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Cell phone for European travel



 
 
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  #21  
Old August 21st, 2013, 08:36 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Frank Clarke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 90
Default Cell phone for European travel

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 09:21:15 +0200, Martin wrote:



My US phone is CDMA -- guaranteed not to work in Europe.

I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone and cheap service for Europe?" Lots of companies offer the
service -- I can look that up online -- but what do you experts opine?


You don't say in which country you want to buy a GSM.


I presume I'll buy it here so I'll have some nodding familiarity with it before
use, but that's an excellent point: is it fairly easy to wander into a store and
buy an unsmart phone for (say) 40-50 Euro?



FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)
  #22  
Old August 21st, 2013, 08:38 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Frank Clarke
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Posts: 90
Default Cell phone for European travel

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 08:23:17 +0200, "Tim C." wrote:


On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:03:30 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
news
I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone and cheap service for Europe?" Lots of companies offer the
service -- I can look that up online -- but what do you experts opine?


There are thousands of second-hand cellphone shops. You can get a cheap
phone there, and get a SIM that will work with it almost immediately.
It's generally simpler to get a pre-paid SIM - for example from
3/Hutchinson, as you shouldn't need any documentation.


I'm presuming you're talking about getting a phone in Europe after I arrive?



FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)
  #23  
Old August 21st, 2013, 08:44 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Doug Anderson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 78
Default Cell phone for European travel

Frank Clarke writes:

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:11:14 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:




My US phone is CDMA -- guaranteed not to work in Europe.

I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an
inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone


Why does it need to be un locked?


Doesn't it have to be unlocked in order to load a SIM? Mercy, guys; I'm at the
stage of not even knowing which questions to ask.


Yes, you were right. You want it to be unlocked if you want to load
a SIM from a carrier other than the one it is locked to.

Tim seems to be questioning the wisdom of your plan at all by telling
you how expensive it will be to get a SIM in each country.

I'm not sure why he feels it is such a bad idea. I figure it costs
roughtly 15-25 Euros to get set up in countries I've been in. And
family in the US can call me for very close to free, so it has been
worth it if I'm going to be in the country for a week or more.

And like you, I've used to coordinate with other people I was
traveling with - also convenient.
  #24  
Old August 21st, 2013, 09:06 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim.....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,591
Default Cell phone for European travel


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

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:11:14 +0100, "tim....."

wrote:




My US phone is CDMA -- guaranteed not to work in Europe.

I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an
inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone

Why does it need to be un locked?


Doesn't it have to be unlocked in order to load a SIM? Mercy, guys; I'm
at the
stage of not even knowing which questions to ask.


Yes, you were right. You want it to be unlocked if you want to load
a SIM from a carrier other than the one it is locked to.

Tim seems to be questioning the wisdom of your plan at all by telling
you how expensive it will be to get a SIM in each country.

I'm not sure why he feels it is such a bad idea.


I thought that I'd explained that:

The costs of calls for a randomly selected PAYG phone will be pretty much
the same as the EU mandated roaming fees.

So the phone that buy to use in your first country will cost you the same
amount to use when you get to the second (country).

You will have to pay the relatively small incoming call costs, but will save
the costs of:

the second, third fourth SIM
the extra costs of the unlocked phone
The costs of calling your contacts to give then the new number each time you
change SIM.

You do have to start with an EU phone. I'm not suggesting that you can do
this with a US phone (assuming that you can find one that works)




  #25  
Old August 21st, 2013, 09:20 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Frank Clarke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 90
Default Cell phone for European travel

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 21:06:11 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:




You do have to start with an EU phone. I'm not suggesting that you can do
this with a US phone (assuming that you can find one that works)



Some US phones are GSM 3- or 4-band, but not many.

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?



FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)
  #26  
Old August 21st, 2013, 09:27 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Doug Anderson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 78
Default Cell phone for European travel

"tim....." writes:

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

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:11:14 +0100, "tim....."

wrote:




My US phone is CDMA -- guaranteed not to work in Europe.

I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an
inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone

Why does it need to be un locked?

Doesn't it have to be unlocked in order to load a SIM? Mercy,
guys; I'm at the
stage of not even knowing which questions to ask.


Yes, you were right. You want it to be unlocked if you want to load
a SIM from a carrier other than the one it is locked to.

Tim seems to be questioning the wisdom of your plan at all by telling
you how expensive it will be to get a SIM in each country.

I'm not sure why he feels it is such a bad idea.


I thought that I'd explained that:

The costs of calls for a randomly selected PAYG phone will be pretty
much the same as the EU mandated roaming fees.

So the phone that buy to use in your first country will cost you the
same amount to use when you get to the second (country).

You will have to pay the relatively small incoming call costs, but
will save the costs of:

the second, third fourth SIM
the extra costs of the unlocked phone
The costs of calling your contacts to give then the new number each
time you change SIM.

You do have to start with an EU phone. I'm not suggesting that you
can do this with a US phone (assuming that you can find one that
works)


I see. You have a point, though it depends on a lot of things that I
don't know how to easily estimate, including on how much you are using
the phone.

The details get complex. I think if you buy a phone in one European
country and want to send/receive texts while in another, it probably
costs at least an extra 10 cents US (though it must depend on the
carriers, countries, plans, etc).

Calls can be quite a bit more extra, though again depending on plan,
country, etc.

On the other hand, the extra cost of an unlocked phone can be very low
($0 - $5 is what I'd estimate), and SIMs themselves are usually very
cheap. In some cases the SIM is free. In other cases you can get one
for 5 Euros and then put 10 Euros worth of credit on it.

If you end up using most of the credit, the 5 Euro tax each time you
change countries and get a new SIM may be countered by the cheaper
costs of sending (and receiving, which is free in Europe if you have a
local) sim calls and texts.

  #27  
Old August 21st, 2013, 10:48 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Mark Brader
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 346
Default Phone booths (was: Cell phone for European travel)

Erick Barkhuis:
Statistics show, that the number of [phone booths] in Germany decreases,
but there are still about 50.000 such public phones available.


As a matter of interest, do most or all of these take coins? On a trip
to France as long ago as 1992, I had trouble because I wanted to make
a phone call when I arrived in the country, but the public phones only
took French phone cards, and there was no place around to buy one.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "The only proven use of antimatter is the production
| of Nobel Prizes in physics." -- Henry Spencer

My text in this article is in the public domain.
  #28  
Old August 22nd, 2013, 06:48 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Erick T. Barkhuis[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 180
Default Phone booths

Mark Brader:

Erick Barkhuis:
Statistics show, that the number of [phone booths] in Germany
decreases, but there are still about 50.000 such public phones
available.


As a matter of interest, do most or all of these take coins?


Certainly not all, as I have seen several that only take cards :-(
Yet, there are many that also take coins (I know of a couple in my
direct region), but I haven't counted them.

On several occasions, I've seen places (like town squares or railway
stations) where multiple phone booths were placed next to each other,
of which just one took coins.

On a trip to France as long ago as 1992, I had trouble because I
wanted to make a phone call when I arrived in the country, but the
public phones only took French phone cards, and there was no place
around to buy one.


....which is quite annoying.
Usually, such cards can be bought in kiosks, tabac shops, local
supermarkets and at railway stations. But what to do if there's no such
place around, or they are closed at the moment you need them?
[OTOH, it's not much different from a prepaid SIM card that you haven't
charged in advance, yet; the cell phone doesn't take coins, either]

--
Erick
  #29  
Old August 22nd, 2013, 08:20 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tim C.[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 920
Default Cell phone for European travel

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:38:00 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
:

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 08:23:17 +0200, "Tim C." wrote:


On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:03:30 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
news
I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone and cheap service for Europe?" Lots of companies offer the
service -- I can look that up online -- but what do you experts opine?


There are thousands of second-hand cellphone shops. You can get a cheap
phone there, and get a SIM that will work with it almost immediately.
It's generally simpler to get a pre-paid SIM - for example from
3/Hutchinson, as you shouldn't need any documentation.


I'm presuming you're talking about getting a phone in Europe after I arrive?

FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)


Er, yes. Sorry, I wasn't clear.
In most towns there are loads of shops that sell new and used phones. They
can also unlock most models. And also sell SIM cards.


--
Tim C. Linz, Austria.
  #30  
Old August 22nd, 2013, 08:24 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tim C.[_5_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 920
Default Cell phone for European travel

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:34:39 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
news
On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:11:14 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:



My US phone is CDMA -- guaranteed not to work in Europe.

I will need a new phone. The base question is "Where to get an
inexpensive
unlocked GSM phone


Why does it need to be un locked?


Doesn't it have to be unlocked in order to load a SIM? Mercy, guys; I'm at the
stage of not even knowing which questions to ask.

You're not going to be signing up for a new "contract" in each country that
you visit, are you?

and if you get a PAYG SIM you will find that "local" call charges are not
any cheaper that the EU imposes roaming charges (mine aren't anyway). And
whilst incoming will be free you will have the added aggro of informing you
callers of a new number each time you visit a new country.


I actually expect to use it only for (a) contacting other members of my party
"Where the hell did you go off to NOW??" or (b) calling ahead to my next lodging
"We're stuck in heavy traffic, but we'll be there. Don't give our reservation
away." or (c) drunk-calling the kids at midnight Paris time to tell them what a
great time we're having on their inheritance :-)

FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)


I see no need for you to get a SIM in every country you go to (that would
be the only reason to get an unlocked phone - so you can use other
companies' SIMs). Personally I'd just get a PAYG card from the first
country you are in, and get any old phone that works with it. That leaves
you with the problem of refilling the card when the credit runs out. But
that can normally be done online with a credit-card number.
(I'm assuming you can get to an internet cafe/hotel at some stage wherever
you are travelling to)

--
Tim C. Linz, Austria.
 




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