Roaming France & Italy..will I get a cell phone signal?
 

Planning to take my cell phone on trip next month. Local AT&T office said just call customer service and they will turn on ability to make and receive calls in France & Italy. $1.29/min unless I want to pay $5.99/month to reduce fee to $0.99/min.
Anyone have experience with signal availability? We will be in Brittany and Dordogne in France across Riveria and into Tuscany region in Italy (primarily smaller towns) Really only want the phone for emergency or quick call if we have to change a reservation. Thanks for any tips.

Cell phone coverage in France and Italy is excellent. However, if your cell phone does not operate on frequencies 900 and 1800, your cell phone may not get a good signal. Search for cell phone in this forum for more information, or look for posts by
xyz123

Phone is Motorola V220 GSM 900/1800/1900. Thanks. I will also search posts.

Buy a local SIM if your phone is unlocked. Much more affordable (dirt cheap really) and easy to purchase and use.

I would not call French SIM cards "dirt cheap". Calls are about .54E per minute, and there is a cost to purchase the SIM card, and it's a bit of a hassel to unlock the phone. The SIM card also expires in 1 to 6 months (depending on how much "time" you purchase) unless you re-charge it within that period. You need to call ATT & activate "International Roaming". When you return to Europe the next time, call ATT again to make sure international roaming is still turned on.

We used our US Cell all over Tuscany, Provence, Burgundy, & Auvergne the last 2 years. A few times we could not pick up a signal, but that was mainly in the Alps around Provence.

Stu Dudley

We recently used our Cingular/AT+T service quad bands in somewhat "remote" parts of France and had absolutely no trouble receiving or making calls anywhere...including a few river "gorges" and out-in-the-sticks places.

I routinely use the same services you mention when in Europe rather than using local SIM cards...easier for me and we don't do that much telephone traffic anyway.

have a great trip.

BTW...if you do decide to go with the cheaper plan per month make sure you call them when you return and have them turn it off.

As I remember, the "plan" of $5.99 is per billing period. If you'll be in Europe for a period of time that crosses over the billing end-date, you'll incur a cost of $11.98.

Stu Dudley

bookmarking to help with my "discussion" this evening with my husband about cell phones. Our last two trips to Europe have been full of cell phone disappointment. ;;) Deborah

T-mobile is great! No problem with cell phone signal.

I have used my AT&T/ Cingular/ now AT&T again phone all over Europe without problem. If every penny counts the local SIM option does usually save a bit, but if you do not plan to use the phone a lot and/or don't care about the cost it may not be worth the trouble. For trips of ten days or less I just go with the discounted AT&T international roaming plan, then cancel as soon as I am back.

If you're in the market for a US carrier whose phones and service works in Europe, look into T-Mobile.com. Their minute charge is a flat 99¢ with no monthly hit. Some of their free phones are quad-band. You can turn on international roaming at the web site.

Well, compared to the $2.99/minute that T-Mobile charges to or in Serbia and the $.99/minute everywhere else, the $.50/minute I was paying to call the US with local SIMS was dirt cheap.

We got an unpleasant surprise from T-Mobile on my return (saw the bill last night). I had told my husband to use the house phone to call me and not his cell phone. He did not pay attention to me. Our bill is over $800 (normally around $100); it might have been around $200 if he had made all calls from the house phone--and that would have been if he had called me every day and talked for 30 minutes from the house. We didn't talk nearly that frequently on the cell phone and the bill is enough to fly back to Europe for one of us. Jeesh--what an expensive lesson.

Next time, he will only use the house phone to call me and I will buy local SIMS for the free incoming service only.

I will not buy a global SIM for Europe again. The reloads were $90 each and only got me about 45 outgoing minutes to the US. For $13USD, I got the same number of outgoing minutes in Serbia (to the US) and the free incoming service. Even if I had called home and talked using the European SIM for all of our calls, it would have been cheaper than what we have ended up with.

Live and learn! I will ask for the international Blackberry service in the future to check email and then switch SIMS to a local one for any making or receiving of actual phone calls.

You won't have any problem, IME. My AT&T pocket PC works like a charm in the remotest of locations in France and Italy, including in my hamlet in the Dordogne and a tiny village in Umbria I spent a lot of time in in 2006.

VERY occasionally I got cut off, but 99% of the time I had incredibly clear connections. It's not cheap (my bill for 5 weeks in Italy was $1800, but I was on the phone for both business and pleasure many times a day), but it's good service.

>>the $.50/minute I was paying to call the US with local SIMS was dirt cheap.<<

Are you sure that wasn't .50 Euros?? Last Sept SFR charged .55 Euros/min - ($.75/min).

An international telephone land-line card you get at a Tobac was about .07 E per min to the US & about .04 E within France (2 seperate cards). That's dirt cheap to me.

Stu Dudley

The new United Mobile international sim costs $39.90 and comes with $13.00 in calling credit. An outgoing call from France to the US is $0.40/minute and an incoming call is free. You have to change the credit every nine months by making a call or buying more calling credit to keep the number alive. I'm not a shill for United Mobile, but I think their international sim and others listed at
www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html

are a good deal.

Looks like the coverage should be OK and we plan minimum talk time. Have bought phone cards in the past and usually give it away with most time intact when we head home. Thanks for other suggestions. We will see how it goes this trip. Ready to pack bags and get going!