Have an unlocked Blackberry (thanks FT for the howto info) with Cingular and travel to Europe 2-4 times a year for about a week at a time. I would like an emergency phone in Europe since I travel alone, and on occasion would like to contact FT friends in same Euro city.
Sites like mobal.com and other FT recommended places are selling sims for $70+ others are cheaper but expire if not used frequently.
1. what is the approx. cost for a sim bought "in country" ? If it's over 10 USD per week I'd have difficulty justifying the cost, see #2
2. since phone is for emergency (and alarm features!) would international roaming just be the way to go?
3. would someone explain how to cancel voice but keep other features? and can you change back when you come back to the USA?
4. My Blackberry is on the home network -- email is redirected through my laptop. So, if in Europe with laptop, there is no apparent way to send/receive email. Is there a runaround? Would putting the redirect software on Mr. liil's computer (he doesn't travel) allow me access when in Europe?
Sheesh, I hate feeling so dumb, but I give up. Any help appreciated.
I just finished a trip to Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Dubai, Nairobi and Kigali (Rwanda) and used a sim card from ekit. It worked in all of those places except for Rwanda and I got it for about $17 with $20 of airtime. It's a bit steep in some places but cheap in others (in some countries it's free to receive a call). The web site for the SIM cards is www.ekit.com. I purchased the card from http://www.travellerspoint.com/sim-c...stinations.cfm.
The card worked flawlessly, and I found it perfect for emergencies or just quick "I've arrived" calls when I can't get Skype running. In Rwanda I bought a local sim card for $1.
I have considered using United Mobile for some time as I will be traveling through France, Germany and the Czech Republic in the near future. I have a Virgin SIM but it receives calls free in England only I think. I need to have two SIM chips while traveling in those countries with a very low per minute rate between them and free incoming. I will be using the phone to call the hotels as I travel and the other phone, sorta like a walkie talkie. Any recommendations?
I just use the unitedmobile sim, with a callback service, and sometimes a onesuite account if I want to call some foreign countries like china and russia for cheap. Works GREAT. I just got back, UK, germanh, italy, france, east germany, all worked fine. Costs about .14$ a minute
Yes, the directions were very easy to follow. I found the shop but it had a very long line of customers and only one clerk so I decided to get my SIM card in town. I bought an Orange Mobicart SIM and additional minutes at the fnac store on Champs Elysee. I appreciate your help. Merci.
Anytime. As a very old Air France slogan used to go, A Votre Service!
(I don't want to get kicked off this board so I won't post, even in French, what I think the current Air France slogan is.
You might want to see if Cingular has any sort of "plan" that allows for discounted roaming. When I was still with AT&T I think I paid $5 or $10 per month for discounting roaming.
In regards to the cost of the SIM cards in Europe, it will entirely depend on the country and carrier. In a recent trip I spent 10 euros on a Vodaphone Italy sim and 20 on one in France. They worked great and were very easy to recharge.
The downside, however, I having a new number for each country.
Hello, I read your info and I need to know where did you buy vodaphone France sim card? Can I buy it from USA or just wait until I get to Paris?
I need to get 2 sim cards since I will be traveling with my teenager daughter ( just in case we get seperated in some places). I have 2 unlock phones, so it won't be problem to use the sim card.
Thank you very much.
I
I would like to know what is the best deal for france sim card if I just need to be in Paris for 1 week.
I need to get 2 sim cards since I will be traveling with my teenager daughter ( just in case we get seperated in some places). I have 2 unlock phones, so it won't be problem to use the sim card. I only need to use it to communicate with my daughter only, so I won't use it for international call.
Is it better if I buy it from USA or just wait until I get to Paris?
Thank you very much.
Hello, I read your info and I need to know where did you buy vodaphone France sim card? Can I buy it from USA or just wait until I get to Paris?
I need to get 2 sim cards since I will be traveling with my teenager daughter ( just in case we get seperated in some places). I have 2 unlock phones, so it won't be problem to use the sim card.
Thank you very much.
I
There is no Vodaphone France. Vodaphone partners with SFR for roaming in France.
I would like to know what is the best deal for france sim card if I just need to be in Paris for 1 week.
I need to get 2 sim cards since I will be traveling with my teenager daughter ( just in case we get seperated in some places). I have 2 unlock phones, so it won't be problem to use the sim card. I only need to use it to communicate with my daughter only, so I won't use it for international call.
Is it better if I buy it from USA or just wait until I get to Paris?
Thank you very much.
See post #189 above. SIM cards are available at Telestial in advance before you go but cost more. eBay may have some better deals but I'm not sure.
I think the same SIM in France can be had for 20 euros.
Stu
I would strongly recommend against using Telestial. Not only is the price outrageous compared with locally purchased SIM cards, but the customer service is mediocre. We bought a card last year to use at the winter olympics After burning through the starter card, we attempted to "reload" the card with more money via telephone and internet. It took 96 hours to get the additional minutes added to the card, and there was no live customer service during this period (telephone or email). By the time someone responded, we had already purchased another SIM card locally which was activated immediately.
Programs: UA 1K, GM in pretty much everything else, RCC "Chit Allowance Abuser"
Posts: 2,520
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boraxo
I would strongly recommend against using Telestial. Not only is the price outrageous compared with locally purchased SIM cards, but the customer service is mediocre. We bought a card last year to use at the winter olympics After burning through the starter card, we attempted to "reload" the card with more money via telephone and internet. It took 96 hours to get the additional minutes added to the card, and there was no live customer service during this period (telephone or email). By the time someone responded, we had already purchased another SIM card locally which was activated immediately.
I second this opinion of Telestial's CS. I purchased a United Mobile sim from them about a year and a half ago and had the same issues with reloading it. After about 6 months of frustration I realized I could reload the card via UM's own website and the credits post immediately.
That said, I have also had VERY poor service from the UM sim. I have used it in both my Treo 650 and a RAZR V3i and incoming calls (which of course are the free ones) hardly ever come through. Anytime my GF would call from the US it would go straight to the voice mail and then I would get the notification a few minutes later. I also had more dropped calls then I could stomach.
I am heading back to Europe in March and I am thinking about trying the Cingular discounted roaming plan just so I have emergency access and the ability to make the occasional call. I will use Skype for everything else.
Local sims are pretty much out of question for me as I don't ever stay in a city/country for typically more then a day or two.
Craig
__________________ "Pardon me Matron...but do you have any Grey Coupon?"
I respectfully disagree with the prior poster. Since moving out of the US, I've used the UM mobile extensively and have had a good experience. For many months (until I found a very cheap route to UAE mobiles), I carried the phone with me as a second phone whenever I was expecting a business call from the States. The unit worked very well. The one time that I called customer support, I got through directly.
For many people the problem is that they are in high congestion areas of a city at the worst time. Even if you have a local SIM, if you are standing outside TST at rush hour in Hong Kong, your call may not go through. It is also rumored that some networks prioritize roamers.
A second problem with the UM mobile is that there are very few cheap routes to the card and carriers that provide reasonable termination rates to them often only have one route. When I call a UK landline on most services, they will have multiple routes to a carrier with some fallback. If you are terminating to a Liechtenstein SIM at below $0.20 a minute, you have one or two possible carriers that are options. That is it.
Telestial does a good job for what it is. Remember that most of these internet shops are one or two people shops. They are not massive organizations and for these reasons, customer service can be inconsistent, but when I called them several years ago, they took my call. For reasons stated, I obviously don't buy from them all that often, but when I have, they have worked. I bought one (as a present) for my neighbor's kid when he went to do relief work in Pakistan and it arrived within two days.
I've been using United Mobile for a couple of years with great results. I've only had to call customer service a couple times in that span but both times the service was great. There have been times when the call quality was less than perfect, but by and large no worse than many other providers I've used. If you use them with a service such as CallBackWorld.com you can save quite a bit of money all calls back to the US.
I've also used Telestial to purchase a local SIM I couldn't find elsewhere (needed the number before I left) and I had no complaints. Yes, there are cheaper alternatives in many cases, but for what they do I don't think their prices are out of line. If you are comfortable buying from a vendor on eBay (and can find what you need), then go for it. If you can wait until you are "in country" then buy the SIM when you arrive. But if you don't fit those categories then I wouldn't have problems recommending Telestial.
I will say, I have never bought "top-ups" from them -- I always buy those from local vendors when I need them.
I'll be in Germany next week for a couple weeks. Cingular is my provider. ... 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.
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.
While scrolling through this thread, I came across your old post. I have almost the exact requirement as you - needing a cell for Germany for short term use; have a Mot V180 quad-band phone with Cingular (have unlock code but not yet unlocked). I also received unlocking instructions which reads as follow:
1 Make sure the phone is fully charged.
2 Before you start you must have a foreign (non-T Mobile) sim card entered into the handset.
3 If the phone displays, "Please wait to enter special code" or "Contact service provider," you will have to wait for it to change back. Please be aware that the phone must stay powered on to do this. If the battery is low, be sure to plug it in.
4 It could take 15 minutes to an hour to change back. If the phone does not change back, the handset will need to be replaced.
5 If the display reads "Enter Special Code", enter the unlock code xxxxxxxx (an 8 digit number). Be extremely careful when entering the code. If enter wrong code 5 times, the phone will render useless.
6 And press "OK"
Since I want to unlock my phone now, but hesitate to do so after reading what you had to do (device driver download etc...) I wonder if I should go ahead with the instruction given above? or go your route? any input would be appreciated.
I presumed you had indeed gone to Germany. How was the cell phone experience? Which SIM card and services did you use?
First post from a newbie here. Had a quick glance round, and did not see this one mentioned - but apologies if I duplicate anyone else's post.
I travel extensively around Europe, and how I reduce my roaming is by using a sim card from www.sim4travel.com. For about £30 you can buy a Lichtenstein sim card that has toll free roaming in most destinations. Check out their web site for more info.
What then do is when I am travelling, I put my o2 mobile on divert using their international caller discounted rate to the sim4travel sim , it then costs me 19p per minute for the diverted call and free roaming.
Plus texts and calls are discounted cheaper than most contracts whilst roaming. It may not be as cheap as buying a sim per country, but at least you only have one extra phone to carry and use in all destinations.
Has anyone used the sim4travel sim card? The rates are very good. I want to buy a phone or a phone/SIM plan very soon and want to get the best thing for my months abroad. From what I gathered free incoming calls and rates abour 0.80 to the US. Is there anything better than this? Thanks!
While scrolling through this thread, I came across your old post. I have almost the exact requirement as you - needing a cell for Germany for short term use; have a Mot V180 quad-band phone with Cingular (have unlock code but not yet unlocked). I also received unlocking instructions which reads as follow:
1 Make sure the phone is fully charged.
2 Before you start you must have a foreign (non-T Mobile) sim card entered into the handset.
3 If the phone displays, "Please wait to enter special code" or "Contact service provider," you will have to wait for it to change back. Please be aware that the phone must stay powered on to do this. If the battery is low, be sure to plug it in.
4 It could take 15 minutes to an hour to change back. If the phone does not change back, the handset will need to be replaced.
5 If the display reads "Enter Special Code", enter the unlock code xxxxxxxx (an 8 digit number). Be extremely careful when entering the code. If enter wrong code 5 times, the phone will render useless.
6 And press "OK"
Since I want to unlock my phone now, but hesitate to do so after reading what you had to do (device driver download etc...) I wonder if I should go ahead with the instruction given above? or go your route? any input would be appreciated.
I have unlocked Mot Razr V3s both ways. The first time Cingular would not give me the unlock code so I paid $25. After further reading of this post I kept calling them (4 times!) to unlock a second phone. All they gave me was the code and the instructions to turn off the phone, remove the Cingular SIM, insert the Foreign SIM, turn on the phone and enter the code provided.
It was very simple, I had an old AT&T SIM that is inactive and the phone prompted me for the code and that was it. If you have a friend on T Mobile that SIM should work as well if you want to unlock in advance of your trip. After unlocking I just put my Cingular SIM back in and my phone worked. Later on I purchased an Orange SIM card later in Paris and the phone worked fine. Hard part was getting Cingular to give me the code.
By the time someone responded, we had already purchased another SIM card locally which was activated immediately.
"Pardon me Matron...but do you have any Grey Coupon?"
United Mobile
