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

[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.