Cell Phone

[dinosaurdem]

If two people have cell phones from the US. can they call each other at FCO (Rome Airport) without any modifications?

[cruisestitch]

There is not enough information here for you to get a good answer -- what style phone, who is the carrier, do they have international roaming turned on, those are just three questions to start with....

[dinosaurdem]

There is not enough information here for you to get a good answer -- what style phone, who is the carrier, do they have international roaming turned on, those are just three questions to start with....

 

I have no idea what kind of phone the other person is carrying. Mine is a throwaway with prepaid minutes. The carrier is T-mobile and I know about international roaming, but, as I asked, can I make a phone call to another person arriving at FCO from the US without any additional purchases or changes in service?

[Lsimon]

First you need to know if your cell phone is compatible with the service in Rome. If it is ATT the answer is probably yes. If it is Verizon the answer will probably be no. Your cell company probably has this info on their web site and if not then you can contact them through their web site or by calling their customer service number.

 

Second, and this is based on my experience with ATT, you have to have international roaming turned on for each phone. There is no charge for this but they might try and sell you a package when you call to ask that this is done. For example ATT has a package which is $5/month and provides a very small discount off the normal international roaming rates ($0.99/min vs. normal rate of $1.39/min for ATT in Italy).

 

Third, you'll probably have to add either the prefix 00 (zero zero) or + (plus sign) as a dialing prefix before you dial 1 and phone number with area code.

 

Fourth, both you and the US cell phone you're calling will be charged the international roaming rate for the phone call.

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Edit: Saw that while I was replying you posted that you have a T-mobile prepaid phone. I don't know how those work but I'd recommend calling T-mobile to find out and to have international roaming turned on for the phones.

[cruisestitch]

I think that, for a start, you'll need to find out what the other person's got in order to get your answer.

[BKFlowerMound]

LSimon (as usual) is giving pretty good advice.

 

Not to get too technical, European countries use the GSM standard. AT&T and T-Mobile also use that standard. Thus, an AT&T or T-Mobile phone has the potential to work in Europe. A Verizon or Sprint phone will not work.

 

Thus, as LSimon said, you will need to know who your carrier is (T-Mobile, apparently) and who your friend's carrier is as well. If your friend has Verizon or Sprint, both of them have programs where they will lend you a phone that can be used in Europe. Have your friend call their carrier as well.

 

I'm not sure that your prepaid minute phone (even though it is T-Mobile) will work in Europe. I would call T-Mobile to find out.

[illiniwahoo]

the short answer is no. There may be ways to make it work, bu the likelyhood of both your phones working without doing anything special is slim.

[dana77kc]

Since there seems to be a high level of expertise on this thread, please advise...

I have 2 cell phones, an American ATT cell plan Iphone 4 and a UK phone on a TESCO prepay as you go plan. Any comments on which might be better/less expensive to use in Europe/others on our TA...Lisbon, LeHarve, Tennerife, Azores etc.?

Thanking you in advance,

Dana

[Bosjoe]

With Sprint and Verizon you need to have a phone with GSM capabilities. You also need to have internation phone service enabled by calling a csr. If you have a Iphone with ATT this will work. With Verizon and Sprint you need to have a Iphone 4s and higher to work, or any of their world phones that have gsm.

As Lsimon said its best to contact the carrier.

[Lsimon]

Since there seems to be a high level of expertise on this thread, please advise...

I have 2 cell phones, an American ATT cell plan Iphone 4 and a UK phone on a TESCO prepay as you go plan. Any comments on which might be better/less expensive to use in Europe/others on our TA...Lisbon, LeHarve, Tennerife, Azores etc.?

Thanking you in advance,

Dana

 

I have no idea what the rates are for the UK phone, but the ATT phone rates are all listed on this page:

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/international-roaming.jsp

You select your country or ship and the rates come up. Once you select a country or ship and see the rates you can click 'details' and the text messaging rates will come up. The data rates (email, internet, etc) are too high to think about using unless you buy an international data package which is only good on land and not on the ship. There are lots of the issues involved in using internet/email data on a smart phone out of the country.

[dinosaurdem]

T-mobile customer service is not the best, but they say that international roaming is automatic on all their phones for Italy. Calls are dialed 9-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx and billed at $1.49 per minute. No requirements for the receiving American phone in Italy. Who knows?

[Denny01]

Who Knows? I know.....the receiving phone has to have access to the phone system also. If it is AT&T or T-mobile and some others, than you can call it. But for a number of systems, you cant call it, and for those that do have Interantional/Italy access, they may very well need to be set up for International Calls.

 

So to answer the to original question, no you have to know what the other caller's system is and it will most likely take some preset before going to Italy.

 

Good luck, but it will take some work to insure you can call, you cant just bet that you can just turn it on and call, and you'll get through.

 

Den

[Lsimon]

T-mobile customer service is not the best, but they say that international roaming is automatic on all their phones for Italy. Calls are dialed 9-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx and billed at $1.49 per minute. No requirements for the receiving American phone in Italy. Who knows?

 

I presume what you were told is accurate. But just in case you can't get through while you're there, try the "+1" instead of "91" the + is usually marked on the "0" key of the phone and is generated by holding that button down until the plus sign appears for most phones. Just tuck that tidbit in your memory just in case.

[bigbenboys]

Since there seems to be a high level of expertise on this thread, please advise...

I have 2 cell phones, an American ATT cell plan Iphone 4 and a UK phone on a TESCO prepay as you go plan. Any comments on which might be better/less expensive to use in Europe/others on our TA...Lisbon, LeHarve, Tennerife, Azores etc.?

Thanking you in advance,

Dana

 

I would say the Tesco prepay phone. Their rates might be lower and if anything you have more control with a prepay phone. I've come home from the Middle East with some high phone bills. Verizon does have Global phones. I'm on my 3rd. Some of my friends get Sim cards from the country they are visiting and put them in there phones. I have not done that yet. What I have found is finding a free hot spot and using the internet for calling from my phone. You will have to download the right app. The app I use is 2 cents a minute from my cell phone and free from my laptop. You might get internet at ie a coffee shop, pubs, hotels or your internet on the cruise ship. Hope this help and might give you a insight of options. Richard

[MonDreamr1]

I have no idea what kind of phone the other person is carrying. Mine is a throwaway with prepaid minutes. The carrier is T-mobile and I know about international roaming, but, as I asked, can I make a phone call to another person arriving at FCO from the US without any additional purchases or changes in service?

 

Do you know if your phone is dual or quad band? Other than the international roaming for usage, if both phones are quad band gsm it should work. If they were only dual band you'll have problems.

 

If you don't know it usually says under the battery or just google the phone model for international use. I don't know how old your phone is, not sure if this will be a problem for you. Better to check before you go.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I would say the Tesco prepay phone. Their rates might be lower and if anything you have more control with a prepay phone. I've come home from the Middle East with some high phone bills. Verizon does have Global phones. I'm on my 3rd. Some of my friends get Sim cards from the country they are visiting and put them in there phones. I have not done that yet. What I have found is finding a free hot spot and using the internet for calling from my phone. You will have to download the right app. The app I use is 2 cents a minute from my cell phone and free from my laptop. You might get internet at ie a coffee shop, pubs, hotels or your internet on the cruise ship. Hope this help and might give you a insight of options. Richard

 

Richard, what's the name of that ap?

[MonDreamr1]

Richard, what's the name of that ap?

 

Skype?

 

I haven't used it on my phone recently as the original app was buggy, but it works the same way on my iPad, free to call other Skype users and $0.02 a minute to call landlines/cellphones.

 

I thought Skype was blocked on cruise ships, might have been too slow, then you do have the ship internet time cost too.

[bigbenboys]

Richard, what's the name of that ap?

 

I use Skype. There are 2 different app's out there. You need the Skype with blue back ground and the white "S". I have not tried it on the cruise ship yet. So far I've used Skype in Germany, England, Greece, Japan and Australia. Richard