Cell phone for European travel

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

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.


--
Tim C. Linz, Austria.

"Doug Anderson" wrote in message
...
"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).

EU mandated maximum price for sending a text whilst roaming is 10 cents.
You aren't going to find many (PAYG) plans where that isn't the price for
sending a text whilst not roaming. Receiving is always free.

Or do you mean sending a text to the US? I doubt that costs any different
roaming or not BICBW (It's next to impossible to find out this information)

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

I assume that you mean to the US.

But the will be expensive from the SIM's home country

Calling the US from a UK bought phone with a UK bought (PAYG) SIM usually
costs around 1.50 per minute. I doubt very much that calling the US from
France with a UK bought phone with a UK bought SIM costs any different. I
doubt that a French bough phone and SIM will be any different.

This isn't a calling pattern that you are going to save money on buying
local (PAYG) SIMs.

On the other hand, the extra cost of an unlocked phone can be very low
($0 - $5 is what I'd estimate),

Really.

You can buy locked phone for as little as 10 Euro.

I doubt you're finding (a new) unlocked one at anything close. Yeah you can
buy 2nd hand. I made that mistake - stopped working 6 months later YMMV.

tim

On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:25:30 +0200, Martin wrote in post :
:

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.

Our local shop charges €60 to unlock a phone.

Phew. I've paid various amounts, between 10 and 25.
--
Tim C. Linz, Austria.

Am 21.08.2013 18:13, schrieb Erick T. Barkhuis:
Josef Kleber:

Am 21.08.2013 07:36, schrieb Erick T. Barkhuis:

For instance, in Germany, almost every village and town has one or
more pink 'Deutsche Telekom" booths.

I very much doubt that. There was a report in the newspaper a few
weeks ago, that the last booth got axed. And it's not a village but
the Kreisstadt.

Statistics* show, that the number of cell phones in Germany decreases,
but there are still about 50.000 such public phones available. With
11,000 communities in the country, that's an average of about 5 of them
in each community.

Well, i would say that translates to one booth per about 1600 persons.
It's hard to compare Berlin with Hintertupfingen! ;-)

In the village where I live, with only 1,100 inhabitants, I know of two
phone boxes.

We have zero for 6000! So pssssttttt! Otherwise the Telekom bean
counters will act! ;-)

Josef

Josef Kleber:

Am 21.08.2013 18:13, schrieb Erick T. Barkhuis:

Statistics* show, that the number of cell phones in Germany
decreases, but there are still about 50.000 such public phones
available. With 11,000 communities in the country, that's an
average of about 5 of them in each community.

Well, i would say that translates to one booth per about 1600 persons.
It's hard to compare Berlin with Hintertupfingen! ;-)

So true. I've never managed to compare those two.

In the village where I live, with only 1,100 inhabitants, I know
of two phone boxes.

We have zero for 6000!

That's no fair comparison. Your town has about 10,000 pigeons, so
wireless communication is no issue.
I know for sure, since I parked my rental car around your corner last
week: http://ardane.com/demo/geparkt.jpg

--
Erick

"tim....." writes:

"Doug Anderson" wrote in message
...
"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).

EU mandated maximum price for sending a text whilst roaming is 10
cents. You aren't going to find many (PAYG) plans where that isn't the
price for sending a text whilst not roaming. Receiving is always
free.

Hmm. I looked at the Orange UK website, and that doesn't seem to be
true for their PAYG plan. But honestly, they don't make it easy to
tell, so maybe I misunderstood something.

Last time I needed to do this, I had the impression that taking a
German tmobile PAYG plan into France roughly tripked the cost of
sending local calls and texts. Again though, I haven't got a
reference for that and it was 2011, so maybe I'm wrong or maybe things
have changed since then.

And no, I wasn't talking about texting the US, just the extra cost of
texting while roaming.

Or do you mean sending a text to the US? I doubt that costs any
different roaming or not BICBW (It's next to impossible to find out
this information)

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

I assume that you mean to the US.

But the will be expensive from the SIM's home country

Calling the US from a UK bought phone with a UK bought (PAYG) SIM
usually costs around 1.50 per minute. I doubt very much that calling
the US from France with a UK bought phone with a UK bought SIM costs
any different. I doubt that a French bough phone and SIM will be any
different.

This isn't a calling pattern that you are going to save money on
buying local (PAYG) SIMs.

On the other hand, the extra cost of an unlocked phone can be very low
($0 - $5 is what I'd estimate),

Really.

You can buy locked phone for as little as 10 Euro.

I doubt you're finding (a new) unlocked one at anything close.

The cheapmway to get a new unlocked phinenos to buy a new locked one
and then pay a third party unlocker.

Yeah
you can buy 2nd hand. I made that mistake - stopped working 6 months
later YMMV.

That wasn't what I meant. Though I am typing from my phone that I
bought 3 years ago.

Martin writes:

On 22 Aug 2013 13:07:46 GMT, "Erick T. Barkhuis"
wrote:

Josef Kleber:

Am 21.08.2013 18:13, schrieb Erick T. Barkhuis:

Statistics* show, that the number of cell phones in Germany
decreases, but there are still about 50.000 such public phones
available. With 11,000 communities in the country, that's an
average of about 5 of them in each community.

Well, i would say that translates to one booth per about 1600 persons.
It's hard to compare Berlin with Hintertupfingen! ;-)

So true. I've never managed to compare those two.

In the village where I live, with only 1,100 inhabitants, I know
of two phone boxes.

We have zero for 6000!

That's no fair comparison. Your town has about 10,000 pigeons, so
wireless communication is no issue.

1Mbs broadband pigeon post?

tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549

Frank Clarke wrote:
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 :-)


I particularly like (c) 8-)

I can't use my iPad without a wi-fi connection, but I choose my hotels to
have them 8-).


--
Erilar, biblioholic medievalist with iPad

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.



FrankC
(chg Arabic# to Roman to reply)

On 8/23/2013 12:00 PM, Frank Clarke wrote:

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

Easy-peasey.

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.

Not all US phones are locked. It _is_ possible to buy SIM-free, factory
unlocked phones.