Hi everyone...I've checked the forum and the internet and remained confused about international cell phone options -- but seemed to be getting less confused thanks to the information on this site. I'm looking into a few companies and am hoping some Slow Travelers have had some experience with any/all of them to help me narrow things down:

Call In europe
seems to be fairly inexpensive, pay for calls as you make them,
Telestial
Range Roamer
Mobal Rental

The current trip is to the British Isles and Ireland, but it'd be nice to have a phone for future trips to other European countries and elsewhere.
Thanks for your help.
Roberta

Fixed links - marta

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marta,

Each year I have been taking two trips to Italy and spending about 5-6 five weeks total. I have needed to have a phone to send and receive short (3-5 minute) calls to/from the USA. After a bit of research and a bit of trial and error, the best system I could come up with was to buy an Italian cell phone with a TIM SIM card (only 35 euros at the Fiumicino airport) and then sign up with an international company called Rebtel. This puts the costs of the phone calls under 25 cents/minute in either direction. If you are only going to visit Italy once or just need the phone for emergencies this might not be the best system for you.

Thanks Stefanaccio,
I think we could probably buy a phone and sim card at Heathrow as well but am not sure and would prefer to be certain we have things arranged and don't want to have to spend a lot of time at Heathrow as we have to get to London to catch a train north. Some years we travel more than others but lately not every year. But when we do we are going a while -- 6 weeks this time.

Marta thanks for fixing the url links. I had looked it up on the site to refresh my memory on how it's done and thought I had followed the directions but then saw it didn't come out right. Not sure what I did wrong but appreciate the help.
Robeta

I thought callineurope.com sounded pretty good until I read the fine print and saw that you have to make $60 worth of calls per year to keep the service. Otherwise, it costs you $29 a year. However, if the phone they are currently advertising for $19 is unlocked, it might still be a good way to get a cheap phone and just not renew the service.

But you would have to pay $29 for the SIM card, plus shipping. So the total price of the phone would be $48 plus shipping. I couldn't find anywhere on the site that showed the shipping charges up front. Sometimes they zing you a lot for that. Also, I would really like to hear from someone who used the service and was happy with it before signing up for something where I gather you have to give them your credit card to have the calls charged automatically.

I have been pretty happy with the United Mobile SIM card. It costs $40 and comes with $13 worth of talk time, but you do have to get a phone separately. If you can find an inexpensive unlocked GSM phone online (preferably triband or quadband), that would give you the most flexibility. United Mobile has no fixed charges and is pretty easy to keep current. You can read more about in this article on Slow Trav.

I do think the best option is to buy an unlocked phone that isn't tied to any plan. That way, you can put in a local SIM card no matter what country you go to. What kind of cell phone do you have now?

- Roz

Thanks Roz, I thought I had read all the fine print bus missed the minimum yearly charge. The shipping is $12 according to an e-mail I got in response to one I sent callineurope.

We have Verizon so we will need to get an unlocked phone. I have put this off pretty late so I'm prepared to increased shipping charges.
It may be just better to wait and buy something at the airport when we get there. Thanks for the info on the United Mobile sim card. I'll check that one out.

Roberta


Roberta

I don't know about Verizon but with ATT, if you call them and ask, they will either walk you through the process over the phone or e-mail you the code to unlock the phone. You may want to give Verizon a call and ask.

quote:

You may want to give Verizon a call and ask.

Verizon is not GSM, so that won't work. If you weren't leaving for a few months, I'd suggest that you get a T-mobile prepaid plan that comes with a quadband phone, and then get the phone unlocked. But they won't do that until you've had the phone for 3 months. For example, here is a Motorola quadband that only costs $30 from T-mobile. And since it's prepaid, you're not committing to any monthly service costs.

I understand that mobile phone stores are very thick on the ground in the UK, so I don't think you should have any trouble finding a phone once you get there. And at least you won't have any language problem in buying and setting up the phone.

- Roz

I have a prepaid phone w/Tmobile. I was told that I could receive calls when outside of the US, but I couldn't initiate any. I don't know if that applies to making/receiving calls to other non-US phone numbers while outside of the US.

I was also involved in the past two wks w/buying AT&T Wireless prepaid phones. Was also told that the user could receive calls while outside the US but could not make any to the US.

The link Roz provided for a Motorola quadband is for a phone that can be used outside of the US, but I would add not w/a US prepaid SIM card.

quote:

The link Roz provided for a Motorola quadband is for a phone that can be used outside of the US, but I would add not w/a US prepaid SIM card.

No, that's why I said you needed to have the phone for 3 months, so you could get T-mobile to unlock it and put a European SIM card in it.

Gopika, if you have had your T-mobile phone that long, call their customer service and ask them for the unlock code. Then you can buy an inexpensive SIM card in any European country and replace the T-mobile card.

- Roz

Hi Roz,

I think I might have missed the point. I have already gotten the phone unlocked so I had the option to switch US carriers if I wanted to. I thought you were suggesting using a US pre-pd SIM overseas. Both Tmobile and AT&T have told me that their pre-pd SIMs can only be used to receive calls while abroad, but not to make them. Not sure that has anything to do w/whether or not the phone is locked or unlocked. I don't travel abroad, yet, so I hadn't inquired about that.