Recommendations for Cell Phone in Europe

[CaliJohn]

My daughter works for Princess on the Grand and will be in Europe from Mid April through June. We'd like to get some time of cellphone access to her during this period. She has a Verizon CDMA cellphone so that's probably no help.

 

Can anyone recommend a cost-effective solution? We're probably only going to be talking a couple times a week.

 

Thanks for the assistance.

[Pam in CA]

I can't speak about Verizon but I've got AT&T. I pay $5.99/month for international roaming and have used my phone throughout the world, from China to Russia, Norway, Israel, Egypt, etc. I can send and receive calls without a problem. The ONLY place I had a problem was in Shanghai. As soon as I left the city limits, I had no problem. The cost per minute depends on where you are. It can vary from $1.25 - $5.95/minute; Europe and the Caribbean are the least-expensive.

[Sunviking]

Hi,

In October on the Emerald Princess Venice to FLL many of us bought phones from Mobal. The phone cost me $49 and it worked fine in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. I didn't use it much and got some free minutes when I bought it and evidently didn't go over that amount. You can Google Mobal and find their website. It lists prices per minute there. They also sell one for more money that will work both in Europe and the US.

 

Ann

[SharC]

We also bought the Mobal phone but we bought the $98 dollar one because it is good in Mexico also. It worked great and the cost of calls was not bad. We used it to keep in touch with people we traveled with. Our friends went on after the cruise and were able to keep in touch with their travel agent when they ran into a few problems.

[Lsimon]

Look into one of the companies selling Europe SIM cards for GSM phones. You'll need to buy an unlocked tri band, or better yet a quad band, GSM phone. Can be bought on ebay for under $100. The Europe SIM cards can be prepaid or have calls charged to a credit card. Rates are generally much lower than roaming service on US cards. Mobal is well known but pretty expensive. Another is geosimm http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/calls_and_coverage.php

 

If you do a little research with google you can find several others designed for Americans traveling in Europe. The plans vary quite a bit in design and most offer free incoming calls - although you'll need to call a Europe number and not a US number so you'll have to make an overseas call from here to call her.

[CaliJohn]

Thanks everyone - I'll investigate your suggestions - much appreciated...

[raymac]

Another vote for Mobal. It worked fine in Scandinavia/Russia and in eastern Europe. Cheap to buy, reasonable cost for the calls, and the company was responsive to my questions.

[fti]

Look into one of the companies selling Europe SIM cards for GSM phones. You'll need to buy an unlocked tri band, or better yet a quad band, GSM phone. Can be bought on ebay for under $100. The Europe SIM cards can be prepaid or have calls charged to a credit card. Rates are generally much lower than roaming service on US cards. Mobal is well known but pretty expensive. Another is geosimm http://www.globalsimcard.co.uk/calls_and_coverage.php

 

If you do a little research with google you can find several others designed for Americans traveling in Europe. The plans vary quite a bit in design and most offer free incoming calls - although you'll need to call a Europe number and not a US number so you'll have to make an overseas call from here to call her.

 

This is exactly what I do. I have a T Mobile multi band phone so when I go to Europe, I just take out the US SIM card and insert my European one. Since I mostly go to Austria, I have an Austrian SIM card with an Austrian phone number. It is a prepaid card and most have a minimum of about 20-25 Euros ($30-$40).

 

The BIG problem with calling a European cell phone number is that even though incoming phone calls are free to the cell phone holder, rates for calling a European cell phone are usually MUCH higher than calling a land phone. So if your purpose is to call her from the US, that might not be wisest.

 

Perhaps she can get a European SIM card and multi band phone, then she calls you using a local access number from a company such as onesuite.com. That is how I call the US from Europe. It uses a few cents off my SIM card balance but I am originating the call from my cell phone and I pay pretty cheap rates with onesuite.com. Onesuite has many local access numbers around the world.

 

John

[otogocruisin]

whatever you do, do not get her a global phone with verizon. We bought a verizon world phone as we thought we would use it in Europe and not have to change phones. On our first trip we had problems. They apologised and said everything would work on the next time. Well I called Verizon before we left for Europe the last time to check that it would work. Sure enough it did not work again. We had no problems when we used AT&T GSM phones.

[wedon110808]

My fiance and i just bought the Mobal phone... it seemed the best deal.

[CaliJohn]

Thanks all - leaning towards the Mobal for simplicity...

[flhokie]

We've used the AT&T international plan all through Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the South Pacific. It worked great because we kept our existing phone number and could drop the monthly international charge when we weren't going to be using it for a while. The service was great (often better quality than when we are at home). They have many phones that work throughout Europe, etc.

[Lsimon]

We've used the AT&T international plan all through Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and the South Pacific. It worked great because we kept our existing phone number and could drop the monthly international charge when we weren't going to be using it for a while. The service was great (often better quality than when we are at home). They have many phones that work throughout Europe, etc.

 

We did this too. while I investigated the Europe SIM suggestion above I figured the break even would be about 100 minuites. Plus it was a little more complicated with the Europe SIM for people in the US to call us. So we just used our AT&T/Cingular phone. We had a tri-band phone and it worked great with the AT&T sdervice everyplace except Croatia - would have needed a US Quad band phone for that. But the OP indicated her daughter would be working in Europe for a couple months - so a US phone roaming might be pricey for that. The AT&T roaming rate with their international plan was still something like $1/minuite. They have some nice tables and menus on their website under international roaming that has all the rates.

[icemaiden]

hi

if you buy a triband mobile phone and put your own sim card in, it should work no problem, i have a triband and have used it in america , the caribbean and onboard a ship in the carib and had no problems, some areas at sea have no reception but its usually only for about an hour , if you are on a callplan with your network as i am i used my free text messages too, you only get charged for sending texts abroad to home or phoning when away , you dont get charged for recieving them , if you already have a triband and you are on pay as you go you can buy a sim card really cheap in europe, and can top it up almost anywhere even thru your bank card on the phone, its freephone to top up, that way you will not have a bill at the end of it , in the UK we can buy a new simcard for about £4, and most shops have the facility to top up at the till, hope this helps as its confusing trying to explain something we take for granted in our own countries:confused:

[amencher]

Last year when went to Europe we use http://www.rangeroamer.com/ and bought a cell phone and sim card with charger and 30 minues airtime, refillable. Calls are 69 cents a minute in 140 countries, including all in Europe. In addition, for $3,99 a month you can get an 800 number. If people call you on your european number (estonia) incoming calls are free. If they call on the 800 number it is 69 cents a minute to you and their call is free. We used the phone again last Seiember in Russia and will use it in Chile in February and agin back in Europe in November. Once you buy it the phone is yours and is an unlocked GSM phone. Good Luck,

 

Art

[Marque]

My wife and I use an unlocked triband GSM Motorola phone with a UK prepaid sim card. We've used it a number of times. I have to make a phone call with it every six months to keep the account active. We have a UK phone number with that phone. The EU is working on capping roaming charges.

[hillslife]

Another vote for MOBAL Phone....we purchased the $99 version so it includes Mexico a few months ago and our DD just took it on a 10 day school trip to Paris. We used it several times and the total bill was only $22. I thought it was a bargain, voice was crystal clear and we didn't have to worry about roaming charges or country codes - you just always call one UK number to connect or leave a voice mail.

 

One of the bad things about using your normal everyday cell phone and getting an international SIM card is that you will get all the calls you normally get and have to pay incoming and roaming charges on them since not everyone knows you are on vacation. With our MOBAL phone, only a few key people have the number, and it is just for emergencies or important messages, so that limits the $$.

 

Just a thought.

[whale-watcher]

Thanks all - leaning towards the Mobal for simplicity...

It is simple...we have an older model mobal phone that we have had for a few years...it is nice to always have the same phone number (no matter where in the world you are vacationing) and the service has been great. The cost per minute might be a little higher, but there is not much difference, and even with frequent usage in Europe this summer, we thought it was a good deal. We will get a second mobal phone before our next trip to Europe in 08...now that the kids are older, and heading off in different directions.

[Lsimon]

One of the bad things about using your normal everyday cell phone and getting an international SIM card is that you will get all the calls you normally get and have to pay incoming and roaming charges...

 

This is incorrect. If you use your existing phone and existing SIM with international roaming it would be the case. However, if you purchase a SIM based in a European country - even one marketed to US travelers, you will not have the same phone number. Instead you will have a phone number assigned by the people that sold you the SIM from the country it is based in, or another European country where they do business. People calling your normal phone number will be treated the same as if your phone was turned off (i.e. go to voicemail or whatever).

[hillslife]

Thanks for the clarification Larry - that is why CC is so helpfull...it really keeps things in perspective from experienced people!!

 

Not sure I like the changing phone number depending on the SIM Country - so you could possibly have several different phone numbers depending on your travels and which SIM card you have to use...so how would anyone know how to call you???

[Lsimon]

Not sure I like the changing phone number depending on the SIM Country - so you could possibly have several different phone numbers depending on your travels and which SIM card you have to use...so how would anyone know how to call you???

 

The Europe SIM vendors I looked at sold SIM's that had, more or less, the same rates across Europe and in most Europe cities they had no charge for incoming calls. The rates were generally significantly less than the rates for roaming with a US based phone. So you don't have to change the SIM for each country. In other words you could use the chip with your UK based number (for example) not only in the UK but in France, Italy and Greece at more or less the same rate. Different companies, and sometimes the same company on different plans, had different rate biases for different types of calling. Most had no charge for incoming, but some had charges for incoming but lower fees for outgoing. Some had low per minute charges but had a "connect fee" for each call made, some had higher per minute charges but no connect fee. So do find a few and figure out the differences.

 

The bottom line is I think these plans are probably pretty good if you're traveling for a long period and/or often. At the end I decided we'd be better off just sticking with our Cingular/ATT based phone. Although I did add an international roaming package at $5.95/month that gives a discount on calls made - then cancelled after our return once the calls were billed to us. In my estimation this is the best deal if your phone and service are international compatible and if you're likely to use not much more than 100 minuites during your trip.

 

Generally I think these would be a good deal if you're going to use these extensively