d_claude_bear

In the Spring my wife and I will be in Italy for 10-14 days, then in France for 30-35 days, and each of us has an unlocked triband phone we have used before in France. What is the best SIM card arrangement for "bridging" these two European countries? We plan to use the phones exclusively to keep in touch with each other and to make restaurant reservations, etc. while we are away from our apartments/hotels. ONE EXCEPTION: While in Italy we may need to make a few calls to France to change/reconfirm travel plans. Is there an obvious best approach to this situation?

xyz123

It's probably too early to really start worrying about this...frankly the whole mobile phone industry in the eu is in a state of total flux that what is true today might be totally inaccurate tomorrow.....in general Italian sim cards are dirt cheap while French sim cards are somewhat more expensive....so chances are in the spring, it will probably just as easy to get two Italian sim cards and since you'll be in France for 30 days, probably just to purchase French sim cards but again that's how it looks today...check back here or go to www.prepaidgsm.net where there is a multi nation forum where people discuss these things.

Sarastro

<font color="#0000FF">French sim cards are somewhat more expensive</font>

Perhaps you have not seen the Breizh SIM available from PhoneHouse. Cost is 6.90€. Minutes are sold prepaid in increments of 5€. 52 minutes for 10€ or .19€/min

I know of no cheaper SIM.

Alec

Don't worry too much about the cost of using SIM card from another country within EU. Charges are capped by EU, and are quite reasonable. Calling non-EU destinations, such as US, is another matter and you should pay attention to how much they charge.

toni_g_b

We used Rebelfone http://www.rebelfone.com/ and it worked for us once we got past the glitch with the pin #. We already had an international capable cell phone. Just changed the SIM card on the plane and we were ready to go once we landed. No searching for phone stores on the ground.

kybourbon

You can get a TIM card in Italy for 5-10€.

justretired

I find this an interesting thread, as my wife and I tend to alternate Fall vacations between Italy and France. This means that by the following year, the SIM card has generally expired anyway. I now have two Italian SIM cards from http://www.callineurope.com/, used for a trip last October. I think they may be actually still be valid, but our next trip, in September, will be to France. I'm about to contact Call in Europe to determine our best option, and I'll post what I do here.

We liked using Call in Europe, because the charges (which are quite reasonable) get charged to a credit card. Thus there are no issues of running out of minutes and having to re-charge the card, as with a pre-paid SIM card. No wasting time hunting for a <i>tabac</i> (or a <i>tabaccheria</i. There are no monthly charges, so you only pay for what you use.

I'll let you know what we do this time. One of the phones we have is a French phone locked to the service provider Orange (don't ask how that happened).

kybourbon

There are no monthly charges with a SIM or TIM either. I don't see any advantage to callineurope especially since you already have a phone. You should be able to get your phone unlocked and just buy a 5€ SIM/TIM.

justretired

Thanks for commenting, kybourbon. The locked phone is a Sagem my401C - I've been told it's a difficult one to unlock. I assume Orange could unlock it, but what motivation would they have to do so?

But I've got no shortage of phones. I've got a couple of basic Motorola C123's that we used last year in Italy. I can certainly get a new French SIM card for each of them for our upcoming trip. Is a rechargeable SIM card only 5&euro; these days? Last time I bought a SIM card, it was more than that.

I actually don't understand the way you're using SIM/TIM sort of interchangeably. My understanding is that "SIM card" is the general name for the little postage-stamp sized card that goes into a GSM phone, which assigns a phone number, and connects you to a service provider (the acronym stands for "<b><u>S</u></b>ubscriber <b><u>I</u></b>dentification <b><u>M</u></b>odule").

Now, there could easily be something I'm missing here, but the only meaning I know for "TIM" is the name of an Italian mobile telephone service provider, http://www.tim.it/. I've had SIM cards from TIM for use in Italy, but I don't think they'd be the best choice for us in France, because we'd be roaming in another country.

What I like about CallInEurope is that the calls get charged to a credit card. When I've bought inexpensive SIM cards in the past, they were always <i>rechargeable</i> cards. They worked fine, but eventually they run out of minutes. In France, that means I have to find a <i>tabac</i> to buy a scratch-off recharge card, to add minutes to my installed SIM card. My phone might go dead until I do this. With CallInEurope, there's no possibility of the phone ever running out of minutes. There are no "remaining minutes" to monitor; nothing to worry about, you can't forget to recharge the minutes.

I also like to get at least one SIM card <i>before</i> I leave on my trip. That means:

a) I have a phone instantly upon arriving.

b) I know my phone number in advance.

Having a phone number in advance means that I can give it out to friends and relatives, in case someone needs to reach me in an emergency. I also print my number on "business cards" which I carry with me, in case I have occasion to give one of these out to anyone who might want to contact while I'm in Europe (I'm not very apt to need these while on vacation, but I have made use of them from time to time).

As I said, as I decide what to do, I'll report my conclusions on this thread.

Vientianeboy

Why don't you use roaming?

Tulips

In France you can buy a phone from BIC (available in larger supermarkets of phone shops); its 49 euros and includes 60 minutes call time. You just open the packaging and use it straight away; you don't even have to charge it first. If the 60 minutes run out, buy a card to recharge it.

justretired

Vientianboy, regarding roaming: if my Italian SIM cards are still valid, and I used them in France, I think the disadvantages would be:

1. There would be a higher price per minute for every call. With a French SIM card, using CallInEurope, it's $0.39 per minute for all calls within Europe, the US, and Canada. With an Italian SIM card, it's $0.39 in Italy, and $0.49 to elsewhere in Europe and to the US/Canada. But if I use that Italian SIM card in France, the charge per minute would be much higher: $0.99 to call anywhere in Europe (including France), and $2.99 to call the US/Canada. There would even be a $0.49 charge per minute for <i>incoming</i> calls, normally free. That's the problem with roaming.

2. I'd have an Italian phone number - that is, it would start with the country code for Italy. If I give my number to someone in France, they'd have to essentially make a call to Italy to contact me, even if I was right around the corner. It would cost them more - they wouldn't like it.

I need to update my knowledge on these issues, and then report back.

Tulips, 49&euro; is about $70 at today's exchange rate. I can get a SIM card for the phones I already have for a lot less than that, and have my number in advance. It's true that it might not include any minutes, but 60 minutes of call time at $0.39 per minute is worth only about $23. It's interesting to see that you can just buy a phone in a supermarket. I wonder what the cost per minute is when you recharge, and what the cost is to call the US.

kybourbon

I don't see your point about your TIM cards since they are already paid for. If they are going to expire anyway, why would you care if you used them up roaming? You are tossing the value of them ($) if you don't use them. When it runs out, get a SIM for France and call whoever you need to talk to all the time to give your new number.

It's not like there isn't a store on most streets selling SIM's. You can also contact Orange to get your unlock code. They are supposed to give it to you. You may even be able to get the code on their website by using their help/support. Have you tried? If not, they have locations all over France (map of locations on their website). You can also contact the maker of the phone and get the code.
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/sim-only

You can e-mail Orange.
http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/su...p?DocId=307813

DD bought a phone (brand was Sony Ericcson) when she was living in Spain and it was locked to the company she bought it from (Amena). When she left Spain, we contacted Sony (online) and got the unlock code so other SIM's could be used. When she was living in Spain, texting was much cheaper than calling.

I guess I don't stay on the phone that much when traveling. Can't imagine using more than 60 minutes on a trip.

justretired

Any cards I had from TIM are years old, and long expired. The only possible Italian SIM cards I have that might still be valid (I'll have to check) are from CallInEurope. They don't have any value on them - that's not how they work. If I use them, my usage will be billed to a credit card.

It's news to me that Orange is required to give me an unlock code. The whole point, for Orange, of selling a locked phone is that I can <i>only</i> use their service. That's why they do it. Is this some sort of new law? If I put in a SIM card from Orange, the phone works fine. Any other SIM card, and the phone reports that it's locked.

Our trips are usually 2-3 weeks, and during that time, my wife will call the US several times just to chat, mostly with her sister and our kids (the low rates from CallInEurope make that quite reasonable). We easily use more that 60 minutes.

justretired

I might add that another advantage of the CallInEurope approach is that you only pay for what you use. With a prepaid card, if the trip ends and you have unused minutes on the SIM card, in my case they will typically be lost. This is because I won't get back to the same country for two years, given how we usually alternate annual vacations in Italy and France.

One think you can do is sell your still valid SIM card, on eBay, for instance. I've just never taken the effort to do that. I'm too lazy, so they usually end up expiring after 6 months. I once did <i>BUY</i> a SIM card on eBay. I think it was $35, years ago, back when buying a SIM card in advance in the US would have cost me $50 (they're a lot cheaper now). That gave me a known number in advance of the trip, and some minutes to get started. I should have resold it on eBay when I returned, but again, I was to lazy to bother, so it just expired.

justretired

I said that I'd post here what we decided, so here it is: We went with Call in Europe, and have just ordered two French SIM cards. These are $29 each, and there's a $12 shipping charge, so the total came to $70 for the pair.

I know I can go to Europe and buy pre-paid SIM cards for less, but I like the Call in Europe approach. Once we're there, we can just use the phones freely, without monitoring our balances or thinking about recharging, and we'll pay only for what we use (read the thread above for all the discussion of the pros and cons of the Call in Europe approach). I'm willing to pay a little extra for that convenience, and in order to know my phone numbers well in advance of my departure.

I also sent Call in Europe a rather long treatise on how I think they can improve their web page, which I must say I found rather confusing (and I've used their service before!).

It's interesting that it wasn't many years ago that we debated whether we needed a cell phone in Europe at all, and now we get two of them! We feel that in the context of the overall cost of a two-week European vacation, the cost is minor, and it's a convenience that makes it easier for us to occasionally go in different directions comfortably.

I was just throwing away some old issues of Consumer Reports, and I came across a report on cell phones (not for travel; just for use within the US). The cover story, in February of 1997, was: "Cell phones; do you really need one?"

kybourbon

>>>With a prepaid card, if the trip ends and you have unused minutes on the SIM card, in my case they will typically be lost<<<

Since you are typically only paying 5-10€ for a prepaid TIM (if bought in Italy)then it's not a big deal if you have a few unused minutes at the end of a trip.

Yes, you should be able to get an unlock code (IMEI) from Orange. They might charge a fee though.

justretired

Thanks, kybourbon. I have two Motorola C123 (very simple) unlocked phones that I plan on using with the SIM cards from <i>Call in Europe</i> (they're only Dual-band 900/1800, but that's OK in France). But I think in September, I'll bring along the locked Sagem my401C Tri-band phone. I'll take it into an Orange store, and see what they're willing do for me (as you say, perhaps at a price). There are also a lot of web sites on unlocking phones that I can peruse. But since I'm all set for my September trip, I don't have a lot of motivations to study these - I've got a lot of other things to do before we leave.

lilaki

<b>justretired</b>: are you motorola C123s from Call in Europe? if so, how did you get them unlocked?

tks!

justretired

Hi, <font color="#0066CC"><b>lilaki</b></font>. I'll put this reply on both threads so you're sure to see it:

As to how I got my unlocked phones: I have the paperwork from my original order of September 7, 2008 (I keep everything), but I don't see any mention of the phones being locked or unlocked. I have a vague recollection of being told back then that I was buying unlocked phones, but I didn't write that down at the time, so I may be remembering wrong. When I said in an earlier posting that my two Motorola C123 phones were unlocked, that is what I was remembering. I thought I had bought them unlocked - I took no action to unlock them. But read on.

I needed to check on my most recent Call-in-Europe ("CIE") order anyway, so I gave them a call. While I had them on the line, I asked if my phones, last used in Italy in October '08, were locked or unlocked. The person I spoke to wasn't sure, although he thought that they were probably locked to Call-in-Europe as a provider (I gather that's their current policy). He suggested that I test them.

So I did. I took another phone I have that is locked to provider "Orange" in France, and one of my C123 phones, swapped the SIM cards, and turned them both on. The C123, now with an Orange SIM card, operated fine, immediately searching for service. Of course, after a while, it reported "No service", but the point is, it appears that these phones are indeed unlocked. Maybe that's the way CIE was shipping them back then, and they've since changed their policy (perhaps that's why they are giving out contradictory information).

By the way, the other phone, with the Italian SIM card from provider "Tim" that I had gotten from CIE, first asked me to enter the PIN for that SIM card. Only after I did that did it report "SIM Locked" (strange wording - it's really the phone that's locked, not the SIM). If I put back the Orange SIM card, it works fine and searches for service (with no success).

I might mention that the service attached to all of these SIM cards has expired. But that's of no concern to the phone - it can't know that until it locates the service provider, and here in the US, there's no service for either Orange or Tim.

Even though there may be cheaper approaches, I still like CIE, because I have the phone as soon as I land, and I have the phone number to give out in advance of my departure.

- Larry