Renee wants to go to Europe (needs a cell phone)

As long as it's a Cingular or T-Mobile phone or any other GSM carrier it should be compatible with the European system.

Sprint and Verizon phones are NOT compatible.

She needs to make sure that she calls customer support and has them enable international service before she goes on her trip.

So for instance, the vaunted Scoble phone from Audiovox works in Europe.

If she's there for an extended period, she can temporarily switch her plan. Several European carriers have twinning plans with US companies (ostensibly for when Europeans come to the US, though it works both ways).

I think your phone must support the either the 1800MHZ or the 900MHZ frequency and your carrier needs a "partner-company" in France. Then everything should just work.

(but I'm from Germany... perhaps it's different for Americans coming to Europe than for us visiting the US... :) but I don't think so...)

Yes, she can use a tri-band GSM phone overseas -- www.ustronics.com has a good listing of "world phones"

I highly recommend against using T-mobile to call within europe, it's over a dollar a minute. If you want to use t-mobile overseas, you have to call them before you leave to enable the "WorldClass" feature.

I used an O2 prepaid SIM in Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland. I believe they exist in France as well.

Good luck Renee and have lots of fun in Paris!


Ajay

Check out Cingular's new plans that allow to add international calling for a small fee and then a per minute fee. I don't have all the details for Europe, but I am heading to Mexico soon and their plan was perfect for me, I will add it for one month and cancel it the next. Low investment and exactly what I needed.

Renee here. I have Verizon and only plan to be over there for a week, so purchasing a new phone or new plan doesn't make sense. Does anyone have a GSM phone I can actually borrow for a week that they wouldn't be using first week of December? (something/plan that has a cheap calling plan to the U.S., so I'm not hit with an enormous bill at the end of the week....)

Renee
www.downtheavenue.com

TravelCell

http://www.travelcell.com

GSM Roaming - France
http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_fr....

Your best bet when traveling to Europe is to buy a Pay-As-You-Go phone while you're there.


If you have Cingular or T-Mobile you can theoretically use your phone there. But you won't be able to get Cingular service. So you'll either pay for roaming, or you'll want to unlock your phone so you can buy a pre-paid SIM card while you're there (this way you'll get to use your own phone, but not your own phone #).

If you're on T-Mobile, you'll probably get T-mobile coverage as they're a European provider as well. But they'll still probably charge you extra while you're there.

If you're on Sprint/Verizon - your phone isn't compatible with GSM so it won't work there at all most likely.

For most people (Sprint/Verizon/Cingular with a locked phone) your only real option is to get a cheap pre-paid phone while you're there and set up forwarding from your US number - OR leave a voicemail greeting or "Extended away" greeting that will tell your callers the temporary number.

If you travel back and forth a lot, you can get an unlocked Cingular phone and 2 SIM cards, or try T-Mobile. But either of those options will leave you with crappy coverage and poor data connections while you're in the US. And probably big INTL roaming charges to boot.

No connection to Travel Cell, but I have used them. They will get you a phone that works where you're going.

The rates back to the states aren't cheap at all, so just make sure people call you.

Anyone know of sites to buy cheap GSM phones?

I work for a software company that has headquarters in Paris, I travel there frequently, my home site is Vancouver, BC. Our plan is through Rogers Wireless which is partners with Cingular in the states. I use a Blackberry which is fully Tri-Band. All throughout Paris my phone adapts preferentially to the Orange network which appears to have a partner program with Cingular and Rogers, so the roaming charges have been minimal. So for you, based on my experience, all roads point to a Cingular-based phone with maybe a prepaid plan?

I am using T-Mobile as a carrier and roam when I am visiting Europe, paying $0.99 when calling and receiving. The sad truth is that phone calls and data plans cost when roaming, period.

A solution is to buy a pre-paid GSM SIM card in France on one of the operators, but you'll end up paying a minimum price of $60 to $100 when all is said and done, And you will to borrow a GSM phone anyway.

I highly recommend using a company called Cell Hire, they offer mobile phone rentals for pretty much all over the world and are perfect for travel. (they also offer SIM & GPRS card rental).

Prices are very reasonable and you get the best travel pack I've seen:
- 1 phone & 1 number that works in 150+ countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.
- VoiceMail, SMS
- Complete accessory pack including two batteries, rapid charger, travel adapters for foreign outlets, in-car charger and instruction booklet with 24-Hour Global Support, 365 days a year.
- Pre-paid return pack for convenient return when you're done.

I used them while traveling for MSFT to France myself and I had no complaints, it was the perfect setup without the headache of figuring what will or wont work.

The other bonus is they are a MSFT vendor and offer a discout as well as they have a specific rep in Redmond that will interoffice the whole pack to you and then you can interoffice it back when done. Email or IM me and I can get you the Microsoft specific URL or you call their customer support number.

http://www.cellhire.com

She doesn't get out much eh? All the search engines in the world couldn't help her out? Call 411, hah. ;)

I have a number of people from our company that we have to supply phones to for Europe and Asia travel regularly. Cingular and T-Mobile (which is actually part of Deutsche Telekom) are the way to go. We use Cingular, and any of their quad-band phones are the best way to ensure complete/maximum coverage. In their Blackberry line, the 7290 is the way to go. Any Cingular rep (biz rep preferably) can tell you which phones they have that are best (or contact me and I can send you some detailed info). I'm thinking your Verizon phone would not work for you there, though.

- gh

You can rent a global phone from Verizon, and even have them forward your number to the rental phone for the duration of your trip.

http://www.vzwrentinternational.com/

Renee, If you're with Verizon contact their International Roaming department. They will rent you a phone and assist you to have calls forwarded from your existing number while you travel. Thye use WorldRoam to provide handsets. Details of their plans are available at http://www.vzwrentinternational.com/

Sprint DOES have a GSM "world" phone, but I believe it costs a small fortune to use it anywhere but the U.S.

T-Mobile is the way to go. Went to Italy and it worked great, I even got message alerts about Baseball while I was there. It was like I was home. All you need to do is call them and activate the ability and you have to pay their international rates when you use it.

I live in Ireland and regularly use my tri-band mobile phone throughout four countries in Europe as well as in the States. Two things keep my call costs low. First, I use a Pay-As-You-Go SIM card from the country I'm visiting. Alternatively, I keep my regular SIM card and I divert all my calls to my SkypeIn phone number while I'm away. Then I take those calls from my SkypeIn forwarding number because they're always cheap. Second, I buy pre-paid phone cards in countries I visit. I make my outbound calls with those calls, which means I end up calling a local phone number and then redialing to get my desired contact. In my experience, using cards result in calling from Europe to the States at no more than 15 cents a minute, sometimes as low as two cents a minute. Your mileage may vary.

Is Renee around? I'm having the same issue myself. Traveling to Paris for one week, my Verizon cell is useless there. And I'd like to rent a phone while I'm there. I'd love to know what the final outcome was. Or any other advice?

All the above responses are good. Your best bet it to do one of the following in this order.

If you have a tri or quad band GSM phone(Some Cingular or T-Mobile phones)that is unlocked,then your best bet is to buy a Prepaid Sim card on ebay or when you arrive in the country you are going to visit(Most of the world uses 900 and/or 1800 mhz bands).
If you don't have an unlocked tri or quad band GSM phone,it's then a toss-up as to buying a phone and prepaid SIM card starter kit when you arrive,which may or may not be locked(If it's unlocked and a multi band phone you could use it in the USA with a Cingular of T-Mobile SIM card).You may want to consider purchasing a unlocked multi band phone on ebay. If you have a locked GSM phone,consider unlocking options for it on ebay as well.

Good luck!