So,

I gave my father an unlocked Tri-mode GSM phone. He would like to use it in Germany, Austria, Italy, and at a Colorado ski resort where only T-Mobile has service (Eldora). He doesn't care about having a consistent inbound phone number, he just wants to make calls. And not that many calls, mostly to check voice mail, emergencies, say hello.

Would this make sense: Buy a el-cheapo T-Mobile SIM card off ebay for $10 and then add $100 of "refill" to the card. This would give him one year of service and 1000 minutes. But I'm guessing that "1000 minutes" assumes domestic use. And that when used in Europe, the minutes would vanish quickly. How quickly?

He could buy a separate SIM in each country, but that seems like overkill to me. Any better ideas?

Thanks,

Robert

P.S. I considered positing this in sticky SIM thread, but thought my question was too specific. If wrong, please move/delete.

Regular TMO account would work fine, about $1.49/minute for interntional roaming. Prepaid probably doesn't work - best for you to call TMO direct and ask them for full details.

My personal suggestion would be use the 'overkill' method - it'll be cheaper in the long run.

Get a roaming sim for Europe. Take a look at prepaidgsm.net for an evaluation of the various SIMs out there. I have a SIM from 09.is with a US 800 number directed at it from callbackworld.com. The 800 number costs me $1 per month and I pay fifteen cents a minute for inbound calls throughout western Europe. Look at their rates for outbound.

T-mobile prepaids from the US will not work outside of the US, he will need to put another SIM card in for that.

My last trip I used a Tellestial card, worked great.

My pre-paid T-mobile works outside the US - tested in Canada and Australia. Cingular/AT&T pre-paid doesn't.

T-Mo is known to have many holes in its billing system.

T-Zones is a data service that comes with a contract account (dunno about PAYG). It's supposed to only connect to their store (ringtones, wallpapers, games), but any phone can select "Web address" and see a humongous number of WAP sites.

I buy an unlimited data service called T-Mobileweb for $5.99 which is a step up from T-Zones. It's supposed to be WAP-only, but I configured my iPAQ to be a GPRS internet terminal. It's slow and cheap.

When I roam in Europe on T-Mo (99¢/min), the T-Mobileweb keeps working without charging me anything, provided that my phone is registered on a T-Mo cell site (which I usually have to do manually when changing countries). As soon as I get that "Welcome to O2" (or whatever), I'm off to the configuration menu to avoid surprises.

A lot of foreign SIMs allow roaming in other countries. At $1.49/minute roaming on T-Mobile in Europe adds up fast. Why not get a US prepaid T-Mobile SIM for Colorado and a European prepay SIM for the others? You'll have to check the rates on the European SIMs as some are great and some are lousy.

This sounds like the best advice. The callbackworld.com system sounds like a nice way to manage intra-europe roaming costs if he buys, say, an Italian SIM and wants to place a call from Germany.

I read earlier the posts about TMobile US prepaid working outside the US and had a friend try it in Germany. He tried it and didn't have any luck.

Odd.

Mine didn't work in Paris or in Rome a couple weeks ago. They were quite nice about unlocking the quad band phone though so I could plug another one in it, that was a pleasant surprise.

I haven't had much success roaming with my US TMobile SIM in Europe.

Prepaid European plans are much simpler and cheaper ^

I had a Cingular/AT&T prepaid for nearly 3 years and it served me well for the timesI was in the US. Once I started travelling to Canada I found it didn't work. So I checked the other providers and found that T-mobile prepaid works internationally. I think you do have to activate their "Worldclass" service (no cost) before you leave the US. Their website has the details.

Hope this helps,

Glenn

Yeah, but on the website it says

You can activate WorldClass International Service by calling 611 toll-free from your T-Mobile phone, or calling 1-800-937-8997 from any phone.

There is no recurring monthly fee or activation fee for this feature.

Please note:

Only the "account owner" may request activation.
Prepaid and SmartAccess customers are not eligible.

(color added)

I think it's pretty hit or miss if they will allow it or not, I know for my prepaid it was not an option. I would not have that be my only source of service until I was sure it worked first by trying it someplace.

regarding TMO prepaid: Unlimited T-zones included for free.

My T-Mo prepaid (with the U.S. SIM in place) works as well - tested in Canada, the UK and Germany.

Of course, in Europe I don't use the US SIM - I put my German T-Mo SIM in the phone.