cellular phones in Europe

[GaryMcDonald]

Hello Everybody; sorry I am so tardy with the wisdom I gained on my trip this summer.

I think the most important thing I may contribute is for those thinking of bringing cellular phones. I can say this:

(1) Do not buy a sim card before you leave the US. They are readily available for 8-15 euros with call credit on them once you are in europe. For americans, Lebara Mobile is the cheapest. You get free incoming calls and calls out to the US are ~11 cents a minute. That is as cheap as you can get. They are available at Telfort Stores.

(2)Take an unlocked GSM world phone. Make sure it has all four frequencies. The different GSM companies operate on different frequencies, though not respectively. If you do not take an unlocked phone you will most likely have to buy a pre pay package that comes with a locked phone. They will not unlock it until after you use their service for a year.

and a note on calling from and to home:

If you get ATT International Anywhere II plan, they send you a calling card. The card comes with toll free access numbers for all European countries. When you use the calling card, you simply dial the access number, the us phone number, card number and pin. It is just like using 1800callatt. The best part is you get the same rate as if would your family when they use the phone at home that has the ATT plan. So if it costs them 11c a minute to call you, then it bills them 11c a minute when you call them.

Also, on Lebara, and many other carriers, toll free numbers for the respective country for which you buy the sim card, are free to dial out. So you can use the cellular phone to dial the local access number and then use the calling card info to dial home from your cellular without it charging from your cellular call credit on your phone.

if anyone needs anymore detailed information, email me at [e-mail].

Otherwise, my trip was great. I studied in Utrecht, The Netherlands for 6 weeks. I traveled to Belgium, Ireland (Dublin and Cork), London, and then extensively in the Netherlands after terrorists started blowing things up in the UK. I found that travel on the Dutch railway system was very economical; same goes for trolleys, trams, and busses. I went with two rail passes and did not validate either one. I returned them to eurail when I got home. It only becomes expensive when you travel outside of Benelux, b/c then you use the international ticket office and fares increase. For air travel I recommend www.whichbudget.com b/c it compares the budget airlines by origin and destination.

Also, if you go to the Netherlands don't miss Utrecht. The old city center is beautiful, with the 367 foot Dom tower to climb, and Kasteel de Haar in its outskirts.

Cheers!

Gary McDonald

[Eagle]

Gary, thanks for the info. I'm sure that will be of help to our members here.

Cheers!!!

[chefzen]

Has anyone bought or used a phone from Mobal (http://www.mobal.com)? My mother saw it in Budget Travel magazine and thought it might be something good to get in case of an emergency. Do any of y'all have any experience with them?

[Eagle]

chefzen, I've never used phones or cards from Mobal, but have looked at their service in the past. It seems to be along the same lines as Cellular Abroad; Mobal uses U.K. phone numbers while CA uses Liechenstein numbers.

The rates seem reasonable, but they're not really a "bargain" IMHO. When comparing the Mobal rates to the roaming rates from my home provider, they're often fairly close, especially as the Mobal rates are based on the U.S. dollar; I have to add about 25% to the rates they list. I'm not sure I like the idea of charges being immediately billed to my credit card, as while travelling it would be easy to lose track of how much you're spending. The charges wouldn't be apparent until returning home and looking at the credit card statement. If the phone were used a lot, I suspect some might get a rude awakening when they get their bill!

The Mobal selection of phone handsets seems a bit "dated" to say the least. They offer a dual band handset for use while travelling, but this would be useless in North America. Some quad band handsets in the lineup would be a good idea. They're also still flogging TDMA handsets for use in North America, which seems a bit odd since a lot of networks are starting to de-commission their TDMA systems. They're also touting the benefits of AMPS / analogue phones and again these are starting to be removed from service even by the CDMA networks.

I use a quad band GSM phone so might consider buying just the Mobal SIM, but would have to do a careful analysis between their rates and the roaming rates of my home network (Rogers), to determine which would be most cost effective.

Hope this helps. Cheers!!!

[skye]

On their website Lebara Mobile shows their rates to the US as 0.99 a minute, so 11c is quite a bit cheaper!

I went with Global Riiing after looking into a bunch of them. Basically, it has free incoming calls while you are anywhere in Europe (includes Turkey, Egypt etc that a few other companies didn't). Outgoing calls are 0.39 euro/min, to Europe or US/Canada. Much cheaper than the 0.99/min most other companies were listed at. Free incoming text messages, has voice mail etc. I'll let you know how it works when I get there! (4 more days!!)

[GaryMcDonald]

another word....most times you can find motorola GSM V60's on www.overstock.com. They also have many other models. Last week they had some for 60.00. As I said earlier, I suggest going with an unlocked quad band phone and visiting the first telfort shop you see and pick up a lebara card. www.lebaramobile.com if you are going to scandanavia or holland. Otherwise just get a telfort when you get there. I spent ~350 with cellularabroad before I left. After I got to holland I bought the lebara card and spent 10 Euro for all I could talk @11 c per minute to the us. When I went about traveling europe I simply bought another sim once there. THE SIMS cost less than 20 us bucks and include some talk time. When you run out just buy one at a convenience store. if anyone has more specific questions, email me [e-mail]