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Old August 24th, 2013, 08:46 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
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Default Cell phone for European travel


"Doug Anderson" wrote in message
...
Frank Clarke writes:

On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:36:40 +0200, "Tim C." wrote:


On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:20:10 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
m :

Is it possible to hit town (Paris, Vienna, Prague...), find a phone
shoppe
easily, buy a cheap phone (40-50 Euros), load it with its brand-new
SIM and get
talking?

In Vienna it'll be a doddle I bet.
As Martin said, you may have to activate it online, but they can do that
in
the shop for you anyway. These often immigrant-run 2nd-hand-shops are
all
over the place. If you're going to MariahilfeStrasse there will
certainly
be some up the side streets if not directly on the street.

Beware although most do, not all SIMs will work with older phones. Do
ask
before buying!

You could do worse than popping into an official 3, A1 or Tele-Ring shop
and ask them. They might have a good deal on some old-stock
non-too-smart
phones in a package. I got one for my son recently for €50 including
phone
and SIM with €10 credit.


Great! (What's 'doddle' mean?)

I originally said 'unlocked' because here in the States all phones are
locked by
default and I know that's not conducive to swapping the SIM. If phones
in
Europe are unlocked as a rule, then getting one there sounds better
and better.


I don't think anyone was suggesting that phones are unlocked by
default in Europe.

But there are people suggesting you just buy a cheap locked phone in
Country1, and then you use that locked phone roaming in countries 2,
3, etc.

My own experience is that in the US it is easy to:

(a) buy a cheap locked phone.
(b) get it unlocked cheaply.


It's relatively easy to do that in Europe too

But sometimes (2) costs more than (1). (As it does with my phone)

tim