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Calll in Europe?

Posted by (San Francisco) on

Hello,

My husband and I will be visiting Europe for a month in Feb/March. We're spending 2 weeks in Italy, and then traveling through 8 other countries, ending in Portugal.

We need to bring a cell phone with us for business/personal reasons, but an intl calling plan with AT&T is ridiculously expensive! We considered buying different SIM cards for each country we go to, but that would be both a timesuck and confusing for people who need to reach us on a cell phone.

My husband got an unlocked quad-band PDA-phone on ebay, and we came across this service called "Call in Europe." (http://www.callineurope.com/). We can buy a SIM card that will allow us to keep our mobile number, and calls within Italy (our home base) would cost $.39, within Europe and to USA $.49. Received calls are free. We also can access the web for $.5/KB!

It seems a little too good to be true. So I'm posting here to ask if anyone else has heard of this service and if you have any feedback or general advice on using a mobile in Europe?

Thank you to all the experienced travelers who are always sharing their advice. I appreciate your help!

Best regards,
~Stacey

Posted by
8 posts

Hi Stacey, I copied below the link of recent posts in which several of us shared experiences about phones. Funny enough I mentioned my own experience with this company callineurope.com
I travel to different countries severaltimes ayear, and after some research I personally use their French sim card with my own unlocked Blackberry and so far I never had to complain. It is the most economical solution I found for multi-country that is always the issue as I stopped buying prepaid cards whih were annoying. They charge what they advertise (in france it is free incoming and $0.39/min flat to call locally, europe and the US, outside france it is $0.39/min incoming, $0.69/min local and $0.99/min), it is a postpaid system and I receive my detailed invoice via email and my c.card is charged. I also got the call forward system you mention so I keep receiving my US calls (I am t-mobile here) directly onto my French line. As it is with my pda, I also have data and it worked. I placed my order online and they have an agent calling me to make sure that I was indeed the one who placed the order to avoid "fraud" as they put it and check details. It was professional and reassuring.
Here is the link:
http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/25686/cell-phones.html

Posted by
9371 posts

Be sure you carefully read the FAQs and consider how you want to use the phone to make sure that it is what will work best for you. If you are traveling in 8 countries, that is a pile of extra SIM cards (or a lot of roaming charges).

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