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Journal RevMike's Journal: Ask a subset of /. - Mobile Phones in Europe 19

Journal by RevMike

I need advice...

My company is starting to get clients into Europe, and over the course of this year I may have a few chances to go to Europe, particularly London. What is the best thing to do for Mobile Phone service.

Here in the US, I use Sprint, a non-GSM carrier. Sprint will provide me a SIM card that will allow me to get service from my phone number while in Europe. I'll need to get a GSM phone to go with it. The service will cost $1.50 per minute.

How much does it cost to sign up for a pre-paid plan in London, for instance. How much should I expect to pay for calls back to the United States via that pre-paid plan? Does this make sense for someone who only visits for a week here and there?

Are there any other options?

Thanks.

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Ask a subset of /. - Mobile Phones in Europe

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  • A close friend of mine is engaged to a girl living in London. He has gone over there several times and has taken his cell phone with him. What he told me was that it cost him about $1/min to talk to someone in the US when he was overseas. He has T-Mobile.

    Now, that said, he and she have invested very heavily in calling cards, and somewhere he found cards that allow him to call London for 1.9 cents/min. I don't know how that would help, but is it possible to, say, send a text message from there with a numbe

  • You can get pay-as-you-go SIM-locked GSM phones fairly cheaply, and you won't take it in the ass when you receive a call. That savings right there could, depending on how much you call and how many calls you take, pay for the cost of the phone.

    Vodafone [vodafone.co.uk] offers a few phones for under £30; Orange [orange.co.uk] also has some under £20. The card costs extra, but Orange lets you sign up for as little as £1.

    It depends, though, on whether you want to receive a lot of calls. Placing international calls with

    • I have some friends in the cell phone business here in the US. If I get a used GSM "world" phone from one of them, can I use a prepaid plan in Europe with it?

      The other option is to just buy a triband GSM phone in America and switch to a GSM plan...

      Not an option. I use the data services on my phone very heavily, and rely on the far superior data services of CDMA. Until the US GSM providers roll out really good WCDMA networks, I'll stick with CDMA2000. Don't you know GSM is dying?

      • If I get a used GSM "world" phone from one of them, can I use a prepaid plan in Europe with it?

        AFAIK yes, provided of course it isn't SIM-locked. Put it this way: I'd borrow the used phone, take it along, and if you buy a card that doesn't work, whatever, shell out the £20 for the UK phone.

        Don't you know GSM is dying?

        Whoa. We've moved from BSD trolls to GSM trolls. :-)

        Ethelred confirms it: Netcraft is dying.

        At any rate, naturally I insist you drop in on us in Hannover. Everyone in America

        • At any rate, naturally I insist you drop in on us in Hannover. Everyone in America knows it's about the same distance that they'd happily drive for a burger.

          Oh, that is why you never invited me over: I wouldn't even drive to Trier to buy a burger.

          To stay ontopic: GSM providers do not lock the SIM card. There is a easy reason for that: it's what brings them money, the handset is unimportant. As for "locked", I don't know, but that should be illegal. I can buy a "Pronto Pack" (prepaid handset + credi

          • Oh, and GMS is not dying....

            GSM is most certainly dying. It is being supplanted by WCDMA (aka UMTS), which combines the SIM card goodness of GSM with the superior transport layer of CDMA. The '3G' phones are all WCDMA or WCDMA/GSM dual mode.

            Rest in Peace, GSM.

            • No... Not until I can get a UMTS phone for under 100€. UMTS promises more bandwitdh (nobody cares, since SMS and voice are bandwidth insensitive with current technologies). People are really reluctant to switch to UMTS. Personally, I know nobody in Europe who did switch. (My provider does offer a UMTS service, but I don't see a reason the switch because it is more expensive)

              Unless there is a "killer app" that requires cellphones to have huge bandwith, I can assure you that GSM will have a long an

              • UMTS promises more bandwitdh (nobody cares, since SMS and voice are bandwidth insensitive with current technologies)

                Ya, I agree. WiFi in Europe makes UTMS rather irrelevant. I just don't need it, but WiFi hotspots are getting common enough that they cover any data needs I may have (and much more cheaply). They've tried pushing 2.5G and 3G services such as i-Mode -- and gotten nowhere, because there just isn't any interest in it. Meanwhile, regular 2G cellphones are ubiquitous and people are happy with th

                • Ya, I agree. WiFi in Europe makes UTMS rather irrelevant. I just don't need it, but WiFi hotspots are getting common enough that they cover any data needs I may have (and much more cheaply). They've tried pushing 2.5G and 3G services such as i-Mode -- and gotten nowhere, because there just isn't any interest in it. Meanwhile, regular 2G cellphones are ubiquitous and people are happy with the technology as it is.

                  GSM has a lot of life left in it yet for that simple reason. Is it the fanciest thing out ther

                  • Expect them to start charging more for GSM soon.

                    With the kinds of price wars going on over here, "charging more" is quite relative. And besides, people upgrade their phones quite frequently anyway -- though right now WiMax looks like it could supplant UTMS anyway for data. Once it does that, VoIP starts to look like the logical cheap avenue for voice.

                    I'm using CDMA2000 to do VPN connections to my client sites, then run VNC and SSH, and install software and upgrade servers - while riding on the commu

                    • Whuh-wha? What kind of l4m0rz WiFi have you been using? We're talking 32 Mbit here...
                      WiFi is great if I'm reasonably stationary (relative to the access point). I'm talking about doing these things while driving from NY to Boston.
                    • But that's what I was talking about. "Surfing while driving" in Europe isn't going to work -- it's just impractical. "Surfing while riding the train" is already a reality thanks to WiFi/WiMax -- 32 Mbit while flying along at 300 km/h.

                      I don't see a practical need for UMTS that justifies the cost right now in Europe. That might change, but at the moment the high price tag isn't justified when there are cheaper alternatives that work as well.

                      The GSM operators in America may be in trouble, but GSM in Europe

                    • There, I've fed the troll three steaks, a lobster, a few appetizers and even some ice cream. Now please go away and let me make a call on my outdated GSM phone. :-)

                      :-)

          • Oh, that is why you never invited me over: I wouldn't even drive to Trier to buy a burger.

            I thought it was plain that you have a standing invitation. :-)

            GSM providers do not lock the SIM card.

            They don't lock the card. They (often, not always) lock the phone so that it only works with their cards. Maybe they don't do it in Lux, but it's very common in Germany -- FWIW all three of our current phones are locked to Vodafone, but since we're with them anyway I haven't bothered to remove the locks.

            You

            • And hey, don't feed the GSM troll. :-)

              :)

              It is kind of funny, however. Five years ago all you heard from Europeans is how wonderful the Euro cell phone system is. Now they're stuck with an outdated technology and need to buy new phones to take advantage of new technology.

              I just drove about 4,000km NY->Florida->NY and had high speed data access on my laptop virtually the entire time. 20h car rides go faster when you can browse the web.

              • Five years ago all you heard from Europeans is how wonderful the Euro cell phone system is. Now they're stuck with an outdated technology and need to buy new phones to take advantage of new technology.

                It's still a great network, though -- and the coverage is truly hard to beat (having driven through Ohio, western Virginia and West Virginia, stayed with relatives in Ohio and southeastern Virginia and in the Williamsburg area, I can say that "can you hear me now" is a crock of shit). Best of all, it's chea

            • I thought it was plain that you have a standing invitation. :-)

              Just teasing. You're up North, eh? I always forget... Hannover, right? Somehow I recall you mentioning CeBit, but could be a wrong association.

              Good Lord -- I knew Lux was expensive, but that's ridiculous. For about 70 you can get a phone with 25 credit on it here. Less if you look hard enough.

              Honestly: I didn't look up the prices. It was a wild guess....

              After fack checking: Tango [tango.lu]. I don't find the offers of LuxGSM, but I'm sur

              • After fack checking: Tango .

                Wow. That is expensive (the actual package price is listed under the phones).

                OTOH if they aren't locking the phones, that's probably why. Locking in customers is how they subsidize the price of the phone -- if they aren't locked in, they can't subsidize them as much.

                Yep, I'm in Hannover, home of CeBIT. And you haven't visited once. *melodramatic sob*

                Cheers,

                Ethelred

                • And you haven't visited once. *melodramatic sob*

                  Yeah, it's everybodies dream to have a alcohol loving shark visiting ;-) If for some reason I have to be in Hannover (Hey, I was there a couple of years ago for the World Expo), I'll arange a meeting!

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