Travel Technology - Phone for France...

pkerr

Nov 30, 08, 8:58 pm

KNRG

Nov 30, 08, 9:05 pm

My daughter will be doing a semester in Paris and I figure we should get her some type of "communication device"

She will be living at a home that only has dial. We'd like to get her a cell phone for emergencies and occasional "how are you doing" calls.

Suggestions? (cheaper the better)

Thanks

I'm studying in France for the summer and in my research this looks like a pretty good deal: http://www.callineurope.com/

Inbound calls are free - aka, she can call you and you can call her back and then talk for forever. You can also set it up to keep her local phone number.

I'm getting it because the rates seems good for both France and Italy, where my study is split across.

ESpen36

Nov 30, 08, 9:08 pm

Yes. She should use SKYPE for all normal calls. It's absolutely 100% free if Skype-to-Skype. If you want to be able to call her at the house where she's staying over Skype, it's $9.95 for unlimited calling each month if you buy the "unlimited world" plan (which includes France--landlines).

She should buy a local GSM phone (or take a GSM phone and buy a SIM card there) to get a local phone number. Skype to a France cell phone is 20 cents a minute plus VAT (cheap enough for occasional quick calls to say: "Hi honey, run home and call me back on Skype!"). And it's definitely cheaper than normal phone calls to France.

pkerr

Nov 30, 08, 9:12 pm

I thought about Skype but we want her to be able to contact us at anytime or anywhere.

ESpen36

Nov 30, 08, 9:17 pm

I thought about Skype but we want her to be able to contact us at anytime or anywhere.

I think the combination of:

- local SIM in cell phone
- Skype

...will serve you well. She still can contact you anytime (paying expensive rates) and you can contact her on the cell anytime (at $0.20/minute if you are calling from Skype). For more routine/lengthy calls she can wait until she has WiFi access and use Skype to Skype for free.

pkerr

Nov 30, 08, 9:18 pm

I'm studying in France for the summer and in my research this looks like a pretty good deal: http://www.callineurope.com/

Inbound calls are free - aka, she can call you and you can call her back and then talk for forever. You can also set it up to keep her local phone number.

I'm getting it because the rates seems good for both France and Italy, where my study is split across.
Thanks!! I'll definately look into that.

GadgetFreak

Nov 30, 08, 9:24 pm

I think the combination of:

- local SIM in cell phone
- Skype

...will serve you well. She still can contact you anytime (paying expensive rates) and you can contact her on the cell anytime (at $0.20/minute if you are calling from Skype). For more routine/lengthy calls she can wait until she has WiFi access and use Skype to Skype for free.

We have a winner. Since the Skype to Skype is free you can use that most of the time. The cell phone with a local SIM can be used for times when you cant set up the Skype or if you need to get in touch quick. I travel a lot to Europe and either use a local SIM for the country I am in, which in Europe usually means free incoming, or a United Mobile SIM (I have used that more recently). With most SIMS you can call her from Skype on her cell phone very inexpensively for you, and free for her.

KNRG

Nov 30, 08, 9:31 pm

A note: many US phone companies will not forward your cell calls to a foreign number. That's one of the more important perks of the company I posted - they create a local number for you to use for that purpose, in addition to a having a foreign-local number.

bwhite

Nov 30, 08, 9:41 pm

As others mentioned Skype is great if you have a laptop and broadband connection. A webcam on each end means you can also do video - great for long distance friends and family.

Watch rates calling certain europe mobile phones. While it may be free for the cell phone in france, there are some cases where the caller in the US pays high rates for calling a european cell phone. Cell and land lines are not treated the same as the US from the caller's perspective. Read the fine print, ask lots of questions.

sefrischling

Nov 30, 08, 11:16 pm

While I have found Skype useful, nothing beats a mobile phone. The best option is to use a pre-paid local SIM. I have found some very competitive rates on pre-purchased SIMs for local and international calling.

I wrote up some info on using mobile phones overseas here:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2008/06/27/international-mobile-phones-staying-in-touch-around-the-world/

richard

Dec 1, 08, 3:28 am

I use the callineurope.com option and it is very good. No monthly charges, free inbound calls, calls within France cost a reasonable amount, I forget how much but quite reasonable...

mrcamp

Dec 1, 08, 2:01 pm

You should compare the following international sims to callineurope, since they do the same thing. They give you a US number (or landline number from several other countries), thet is forwarded to your "real" sim. I have yackie and maxroam and I am satisfied with both.

http://www.maxroam.com/
http://www.yackiemobile.com/
http://www.celtrek.com/index.php

I use the callineurope.com option and it is very good. No monthly charges, free inbound calls, calls within France cost a reasonable amount, I forget how much but quite reasonable...

pkerr

Dec 2, 08, 7:35 am

Just to clarify... I currently do not have a GSM phone so I'll be needing to acquire one of those in addition to determining the best (cheapest) way to utilize it.

Thanks

Dubai Stu

Dec 2, 08, 8:07 am

When is your daughter going? I just got a free Samsung dual band when I purchased a prepaid SIM in Doha. It is nothing fancy, but if you can wait to next week and give me a UPS or a fed ex shipping number, it is yours free. It has a two pin French adapter and it is a solid 900/1800mhz unit. It will be shipped from Michigan.

pkerr

Dec 2, 08, 9:00 am

dtsm

Dec 2, 08, 9:08 am

You have a PM...

Once santa delivers your gift, tell your daughter to check: prepaidgsm.net to determine which prepaid plan is best for her.

I would also recommend:
1. Enrolling in skype, get the worldwide unlimited calling plan, about $60/yr - you can then call her from skype and talk forever!
2. it also includes a skype to go number which you can then program your daughter's prepaid number in France. You can then call the skype to go number from your mobile, connect to her mobile and no international roaming for either of you.
3. Get her a good BT headset or usb headset for her laptop - makes skype to skype calls a lot clearer!

Years back did the same when our son went to spain for a semester :)

pkerr

Dec 2, 08, 9:15 am

Once santa delivers your gift, tell your daughter to check: prepaidgsm.net to determine which prepaid plan is best for her.

I would also recommend:
1. Enrolling in skype, get the worldwide unlimited calling plan, about $60/yr - you can then call her from skype and talk forever!
2. it also includes a skype to go number which you can then program your daughter's prepaid number in France. You can then call the skype to go number from your mobile, connect to her mobile and no international roaming for either of you.
3. Get her a good BT headset or usb headset for her laptop - makes skype to skype calls a lot clearer!

Years back did the same when our son went to spain for a semester :)
Hmmm... so Skype will work with a cell? All that she will be having is dial up at the place she will be staying.

Thanks for the other info as well!!

iff

Dec 2, 08, 9:59 am

Once santa delivers your gift, tell your daughter to check: prepaidgsm.net to determine which prepaid plan is best for her.

The rates and info there are not quite up to date, but it's at least a place to get an idea of who the French operators are. I suggest then going to the operators' websites if you want the current details. Of the three major operators, Bouygues is the least expensive (and in 8 years I've had no trouble with them at all), but any of them would be fine.

graraps

Dec 2, 08, 10:26 am

Hmmm... so Skype will work with a cell? All that she will be having is dial up at the place she will be staying.

Thanks for the other info as well!!

As usual, voipbuster et al (both phone-to-phone and thru access number) work A LOT better than skype in that situation.

dtsm

Dec 2, 08, 11:06 am

Hmmm... so Skype will work with a cell? All that she will be having is dial up at the place she will be staying.

Thanks for the other info as well!!

Skype gives you following options:

1. skype to skype via computers - in your case, with her dial-up that won't work too well.

2. skype at your side to her mobile phone - you pay skype out rates. Unlimited world plan may or may not include calling her mobile number, please check.http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/allfeatures/subscriptions/europeworld/. also check out unlimited country (france) subscription fees

3. if you get unlimited worldwide plan - get the skype to go number (http://skype.com/allfeatures/togo/). think of it as an 'access number' that permits you to call up to six pre-designated overseas numbers. include your daughter's france mobile number as one of these numbers, then you can call from your mobile phone without paying international roaming.

4. You can also get on-line "skype-in" number http://skype.com/allfeatures/onlinenumber/ - a 'local' number in france which your daughter can call to get to your skype at home.

pkerr

Dec 5, 08, 10:14 am

dtsm

Dec 5, 08, 2:30 pm

Have you had any probblems with Skype? I was on their WEB site forum and there was a ton of complaints about problems and the inability to contact Skype.

Tha being said. What would you recoomend as the best way for us to contact our daughters mobile phone while she is in France? Skype to Go? And is Skype reliable?

Thanks

My wife spends couple of hours a week talking with her family and friends in Asia (free with unlimited int'l plan).

We call our son in HK all the time with skype-to-go number. In fact, as we were 30 minutes early at UPS to pick up my new MB, placed a call to him (programmed his BB # and office #) on my iPhone, talked for about 10 minutes and again free.

Worst comes to worst, if you're paranoid with skype, go buy a calling card on-line. We used to use drphone.com before skype (and still keep one for emergency) but there are many others, google them.