Eagle and others - is this a good cell phone deal?

[WillTravel]

You can get an unlocked phone from Air France for a reasonably cheap price. Consider that Fido wants $250 to unlock my cell phone.

www.airfrance.ekit.com/ekit/MobilePurchase/Phones

However, the per-minute rate is not that cheap, but the fact it's free for people to call you in certain countries sounds great. It's still cheaper than the Fido cost of $2 CAD/minute.

If I got one of these, then I could get a SIM card locally, if I were going to be using that much time.

What do you think?

[herrbert]

Just out of an economical perspective, wouldn't it be cheaper to try to buy a second hand cell phone (ebay, or maybe localy), that is already unlocked?, and sell it to somebody else when you return.

I don't know a lot about locks, and unlocking, but I know that a provider in Europe needs to unlock a phone, after being used for 1 year. (might be worth it to see if there is a similar law across the Atlantic?)

My concern, with a French telephone, would be that it works pretty cheap in France, but it would get more expensive, when you are in another country. (EU is working on reducing these rates, but that won't happen until autumn) Even for us Europeans it is expensive to call somebody in another country in Europe.

I have no clue about the technical stuff, so I leave it to the others.

[WillTravel]

No, we don't have any such rule about free unlocking, but that would certainly help, because the rate that Fido is charging is obviously exorbitant.

[Eagle]

WillTravel, I'd have to give this some thought, but my initial impression is that the Air France phones are not necessarily a good deal. As you noted, the per-minute rates are not too cheap. It appears (from the advert) that one can choose Phones with either a U.K. or France number, which means that the user will still incur "roaming" charges while travelling around other countries in Europe. The Euro roaming charges have been reduced somewhat recently, I suspect due to pressure from the E.U. (there appears to be somewhat of a "battle" taking place between the E.U. and the European GSM networks - most likely a "compromise" will be the result). However, the roaming charges are still something that needs to be considered.

YES, I most certainly agree that Rogers / Fido have exorbitant unlocking charges!!! However, there are other options for getting phones unlocked. I don't know where you're located, but I may be able to offer a few suggestions. If you're interested, send me a PM with the Phone brand & model and where you're located. One important point though -- if you plan on travelling with an unlocked Phone, it MUST BE at least a tri-band and preferably a quad-band Phone. Check that it has a "travel Charger" as well.

If you decide to travel with your Cell phone, some of the options you could consider:

> Use Roaming with Rogers / Fido, but LIMIT your voice calls and use text / SMS most of the time. It's not too expensive. In that case, you wouldn't have to worry about getting your phone unlocked.

> Buy a "universal travel SIM" such as those offered by Cellular Abroad or other companies. I find the rate structures on these a bit complex, so don't feel they would offer me a substantial cost benefit over roaming and texting. In using this option, incoming calls might be "free" for you, but anyone calling you will incur long distance charges to Europe as I believe the C.A. plans are registered in Lichtenstein.

> Stop into the local corner Cell Phone shop when you arrive in Europe and buy a PAYG SIM card. This should provide you with inexpensive calls while you're in the country covered by that particular cell network. However, if you "roam" and use voice calls, your costs will probably increase in a hurry. One caveat though - I believe some of the countries have "special requirements" in some cases for cell phone users; Italy comes to mind. I believe you have to be "registered" or something in order to sign up? I'd have to do some checking to clarify this, or perhaps some of our European members can provide some info on this? With this option also, the long distance charges on incoming calls will be paid by those calling you (again, texting is a good option).

If I can think of any more points to mention, I'll post another note.

Cheers!!!