Getting different info from Sprint

This may not be of help to you because our cell plans are with Mobal (on T-Mobile network), but with our U.S. iPhones, we just call each other using the exact same numbers as at home. We're currently in Germany and have called each other here. Please understand, I know nothing about cell phones, but this is what we do with our phones. I share your frustration with phone companies that can't give consistent answers. We struggled with this with Verizon before switching to Mobal.

Are you speaking with Sprint 's international department? We have daughters working for AT&T and Verizon -- and neither will give advice on international calling because the international experts are, well, the experts. But I believe that these will be billed as international calls even if you are on opposite sides of the room.
Have a great trip !!

We mostly plan to text and I will pay a fee for each text sending and receiving since I have an old iPhone 4S. I just don't know if we need to dial something different while we are there.

I suspect they were not from the international division since they all seemed to not know the answer. Shouldn't that be simple?

I cannot answer your exact question. However, when you do speak to the international expert for your phone carrier, be sure and ask them about roaming charges. You don't want those! Can add up to hundreds of dollars for several days of communication! Ask them how to NOT incur those while you are on your trip.

Yes, thanks! I do have that settled. I'll turn off my data since I won't be using that.

Hasn't anyone called cell phone to cell phone in England?

Susan & Monte,

If you're using your home cell numbers, you'll just dial +1 and the regular ten digit number. The sequence is the same regardless of which country you're in. Both the calling and receiving parties will pay long distance charges in accordance with the terms of your roaming plan, and these are normally billed in one minute increments.

Thank you Ken! I think that is what we did last time, but got such different info this time. Ok, I think we are good to go now!

What Ken said.

You can't dial +44 because you are not dialing a British number. Now if you were calling to make dinner reservations, if the restaurant says it s number is 0207 987 1234 (sometimes seen grouped as 020 7987 1234) forget the the spacing and the leading zero and put in +442079871234 and they will answer (if they answer ;-)

Thank you, thank you!

You might want to check -- I thought texting required data to be ON. Ed suggests that you use the "chat" function to talk to Sprint and have them confirm your understanding ... because you can print out the transcript of the chat (and refer to it later if they protest "we didn't say that")

" I thought texting required data to be ON."

That may be true in some cases. I've noticed over the last year or two that texts sometimes don't transmit or receive unless the phone is connected to data, either via Wi-Fi or cellular. I haven't been able to determine why this is happening, but will try and pinpoint the problem again this year.

Check out Viber, a free app. All parties must be signed up, so it wouldn't work if you wanted to call a restuarant for example, but we used it successfully without any charges to text and phone the U.S. from Greece a year or so ago. We have also exchanged texts with friends in Denmark from US, and have spoken on the phone, but also a while ago. It works off wifi and I am almost positive we had the cellular data turned off, but get better info from anyone more informed than me. That would be, incidentally, just about anyone!

1) What I use is the free "WeChat"
But is necessary to be in a WiFi area.
Also you have to "invite" the other person to be a WeChat contact of yours.
But it is your choice whether on each call you want to be on audio or video.
And it has voice recognition if you wish to have the message sent as text.
2) I have also had the weird experience of using my phone and (with neither a new Sim nor any expense/charge)
my phone was on the Orange network automatically. This happened in Barcelona over the period of a month.
I'll take any glitch in my favor.
3) I leave in a few days for France and shall use text, WeChat, and have a local Sim card just in case

I also use Viber and it's great for texts, but the quality of voice calls can be "variable" depending on what type of Wi-Fi connection is available. For those using Apple products, there's also FaceTime and iMessage, which also work on Wi-Fi.

When travelling in Europe, it would be necessary to go to the "Use Cellular For" menu and switch Viber off, in order to avoid cellular data roaming charges.