I haven't checked in here for a bit and here's the answer I needed--thanks! After looking at the Orange site I'm a bit less intimidated. My French is rather rusty but should be adequate, once I pick up some cyber-vocabulaire. Since I have to collect tickets at FNAC anyway, that sounds like the best plan.
The guys at FNAC will probably try out their English on you. Tell them you want a Mobicarte phone or SIM card. That's the Orange service.
If you want to know anything from me, ask here or by PM.
All went smoothly: there was an Orange storefront a block from my lodging in the 12th arr., and when I hauled out my ancient slab phone the proprietor was ready with a Mobicarte SIM packet, which he installed. I had to buy minutes at the Tabac around the corner (where they were REALLY uninterested in being helpful) but when I returned to Orange he was very happy to set up my phone and anticipate my questions. Turns out he has relatives in NYC, but we spoke French, and I was incredibly relieved to realize that my French was more than adequate for voice mail and otherwise negotiating the system.
I don't know whether I got the super-cheapest-best deal, but I got what I needed, with enough time for inadvertent wrong numbers and even an SMS "conversation" to the US in the last minutes before leaving CDG. My partner has never before received the SMS I've sent from Italy or Sweden, but that may be more about unfamiliarity with texting than incompatible systems. Who knows.
All went smoothly: there was an Orange storefront a block from my lodging in the 12th arr., and when I hauled out my ancient slab phone the proprietor was ready with a Mobicarte SIM packet, which he installed. I had to buy minutes at the Tabac around the corner (where they were REALLY uninterested in being helpful) but when I returned to Orange he was very happy to set up my phone and anticipate my questions. Turns out he has relatives in NYC, but we spoke French, and I was incredibly relieved to realize that my French was more than adequate for voice mail and otherwise negotiating the system.
I don't know whether I got the super-cheapest-best deal, but I got what I needed, with enough time for inadvertent wrong numbers and even an SMS "conversation" to the US in the last minutes before leaving CDG. My partner has never before received the SMS I've sent from Italy or Sweden, but that may be more about unfamiliarity with texting than incompatible systems. Who knows.
I have skimmed through the past eleven pages of the forum post, but if I am hitting things previously covered please excuse me. I travel a great deal and just wanted to share my solutions.
I have a Cingular with their Global Blackberry plan which gives me unlimited Blackberry data access all around the world. I also pay Cingular $2.99 a month for a feature called fast forward which gives me unlimited domestic call forwarding. When I jump on a plane, I literally forward my calls just before the cabin doors shut.
When I get on a European (or Dubai) bound plane, I pack a second phone which is basic quad band unlocked phone. I have a Riiing SIM like the prior posters. I purchased for $1 a month a US 800 number from callbackworld.com that forwards to my Riiing SIM at US$0.14 a minute. I also normally use their callback service. I trigger their callback service using my Cingular phone. This permits me to make outgoing calls to the States at $0.14 a minute.
Something prior posters have not focused on is the cost of voicemail when abroad. There is a little covered “gotcha” here. When you are standing in Europe and miss a call or are on the phone, the call gets routed back to the US on a conditional call divert. This means that you are billed for a call to Europe and back again or double the roaming rates. Most people don’t want to turn off their voicemail which means that the carrier charges you at least double for these calls. When I was in Africa, I once got nailed with $15 voicemails -- $5 to call Africa, $5 to forward the call back to the States, and $5 to retrieve the message. I was hit with these charges even when my phone was shut off because I had registered on the Tanzania network and carriers generally hold on to your registration.
Riiing coupled with callbackworld has changed my roaming rates hugely. I used to buy prepaid SIMs for the major countries I visited. I found that despite the slight inconvenience of the callback, this approach is worth it.
I also use a Nokia E61 (not an E62) as my Blackberry (connect) device. It has built in wifi and a voip client. Where I am in a wifi zone, I can make free calls. It is also possible to receive free calls, but that requires more tinkering if you want to always be reached at one number.
By the way, checkout prepaidgsm.net. It is a forum which specializes in roaming on the cheap. Prepaidgsm was favorably cited in a recent EU report criticizing the rates charged for international roaming.
I have skimmed through the past eleven pages of the forum post, but if I am hitting things previously covered please excuse me. I travel a great deal and just wanted to share my solutions.
I have a Cingular with their Global Blackberry plan which gives me unlimited Blackberry data access all around the world. I also pay Cingular $2.99 a month for a feature called fast forward which gives me unlimited domestic call forwarding. When I jump on a plane, I literally forward my calls just before the cabin doors shut.
When I get on a European (or Dubai) bound plane, I pack a second phone which is basic quad band unlocked phone. I have a Riiing SIM like the prior posters. I purchased for $1 a month a US 800 number from callbackworld.com that forwards to my Riiing SIM at US$0.14 a minute. I also normally use their callback service. I trigger their callback service using my Cingular phone. This permits me to make outgoing calls to the States at $0.14 a minute.
Something prior posters have not focused on is the cost of voicemail when abroad. There is a little covered “gotcha” here. When you are standing in Europe and miss a call or are on the phone, the call gets routed back to the US on a conditional call divert. This means that you are billed for a call to Europe and back again or double the roaming rates. Most people don’t want to turn off their voicemail which means that the carrier charges you at least double for these calls. When I was in Africa, I once got nailed with $15 voicemails -- $5 to call Africa, $5 to forward the call back to the States, and $5 to retrieve the message. I was hit with these charges even when my phone was shut off because I had registered on the Tanzania network and carriers generally hold on to your registration.
Riiing coupled with callbackworld has changed my roaming rates hugely. I used to buy prepaid SIMs for the major countries I visited. I found that despite the slight inconvenience of the callback, this approach is worth it.
I also use a Nokia E61 (not an E62) as my Blackberry (connect) device. It has built in wifi and a voip client. Where I am in a wifi zone, I can make free calls. It is also possible to receive free calls, but that requires more tinkering if you want to always be reached at one number.
By the way, checkout prepaidgsm.net. It is a forum which specializes in roaming on the cheap. Prepaidgsm was favorably cited in a recent EU report criticizing the rates charged for international roaming.
When I get on a European (or Dubai) bound plane, I pack a second phone which is basic quad band unlocked phone. I have a Riiing SIM like the prior posters. I purchased for $1 a month a US 800 number from callbackworld.com that forwards to my Riiing SIM at US$0.14 a minute. I also normally use their callback service. I trigger their callback service using my Cingular phone. This permits me to make outgoing calls to the States at $0.14 a minute.
Can you re-explain the call back with the riing sim option? I'm not quite following you. You mention also the e61 which I'm using too. What cheap options have you found for data while traveling? Does the Global Blackberry plan also work with your e61 or only with BB hardware? Thanks!
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I don't think I've seen a clear answer to my questions above, so here they are.
I'll be in Germany next week for a couple weeks. Cingular is my provider. I tend to visit every four to six months, so hopefully I could keep a prepaid sim from expiring. I just managed to unlock my old Motorola V180 quad band and want to take it along and add a prepaid SIM for cheaper calls back to the US, around Germany and also to have the US dial me in on conference calls - free since I will be receiving.
Assuming I want about two hours of talk time, most back to US, plus text capability - what would be my best bet in provider? Approximate cost? I'll be flying through AMS and NUE, then staying in Regensburg. Any recommendations on places to pick one up? I'll also be doing a weekend in Prague - I assume that would hurt me in roaming.
For anyone looking to unlock a phone, I managed to do it free with some internet searching. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
I downloaded the software from this site: http://simlock.techgsm.com/simlock/u/about.html I was having issues getting the drivers loaded and was about to give up and pay the $25 at http://www.cell-unlock.com/. I ran the test program and it installed the drivers I needed. Went back to the simlock remover software again and it worked (after a couple tries). the V180 has a standard USB port, so I did not need any special cables or hardware. There is a chance you can wipe out your phone, so be careful and don't blame me if it goes wrong.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tev9999
Assuming I want about two hours of talk time, most back to US, plus text capability - what would be my best bet in provider? Approximate cost? I'll be flying through AMS and NUE, then staying in Regensburg. Any recommendations on places to pick one up? I'll also be doing a weekend in Prague - I assume that would hurt me in roaming.
When I was in Germany in May, I bought a Vodafone SIM card for 20 Euros at a Vodafone store. Make sure you bring your passport, have a local address to use (including zip code), and possibly a local landline number. It served me well while I was there. I sold it for more on ebay once I returned home. In your case, the refills will keep it going solid for quite a while.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by photog72
When I was in Germany in May, I bought a Vodafone SIM card for 20 Euros at a Vodafone store. Make sure you bring your passport, have a local address to use (including zip code), and possibly a local landline number. It served me well while I was there. I sold it for more on ebay once I returned home. In your case, the refills will keep it going solid for quite a while.
If you go the vodaphone route be sure to have the passport feature on your account. The rates will be close to the rates you pay in Germany when you roam in Prauge.
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Can you re-explain the call back with the riing sim option? I'm not quite following you. You mention also the e61 which I'm using too. What cheap options have you found for data while traveling? Does the Global Blackberry plan also work with your e61 or only with BB hardware? Thanks!
A little late, bit maybe this will help:
United Mobile (formerly Riiiing) is a Swiss company with a Lichtenstein (FL hereafter) based SIM (your phone number will be +423-663-xxx). They have free incoming calls in the EU and most other western European countries plus Oz and some others. Of course, whoever calls you pays and there sometimes are surcharges to FL.
CallBackWorld.com (CBW) is call back service. You are assigned one or more US trigger numbers. When you (or a wrong number ) call the trigger number and hang up, their system will call you back at a predetermined number. (Since the call isn't completed, you generally are not charged at this point).
When you answer your call back, you receive a pleasant voice that says "Dial your number" and after you enter it you are connected to that number.
If you are in a country that has free incoming calls (or at a land-line) you are not charged for the call back and just pay whatever the CBW rates are. They have a fairly low rate to FL ($.14/min) and they bill in 6 second increments. So with a little bit of work you can call fairly cheaply back to the US from your mobile.
They have another service that I find very useful -- a toll free number. There are two versions of this: The "free" one (you pay connect time but no other fees) is a shared toll free number. You are given a PIN which you give to people who will call you. They call the toll free number, enter your PIN and they are connected to whatever number you have setup -- in this case probably your United Mobile number. They also have a "business only" (though what is a business is loosely defined) that has a monthly fee of $1.50 and you get a dedicated toll free number that connects directly. In both cases the rate to FL is $.14/min
The other good thing is all these preset numbers (call back number, forwarding number for toll free) can be set from their website so you can change them as you move around. I spend a lot of time in Germany so I have a German SIM but when I am elsewhere I used the United Mobile. With this, people can reach me fairly seamlessly no matter where I am.
Now the caveats: CBW has been having problems of late with their network provider (I think it DialThru) and there have been periodic outages. Its not something I would depend on if you absolutely, positively have to have a call connected. I always have a backup plan. There can also be some annoying delays when talking. But all in all it has been a cost effective way for me to keep in touch with people and vice versa.
I echo what Dubai Stu says about PrePaidGSM.net -- it is a great resource for not only the variety of "international" SIMs but also it has details on many national offerings. It is the "flyertalk" of the prepaid GSM world
Like many people on FT, I travel quite frequently and have a collection of 10-15 sim cards from different continents. Although I have my US T-Mobile number which rings world-wide, it is much cheaper to receive calls on a local number. The thing is that, aside from my cirtica 1999 Virgin Mobile UK SIM which has not yet expired, most sim cards have a shelf life just slightly longer than most boy bands. For the UK and HK, this is no problem because I visit frequently...but for other countries (i.e. CH, MX, etc) my travel patterns are not so consistent. As well, many of my US-based friends do not necessarily understand my nomadic lifestyle.
It is much easier to give people on US number that always works, with the side benefit that they do not have to pay for the international call from their mobile phone. My solution: I have Skype In with forwarding turned on. This means that people dial my US-based Skype number, and it automatically forwards to whatever prepaid sim card I might use in the world. The only downside is that I have to pay for the international mobile phone call...hope this helps.
) call the trigger number and hang up, their system will call you back at a predetermined number. (Since the call isn't completed, you generally are not charged at this point).
