Taking your cell phone overseas

[Durandal]

I'm going to be taking a vacation to Europe next week before I start my job at Apple, and one of my concerns is bringing my cell phone over with me. It's a GSM phone (RAZR v3), but from what I understand, I'll be charged roaming rates, which amounts to about $1/minute. That's just unacceptable to me.

So what are my options? Should I try and get a prepaid phone while I'm there? Is there a cheaper way for me to use my current phone while I'm there?

[Ace Pace]

I'm going to be taking a vacation to Europe next week before I start my job at Apple, and one of my concerns is bringing my cell phone over with me. It's a GSM phone (RAZR v3), but from what I understand, I'll be charged roaming rates, which amounts to about $1/minute. That's just unacceptable to me.

So what are my options? Should I try and get a prepaid phone while I'm there? Is there a cheaper way for me to use my current phone while I'm there?

I'd advise calling your cellphone company and asking about special plans. I'm currently using one which cuts my charges very low(for me).

Another option is to look ahead at renting a phone, but I'm not sure how viable it is in Europe, it was definetly close to impossible in my trip in the U.S.

[Bounty]

If you want to contact someone in the US, I suggest you use email because calls are always going to be expensive.

If you want to call people within Europe, you can get a throwaway prepad card. They start at about €15 and you can recharge it; calls between countries will still be expensive, but at least you can easily control how much you spend.

ETA: that is, if your phone isn't locked with a provider.

[Alferd Packer]

Can you just put a new, prepaid European chip into your phone to make it work? I had heard that you could do that with GSM phones.

[Bounty]

Can you just put a new, prepaid European chip into your phone to make it work? I had heard that you could do that with GSM phones.

He can do that unless his phone has been locked by his provider, which appears to be quite common. I didn't even know the practice existed until recently; selling a phone that locks you into an agreement with a service provider has always been illegal here.

[Durandal]

So if I can get an unlock code for my phone, I can pretty much just buy a prepaid SIM over there and use a European provider?

[Bounty]

So if I can get an unlock code for my phone, I can pretty much just buy a prepaid SIM over there and use a European provider?

Yes, you can - it definately works with my provider (Proximus Pay & Go) and it should work with the others just as easily. However, I'm not sure if you'd save any real money this way. Calls between countries within Europe can get pretty expensive, too. It all depends on where you'll be staying and if you'll be travelling through multiple countries or staying on one location.

[phongn]

Most US providers are pretty lax about unlocking a phone as long as you've been with them for a few months and in good standing.

[Glocksman]

Is your provider Cingular or T-Mobile?
From what I hear, Cingular is pretty anal about unlocking phones unless you're near the end of your contract term.
Also, with the motos, it's not a matter of entering an unlock code like on most older Nokias.
Instead the phone has to be hardware unlocked via software and a data cable and even a lot of Cingular company stores simply don't have the hardware to do so.
You *can* do it yourself with a USB data cable, but it's not a process for the faint of heart , because if you screw up, you've got a nice paperweight.
I successfully flashed the flex and firmware of my Moto V551 (this fixed some sound issues in addition to unlocking the phone) by folllowing instructions I found over at the MotoModders.net forums.

T-Mobile from what I've heard is pretty good about unlocking phones.

If you really want just a cheap 'throwaway' to use over there with a prepaid SIM, you might haunt eBay for used unlocked Ericsson T28 and T39 flip phones.

[Netko]

T-Mobile also has an extensive network in Europe of its own local providers and should teoreticly offer good roaming rates which work without issue. I think most, if not all, other US providers don't have a presence in Europe and, as such, likely have worse roaming contracts.

If most of your calls are going to be over the pond back to the family I'd go with roaming since any savings you make by using a prepaid card are likely to be marginal and not worth the hassle of changing cards and checking if your phone is unlocked. However, if you expect a lot of local calls going prepaid probably has merit.

Also be warned that lower quality GSM phones use the SIM cards address book facility for holding their only copy of the address book. I'm not familiar with your model, but if that is the case with it changing out the card could cause you to lose accsess to your address book. In that case you should get a printout of your phonebook either by making one yourself if possible or asking at your providers, unless of course you only plan to call a few memorised numbers.

Getting a trowaway prepaid phone in country is also an option. The lower quality models shouldnt go over 30$ and usualy come with a decent amount of prepaid time/money.

[Ypoknons]

The RAZR defaults to phone memory, and switching to SIM memory is pretty obvious - it won't happen accidentally someone who is techversed.

[Dahak]

T-Mobile also has an extensive network in Europe of its own local providers and should teoreticly offer good roaming rates which work without issue. I think most, if not all, other US providers don't have a presence in Europe and, as such, likely have worse roaming contracts.

It better has, since T-Mobile is a German company
But local pre-paids aren't that expensive, anyway and should save the roaming costs, which can be pretty steep in Europe.

[Netko]

T-Mobile also has an extensive network in Europe of its own local providers and should teoreticly offer good roaming rates which work without issue. I think most, if not all, other US providers don't have a presence in Europe and, as such, likely have worse roaming contracts.

It better has, since T-Mobile is a German company

I'd qualify it more of a Borg-like entity that gobles up local telecom companies and then mercilessly applies its brand on the local operations that just happens to come from Germany, but company is shorter, I guess.