cell phones in Europe

[Pez4Uth]

Hey, does anyone know how i could rent a cellphone for 3 months. Any websites that you recomend? any other information

[LHR02]

Where are you going? If you want to 'rent'.....normally you will need to do so in each country you visit. If you really want a cell, suggest you get a world band phone from home and take it with. We've had numerous discussions about this before, check out the previous chats and come back with further questions.

Start here:

pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Tips&action=display&n=1&thread=474

Eagle will likely be your best source of info on this.....sure he will check in later today!

[MuvverRussia]

I'd get a tri band GSM phone in the states. Then you can just roam in Europe. It's expensive though - I normally pay around £0.80 a minute when roaming.

Failing that, if you're going to spend a lot of time in 1 country then get a pay as you go sim, allowing you to use a local network without roaming charges.

A good compatible phone is the Nokia 6230. I've got one and I'd be lost without it, especially the MP3 player in it .

[LHR02]

Muver....I am with T-Mobile here in the states and their highest Europe roam rate is .99 cents a minute. I paid half that minute rate or even less in Italy for calls over 15 minutes or so....Agree with you, oftentimes your best bet is just to roam with your own home network.


eagle...what does your latest techno/info say??

[Eagle]

Pez4Uth, the Thread that Dustoffmom provided in #2 should answer all your questions. It would help to know whether you have a Cell Phone now, and if so which carrier you're with?

Rather than repeat all the information in the previous posts, a bit of a summary and some comments:

> if you're going to take a Phone with you, it will have to be at least a tri-band GSM Phone, having 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz bands. A quad-band GSM Phone would be better, but the additional band (850 MHz) will only be of use in North America.

> If you plan on using SIM cards from other networks (as suggested in #3), the phone MUST be "unlocked". Keep in mind that every time you change SIM cards, your phone number changes, so you would have to notify your contacts each time you switched cards. Having the Phone unlocked is sometimes difficult, as some carriers don't want their customers using other networks. There is just about always some kind of charge for unlocking.

> renting a Cell Phone in Europe has some pitfalls, according to some of the comments I've seen on other travel boards. This seems to work well for some people, but other people get home and find all kinds of "strange" charges on their credit cards (good luck trying to get a refund!!!).

> if you're only going to use the Phone occasionally, or for "emergencies", your least expensive option might be to take a GSM with you. The roaming rates that DOM listed seem to be fairly standard among carriers, however the rates seem to vary according to which country you're in. I'm with Rogers (Canada) and in most of the "major" countries in Europe the rate is 98¢ / minute Cdn. for outgoing calls (in country) and $1.98 / minute Cdn. for incoming calls (plus applicable taxes and fees, of course). The nice thing about roaming is that you always keep your "home" number, so it's easy for people to contact you wherever you are.

> if you want to pursue this option, some of the providers who carry GSM Phones in the U.S. are Cingular / AT&T or T-Mobile. The Phones used by Verizon and Sprint use CDMA technology, and these will NOT work in Europe. As you're on the "eastern" side of the country, you could also check www.importcell.com as he specializes in Cell Phones for use in Europe.

One final thing to think about. Check E-Bay as there are TONS of unlocked GSM Cell Phones for sale most of the time. It's always a bit of a risk buying something off E-Bay, but if the seller has a good record, you will probably be OK (of course the old rule always applies with any purchase -- Caveat Emptor!). I tend to prefer Motorola phones, but I've had good service from Nokia also.

I prefer to take a Cell Phone with me when I travel, and used my Motorola V-60 in England this year. It worked well and was of enormous value on a few occasions, for keeping in touch with family in the U.K., making Hotel reservations, and also when I got lost!

Hope this has been of some help. Be sure to check that other Thread. Cheers!!!

[Eagle]

Pez4Uth, i did a quick check on E-Bay, and this is an example of what's available.....

cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=64355&item=5742322267&rd=1

The bid price of $34.00 US seems reasonable, although not sure what the final selling price might be? You'll have to make your own decision on which Phone you might prefer. One note of caution, the V-600 had some minor difficulties from what I've heard, and the V3 RAZR is still a bit on the expensive side.

Good luck with this. Happy travels!!!