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#41
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Cell phone for European travel
On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:24:53 +0200, "Tim C." wrote:
On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:34:39 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post : news 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) I expect so. We rarely do more than one or two countries on a trip, so I'll probably get a SIM at the first stop and eat the overcharges when out of its home range. Some here seem to be saying I should just get a new phone for each trip. Did I misunderstand? That doesn't seem to be a very cost-efficient method, but given the cost of electronics these days...?? We're also contemplating a "repositioning cruise" to get us -to- Europe, followed by 5-6 months on the road (possibly in an RV), followed by a repositioning cruise to get us back (to Florida). In that case, we'd break the two-country rule easily. I suspect that might change the equation some, but I expect it won't matter much. What I'm hearing is that it's fairly easy (minutes or hours rather than days or weeks; tens of dollars rather than hundreds) to get communicating. That's a relief. I will stop worrying about getting the right kind of phone here pre-trip and just buy one locally when I arrive. FrankC (chg Arabic# to Roman to reply) |
#42
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Cell phone for European travel
On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 18:22:12 +0000 (UTC), Erilar
wrote: Frank Clarke wrote: 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-) We actually did that: http://tbm-mo.home.mindspring.com/20.../IMG_9827.html The kids STILL tell the story to great laughter. That trip, BTW, was the first with a phone of my own and I have vowed NEVER to go to Europe without a phone I can use. $0.39USD per outgoing minute anywhere except Asia/Australia, incoming minutes free. The phone was $60USD and I used 99 minutes, $39.61. Best $100 I ever spent. FrankC (chg Arabic# to Roman to reply) |
#43
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Cell phone for European travel
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. But each time I've done this I've checked beforehand that there was someone who seemed to be selling unlock services for that phone cheaply. |
#44
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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 |
#45
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Cell phone for European travel
On Fri, 23 Aug 2013 12:00:08 -0400, Frank Clarke wrote in post :
news Great! (What's 'doddle' mean?) Easy peasy, a cinch, dead easy. -- Tim C. Linz, Austria. |
#46
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Cell phone for European travel
On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:16:46 -0400, Frank Clarke
wrote: This question is mostly for the USians on the group but anyone else is, naturally, welcome to chime in. I need advice on a CHEAP way to have a cell phone available for travel in Europe. It doesn't have to be fancy (God, please let's not get into another ****ing contest over the glories of smart phones!). All it has to do is make and receive voice calls. 1. Get a simple, unlocked GSM phone on ebay. 2. When you get to your country of destination, go to a mobile phone store (e.g. Vodafone) and buy a SIM card with prepaid minutes. Do this for each country. (This probably makes sense if you are to spend a week or more in each country. If you're just there for a day, don't bother.) |
#47
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Cell phone for European travel
In article ,
Martin wrote: 1. Get a simple, unlocked GSM phone on ebay. 2. When you get to your country of destination, go to a mobile phone store (e.g. Vodafone) and buy a SIM card with prepaid minutes. Do this for each country. If you get a Vodafone SIM card and set it to International you get 45 minutes of foreign calls plus 200 free SMS free valid for a month for every EUR 20 of credit you buy. Free SIM card sent to an address via http://landing.vodafone.nl/281112-Fr...id=EMAIL&cms_c hannel_id=ECRM Isn't Vodaphone one of the poorer options in terms of pricing and coverage? Anyways, these days, you also have to consider data as well. There's a proposal by the EU to abolish all roaming fees within the EU. They want to see pan-European carriers and alliances form, so that more investment is made to improve the networks. So the member states would have to approve but the industry is against it and is expected to lobby the individual national govts. to reject the proposal. If approved, presumably smaller carriers would get squeezed out or lose customers who want to travel across borders regularly. |
#48
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Cell phone for European travel
1. Get a simple, unlocked GSM phone on ebay.
Make sure it's at least tri-band (preferably quad-band) if buying in the US. If you buy in Europe, Belgium is the best place to buy because all phones are unlocked (by law). You should find dual-sim phones for as little as 30 EUR. Triple-sim phones go for around 90 EUR in Belgium. There's nothing to stop users having more than one SIM card per country. That's the most sensible, in fact. I suggest a 3 sim phone. Get a 15 EUR sim chip in each country you enter. |
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