Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Apr 24th 2003 | 2:23 pm
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
available.
Traveler
prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
available.
Traveler
Apr 24th 2003 | 2:32 pm
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
> Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
> prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
> to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
> available.
I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
that's how is was last summer.
Jon
> prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
> to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
> available.
I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
that's how is was last summer.
Jon
Apr 24th 2003 | 2:42 pm
#3
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
"Traveler" wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
> a prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
> Sweden, and to Norway so that people from North America could call me?
A prepaid account is your only option. Since you're beginning your trip in
London, one of the pay-as-you-go products of the British networks is what
you ought to get. The British posters might advise you on the best deals.
This will be "relatively cheap", except for the fact that you pay for
incoming calls when you're outside of the UK. But it's your best bet for
being reachable. A clever thing to do might be to arrange your home phone
number(s) (landline, mobile or even both) to be diverted to your UK mobile
once you know its phone number. Of course this increases the cost, but it's
an option.
Regards
--
Ich gebe zu ich war am Anfang entzückt
news:[email protected]:
> Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
> a prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
> Sweden, and to Norway so that people from North America could call me?
A prepaid account is your only option. Since you're beginning your trip in
London, one of the pay-as-you-go products of the British networks is what
you ought to get. The British posters might advise you on the best deals.
This will be "relatively cheap", except for the fact that you pay for
incoming calls when you're outside of the UK. But it's your best bet for
being reachable. A clever thing to do might be to arrange your home phone
number(s) (landline, mobile or even both) to be diverted to your UK mobile
once you know its phone number. Of course this increases the cost, but it's
an option.
Regards
--
Ich gebe zu ich war am Anfang entzückt
Apr 24th 2003 | 2:53 pm
#4
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
"Jon" wrote in
news:[email protected]:
> However if you want to activate roaming to use it in other
> European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed,
> and for that you need a permanent address. At least that's how is was
> last summer.
What you say used to be generally true 3 or 4 years ago, but not now. It
used to be that prepay SIMs were in general not allowed to roam, only
monthly plans which indeed require a permanent address. But things have
changed.
There are now prepay SIMs available which have international roaming
activated out of the box. This is true for some, but not all. Different
providers use different methods of billing the roaming costs. Some withdraw
it from credit cards or bank accounts, with those you need to have a
permanent domestic address anyway, even if it's otherwhise a prepay SIM.
Some others just withdraw the roaming charges from the prepay credit
associated with your SIM card. It should not be necessary to register an
address with those. In order to find out which is which, you need detailed
information about all prepay products available in a given country. You
were probably just unlucky last year, but maybe this information helps the
OP.
Regards
--
Ich gebe zu ich war am Anfang entzückt
news:[email protected]:
> However if you want to activate roaming to use it in other
> European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed,
> and for that you need a permanent address. At least that's how is was
> last summer.
What you say used to be generally true 3 or 4 years ago, but not now. It
used to be that prepay SIMs were in general not allowed to roam, only
monthly plans which indeed require a permanent address. But things have
changed.
There are now prepay SIMs available which have international roaming
activated out of the box. This is true for some, but not all. Different
providers use different methods of billing the roaming costs. Some withdraw
it from credit cards or bank accounts, with those you need to have a
permanent domestic address anyway, even if it's otherwhise a prepay SIM.
Some others just withdraw the roaming charges from the prepay credit
associated with your SIM card. It should not be necessary to register an
address with those. In order to find out which is which, you need detailed
information about all prepay products available in a given country. You
were probably just unlucky last year, but maybe this information helps the
OP.
Regards
--
Ich gebe zu ich war am Anfang entzückt
Apr 24th 2003 | 2:54 pm
#5
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
In article ,
"Jon" wrote:
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
> > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden,
> > and
> > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options
> > are
> > available.
> >
> I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and
> relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account
> set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed,
> and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> that's how is was last summer.
> Jon
>
>
T-Mobile, PAYG has world wide roaming. You need to have vouchers or UK
credit card and address for credit card top off.
For my outgoing calls, I program a calling card access number and PIN
into memory which is a HUGE savings... HUGE!
jay
Thu, Apr 24, 2003
mailto:[email protected]
--
Legend insists that as he finished his abject...
Galileo muttered under his breath: "Nevertheless, it does move."
"Jon" wrote:
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
> > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden,
> > and
> > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options
> > are
> > available.
> >
> I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and
> relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account
> set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed,
> and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> that's how is was last summer.
> Jon
>
>
T-Mobile, PAYG has world wide roaming. You need to have vouchers or UK
credit card and address for credit card top off.
For my outgoing calls, I program a calling card access number and PIN
into memory which is a HUGE savings... HUGE!
jay
Thu, Apr 24, 2003
mailto:[email protected]
--
Legend insists that as he finished his abject...
Galileo muttered under his breath: "Nevertheless, it does move."
Apr 24th 2003 | 6:29 pm
#6
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Jon wrote:
>
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
> > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
> > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
> > available.
> >
> I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> that's how is was last summer.
I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
all over the world.
Barbara
>
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe a
> > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to Sweden, and
> > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't want to
> > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I may
> > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what options are
> > available.
> >
> I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> that's how is was last summer.
I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
all over the world.
Barbara
Apr 24th 2003 | 6:56 pm
#7
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
> "Traveler" wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
> > a prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
> > Sweden, and to Norway so that people from North America could call me?
>
> A prepaid account is your only option. Since you're beginning your trip in
> London, one of the pay-as-you-go products of the British networks is what
> you ought to get. The British posters might advise you on the best deals.
For this poster's purposes, I'd suggest the best deal is from Orange.
Orange only use CAMEL roaming, so is limited to only one company within
each of the 22 countries they roam in. (They roam in all the countries
the poster will visit.) While roaming abroad, the user will pay 60p for
incoming and 120p for outgoing. That is almost double the contract rate,
but doesn't compare too badly compared to raoming in Europe on a US cell
phone. While the limited number of networks might seem inconvenient, you
shouldn't have many coverage problems as European networks tend to have
fairly wide coverage in direct competition with other local networks,
unlike the US where few markets currently have more than one GSM
provider. The advantage of CAMEL roaming is it operates just like
regular roaming, without the callback which is usually required for
non-camel PAYG roaming. Check:
http://www.orange.co.uk/cgi-bin/inte...pl?tariff=payg
For US callers, it's important to note that Orange only charge 15p a
minute to call the US from the UK, and are nopt much more for caling
Europe. This is not too bad at all, considering it's a mobile call.
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
> "Traveler" wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
> > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
> > a prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
> > Sweden, and to Norway so that people from North America could call me?
>
> A prepaid account is your only option. Since you're beginning your trip in
> London, one of the pay-as-you-go products of the British networks is what
> you ought to get. The British posters might advise you on the best deals.
For this poster's purposes, I'd suggest the best deal is from Orange.
Orange only use CAMEL roaming, so is limited to only one company within
each of the 22 countries they roam in. (They roam in all the countries
the poster will visit.) While roaming abroad, the user will pay 60p for
incoming and 120p for outgoing. That is almost double the contract rate,
but doesn't compare too badly compared to raoming in Europe on a US cell
phone. While the limited number of networks might seem inconvenient, you
shouldn't have many coverage problems as European networks tend to have
fairly wide coverage in direct competition with other local networks,
unlike the US where few markets currently have more than one GSM
provider. The advantage of CAMEL roaming is it operates just like
regular roaming, without the callback which is usually required for
non-camel PAYG roaming. Check:
http://www.orange.co.uk/cgi-bin/inte...pl?tariff=payg
For US callers, it's important to note that Orange only charge 15p a
minute to call the US from the UK, and are nopt much more for caling
Europe. This is not too bad at all, considering it's a mobile call.
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
Apr 25th 2003 | 1:20 am
#8
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Barbara Vaughan wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Jon wrote:
> >
> > > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
a
> > > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
Sweden, and
> > > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't
want to
> > > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I
may
> > > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what
options are
> > > available.
> > >
> > I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy
and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> > and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar
account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> > in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be
billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> > that's how is was last summer.
> I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
> all over the world.
That's great Barbara. It would also be great if you provided some details so
people could benefit from your knowledge!
)
---
DFM
news:[email protected]...
> Jon wrote:
> >
> > > Are there any relatively cheap options for getting a cell phone (maybe
a
> > > prepaid account) that I could take around London, to Denmark, to
Sweden, and
> > > to Norway so that people from North America could call me? I don't
want to
> > > try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage. I
may
> > > decide not to get a cell phone at all, but I'd like to know what
options are
> > > available.
> > >
> > I wanted to do the same thing as you describe. I found that it is easy
and relatively cheap to buy a prepaid cell phone in Europe
> > and use it in the country where you bought it with no paperwork ar
account set up. However if you want to activate roaming to use it
> > in other European countries you have to set up an account that can be
billed, and for that you need a permanent address. At least
> > that's how is was last summer.
> I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
> all over the world.
That's great Barbara. It would also be great if you provided some details so
people could benefit from your knowledge!
)---
DFM
Apr 25th 2003 | 2:49 am
#9
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
David Horne wrote:
> For this poster's purposes, I'd suggest the best deal is from Orange.
>(snip rest of excellent post)
> For US callers, it's important to note that Orange only charge 15p a
> minute to call the US from the UK, and are nopt much more for caling
> Europe. This is not too bad at all, considering it's a mobile call.
>
I also use Orange, and would definitely recommend them to the OP. I've
registered a credit card with Orange, so that I can add call time without
having to use the top-up cards - the cards are readily available in the UK,
but not in the other countries the OP will be visiting.
> For this poster's purposes, I'd suggest the best deal is from Orange.
>(snip rest of excellent post)
> For US callers, it's important to note that Orange only charge 15p a
> minute to call the US from the UK, and are nopt much more for caling
> Europe. This is not too bad at all, considering it's a mobile call.
>
I also use Orange, and would definitely recommend them to the OP. I've
registered a credit card with Orange, so that I can add call time without
having to use the top-up cards - the cards are readily available in the UK,
but not in the other countries the OP will be visiting.
Apr 25th 2003 | 5:26 am
#10
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Deep Floyd Mars wrote:
> Barbara Vaughan wrote in message
> > I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
> > all over the world.
> >
>
> That's great Barbara. It would also be great if you provided some details so
> people could benefit from your knowledge!)
Well, I'm not sure I would advise using it in most of the world. It's a
triband Ericsson GSM phone I bought in Italy. I got a 50 euro prepaid
SIM card for it when I bought it about 8 months ago, and still hadn't
used it up when I went to the US a few weeks ago. When I got to the US,
I turned it on and after of few minutes of "Searching...", I got a
signal from an American provider. Soon after, I got three SMS messages
from my Italian provider telling me how to call Italy from the US, how
to refill the card, and various other useful things. To try it out, I
called my husband.
Later that day, I bought an American SIM card from T-Mobile, which cost
me 50-something dollars (including a set-up cost). The per-minute cost,
however, was pretty steep for both incoming and outgoing calls (50 cents
a minute) and I used up $32 worth of calls in less than a week, even
though I used it only once for calling Italy; the rest of the calls were
within the US. T-Mobile seems to be the only GSM provider on the east
coast of the US. If there were some competition, I suppose the price
would come down.
Barbara
> Barbara Vaughan wrote in message
> > I have a prepaid service in Italy (no billing account) that I can use
> > all over the world.
> >
>
> That's great Barbara. It would also be great if you provided some details so
> people could benefit from your knowledge!
)Well, I'm not sure I would advise using it in most of the world. It's a
triband Ericsson GSM phone I bought in Italy. I got a 50 euro prepaid
SIM card for it when I bought it about 8 months ago, and still hadn't
used it up when I went to the US a few weeks ago. When I got to the US,
I turned it on and after of few minutes of "Searching...", I got a
signal from an American provider. Soon after, I got three SMS messages
from my Italian provider telling me how to call Italy from the US, how
to refill the card, and various other useful things. To try it out, I
called my husband.
Later that day, I bought an American SIM card from T-Mobile, which cost
me 50-something dollars (including a set-up cost). The per-minute cost,
however, was pretty steep for both incoming and outgoing calls (50 cents
a minute) and I used up $32 worth of calls in less than a week, even
though I used it only once for calling Italy; the rest of the calls were
within the US. T-Mobile seems to be the only GSM provider on the east
coast of the US. If there were some competition, I suppose the price
would come down.
Barbara
Apr 25th 2003 | 6:17 am
#11
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Barbara Vaughan wrote:
> Later that day, I bought an American SIM card from T-Mobile, which cost
> me 50-something dollars (including a set-up cost). The per-minute cost,
> however, was pretty steep for both incoming and outgoing calls (50 cents
> a minute) and I used up $32 worth of calls in less than a week, even
> though I used it only once for calling Italy; the rest of the calls were
> within the US. T-Mobile seems to be the only GSM provider on the east
> coast of the US. If there were some competition, I suppose the price
> would come down.
Actually, there is now. AT&T also have GSM service on the east coast- in
Boston, you can pick up both their signals now. Actually, it's not the
lack of GSM competition that is the main problem for the price of
prepaid- it's a general US thing wrt prepaid plans. They never took off
in the way they have in much of the rest of the world- and are generally
not very good value, regardless of whether or not they're GSM. Contract
plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
Hawaii.
T-mobile looks like it's going down now on prepaid, and with certain
credits, the cost is as little as ¢20 a minute. The main problem IMO
with US prepaid is that there has typically been a short recharge time.
When roaming, it's good advice only to use the phone when you have to,
unless you're rich. If the call can wait, then make it from a payphone
using a local calling card- especially good advice in the US and lost of
Europe, I think.
David
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
> Later that day, I bought an American SIM card from T-Mobile, which cost
> me 50-something dollars (including a set-up cost). The per-minute cost,
> however, was pretty steep for both incoming and outgoing calls (50 cents
> a minute) and I used up $32 worth of calls in less than a week, even
> though I used it only once for calling Italy; the rest of the calls were
> within the US. T-Mobile seems to be the only GSM provider on the east
> coast of the US. If there were some competition, I suppose the price
> would come down.
Actually, there is now. AT&T also have GSM service on the east coast- in
Boston, you can pick up both their signals now. Actually, it's not the
lack of GSM competition that is the main problem for the price of
prepaid- it's a general US thing wrt prepaid plans. They never took off
in the way they have in much of the rest of the world- and are generally
not very good value, regardless of whether or not they're GSM. Contract
plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
Hawaii.
T-mobile looks like it's going down now on prepaid, and with certain
credits, the cost is as little as ¢20 a minute. The main problem IMO
with US prepaid is that there has typically been a short recharge time.
When roaming, it's good advice only to use the phone when you have to,
unless you're rich. If the call can wait, then make it from a payphone
using a local calling card- especially good advice in the US and lost of
Europe, I think.
David
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
Apr 25th 2003 | 9:33 am
#12
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
> I don't want to
>try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage
I bought a phone (about 90 euros) and a pre paid card. You can get the card
recharged at any Tabac place.
Ron
>try to adapt my current cell phone account to international usage
I bought a phone (about 90 euros) and a pre paid card. You can get the card
recharged at any Tabac place.
Ron
Apr 25th 2003 | 8:28 pm
#13
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
David Horne wrote:
> ... Contract
> plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
> cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
> potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
> Hawaii.
Yes, my daughter has a very nice contract plan. However, these are of no
use to the tourist.
> T-mobile looks like it's going down now on prepaid, and with certain
> credits, the cost is as little as ¢20 a minute. The main problem IMO
> with US prepaid is that there has typically been a short recharge time.
When I bought the T-mobile card, I was hesitant because it expired in 2
months if unused. I had thought I might be able to use up any unused
minutes on a later trip. However, I ended up using up all my minutes.
Another inconvenient thing is that you can only top off your minutes if
you do so before you run out. If you exhaust the minutes on the card,
it's back to square one with the setup cost and a new phone number. I
got an incoming call from my husband in Italy when my card was a bit
low, and, poof!, there went my chance to add minutes to my card. I put
my Italian SIM card back in the phone and for the rest of the trip (only
a few days) I used that.
Barbara
> ... Contract
> plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
> cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
> potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
> Hawaii.
Yes, my daughter has a very nice contract plan. However, these are of no
use to the tourist.
> T-mobile looks like it's going down now on prepaid, and with certain
> credits, the cost is as little as ¢20 a minute. The main problem IMO
> with US prepaid is that there has typically been a short recharge time.
When I bought the T-mobile card, I was hesitant because it expired in 2
months if unused. I had thought I might be able to use up any unused
minutes on a later trip. However, I ended up using up all my minutes.
Another inconvenient thing is that you can only top off your minutes if
you do so before you run out. If you exhaust the minutes on the card,
it's back to square one with the setup cost and a new phone number. I
got an incoming call from my husband in Italy when my card was a bit
low, and, poof!, there went my chance to add minutes to my card. I put
my Italian SIM card back in the phone and for the rest of the trip (only
a few days) I used that.
Barbara
Apr 26th 2003 | 1:20 am
#14
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
Barbara Vaughan wrote:
> David Horne wrote:
>
> > ... Contract
> > plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
> > cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
> > potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
> > Hawaii.
>
> Yes, my daughter has a very nice contract plan. However, these are of no
> use to the tourist.
I'm aware of that. I was just pointing out that PAYG isn't expensive
because cell phones are expensive in general. It's just that PAYG in the
US almost seems to be dealt with as if it's something dirty. It's been
typically much cheaper in Europe, but that may change, especially since
the big multinational mobile companies (T-mobile, Vodafone, Orange etc.)
are desperate to recuperate the horrendously stupid costs they bid for
3G licenses. In addition, "average revenue per customer" is now seen by
many of the financiers as more important than the _number_ of customers,
so I wouldn't be suprised if you saw more companies keen to get rid of
low-spend customers, especially PAYG. T-mobile has already "revised"
it's PAYG in the UK to make it much less attractive.
At the moment, many European PAYG SIMs are valid providing you _call_
them every 6 months- they often don't need a recharge. I wouldn't be
surprised if a lot of this changed.
David
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
> David Horne wrote:
>
> > ... Contract
> > plans are of similar value to those you get in Europe- indeed, in some
> > cases even better- especially when you consider that your phone can
> > potentially be covered over great geographical distances- e.g. Maine to
> > Hawaii.
>
> Yes, my daughter has a very nice contract plan. However, these are of no
> use to the tourist.
I'm aware of that. I was just pointing out that PAYG isn't expensive
because cell phones are expensive in general. It's just that PAYG in the
US almost seems to be dealt with as if it's something dirty. It's been
typically much cheaper in Europe, but that may change, especially since
the big multinational mobile companies (T-mobile, Vodafone, Orange etc.)
are desperate to recuperate the horrendously stupid costs they bid for
3G licenses. In addition, "average revenue per customer" is now seen by
many of the financiers as more important than the _number_ of customers,
so I wouldn't be suprised if you saw more companies keen to get rid of
low-spend customers, especially PAYG. T-mobile has already "revised"
it's PAYG in the UK to make it much less attractive.
At the moment, many European PAYG SIMs are valid providing you _call_
them every 6 months- they often don't need a recharge. I wouldn't be
surprised if a lot of this changed.
David
--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.co.uk
davidhorne (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
Apr 26th 2003 | 4:42 am
#15
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: Getting a cell phone and taking it around Europe (for tourists)?
In article
,
[email protected] (David Horne) wrote:
> If the call can wait, then make it from a payphone
> using a local calling card- especially good advice in the US and lost of
> Europe, I think.
I've wondered about the cell possibility just BECAUSE the last time I
was over there I couldn't FIND a card phone most of the time 8-( And
when I complained, I was told, "but everyone has a Handy nowadays."
--
Mary Loomer Oliver(aka erilar)
Erilar's Cave Annex:
http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~erilarlo
,
[email protected] (David Horne) wrote:
> If the call can wait, then make it from a payphone
> using a local calling card- especially good advice in the US and lost of
> Europe, I think.
I've wondered about the cell possibility just BECAUSE the last time I
was over there I couldn't FIND a card phone most of the time 8-( And
when I complained, I was told, "but everyone has a Handy nowadays."
--
Mary Loomer Oliver(aka erilar)
Erilar's Cave Annex:
http://www.airstreamcomm.net/~erilarlo
