unlocked cell phone question
May 26th, 2012, 08:17 AM
#1
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unlocked cell phone question
If I were to buy an unlocked cell phone here in the states, say this one from J & R- http://www.jr.com/samsung/pe/SAM_A17...ductTabDetails, how does it work overseas? Do I go to a store in Germany (where I will be working for 2 months this summer) to buy a SIM card to fit the phone? Does the SIM card come with a certain amount of minutes for using for local numbers in Germany? Am I sure to be able to find a SIM card in Germany for this phone?
Do I just use my AT & T cell phone for texts and/or calls back home if needed? I am hoping to use Skype and email to save costs to home. Any ideas or suggestions? When I have traveled before it was for shorter times and I just got international calls on my plan for the time I was away. Thank you!
Do I just use my AT & T cell phone for texts and/or calls back home if needed? I am hoping to use Skype and email to save costs to home. Any ideas or suggestions? When I have traveled before it was for shorter times and I just got international calls on my plan for the time I was away. Thank you!
May 26th, 2012, 08:26 AM
#2
It will work with that phone as long as it's unlocked. You need a quad band GSM which that one is ( GSM 850/900/1800/1900 ).
Just buy a SIM card after arrival. Load as much on it as you want, but you can top it when it starts running out.
Just buy a SIM card after arrival. Load as much on it as you want, but you can top it when it starts running out.
May 26th, 2012, 09:20 AM
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Thanks! Can I load it and/or top it off in different cities? I plan to arrive a little early to Germany, 3-4 days before I need to be in Stuttgart. Could I buy the SIM card in another German city, then top it off in Stuttgart as needed while I live there temporarily?
May 26th, 2012, 10:45 AM
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Agree with all of the above:
- For Europe, you need to make sure your phone is *quad band* GSM. (Not all US phones are.)
- Get a prepaid sim card from a German national carrier and you will be able to add more money ("top it off") when it runs low. You might even find kiosk(s) in the airport when you land. National carriers include Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom (which is the owner of T-Mobile in the US).
- The sim will cost X amount of money, a bit of which goes to the card itself, and the rest is your initial amount to use. The amount will go down every time you send a text or make a call; more for international, less for local, but both are feasible. When you get the card, you should either receive literature with it, or be able to find out online what the local and international rates are.
- In the phone, the sim card will replace the AT&T one you use now. (All sim cards are the same size and shape worldwide.
) Feel free to give the number to people back in the States; as long as they use the proper country, etc., prefixes, you should have no problem texting and even calling with them. And as long as you don't change sim cards, your German number will remain the same.
- I have found it really useful to have my AT&T sim card in addition to the local sim. I spent 2 months working in Mumbai, and there was a fluke situation with a fire in a cell tower and service was out - but I was able to use my US one instead. Also, having the capability to contact home when I arrived but before getting the local sim. Just a little peace of mind. I think I notified AT&T that I was overseas: I didn't pay for their international service, but somehow it worked nonetheless... I'll try to remember more specifics on this point and let you know. 
- FYI, the way it works for AT&T overseas is that they have a partnership with a local carrier. So when the (functioning) AT&T sim was in my phone, instead of it saying "AT&T" on the interface, it said the name of that carrier. (In Mumbai it was "Hutch".) You'll still need to put in the country prefix before making a call home - which makes using your pre-existing address book a little awkward...
- For Europe, you need to make sure your phone is *quad band* GSM. (Not all US phones are.)
- Get a prepaid sim card from a German national carrier and you will be able to add more money ("top it off") when it runs low. You might even find kiosk(s) in the airport when you land. National carriers include Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom (which is the owner of T-Mobile in the US).
- The sim will cost X amount of money, a bit of which goes to the card itself, and the rest is your initial amount to use. The amount will go down every time you send a text or make a call; more for international, less for local, but both are feasible. When you get the card, you should either receive literature with it, or be able to find out online what the local and international rates are.
- In the phone, the sim card will replace the AT&T one you use now. (All sim cards are the same size and shape worldwide.
) Feel free to give the number to people back in the States; as long as they use the proper country, etc., prefixes, you should have no problem texting and even calling with them. And as long as you don't change sim cards, your German number will remain the same.- I have found it really useful to have my AT&T sim card in addition to the local sim. I spent 2 months working in Mumbai, and there was a fluke situation with a fire in a cell tower and service was out - but I was able to use my US one instead. Also, having the capability to contact home when I arrived but before getting the local sim. Just a little peace of mind.
I think I notified AT&T that I was overseas: I didn't pay for their international service, but somehow it worked nonetheless... I'll try to remember more specifics on this point and let you know. - FYI, the way it works for AT&T overseas is that they have a partnership with a local carrier. So when the (functioning) AT&T sim was in my phone, instead of it saying "AT&T" on the interface, it said the name of that carrier. (In Mumbai it was "Hutch".) You'll still need to put in the country prefix before making a call home - which makes using your pre-existing address book a little awkward...
May 26th, 2012, 12:13 PM
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ggreen- Are you saying that I can take the SIM card from my existing AT&T cell phone and use it in the unlocked cell phone I buy? Then when I want to make calls and/or texts home I can put in my AT&T SIM card, and when I want to make the calls locally in Germany, I just put in the German SIM card? When I use the AT&T SIM my number is the same as at home, and when I use the German SIM it is the number for Germany? Confusing, but am I correct?
I have always contacted AT&T and gone with international calling and texting for the time I am overseas and I could do that still if the cost is less than using the German SIM to call/or text back home. Thanks!
I have always contacted AT&T and gone with international calling and texting for the time I am overseas and I could do that still if the cost is less than using the German SIM to call/or text back home. Thanks!
May 26th, 2012, 12:39 PM
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Yes.. your ATT SIM will work in your unlocked phone. That's the point... and unlocked phone will work with any SIM.
I don't understand why you'd want to use the ATT SIM to call home from Germany though... I'd be willing to bet the German SIM will have lower rates even to the US.
I don't understand why you'd want to use the ATT SIM to call home from Germany though... I'd be willing to bet the German SIM will have lower rates even to the US.
May 26th, 2012, 12:43 PM
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Well, that would be great then! Whatever works for me is fine, and the cheaper the better. I guess what I will have to do is take a list of all the phone numbers of family and friends with me because they are programed into my cell and I don't know all their numbers! Thanks everyone for explaining all this to me. Kathy
May 26th, 2012, 03:52 PM
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I have experience of both Vodafone and T-Mobile (I used to live in Germany and keep travelling there a lot). They may be national but they are also premium services and expensive, also v. expensive for calls overseas, so I would generally avoid them. Cheap prepaid SIMs are Aldi, Lidl (both available in the supermarkets of the same name), Fonic (available at Drogerien (drugstores)), Tchibo (available in the coffee stores of the same name), and Lebara (try gas stations or railway stations). There are probably others, I don't know all of them. Absolutely the cheapest I have found are Lebara. I keep some Tchibo cards for our family because the credits take 6 years to expire, and they are acceptably cheap. You may run into the problem that you are supposed to have a local address. Just give them the one of where you are staying. I think it's law that you have to have a local address. Most sellers don't enforce it, just occasionally you will crop up against someone that is a bit picky about this. With most of these, buy a recharge card where you buy the SIM. They are all pretty much Germany-wide, but Lebara may be a little harder to find, whereas there is a Tchibo in every town. You can apparently recharge online with them, I never did this. They also have English-speaking operators to validate the SIM.
Lavandula
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May 26th, 2012, 08:31 PM
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Hi kkukura,
Just repeating what others have said, you can put your AT&T sim card into the unlocked phone (or any other sim-based phone). As kybourbon said, you can also put the German sim card into the phone you already have. HOWEVER, you need to confirm that your current phone is a quad-band and not tri-band, or it might not work overseas.
I have used AT&T's international plan on short trips overseas. But when I was gone for two months, I decided against it because I knew I'd get a local sim (and did). As I said, it was great to know the AT&T sim would function if I needed it in an emergency, but it was much less expensive to have the local sim. I did a lot of texting to people back home using the local sim, and the cost was reasonable. For longer conversations, I'd schedule a time to skype. (Besides, it was nice to see their faces!)
For the phone numbers, yes the number will be your US one when you have the AT&T sim card in your phone. (Just like when you use your phone with the AT&T international plan.) When you have the German sim card in the phone, it will be the German number in use. Dialing/texting internationally with the German sim, you will need to include a country code prefix to any number you try to reach. (When you use the AT&T sim, you need the country codes too, but IME it's a little trial-and-error.)
...So it just occurred to me: if you've used the AT&T international plan before, were you in Europe? If the answer is yes and your current phone worked okay, then that would be an indicator that you don't need a new phone!
As for your address book:
- I assume your contacts are stored in the phone and not on the AT&T sim card. (I'm probably stating the obvious here, but if they're on the phone, they stay on the phone regardless of which sim is inserted. If they're on the sim, they will only display when that specific sim is inserted.)
- Given my assumption, if you take your current phone to Germany, you won't need to write down numbers because they'll already be in the phone. You'll just need to find a way that works for you regarding that country code prefix stuff.
- If you decide to take the new phone to Germany, I suggest putting your address book on the new phone before you go. I can't tell from the product specs on the J&R page if that phone has a USB cable so you can sync with your computer. (Ideally, you could sync your current phone with Outlook or something on your computer, then sync that with the new phone...)
Just repeating what others have said, you can put your AT&T sim card into the unlocked phone (or any other sim-based phone). As kybourbon said, you can also put the German sim card into the phone you already have. HOWEVER, you need to confirm that your current phone is a quad-band and not tri-band, or it might not work overseas.
I have used AT&T's international plan on short trips overseas. But when I was gone for two months, I decided against it because I knew I'd get a local sim (and did). As I said, it was great to know the AT&T sim would function if I needed it in an emergency, but it was much less expensive to have the local sim. I did a lot of texting to people back home using the local sim, and the cost was reasonable. For longer conversations, I'd schedule a time to skype. (Besides, it was nice to see their faces!)
For the phone numbers, yes the number will be your US one when you have the AT&T sim card in your phone. (Just like when you use your phone with the AT&T international plan.) When you have the German sim card in the phone, it will be the German number in use. Dialing/texting internationally with the German sim, you will need to include a country code prefix to any number you try to reach. (When you use the AT&T sim, you need the country codes too, but IME it's a little trial-and-error.)
...So it just occurred to me: if you've used the AT&T international plan before, were you in Europe? If the answer is yes and your current phone worked okay, then that would be an indicator that you don't need a new phone!
As for your address book:
- I assume your contacts are stored in the phone and not on the AT&T sim card. (I'm probably stating the obvious here, but if they're on the phone, they stay on the phone regardless of which sim is inserted. If they're on the sim, they will only display when that specific sim is inserted.)
- Given my assumption, if you take your current phone to Germany, you won't need to write down numbers because they'll already be in the phone. You'll just need to find a way that works for you regarding that country code prefix stuff.
- If you decide to take the new phone to Germany, I suggest putting your address book on the new phone before you go. I can't tell from the product specs on the J&R page if that phone has a USB cable so you can sync with your computer. (Ideally, you could sync your current phone with Outlook or something on your computer, then sync that with the new phone...)
May 27th, 2012, 08:55 AM
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Thanks ggreen! You have been extrememly helpful. I went ahead earlier yesterday and bought an unlocked phone so I guess I will use that while I travel. I am sure I will text often back to TX because I have never gone away for two months and I will be leaving alot of family (two young adult kids and recently widowed dad, besides many siblings). I am not sure what my living accommodations will be so I am not certain about Internet access. Hoping for the best, I will have access to it daily so I can email, which will save money. I also plan to Skype if I can get to a computer (or be able to use my laptop).
May 27th, 2012, 10:01 AM
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Just go to thr next Lidl and buy a prepaid Lidl-Sim. They're 5€ at the moment pre-loaded with 10€, calls to Germany or the US are 9ct per minute. 5 gig of Data per month are 15€ or 2€ a day for unlimited use. Unfortunately you wnt to buy a crappy Qual-band phone unsuitable for decent data transmissions, such a waste of money when good UMTS phone are available in Germany too for little money. Even chaeper German phones come with UMTS 800/1900/2100 and quad band all in one. Quad band only equals bad dats and monstly unusable connections for Voip.
May 27th, 2012, 10:10 AM
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Those cheap Android UMTS phones from Version 2.3 and up have Voip already build in. You can talk via Voip i.e. provided from sipgate.com for 1ct per minute to the US using only a data connection from you Lidl-SIM for 15€ per month.
r do you my good fiend still think it's just a matter of time.
May 27th, 2012, 10:39 AM
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Swiss Francs are a joke, far worth than $ or €. Switzerland has become a colony and has given in to the US and EU. Invest in things that you will need later in you live, you won't get them as inexpensive as today anymore. If you rent, that's your own house, Diesel oil, clothes,.. anything yo may need in future, precious metals, stock from companies that handle real things that people need and aren't already too expensive.
