Mobile Phones for 10 days?

Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

(Porkchop Express) wrote in message . com...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?


10 days is short and you won't find, I'm afraid, an operator that
allows you to make calls in three different countries. Receiving calls
will be easier.

Renting a phone is possible but expensive.


The simplest would be, I think, to bring along a SIM-unlocked GSM
phone, and to buy a prepaid card attached to a number. These cards
generally cost around €30 and give you the corresponding call credit.
They are valid for 6 months to one year unless you reload credit,
which extends in proportion the validity date.

The problem for you is to roam in three countries. A sound choice
would be to take a card from a big operator that has subsidiaries in
every country you visit. Vodafone does ( SFR network in France ).

"Porkchop Express" wrote in message
om...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

Renting a mobile phone is very expensive. For 10 days' rental you can buy
what you need. Get an unlocked GSM phone with both 900 & 1800 MHz and a HOP
Mobile roaming prepaid SIM. Or check with your carrier to see if they
provide GSM roaming in Europe. Look at these two websites:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net
http://nordicgroup.us/intlrate


--
Donald R. Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net

(Stanislas) wrote in
om:

10 days is short and you won't find, I'm afraid, an operator that
allows you to make calls in three different countries.

Why not? A lot of prepaid SIMs are roaming enabled out of the box.

Receiving calls will be easier.

I'm not aware of a product which allows passive roaming but disables
active.

Renting a phone is possible but expensive.

More expensive than buying probably.


The simplest would be, I think, to bring along a SIM-unlocked GSM
phone, and to buy a prepaid card attached to a number.

Probably easier still is to buy a phone + SIM package in the first European
country the OP visits. He/she should not buy the first he finds though, but
research the market beforehand (internet) and limit his choice to those
products which positively allow international roaming by default. He can
limit his search on the networks of the first European country.

The problem for you is to roam in three countries.

Not really, as I said. Prepaid SIMs with roaming function exist, some of
them out of the box. But only a subsection are, therefore previous research
is recommended.

Regards

--
People who are not capable of designing/producing/repairing things, go into
sales and marketing. If they fail there too, they go into journalism.

"Wolfgang Schwanke" wrote in message
...
(Stanislas) wrote in
om:


Renting a phone is possible but expensive.

More expensive than buying probably.

Quite so. Vodafone is selling a phone + SIM for £40.00

Not really, as I said. Prepaid SIMs with roaming function exist, some of
them out of the box. But only a subsection are, therefore previous
research
is recommended.

I've not found a UK prepay SIM which isn't roaming enabled by default.

Porkchop Express schrieb:

Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

Think about buying a dual- or triband GSM phone via Ebay which you
should be able to get for 20 $ or so.

Then look for prepaid cards in the countries. I dont know about spanish,
French or english ones. But german ones allow roaming but EXPENSIVE.

Remember: in Europe incoming calls on mobile phones are free if you are
in YOUR country. We call it roaming if you are in another country.

There is a very interesting prepaid system which is valid for nearly all
countries. Look at www.united-mobile.com. Incoming 50 c, outgoing 80 c
per minute all over europe!

But be aware, their system is not working with all phones.
Its working mainly with Siemens phones. Older ones like the S35 should
be available for a reasonable price of 20 or 30 $ or so (used).

Wolfgang

In article ,
says...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

You might consider trying http://www.cellhire.com/

They offer tri-band phones for rental which work in all the places you
mentioned.

Some internet car rental companies such as Kemwell and Auto Europe have
special rates for the rental phones when included with a car rental.

For a trip to the UK in 2002, we got the phone rental free for 18 days,
were billed for the time used, and got delivery in the US before we left
for the UK.

Richard

antec wrote in message iganews.com...
In article ,
says...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

You might consider trying http://www.cellhire.com/

They offer tri-band phones for rental which work in all the places you
mentioned.

Some internet car rental companies such as Kemwell and Auto Europe have
special rates for the rental phones when included with a car rental.

For a trip to the UK in 2002, we got the phone rental free for 18 days,
were billed for the time used, and got delivery in the US before we left
for the UK.

Richard


Thx for all the tips everybody! Good looking out!!

"antec" wrote in message
ganews.com...
In article ,
says...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

You might consider trying http://www.cellhire.com/


Only if I were seriously deranged

The call charges quoted are outrageous, the cheapest in the
UK being 90c per MINUTE for UK calls and $2.40 per minute
to call the USA

You can BUY a dual band GSM phone in the UK for £50 that
charges 30p per minute at most for UK calls and 90p per minute
to call the US and it works anywhere in Europe

Try T-Mobile or Orange

Keith




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hi, This spring I bought a Tri Band GSM phone with a TIM card for
Italy. The Tim Card allowed roaming in Northern Europe and incoming
calls free. Card good for one year. Recharge at any tabac or TIM store.
Got a TMobile card for US, every thing charged for (expensive!) and
good for only two months. Consequently, US card used only for
emergencies and recharged minimally. Overall, a great blessing while
travelling in Europe, considering that pay phones are always located in
the noisiest places where hearing is difficult even if Italian were
spoken slowly. billfrogg

In article , Porkchop
Express wrote:

antec wrote in message
iganews.com...
In article ,
says...
Any suggestions on getting a mobile for 10 days for travel to
Barcelona, Perpignan, and London. Prepaid phones? Which phone
companies out there offer such services?

You might consider trying http://www.cellhire.com/

They offer tri-band phones for rental which work in all the places you
mentioned.

Some internet car rental companies such as Kemwell and Auto Europe have
special rates for the rental phones when included with a car rental.

For a trip to the UK in 2002, we got the phone rental free for 18 days,
were billed for the time used, and got delivery in the US before we left
for the UK.

Richard


Thx for all the tips everybody! Good looking out!!