Which cell phone company for the Eastern Meditterean
 

I will be on a cruise in the Eastern Meditterean later this year. I will need to have a cell phone so family in the US and Canada can contact me. I have read that some companies let you travel with a cell phone and friends and family can call you without paying for long distance. How does this work? Which companies have good coverage in Greece , Italy and Turkey?

Thanks in advance.

You'll need a cell phone that works in Europe and that you can use with a cell phone network other than your present one. If you use a cell phone in the US, you can use it in Europe only if a) your cell phone is GSM, i. e. your American cell phone network is AT&T or T Mobile, b) your phone operates on the European frequencies, 900 and 1800, in addition to the American frequencies, 850 and 1900, and c) your phone is unlocked. If you don't know the meaning of these terms, search this forum or the internet using search phrases like "sims", "cell phones", "GSM", and "unlocking cell phones". If you have a phone satisfying a), b) and c), some of the sims sold by

www.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Sims

and

http://www.rangeroamer.com/

will work. If you have the right kind of cell phone but it's locked, your company will probably unlock it for you. If not, look for unlocked gsm phones on ebay.
Inexpensive ones that will work in Europe are the Nokia 6610, available (used) for $40 to $50, and Motorola V190's or V195's, for $20 - $30 more. You can also buy an inexpensive phone that will work in Europe from telestial.com, but I don't know if their sim is the right one for you. Finally, I'd check with the cruise company before you do anything to find out if you can receive calls at sea.

If you have AT&T or T-Mobile with a quad band phone and have international roaming you can receive calls in the Eastern Med with your US number. The cost to you is about $1.29 with AT&T or $0.99 with T-Mobile for Greece and Italy and Turkey at $2.29 and $1.99 respectively. The cost for cell service on Costa Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean with T-Mobile is $4.99 a minute. I'm not sure about AT&T. The cost to the people in Canada and the USS is the same as if they called you cell phone from home.

There may be other services but I don't know of them.

sjj an DCJones, thank you.

Check with your cruise line...a LOT of them are now equipped to let you use your cell phone on board (using their tower) and the billing is done directly by your home carrier..NOT the cruise line.

www.voyportmobile.com is a good place to check out. I'm getting a SIM from them for my personal cell phone for my trip to the UK next month. They also sell phones, if you would like to purchase one. OR, you could always buy a cheap GSM Quad band cell phone on ebay, and purchase a SIM from voyport or another company. But anyway, send you a SIM for the country, or countries, that you're going to. They give you a "Find me number" which is the number you would forward your cell, home, or office numbers to. The Find Me Number is in the same area code as the numbers you're forwarding. So, friends back home can still call your home, cell, or office number, and it rings to you, wherever you are, and they are charged just the same as any other time they call you in your home area.

Also, you get an International Mobile Number which is a number that is local to the area you are travelling in, so if you want to give your number out to anyone in that area, they can call you and it's local for them.