Cell Phone Tips: 2008
More and more travelers are using mobile phones in Europe. How does your US phone work in Europe? Have you found any great deals for buying or renting a phone once you arrive?
- Please don't post questions here. Use our Travelers Helpline.
T-Mobile
For many years now I have traveled Europe and Asia and have never had a problem with my T-Mobile service. I was in Tuscany in September and was happy to have service in that region!
Cindy
NJ USA Sat 11/22/2008
cellphone
Hello, I just came back from Italy and I ordered the BrightRoam cell phone for the trip. The phone was great, I had service everywhere we went! I set up international calls on my home phone so that my family could call me from home and all calls received by the brightroam cell phone were free. I purchased the phone so that if i travel again i could use the phone again and buy a new sim card for $ 25.00 for the trip. caio!
Marie <email>
Hawthorne, NY USA Sat 11/15/2008
Range Roamer is AWFUL!!!!
While travelling in Europe for 30 days, I thought I would try the recommended Range Roamer cell phone. Let me tell you just a few things about this horrible company!
I experienced $2.99 per minute and a random $170 charge that they could not explain. Completely false advertising about the fees incurred and the wonderful service that one is supposed to be getting. The majority of the time the phone did not work. After that entire frustrating experience, I came home to a $1000 bill! I could never receive any calls or text messages, yet I was charged for the attempts. When I wanted to make a call or send a text I got charged one minute even for an unconnected call. They would continuously charge my credit card up to $100 per day-for recharging minutes. This was absolutely absurd, considering that I wasn't even able to get service to complete a call or text message!! Each time I went to another city I had to play a guessing game of which network to manually switch the phone to. When trying to make sense of the online bill, it cannot be done. For the reason that each time a phone call or text message is incoming or outgoing it must go through a call center first; which means that the phone numbers are random each time, making it impossible to trace who the calls were made or received from. Everything was horrible with this company and I would not even wish my worst enemy to endure this kind of torture. I would suggest getting a calling card, except when in Greece!!
Ashleigh
Santa Barbara, CA USA Tue 10/28/2008
International SIM cards
We just returned from Germany. i had purchased an unlocked phone and a GOsim card for our trip. The GOsim service was easy to use and we could call the customer service to get some international dialing codes. we were able to make lots of calls back to the states to update our family although they had a toll free number for our SIM card. I have Verizon at home in the US so couldn't use my phone in Germany.
George
Houston, Texas USA Wed 10/15/2008
Avoid Cellular Abroad
Just got back from Europe. Decided to take along one of their phones. It's sponsored by National Geographic. How bad can it be ? The phone didn't work in London. Their support people suggested we 'experiment' with it to get it to work.This was NOT what I wanted to hear when I really needed to make some phone calls. The instructions are totally outdated. You call, then you get some type of error message, then you hang up, and then it's(?) supposed to call you back. Good luck !
Lutz Moeckel <email>
Garden Grove, Ca USA Sun 09/28/2008
Verizon Global Travel Program
I’ll just “freshen” Leonardo’s post of 6/17/08 about the Verizon Wireless Global Travel Program. For ~$15 (~$10 shipping & ~$5 calling plan rate deduction of 0.30/minute) they shipped me a dual mode CDMA/GSM phone that works in the US or in Europe. When you receive it, just give them a call and they TRANSFER your existing phone number over to the new phone for the duration of your travel. The voice plan is ~$1.00 per minute (incoming & outgoing) for France (where I was traveling). At the end of the trip, you call them to transfer your phone number back to your old phone and ship their phone back with a prepaid mailer.
PROs - No daily rental fee for the phone, very smooth ordering process, you keep your existing number so folks can reach you easily, cost effective if you only plan on making a few calls.
CONs - Not worthwhile if you are not already a Verizon Wireless customer, only a mediocre voice plan rate which could eat you alive if you are making or receiving lots of calls, must return in 30 days or they will hit you with a big fee
Eric
Seattle, WA USA Thu 09/11/2008
Cell Phones in Italy
Just ret'd from a 2-week stay in Italy. Lived there for 12 years until 1999. Thought there would be a phone in my hotel room or that I could buy phone cards and use pay phones. No phone in the room and very few pay phones in either Piemonte or the Veneto. A friend used his Codice Fiscale to help me set up a TIM account. Of course, I should have know that pay phones would be extinct ~ Italians love their 'telefonini'. With the massive influx throughout Italy of immigrants (most illegal), the gov't has instituted the necessity of having a codice fiscale which one can only get through being a citizen or having the permesso di soggirono (Visa). It is the govt's hope that by making life difficult for illegal immigrants, they will return to their home ~ not likely since many probably have no home to return to. As for travelers to Italy, don't leave home without your mobile phone.
Mary B.
Cincinnati, OH USA Mon 07/28/2008
Consider United Mobile or T-Mobile UK
United Mobile is a relative new entrant into the "global" SIM market that is worth considering for those who don't want to bother getting new cards for their phones in every country. It's 29 euro-cents per minute, and about EUR1.49/MB for data. Sure, you can do a bit better with local SIM cards, but $0.50/minute sure beats $0.99 or $1.29 from the US carriers.
Another option for those in the UK is T-Mobile UK. The upside is that, unlike in most EU countries, you can buy SIM cards without IDs in the UK (there's even a vending machine at the Heathrow arrival terminal that takes GBP10 notes). I've found T-Mobile UK the most reasonable for UK data and calls from outside the UK, while all the major UK carriers are pretty reasonable for voice calls within the UK.
KPO'M <email>
Chicago, IL USA Sat 07/26/2008
CELL PHONE TIPS
We just returned from a trip to Sweden. The first thing we did when we arrived was buy a phone card (which we have done many times successfully). The difference this time: the small hotels we stayed at did not have phones in the rooms and many of the street phone booths were gone (we were told because most people have cell phones). When we did find a phone booth and tried to use the phone card, it wouldn't accept the card.
Sharon <email>
Santa Rosa, ca USA Wed 07/23/2008
Cell phone in Europe
I brought my T-Mobile cell phone and before I left I just had to call them and tell them I was going to be in Europe and they turned on the World Travel feature. Having my phone turned out to be a life saver since most of the phone cards we were buying weren't working for some reason. I did end up paying $.99 per minute but it sure did get us out of some sticky situations when we hadn't reserved accommodation in advance. My phone bill was ridiculously expensive but it was worth it. Next time I will still bring my phone but I am going to look into getting a phone card that I know works and just keep reloading it.
Anna <email>
Marysville, WA USA Tue 07/22/2008
cell phones in europe
We have traveled about 6 times to different parts of europe and have never used a cell phone. I have never heard anything but problems with cost, service issues or outright fraud. Instead we use email at hotels or internet kiosks, telephone calling cards (costco/mci/sprint) from payphones and lately telephones at internet kiosks that run about 25 cents or so a minute to the u.s. And we have never really had any problems. The other thing we do is give out our hotel numbers if we know where we are going to stay prior to leaving the u.s. and have one of our kids call there at predetermined times every few days and at anytime for emergencies to leave a message and talk for pennies a minute using our cheap onesuite.com calling plan. This might not work for those who need to be in constant contact with someone, but for the one or so time a day caller, it should work fine.
brian
USA Mon 07/21/2008
cell phones
We just returned from Italy. i had purchased 2 unlocked phones and 2 GOsim cards for our trip. The GOsim service was difficult to use and we had very inconsistent availability of service. we were able to make a few calls back to the states to update our family but it was not wortht the money and hassles. I'll try to find an alternative next time. btw, I have Verizon at home in the US so couldn't use my phone in Italy.
Tony
Atlanta, ga USA Sun 07/20/2008
Cell Phone SIM Card for Italy
I would highly recommend that anyone planning a trip to Italy, NOT use Telestial as a resource for an Italian TIM/SIM card. In 2005, for a trip to Scotland, I had acquired an unlocked multi-band GSM phone and a Virgin Mobile UK SIM card from Telestial, which performed as advertised. In planning for a trip to Italy, I contacted Telestial, first by email and then by phone to confirm their Italy SIM card would work with my phone. I was assured that it would work, but was also informed, that I could only order the card online. I placed the order on 7 March and the card arrived about 10 days later. Included with the card were detailed instructions for registering the phone number via email or fax. These instructions required you to email or fax a copy of your passport, SIM card phone number and ICCID number, street address and send it to Telestial. I complied with these instructions and was notified via email on 5 April that the information had been forwarded to Italy. When I arrived in Italy on 5 May, I was unable to use my phone with the Telestial supplied TIM/SIM card. The phone display said the card was “rejected”. After about 3 days without service, I was able to locate a TIM service center in Siena and learned from them the card had been cancelled. They could not explain why the card had been cancelled. For 10 Euros, I was able to purchase a TIM/SIM card and was able to use my phone. If you are planning to go to Italy, just take your GSM phone with you and purchase a card at a TIM service center. Be sure to have your passport with you. On 19 May, I send the cancelled card back to Telestial, with a detailed explanation of what had occurred and requested they refund my $47 dollars. I have yet to receive a response or a refund from them and I suspect I won’t.
Dave
David D.
Fairfax, VA USA Sun 07/06/2008
Cell phones and computers in Italy
I tried to buy a cell phone and a SIM card in Italy. First, unless they have changed their rules you cannot buy either unless you have a friend willing to put it in his or her name and provide their personal info like social security number (or whatever they call it). Italy keeps a very tight rein on cell phones. Probably makes it harder for terrorists to use them. Once I got the phone I was sold a expired SIM card. This is from a long established shop in Trieste. It was like pulling eyeteeth to get another one and this within 24 hours after they sold it to me and when they looked in their desk, all the other SIM cards they had were expired. Last year, in the Rome airport, I paid to have minutes added (once you get it you can do this without an Italian to sign for you). They took my money but didn't enter the info to add the minutes. Ripped off again by the Itals. Anther Italian story. My 85 year old Italian friend wanted a laptop. We went to the biggest electronics store in Trieste. She bought a computer and we took it home. Would not work with the internet. We took it back the next day. They couldn't get it to work either so they offered to repair it. I said no, we needed it now so I could teach her how to use it while I was there. So we were allowed to pick out another. We were told to come back and pick it up in an hour. We did and she picked it up. When we got it home I saw it was a reconditioned laptop. She had paid well over $1,000 Euro for this thing. However, it worked and she still has it two years later. Always watch your change, even in the best of shops and hold onto your purse wherever you go in Italy.
Mary Small
Waikoloa, HI USA Sat 06/28/2008
Receive only
I bought two tiny unlocked cell phones on eBay. Bought cards (chips) for each in the UK ($30) and France ($20). The cards contained 10 very expensive outgoing minutes. But incoming minutes were free. My daughter and I could use the outgoing minutes if we got separated (we never did), and my wife called us regularly via Vonage from the US for several pennies a minute.
J. Sinclair
Vallejo, CA USA Fri 06/20/2008
Cell Phone Alternative - Onesuite
We took a quad-band cell phone with us to Paris & Normandy, but after seeing the 30 euro price for a sim card, and then the rates/minute for US calls, we decided to pass. Instead, we used local pay phones and a service called www.Onesuite.com. You can prepay minutes, and they have toll free numbers for several European countries (as well as the US). The rates were between 12-20 cents/minute when calling back to the USA. Great price, but you have to find a pay phone or have free access to a phone at the hotel. It worked great for us.
Doug
Altanta, GA USA Wed 06/18/2008
Cell phone tips
0. Find out if you have a quad-band GSM phone; 900/1800Mhz in Europe and 850/1900 North America.
In the US, AT&T, T-Mobile and Alltel use GSM. Not all phones are quad-band, make sure yours is.
1. Call T-Mo or AT&T and they'll unlock your phone. Tell them you're going to Europe and you need to be able to have a local number. AT&T won't unlock an iPhone.
2. www.prepaidgsm.net is your friend to find a good local Sim Card. As a rule, in Europe, incoming calls are free.
3. Specific country tips: U.K.: T-Mobile; get a SimCard. It should be free, or close to free from a real T-Mobile store; Buy a bundle http://tinyurl.com/68hlhv (text C1 to 879)
Germany: Get an ePlus+ sim card. Cost is €20 with a €10 credit; To call the US at good rates, call 0180-5151051, wait for voice prompt, 00-1-area code+ phone; Fees: Mo-Fr 8pm-7am, Sat-Sun all day ~50 eurocents; Other times close to a euro
CZECH REPUBLIC: VODAFONE; get a prepaid card; prices are for direct-dial calls US$0.60 to US$0.75 depending on time of day;
Palal <email>
San Francisco, CA, CA USA Sun 06/08/2008
Telestial sim cards
I have also had problems with Telestial global sim cards. On a recent trip to Australia, the service was down for 5 of the 12 days we were there. When trying to make calls, we received only a cryptic, numeric error code. After numerous calls to tech support, they finally admitted that the service wasn't working and they didn't know when it would be. I had to buy local sim cards so that my wife and I could make calls. I never received any credit for the unused minutes. Save yourself a lot of money and hassle and use a different vendor.
Kelley
Minneapolis, MN USA Mon 01/28/2008
More Mobal
I used a Mobal SIM card in an unlocked phone on a recent UK trip. Mobal is that it's pay as you go, which is a plus. The $1+ per minute is tolerable for limited use, and for me it's more than offset by the fact that incoming calls are free.
I don't know anything about Mobal's phones.
Jonathan Lundell
Lobitos Creek, CA USA Wed 01/16/2008