Travel Technology - Oversea Cell Phone in Italy & Germany for Large Event

Hi to all Flyertalkers.

Grateful for all your help in advance.

I know overseas cellphone use has been discussed before - this is a bit of a specific situation so thought I'd post to the community.

I'm bringing a large group (several hundred) over to World Youth Day in Germany this year. We have three days in Rome, Italy before heading to Cologne.

As the main organizer of our group, I'll need to provide an emergency contact # both for our young people on the ground and to parents back home in the event of emergency. I'd appreciate your insights as to what would be the best idea in terms of a strategy for cellphones. I will provide switchboard of hotel/hostel to parents back home in event of emergency but they may want direct contact with me.

Majority of calls will be from those already in Germany or Italy with us who are lost, trying to track us down, etc. We're there for about 2 weeks.

I have a Sony Ericsson Z200 - I know I can use it over there as I did a scouting trip in November but it was fairly costly.

My questions:

1) Should I stick with my Sony - I've heard about SIM cards but will I still have my same # - whatever phone I have, I'll need the # before I arrive in Europe.

2) There are about 3 other key leaders - is there a good idea in terms of a "group strategy" - within our group, we'd be calling each other but would be overseas.

Any other helpful insights would be greatly appreciated. As you can imagine, tons of logistics and I know the flyertalk community always has creative solutions.

Thanks in advance.

Toronto Traveler

Get a pay as you go mobile phone as soon as you land. Make sure it's on the vodaphone network. The vodaphone ones can be topped up outside country of origin.

Then e-mail number to parents.

Or have someone you trust in Germany pick one up for you now and provide you with the number.

I tend to bring a tri or quadband phone with me to US and get a T-mobile sim card for it. However, I need to get a new number each time as it expires before I get back there again.

As for the vodaphone, it takes a year before it expires.

Emma

Get a pay as you go mobile phone as soon as you land. Make sure it's on the vodaphone network. The vodaphone ones can be topped up outside country of origin.

Then e-mail number to parents.

Or have someone you trust in Germany pick one up for you now and provide you with the number.

I tend to bring a tri or quadband phone with me to US and get a T-mobile sim card for it. However, I need to get a new number each time as it expires before I get back there again.

As for the vodaphone, it takes a year before it expires.

Emma
Pretty good advice. One other thing to keep in mind, double check that your phone is already unlocked if you want to use a pre-paid SIM. Get a friend with T-Mobile and borrow their SIM card to test it out.

You could always use this as an excuse to pick up a cool, new unlocked GSM phone ;)

Pretty good advice. One other thing to keep in mind, double check that your phone is already unlocked if you want to use a pre-paid SIM. Get a friend with T-Mobile and borrow their SIM card to test it out.

You could always use this as an excuse to pick up a cool, new unlocked GSM phone ;)

Thanks for the tips folks. Just wondering - my Sony Ericcsson should be able to use foreign SIM Cards in case I want to go that route? Are they unique to each country or would one SIM card be functional in multiple countries.

Just trying to avoid having to get a new phone if at all possible.

Thanks again.

Toronto Traveler :p

As long as your phone is unlocked it can use any foreign sim.

The foreign sim can be used in another foreign country if it has international roaming enabled on it.

You can also get a toll free number here you can forward to international numbers.

Land, get a pay as you go phone or a prepaid one, get online, and forward the toll free to that new number. Go into another country, get online, change the forwarding of the number again.

www.kall8.com offers you decent rates, on the fly forwarding to overseas and local numbers, etc.

As long as your phone is unlocked it can use any foreign sim.

The foreign sim can be used in another foreign country if it has international roaming enabled on it.

Thanks Mikey.

May be an elementary question here but I'm assuming there is a difference between activating roaming on your cell phone and "unlocking" your cell phone.

How does one know if there cell phone has been unlocked or is capable of doing so?

Thanks again.

Toronto Traveler

You can also get a toll free number here you can forward to international numbers.

Land, get a pay as you go phone or a prepaid one, get online, and forward the toll free to that new number. Go into another country, get online, change the forwarding of the number again.

www.kall8.com offers you decent rates, on the fly forwarding to overseas and local numbers, etc.

Thanks cordelli - what would happen if I tried to forward say my work number to my new number for parents. Would I get charged roaming rates? That way, you could give parents a local number which would be forwarded to me overseas and then I could have a local number for kids to call in event of a problem.

Thanks.

Toronto Traveler

I have a similar situation - will be in Europe (mostly Italy) for a couple of weeks and need a cellphone to coordinate rendezvous at the olympics. I don't anticipate more than 30 min. usage, but a local number might be better if people use payphones. My cellphone like most on sprint is dual-band CDMA.

If I go with Sprint, I don't get a local # and my cost would be $1.50/minute plus $55 for GSM phone rental.

Can anyone advise as to the cost of other options described in this thread, in particular:

(1) Buy pay-as-you-go phone + SIM card upon arrival?
(2) Buy cheap GSM phone on ebay + SIM card upon arrival?