yviebee

Could someone please direct me to a website or a place where I can buy an international cell phone? Do I have to buy it in Europe or can I buy it here? Where can I get service? I am tired of renting them, its so expensive, I was hoping to cut down on future costs by buying my own, but I dont' know where to start.

SeaUrchin

I bought mine from a web site here in the USA, they guarantee that it is unlocked. I called them directly and ordered it by phone and it came within the week and I charged it at home before I left.

www220giftcenter.com

When I got to Italy I bought a TIM card at one of the stores and had the phone working in a few minutes.

I am so glad I had it and now I will bring it with me whenever I travel there.

wanderer

SeaUrchin -
US cell phones will not work out of country?

What is a TIM card and what kind of store do you get it at?

Can I ask approx. how much such a phone would cost?

Thanks.

PLMN

Go to your local cell phone store and tell them you want a phone you can use in other countries such as Italy. I was sold a World Phone by Motorola at the Cingular store.

From what I have read here on the boards you will want to make sure it unlocked.

Sally

ttt

Mariastefnyc

I just bought a motorola v600 cell phone. Before buying it I took out my yellow pages called some stores that sell cell phones in ny. After my 3rd call, I found a place that said they do have the motorola phone I wanted and that I could buy it either locked or unlocked. I went to the store, the salesman showed me the phone it was from cingular. I asked him to prove it was unlocked. He then took out the sim card and it was a T-mobile sim card. If it was locked it would of only accepted a cingular sim card since the phone is by cingular. The phone cost me $200. It is a new model phone with lots of features. It is also a Quad band phone so I do not have to worry about the frequency. I read somewhere that this is the first GSM quad band phone.
I also went to another cell phone store asked the salesman to look at my phone and tell me if it is unlocked just to be sure. He said yes, and that getting a phone unlocked is not a problem he would of done it for me for a couple of dollars if I brought in a locked cell phone. I did call T-mobile just to see if they unlock phones they said they unlock phones after 3 months. I could not wait that long, I'm leaving to Italy in 2 weeks!
Hope this information helped.
MS

repete

do a google search for ``unlocked GSM world phones'' and you'll find plenty of places selling or renting phones at better rates than t-mobile, cingular or others.

rex

<<US cell phones will not work out of country?>>

Not an "ordinary" one. There is a history (that I cannot recount correctly, I'm sure) as to how the US got started on (one of?) a (few?) standard(s) that do(es) NOT comply with the worldwide standard of GSM. But GSM-compatible phones ("tri-band" and some other names) are starting t come on the market in the US. Pricy, for now, and not an obvious choice unless you are badly in need of a new phone, and plan to travel quite a bit.

<<What is a TIM card and what kind of store do you get it at?>>

Not sure I can answer this one exactly - - I don't know the acronym for sure; Telephone Inerconnect Minutes? - - it's roughly an equivalent form of pre-paid minutes on a card or chip. You get them at stores anywhere in Europe, maybe other continents too.

<<Can I ask approx. how much such a phone would cost?>>

Phones can be purchased for 80 euro or thereabouts in many countries (this might not be entirely current pricing), and if bought IN Europe (maybe elsewhere too), the first 25 euro of outbound calls are included with the purchase of the phone. It' quite common to buy a phone like this with no contract, no "monthly minutes", unlike in the US. Pre-purchase as you need. And incoming calls are quite typically free.

Hope these answers are helpful, and more or less all coorect.

Best wishes,

Rex

SeaUrchin

I bought a sony ericsson T200 from that web site. It was not very expensive and it works fine, I never lost a signal and it is programable (sp?). You can check the site again and see what the price is. This place guarantees that they are all unlocked, just charge up the battery and when you reach your destination look for a TIM store, your hotel can help you. It takes just a few minutes like I wrote and I called my friend in Italy from the counter at the shop, it was so fast.

It is the easiest way to buy and connect in my opinion. Don't worry, I found all this information here on Fodors before I made any false moves.

Seamus

The SIM card - stands for Subscriber Identity Module - is the "brains" of the unit, tells it the number of the phone, which company's signal to pick up and which account to charge. Suspect the earlier reference to a TIM refers to Telecom Italia Mobile, the SIM issued by that company.

If you use a cell phone in the States (presuming that is your residence) you can avoid the hassle of managing two phones by using the same phone both places. Do this by getting a phone that is GSM triband (or quadband) and either:
Option 1. Make sure it is unlocked (not restricted to service by one wireless phone company) and purchae a SIM card in Italy that you will insert in the phone. You will then have an Italian phone number. Incoming calls are usually free, but you will pay LD plus air time to call back to the States, and people in the States will have to dial (and pay for) your Italian phone number to reach you. You can buy the Italian SIM card in advance (www.telestial.com is one place) so you will know your Italian phone number before you depart from home, or just purchase in Italy and call or email your number to those folks back home you want to have it.
Option 2: Stay with a US wireless company that offers some sort of discounted European roaming plan. I did this with AT&T, others may have something similar. The advantage is that I kept my US number, didn't have to keep track of multiple SIM cards. There is a small monthly charge, but you can sign up right before your trip and cancel when you return. With this plan, calls are a total of .89 minute. When I figured up the cost of getting the initial SIM in Europe (at least US$40-60) it seemed easier to just go with the AT&T plan. If you are going to be there for an extended period, it may work out diferently for you.

One last thing - since these GSM triband or quadband phones are a new product in the US they do tend to be pricey. I bought an unlocked triband GSM on eBay for about US$100.
Happy travels!

Hopehana

You can go to Terminal A in Rome airport to Vodaphone store and rent a phone for italy. You get a phone number and can buy increments of time. You then can add on at any store, they are in any town, i added more time in Montipulciano. You do not have to worry about getting a phone here and they are expensive for the time. You are billed by Italian phone time rates much more reasonable.

ssachida

This thread answers a ton of cell phone questions
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1

ssachida

sorry ignore the previous post, the link copy/paste didn't work like I expected it to. Instead try searching for "nokia" or for posts by xyz123. He has some really good tips.

ssachida

"Cell Phones In Italy" is the title of that post

rex

Here's the URL that ssachida was tring to post:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34499569

wanderer

I like the idea of renting a phone better than buying one I will use only once (they don't work in the US correct?)

Does anyone know if there is such a kiosk/store (Vodafone or other)in Venice that someone mentioned is at the Rome airport?

We are supposed to call the person with key to our apartment to meet us as soon as we arrive. I assume there are pay phones at the airport. Hopefully we will be able to figure them out. We had a heck of a time in Paris with their phones - bought a phone card and never could get the phones to work!!

xyz123

I'll let it go at this...

Generally if you're going to be in Paris for at least a week, and since you are getting an apartment I assume you are, renting a phone is throwing money away. Read some of the threads and you will find it is not true that US phones will never work in Europe; many tri and quad band GSM phones certainly do depending on your carrier.

And when you are finished, the phone is far from a worthless piece of junk. You can sell it on e bay or to a friend, you can use it on your next trip to Europe, you can loan it or give it to your kids when they travel. You can buy workable GSM phones for as little as $50 either here or in Europe.

21st century technology is slick and itg works...just do a little homework on some of my answers in other threads and save yourself lts of money and don't be ripped off by renting a phone.

sera

I bought an unlocked motorola on ebay and it worked fine in Italy.

Mariastefnyc

I just bought my world phone a quadband Motorola v600 phone that will work in the us as well. All I have to do is buy a sim card when i get to italy. My phone is also unlocked which is very important if you want your phone to work in italy.
MS

Byrd

Three of our friends have Cingular phones which work perfectly in Europe, at least in Paris, Amsterdam, and Prague that I know of.

The phones are all from our local Cingular office in small town Alabama, so I'm sure they are available anywhere.

They have their same phone numbers in Europe.

Byrd