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Phone and iPad questions

Posted by (NYC area) on

Hi all,

Will be in Germany and Austria for 9 days in December. I myself have a Lively S3 phone with no overseas option. Can I buy a cheap, disposable phone with ATT or TMoble service just for my trip, days abroad? I realize the phone number won’t be mine, but I can give the “new, temporary” number to those I wish to stay in touch with at home or may need to get in touch with me. (I’m POA for my mom and for my friend in Assisted Living facilities).

I believe my iPad Mini will work anywhere we have WiFi. For emails, Messaging and such.

I have bought these already…. TESSAN 2 Pack Type E F Plug Adapter USB C, Germany France Power Adaptor with 3 USB Charger Ports(1 USB C), 4 AC Outlets Travel Plug for US to Europe EU Spain Iceland Korea Greece Russia German French

Posted by
20301 posts

You can certainly do that. I don't believe TMobile does not require a contract, so you can cancel it when you get home. The international service is reasonable. Or you can buy a European SIM or ESIM for your current phone.

I spend a lot of time in Europe so purchased a European phone and plan, but I hang on to my US phone with international service because I discovered there are a number of US sites that won't work unless you are logging in from a US service provider. Things like DMV, my professional license state website, and most other State web sites. Haven't tried Social Security yet.

Posted by
20301 posts

Your adapters and IPad will work. Your US phone will work on wifi for surfing too. My US Tmobile phone also calls and receives calls and text on wifi. But I dont know about "all" phones and plans.
But try it.

Posted by
28128 posts

I wasn't aware ATT had a cheap service option for use in Europe; perhaps it does. I think T-Mobile will cost $55+ for a month. If you're going to end up with a new phone number anyway, why not buy a European SIM for the new phone? I'd expect that to be considerably cheaper.

I'm able to use my regular phone (with a Google Fi SIM) in Europe; I just add a European eSIM so I have cheap cellular data. However, I sort of doubt a cheap phone would be eSIM-compliant.

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