Cell Phones in Italy and on cruise

[cwatts15]

I am trying to find out about the best way to use a cell phone in Italy and on cruise (Croatia, & Greece). Do you rent one or buy a SIM card and an unlocked cell phone. My cell phone won't go international. Any suggestions or companies that anyone has used?

Thanks Candy

[cberge]

I am trying to find out about the best way to use a cell phone in Italy and on cruise (Croatia, & Greece). Do you rent one or buy a SIM card and an unlocked cell phone. My cell phone won't go international. Any suggestions or companies that anyone has used?

Thanks Candy

I don't use a cell phone when I travel so can't really help,but there have been a lot of threads re phones on this board so you could do a search and get a lot of info.There is a company a lot seem to like called Mobal and I know there is a link posted for it.

[Bababooey Land]

I bought a phone from Mobal.com for $49. I havent used it yet so i cant comment on how it works. but many people on here gave it very good reviews. i plan on using it during my cruise in Europe.

[Balliett]

Two years ago, we rented a cell phone from Verizonwireless.com which worked all over Italy, Dubrovnik etc, for total charge of about $300 for two weeks, including all roaming charges. We didn't talk a lot. Rings at your own regular cell phone number. Another option now, is that Verizonwireless.com will sell you a cell phone which works in both USA and Europe. For example, the Motorola a840 for "$249 for one year contract." Roaming charges in Europe for about $1.49 per minute. I learned about this at Verizonwireless. com. The local stores seem to have no clue, and didn't return my call. But now here is the option I am considering:

 

Many cruise ships have their own cell phone tower, so to speak, so your clunky old USA cell phone will work just fine on the ship. For "only" $2.49 per minute. Assuming you are a Verizon customer, to find out if your ship has this setup (as does mine, the Regatta) go to Verizonwireless.com, click on international, and scroll for a list of cruise ships so equiped. My plan is to tell everyone our hotel phone numbers for pre and post, in Rome and Venice, and then use the ships cell tower for the ten days on the cruise. Less hassle. It is my understanding you have to tell Verizon you are going international.

[HeinBloed]

I am trying to find out about the best way to use a cell phone in Italy and on cruise (Croatia, & Greece). Do you rent one or buy a SIM card and an unlocked cell phone. My cell phone won't go international. Any suggestions or companies that anyone has used?

Thanks Candy

 

1. Who is your current provider?

2. Do you insist to be available under the same number?

 

You can go in any of this country and and buy a phone there.

 

Prepaid packages incl. credit are sometimes available for 20-30 USD.

 

After you used the credit you just fill up.

 

And when you do leave the country you just have a souvenir.

 

You get a local no. - you save the roaming charges as you are national subscriber.

 

But your familiy and friends who will call will hate you as they have to pay for international calls as they cannot use your "home"-no. and you have to pay for the transfer to abroad...

 

That's the difference.

 

Or you rent a phone before you are leaving:

 

http://www.roadpost.com/

 

or

 

http://www.piccellwireless.com/latest/index.php

 

More infos about GSM-coverage etc. around the world check with

 

http://www.gsmworld.com

 

Some helpful information:

 

TIM for Italy: http://www.privati.tim.it/aree_eng/3/269/tim/0,,269,00.html

T-Mobile for Croatia: http://www.t-mobile.hr/eng/2/20-20-70-00-00.asp

TIM for Greece: http://www.tim.gr/pages.fds?langID=2&pageID=1112

 

I should let you know that these are my preferred carrier when I am abroad.

 

You should think about to check the conditions with T-Mobile in the US as they are a true international service provider:

 

http://www.t-mobile.us/shop/phones/Detail.aspx?class=prepaid&device=723b0fa3-9110-4a13-844a-d78bcb152597

 

Especially if you are planning further international cruises.

 

Regards,

HeinBloed

 

 

On the cruise itself they offer also GSM-Sattelite-Roaming - but this is unaffordable. Therefore we always turn off the phones when we left the coastal areas. And even there you must check for the network information that you are not booked into the service of the ship (or neighbourgh ships while you are in the port) instead of the countryside network.

[cruz1234]

My regular cellular provider, T-Mobile, has international service. All I had to do was have them turn on that feature. I don't pay any more monthly and when I travel internationally I am charged according to the fee structure for that country. (ie: Italy .99/min) The nice thing is Text Messaging is cheap so instead of making calls we can text. Maybe they have this available on their pay as you go phones. Worth checking it out.

[corkpopr]

there was some excellent information posted by others before me, but the best idea is leave it at home. you are on vacation! when i am gone i am not available for anyone for any reason!

[judybee]

My ATT/Cingular GSM service works in Europe and my rate is $0.69 per minute. And as a previous poster said, you have to notify your provider ahead of time.

[nvbabe]

On our Med. Cruise last year we bought the Mobal Phone $49.00. No plans to sign up for, they just charge your credit card for minutes used. The fees vary depending on the country, you can look at the rates on the web site. It worked great for us in Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia and Turkey. It was cheap piece of mind, to be able to contact kids back home or if we were seperated from our private guides.

[gmkal]

I have a Cingular phone. I called Cingular and asked them to unlock my phone. They sent me a code that I punched into my cell that unlocked it and I add on international calling a few days before I go away. Just ask your phone company what their charges are from various countries that you are visiting.

[mahdnc]

On our Med. Cruise last year we bought the Mobal Phone $49.00. No plans to sign up for, they just charge your credit card for minutes used.

 

We also are going to use Mobal but we are getting Mobal SIM cards for our unlocked phones. The SIM cards are free but there is a $10 shipping charge ($5 for a 2nd card).

[dakodacruiser]

We have T-Mobile and we took our phone's to the local T-Mobile retail store and they unlocked our phone's and put in our SIM cards for us. we are able to phone and text message home whenever we are in Europe. They did'nt charge us for anything and the calls don't come up extra except for the minutes. It would be nice to leave our phone's home but with our business, elderly parents and our children we want to be connected. It is also nice to be albe to contact each other when we are not together on our trip.

[TinaLee]

We also have Cingular (AT&T now) and they have the World Traveler international roaming program. You just turn it on for $5.99 a month, and then they charge you by the minute with no roaming charges. It's 99 cents a minute in Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. Text messages are 50 cents, and it's 1.30 to send a photo "home" from your phone. We do have an unlocked GSM world phone (Samsung Sync), so we could technically buy a SIM card in Italy to use while we're there, but we're really only activating it for use in case of an emergency or if we get separated for some reason, so I don't anticipate a lot of usage.

[Jade13]

My regular cellular provider, T-Mobile, has international service. All I had to do was have them turn on that feature. I don't pay any more monthly and when I travel internationally I am charged according to the fee structure for that country. (ie: Italy .99/min) The nice thing is Text Messaging is cheap so instead of making calls we can text. Maybe they have this available on their pay as you go phones. Worth checking it out.

 

But don't you need a triban phone for Europe (Italy and Spain)?

[Jade13]

We also are going to use Mobal but we are getting Mobal SIM cards for our unlocked phones. The SIM cards are free but there is a $10 shipping charge ($5 for a 2nd card).

 

Do you have a link for these phones?

[mahdnc]

Jade13,

 

here is the link to the free Mobal SIM cards: http://www.mobalrental.com/gsm/sim.asp

 

The catch is that you have to supply the unlocked world phone. If you do, then this saves you having to spend $49/$99 with Mobal to buy the phones. My father has a pair of world phones that he is loaning me and I placed the SIM cards inside them. The cards arrived from England in 2 days after I placed the order!!

[swatts1]

Members of my family have been to Europe several times in the past couple of years. Before the 1st trip I got a Blackberry phone from T-Moblie and it has been GREAT for international travel. We can email and text message easily and the cost is almost nothing. Phone calls are a bit over $1 per minute but with the text and email capability we rarely use the phone. I sure do like to have it though and we'll be using the BB again this summer on our Greek Islands cruise.

[116redrock]

Cindy,

You will require a phone which will work in Europe, first of all. Pretty much the whole of the world uses 900 and 1800 Mhz for their frequencies. North America uses 800 & 1900. You will either need a dual band phone for Europe or a quad band phone. They need to be unlocked, so that they will work on any network. One of the best sources for these is ebay. You will then need a SIM card. You can either buy one in North American which will bill you in US$ when you get home or a local one which can be prepaid and you just use up the minutes as you go. One major advantage with buying in Europe is that all incoming calls are free to you as the mobile phone user, with many companies.

Google 'international SIM cards' and see what comes up. It should give you heaps of choices if you choose to buy before you go.

[Capsu78]

I have pointed this out in earlier threads, but part of my cost analysis on the Mobal is the value of having an "international friendly" phone number you can put on all of your baggage, in case it gets separated from me while traveling in a foreign country.

It saved my rear in Paris last year. Re-tagging my luggage also forced me to actually look at the ID on my luggage where I found one piece was still carrying a card from a company I no longer worked for, on a phone extension that had been deactivated! I had been traveling with that bag for close to 2 years!

I am not sure how much effort the baggage handlers at Charles DeGualle would normally put into catching your luggage up to you, but I want to make it as easy as possible for them to contact me if the need arises. In fact, I skipped all addressing and just listed the Mobal phone number on my laminated baggage tags.