Phones in Europe

[ritaxis]

Okay, you seasoned travelers, you. I have a Cingular LG something-cheap phone. I do not understand the website which is supposed to explain whether my phone will work in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. I think this is possibly connected to the fact that what bthey really want you to do is to rent an "international" phone for $8 a day or $99 a month, or possibly buy a new phone from Cingular.

What's your experience? Can I use my phone? Emma has a fancier Nokia something-not-so-cheap.


I've been doing very little studying and planning for this trip because frankly the idea of getting into an airplane and going somewhere has me nauseous, and that's even before I start worrying about the dog and the cat. But it's less than six weeks away now so I have to get things in order.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Unless yours is a GSM phone (with a SIM card), no.

If it is, it has to be some high multi-band number -- like 4 bands maybe? For an American GSM phone to include the frequencies used in Europe.

These things are highly unlikely in a phone you got for American use and didn't carefully select to include the features necessary for Europe.

This is all second-hand knowledge for me, I've never actually used an American phone overseas, so be prepared to decide I'm wrong if necessary :-).

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

Your 'phone does seem to be a GSM tri-band model, and that will work in Europe. It'd be a lot cheaper to use over there if you get a local account, with a SIM card, but your 'phone may need to be "unlocked" to use that. And you may have to change a menu item to get it to use the European frequencies. We use 1900 here, they use 900/1800.
Make sure your charger is good for 240V, and you'll need a plug adapter.

[ckd]

For information on cheap local prepaid SIM cards in various countries, check out PrePaidGSM.net. As long as your phone isn't locked to use only a Cingular SIM (see above, and note that there will probably be folks who will unlock your phone for a small fee when you are in Europe) and it supports the appropriate frequency bands, you're all set.

We bought a pair of tri-band 900/1800/1900 phones just for travel a while back; we've bought SIMs in Germany and the UK, and used those SIMs in France and the Netherlands as well.

[ellarien]

I don't know much about phones, but I will point out that just about everyone in both the Netherlands and Denmark speaks excellent English, so you shouldn't have that to worry about, at least. (I gather that trying German is not recommended.)

I'm leaving for China in a week, and I just realized today that I don't even know if my money-card will work properly there.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Do you have an itinerary and dates yet for the Europe trip? I'm still vaguely thinking of trying to meet you if you pass through Amsterdam, but it will depend on when that will be and how long you'll be there.

Email me if you're interested in a rendezvous and don't want to post details publicly.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

If it's a triband or quadband phone, it'll probabably work (Cingular is GSM, same as T-Mobile). You may need to have Cingular turn on world roaming, and you may manually need to set the band (w/o seeing the phone or knowing the model number, it's hard to tell)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Four parts to the answer:

1. A tri-band GSM phone will operate in most of the world. Cingular uses GSM, but your phone may or may not be tri-band--check.

2. GSM phones sold in the USA are usually "locked" to a particular service provider's network; the phone can be unlocked. Cingular may or may not make this easy.

3. If you use the phone in Europe, you will need a European power supply.

4. If your phone will work in Europe, you have two choices: use Cingular's roaming service, probably at appalling rates, or have it unlocked, lease temporary service in Europe, and swap the phone's "SIM card", which identifies the phone to the network. You can buy a SIM card here, from Telestial, but it may be cheaper to buy one there.

Try a visit to http://www.telestial.com/ for more information, but probably they are not the best place to buy. Chances are you can also rent a phone once you get there, for much more reasonable rates than $8 a day--check a tour book.

[julesjones]

At $99 a month you can probably *buy* a cheap Pay As You Go when you get over there, although it will be locked and you'll have to pay roaming charges in the other two countries.

If all else fails, I have an unlocked UK handset which you can borrow if I am not using it myself at the time. It's an old one so it's only dual band, but it should cover all of Western Europe. You'll need to buy local SIMs when you get there.

You'll need to take a 240V charger (or transformer and plug adapter), or buy one there. However... If you are taking a laptop, you can probably buy a USB charger cable for the phone. These aren't entirely convenient, because you have to power up your laptop to charge the phone, but it does mean one less power brick to carry around. Fry's have them for a lot of models.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

You need a triband phone. I bought mine at Carphone Warehouse - it's a Motorola, so not exactly rubbish - for £25; including £5 airtime. That particular deal might no longer exist by the time you come here, but similar ones should be available - that way you get a decent phone on pay as you go which you can even use once you get home.

Should be worth investigating.