Travel Technology - Prepaid SIM voice/text only question

I've searched this and other boards over the last few weeks and have wound up more confused than ever. Here is are the specifics:

- Travelling from the US to both the UK and France in October/November
- Need to be able to send/receive voice and non-sms text messages to/from people in the US during this time
- Phone is an unlocked Pantech Laser from AT&T (quad band)

Being that I don't need data services I'm looking for a recommendation for each country that would cover only calling/texting back within each country as well as back to the US at a reasonable rate. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

And please accept my apologies if this has been covered in another area - looked at so many sites and posts lately they are simply blending together.

Thanks!
Snewpy

Continuing in my research I ran across a company called Talk Mobile for the UK which has pay as you go sims and another called Mobal which supplies actual travel phones. Does anybody have experience and/or input regarding either of these companys and their offerings?

Two ideas come to mind:
- Local sims: UK prepaid sim with free international minutes when you top up over 10 GBP http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/price-plans/pay-as-you-go/vodafone-freebees/index.htm and http://www.o2.co.uk/yourcountry
- Roaming sim: Piranha Mobile offers a prepaid roaming sim with both a direct dial US number and UK (virtual?) number. The rates are lower than some other roaming sims I've seen as it combines a roaming sim with a callback service.
Dubai Stu might have more info on this sim. Mine arrived within a few days but I haven't used it, yet.

Can't vouch for non-sms text messaging.

What does this mean? All text messages are SMS. :confused: If you don't even know this, maybe you should do some more reading.

Instead of using the companies you've mentioned in other messages, why don't you use a real mobile tel-co like vodaphone, orange or t-mobile? When you arrive at your destination, go to a storefront of the provider you chose and tell them what you want. They can help you pick the appropriate plan, etc.
- Need to be able to send/receive voice and non-sms text messages to/from people in the US during this time

What does this mean? All text messages are SMS. :confused: If you don't even know this, maybe you should do some more reading.

Sorry about that... I inadvertently used SMS instead of MMS. I simply need the ability to send text and not pictures, video, etc - no attachments.

I will be in each country for a total of 1 week each and didn't want to pay for more than what I needed. My primary concern is communication from both the UK and France to/from the US. The hope is to be prepared before arrival so I know what to look for and what to get instead of showing up in a foreign destination and blindly choosing something I think should work only to find out later I was wrong about the choice.

Thanks freecia and EC for the suggestion on Vodaphone and Orange. I will take another look at them...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19197332-post17.html

That has some data for UK/France that applies to you. It includes links to the provider pages. From there, it should be easy to browse and see if they have more appropriate plans for someone that mainly wants voice service to USA & texts (my goal was to find good roaming data, didn't care about voice/text).

Three price guide - http://www.three.co.uk/_standalone/PricePlan_Details?content_aid=1220464365299 (looks like UK-USA calls are as little as 3p per minute, assuming you dial the extra code first) But at the same time they have http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL?Command=New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=Int ernational_charges,varset_cat=roaming,varset_subca t=4161,Case=obj%285013%29 saying it's as much as 56.2p per minute.

In the end, you may find that the advice to go to a shop and tell them what you're looking for may be the best option. Then it's one less thing to stress about before your trip. I'm sure there are plenty of other things to worry about. :D

Please do us all a favor and post back in this thread with your experience so that others can learn from you too.

Good luck, and I hope you have a great trip.

When I was in europe, I bought a vodaphone sim in London and also used it in Belgium, Netherlands and France. Obviously, I was on roaming in the latter three countries, but vodaphone was partnered with carriers with good coverage.
Are you worried about coverage or rates? The web sites for each tel-co will tell you how much you can expect to pay for voice and texts.
I will be in each country for a total of 1 week each and didn't want to pay for more than what I needed. My primary concern is communication from both the UK and France to/from the US. The hope is to be prepared before arrival so I know what to look for and what to get instead of showing up in a foreign destination and blindly choosing something I think should work only to find out later I was wrong about the choice.

Vodafone looked like it had a 75p per call charge, in addition to per-minute rates. Is that what you saw as well?

If you're going to have data access (wifi, etc) you should go with Google Voice for SMS. Free. Access over the web, or with the app.

For the SIM, I'd just walk in stores when you get there. Prepaid is way more common in Europe, and when I was last in Germany they pointed me straight at the plan that had ten-cent calls back to the US and it worked great.

I bought a vodaphone sim card in PRG airport. Cost around 10 usd with sim card free when purchasing minutes. I used it in BUD and VIE too though SMS and calls cost 2x as much out of the country it was still real cheap. I added around 10 dollars in downtown Prague to be safe for the whole trip (around 15 text messages sent to US, 5 messages received from US and 3 calls out of country but within Europe for 2-3 mins each).