a phone number before you leave and pay for the return.You can learn more about them www.overseascell.com or call them 732-617-2100.

Two summers ago I BOUGHT a cell phone-a Siemen's.Best $40 I ever spent.Each trip was a month long anf the phone worked throughout Europe.The price included the charger and case.You don't sign a contract,no fuss, no bill.They are way ahead of us on this one.To activate the phone you purchase a telephone calling card,punch out the center-it's a microchip.When you are running low on minutes it tells you.I always had an extra card with me.It was great,I stayed in touch with everyone and they could reach me!Another plus is that incoming calls are not charged against your minutes.All I do when I get to Europe is recharge it and I'm all set.As I was leaving I got a bonus of another 200 minutes so I'm all set for this summer.<BR> I heard that this phone was a big flop in USA because you had to buy a set amount of minutes per month even if you didn't need them.Your credit card was automatically billed..........American enterprise,got to keep those $$$$$$$ rolling in!<BR> Shop around and see how many bonus minutes you can get them to give away!My friend charmed them into 2000! The renting of cell phones is outrageously priced,especially the ones tied in with a car rental.Read that fine print......

<BR>One quick question -- did you buy the actual phone in Europe?<BR><BR>Thank you so much -- this sounds like a great idea!

Chopchi, WHERE did you buy this phone? I have searched the internet, asked in France, etc., and can find no info. All I managed to find was France Telecom's Mobilicarte, but the phone is $100 and I can't find out the cost of the carte/chip.

Three are many dozens of places in France, Italy and others that will sell you a reasonably priced cell phone. You then purchase a sim card for a specified number of minutes. As mentioned earlier, all incoming calls are not charged to the cell phone. If you subscribe to Nextel here in the states, you could buy one of their GSM phones good for use in all of Europe as well as the states. I don't think renting is the way to go--especially if using the cell phone constantly.

<BR>Two more questions about this seemingly attractive solution:<BR><BR>* If you have no permanent service, how do you get a phone number to receive incoming calls?<BR><BR>* If you get incoming calls, do you have voicemail to retrieve missed messages.<BR><BR>Again, thanks to all that post on this site.

<BR>Two more questions about this seemingly attractive solution:<BR><BR>* If you have no permanent service, how do you get a phone number to receive incoming calls?<BR><BR>* If you can get incoming calls, can you get voicemail or some other way to retrieve missed messages?<BR><BR>Again, thanks to all that post on this site.

I bought my first cell phone a Siemens <BR>in Spain,gave it away as athankyou gift and picked up the same kind of phone in Spain phone in Spain.As soon as the phone is activated you get assigned a phone number.It has all the features of a regular cell phone .I don't have the time right now to give you the Siemne web site but I checked and it was listed.<BR> The drawback with buying the phone in the US is the price-into the hundreds and then the contract etc.I bet you can buy these cell phones at any large airport in Europe.IN town you could get a better deal on the phone anf the bonus minutes,I think thes phones are the best kept secret ........

Top for Helder

Thanks Judy, <BR> <BR>To make a contribution to this interesting discussion, GSM in Europe operates at 900 or mostly 1.800 MHz and <BR>GSM in USA operates at 850 or mainly <BR>1.900 MHz. So a GSM phone bought in USA won´t work in Europe. <BR> <BR>No GSM in Brazil yet, but the incoming new bands C,D,E will operate at European frequency 1.800 MHz. <BR>

Topping for Richard

A GSM phone phone will work in the US and Euorpe if it is a tri-band phone your local carrier offers international roaming.

Record Phone International went out of business. They truly seemed to have the best deal going & now it is gone.

To Steve and anyone else who may be interested:

If you're planning on traveling to Europe more than once in your lifetime why not simply switch your American cell phone service to a carrier that can handle your travel needs. Currently there are only two cell phone providers who can actually offer you decent world-wide service, Nextel and T-Mobile. We did use Nextel in the past, but now use T-Mobile because it is a bit more convenient and there is no additional service charges for using the GMS (tri-band) phone when traveling abroad. Calls to Europe are very reasonably priced ($0.26/min to France and $0.29/mim to Spain) in case you need to call your hotel, or a restaurant for reservations before heading out, while calls back to the States are only $0.99/min.

Nextel's service is fine, but is more expensive than T-Mobile, which so far has given excellent coverage and service. Once there, you can always pick up a local mobile service (free incoming calls) in the country you're traveling in by purchasing a local SIM card, but first you'll have to have your phone unlocked. AT&amp;T also offers decent service in Europe, but their rates also tend to be higher than T-Mobiles. T-Mobile also offers a new &quot;World Wide Internet&quot; service using the Treo 600 Smartphone. You're able to check your email, or surf the web, from just about anywhere when traveling. We checked it out two weeks ago and was able to connect to the internet to check our web mail accounts from a field in the middle of La Rioja.

Since we are in Spain several times a year, we have a Spanish pre-paid phone service which was set up through &quot;On Spanish Time&quot;. They also rent cell phones at a very reasonable rate and can arrange SIM cards for use in both France and Spain.

I agree with just buying a tri-band phone that works anywhere. I rented a cell phone and couldn't get it to work. I then bought one from TMobile (Sony Erickson T610) and it works all over the world. Yes I may pay more per minute but anyone in the US can get me anywhere with my same cell phone number and I only use it occasionally. I find the little bit extra cost is worth it in terms of convenience, that I know the phone works and that my family always has a contact phone number for me when I'm overseas. (That phone also worked very well in Asia as well)