Unlocked phone from Ebay
 

Hello All,
I just wanted to confirm this once and for all for myself prior to purchasing. I was going to buy a "cingular" unlocked GSM quadband phone ( moto slvr ) from ebay. Once i purchase the phone, what steps exactly will i need to take in order to use the phone throughout Europe?

Thanks!

If it is unlocked (most likely it is) you will then decide what kind of service you want in Europe depending on where you're going, how often you're going etc.

You will have to buy a sim card package somewhere somehow and there are a myriad of choices. For example, if you told me you were taking one of those if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium type trips, I would give you one set of recommendations.

OTOH if you're spending a week in the UK, then I would give you a completely different recommendation.

Once you purchase the sim card pack which may or may not come with credit, which may or may not come with the phone number, you insert it into the sim card slot of the phone (the instruction book will show you how) and that's basically all there is to it...you can switch sim cards to your heart's content...each time you switch, the phone number changes, your credit changes, the specific policy of the company whose sim card is now in the phone changes.

You can go to a real mobile phone forum, www.prepaidgsm.net and throw out your itineraries, your thoughts there and you are much more likely to get correct answers from the posters there (other than me of course)....

Thanks x!
That was pretty much what I was hoping for. And just to make sure I understand, I WILL NOT have to set up the phone with a particular US carrier prior to using it? I.E. all I will need to do is:
a. get the unlocked phone
b. insert sim card with pre-paid amount of currency on it
c. use phone

Is this right? And if so can I get a sim card with a US#? Will this make a difference?

Ps. and just as a bit of info, i will be traveling throughout Europe for a span of roughly 2.5 months all together.

You have it correct...but no you can't get a sim with a US number but I'll give you a work around...it seems you're going to be in Europe in various countries for 2.5 months..assuming you're not going any further east than Ukraine or Belarus (in other words not to Russia) here is my recommendation (but remember things are changing in the eu and what is a good deal today might not be as good as something else in 3 weeks...but this won't strain your budget very much in any event and I don't see how you can get a cheaper deal.

1. Go to www.united-mobile.com and follow the instructions to purchase a United Mobile sim card...they are pretty reliable although one or two people have described problems...it doesn't matter what currency you buy the card in because you're hardly going to use the credit on it.

2. You will receive with the card a number that is based in Liechtenstein, country code 423....

3. You won't be using this number to receive calls for the most part. Incidentally do not full around too much with it while in the USA...put the sim card in the phone and do a balance check just to get the hang of how it works...it works on a callback basis...you dial the number, hang up wait for a callback and you'll then hear the phone ringing. You'll get a voice telling you your balance...balance requests are free...this is just to verify the phone works.

3. Next go to callback world. Open up an account with callbackworld...(www.callbackworld.com)...opening the account is free...you will at some point enter as your callback number the +423 number from your united mobile account. You will also want to open up a pin2dest account...you will also enter the +423 number. All this set up is free.

4. Upon arrival in Europe turn on the phone and it will register on a local network (example if you're in the UK it might register on Vodafone UK or some other UK provider...if you're in France it might register on Orange F etc.

5. Now at that point you're ready to receive calls. People from the US could call you using the +423 number but admitedly on many US ld carriers, calls to Liechtenstein mobiles can be expensive. So give your friends the pin2dest number you signed up with callbackworld. It is a toll free non dedicated number..they dial it and pay nothing as it is a US toll free number...they then enter the pin cbw assigned to you and the call will route to your +423 number...the caller pays nothing as it is a US toll free number...you pay 14¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals to callback world. Connections range from fair to good...I know I used it a couple of weeks ago while in London and Paris and the connections were excellent...Logos on this board used it in Egypt and reported the connections were poor...callbackworld is basically using an isp and like all the calling cards with oodles of minutes which go over the same kinds of connections. That takes care of incoming calls.

6. For outgoing calls, you can use United Mobile's naitive calling method but callbackworld exists to undercut this by a great deal....to use callbackworld from your Liechtenstein phone, remembering it operates on a callback system, you dial the number in the USA which cbw gave you and you keyed to the Liechtenstein number. To make this call you dial the US number and remembering that since UM operates on a callback system you hang up. In about 10 seconds you will receive a callback from United Mobile...in another few seconds your original call will be completed to the USA cbw number but it won't be answered; instead after two rings you hang up...nothing billable has occurred yet as the call was not completed. A few seconds later you get a 2nd callback, this time from callback world...which will say, "Please enter phone number followed by the number sign key now." It is important you follow this to the letter, you do not press send. After entering the number, the voice says, "Thank you." A few seconds later you will hear the familiar ringing tone and the call goes through. You pay United Mobile nothing as officially you are receiving a call and pay for calls to the USA the same 14¢/minute timed in 6 second intervals not raised to the next highest minute. Done and finished.

I've had a United Mobile sim card for about 2.5 years...it came with 10€ of credit and still have about 6,50€ of credit left...I had to send a couple of text messages as United Mobile requires to keep the card valid some activity every 9 months...the text message, relatively cheap, serves that purpose.

While it sounds complicated, I have sent many people off to Europe with these instructions...they program into the phone the US number which is your callbackworld number (I use 5) so to make a call I press 5, hang up after I get the message to wait, go back to the home screen, answer the first call back, wait for the ringing tone, hang up and the second callback is the one I need to make the call....calls coming in from the USA on the pin2dest work pretty well too.

The only negative I report is there have been a few outages on callbackworld in the past 8 months but you can always fall back on the naitive abilities of the United Mobile sim.

But do remember that if the eu has its way, there might be better and cheaper ways available by next summer but nobody knows just what that will be. As of now, this will work.

Calmassaurus,
I'm one of the ones who had problems with United Mobile. I bought 2 sim cards from them, and 2 unlocked quadband phones on ebay. I also had an unlocked cell in my apt in Paris. The sim cards absolutely did not work on any of the 3 phones and United Mobile won't reply to your emails.

If you do a search on my name you'll find my SOS from Paris and the many things I tried. The short version is - United Mobile did not have service in either Paris or Rome while I was there.

xyz123 -there must be a better service than U-M. It was an expensive mistake for me.

rosetravels...

I have used the service for over 3 years and I have loved it...I have neverhad a problem with it....callbackworld is sort of another story but it has functioned about 90% of the time.....like I said I was on a European tour this past June for 3 1/2 weeks through a variety of countries and it worked flawlessly....some people on various forums have reported some compatability problems...in most cases it has been worked out....

I am not an employee of United Mobile but others on this board have reported the same excellent experience I have had.

Not saying you didn't have a bad experience....but there are reasons this happens...

(Go to www.prepaidgsm.net and see the experiencers of others).....

>.Logos on this board used it in Egypt and reported the connections were poor..
Well basically in Venice it was the same story. At home in Munich, it works MUCH better, with enlinea and callbackworld, at least at this moment. If you try to reach the card using T-Com (T-Mobiles parent company) connections are excellent but cost more than 40 eurocent /min. I guess you get what you pay for. Almost ALL other German phone companies don't connect to United Mobile phones. Germans won't be able to reach you unless they use the "US 0800" number (described by xyz123) you give them to connect to you. If you want to be reached by other Europeans (the hotel), you might consider a U.K. mobile number. They always can be reached i.e. www.globalsim.de

...actually your experience in Germany logos is exactly the same experience many of the long distance (ld) companies pulled in the USA...as United Mobile 9AKA riing) became popular, rate to Liechtenstein mobiles (+423 66..) were raised to astoudingly high rates..even enlinea raised its rate to 42¢/minute although there is another branch of enlinea for half that price. Somehow callbackworld has managed to maintain the 14¢/minute rate and as you noted, using pin2dest you can in effect make your +423 66.. number a USA 001 888 xx toll free in the US number and still pay 14¢/minute..as I noted AT&T ld on its $1/month international plan charges 11¢/minute to call +423 mobiles and you can even, for $1.50/month, get a US toll free number through callbackworld with no pin needed in effect making the US number your +423 number and in most places with use of calling cards and whatever calls to US toll free numbers are very cheap as I understand.

Connections admitedly do vary but then again no isp has as clear a connection as a landline provider and all those calling cards with lots of minutes for very low prices use isp....

The downside is this whole scenario relies on callbackworld maintaining its 14¢ rate and in speaking with the people at callbackworld, the bread and butter of their operation is the large number of united mobile subscribers using their services. I must add, as you probably know, cbw and enlinea have had major computer crashes twice in the past 8 months rendering them not working for a couple of days...but they claim the problems have all been corrected.

Hopefully when the eu gets its hands on this, a lot of the problems can be solved and other alternatives will become available but as you noted there are many UK based international numbers on the Isle of Man which are treated as UK mobile calls (+44 7x) but the ld rates, at least for me, on AT&T and cbw are much higher (although voicestick has become a good alternative for the UK but not Liechtenstein).

It's only a matter of time, however, till intra European roaming will be somewhat like in the United States...the entire country, at least for mobile phone service, is one big calling area and you pay no more to call your neighbor across the street on your cell phone (although it can be free if they use the same provider as you) then to call from New York to Los Angeles. If the eu has its way, the same will be true for a call to Frankfurt from London...too bad companies like vodafone and T Mobile are fighting this (for obvious reasons of course).

I have a United Mobil Sim and used it last year in Portugal, Denmark and Sweden and had no problems.

If you use 10-10-987 calls to Lictenstein numbers are 16 cents per minute (4 cents per minute to a landline, plus a 12 cent per minute surcharge to a cell phone) plus a 53 cents per call connection fee. While that is more than the 14 cents per minute the call back service uses, it's not much more, and it is less confusing. People in the US just dial 10-10-987, then the country code and the cell phone number and it connects - no calling back or anything. Incoming calls are free to the United Mobile Sim. For more information on 10-10-987 go to 10-10-987.com

After I posted that info above I decided to call Comcast, who we now have our phone service with (as part of cabel/internet) to check on their international rates and they quoted me as 9 cents to Lictenstein numbers with no surcharges or connection fees. I asked three times if she was sure that was to a cell phone number (not just a landline number) and she swore she couldn't find anything in their rate info about surcharges to a mobile phone.

<i>I asked three times if she was sure that was to a cell phone number (not just a landline number) and she swore she couldn't find anything in their rate info about surcharges to a mobile phone.</i>

Phone again. BIG issue.

I tried several callback services in trips to Europe, Oz and Africa, and found them all to be so unreliable that I ended up spending a lot more on SIM cards (with airtime that I didn't fully use before leaving the country) than I wanted.

I finally went to Cingular and signed up for a base service that allowed me to keep my US number for international roaming and gave me a big discount on international roaming airtime (for an extra $6 a month in contract cost - that I cancelled when I got home.) Worked like a champ, and I don't have a bunch of defunct SIM chips laying around either.

Easy enough to check out...call your UM phone and it will go to voicemail..hang up. When the bill comes, you will see if indeed she was right or there is a termination fee...can't cost you all that much to find out.

Actually I already did call the United Mobil Sim from my home phone, to make sure it was still working as I hadn't used it since last July. I put the sim in my cell phone and talked to myself! So I just called Comcast to see what I was billed, unfortunately it won't show up for 24-48 hours. I'll let you know when I find out for sure. But this second cust service rep also looked it up and said she saw 9 cents in both the landline and the mobile phone columns. She said for some countries they do have different rates but apparently not for Lictenstein.

Regarding using your Cingular SIM over there. I did that last March (before I got the UM SIM). It is easy to have them activate the International Plan for $6 a month, and then take it off the next month. But calls are still a dollar a minute - in and outgoing so it's not an option except for emergencies or really quick calls. In fact, you can get another International Plan from Cingular, which is free (no monthly fee, don't need to activate or de-activate it when you come back) but then calls are $1.29 a minute. I have that just in case but certainly woundn't use it except in an emergency.