Phone for France, Germany and Italy?

Donna, I've never used Telestial services for travel, but the Telestial Pack Lite certainly seems to have a lot of features. They only appear to offer pre-paid service rather than post-paid, so you'll need to top-up when your minutes are depleted. If you decide to try it, be sure to post a note here as I'm sure others would be interested. Happy travels!

Ken,
Thanks for your post. If we do decide to use it, we will certainly share our experience. If you happen to notice any phone discussions that might help us and wouldn't mind letting me know, I would be grateful. Thanks again.

Donna, Some additional information would help - do you currently have a Cellphone, and if so which network? What type of uses do you anticipate for the phone - brief calls to Hotels, calls back to the U.S., mostly text messaging or ??? One of the group here has written a summary related to Cellphone use in Europe, and there was a link to it in one of the Threads here. I'd have to do some searching to find it.

Ken, We currently use simple cell phones with a Verizon economical plan. Our thought for Europe is this: We are visitng three countries and want to confirm reservations etc. and connect with our adult children (taveling with us for part of the trip). The calls will be brief just to be "in touch." My husband thought the Telestial Pack Lite might suit our needs but he has questions so I thought I would try to find someone with experience using that plan. Or, if there is a better suggestion, we are open. I will search for the thread you described. Thanks so much for your help, Ken. Fondly,
Donna

Donna, As I haven't used the Telestial Pack Lite product, the best suggestion I can offer would be to check the websites for several of the "travel phone" firms and compare the costs and features. In addition to Telestial, you might check Roam Simple, Call In Europe, Cellular Abroad or Mobal. Some of these use PAYG plans (minutes have to be "topped up" when depleted), and other use post-paid plans (calls are charged to a credit card). The advantage of the post-paid plans is that there's no possibility of running out of minutes in the middle of a call, and no need to top-up. The Telestial plan seems to offer lots of "extras", so that's an advantage. Good luck!

You have two choices for phone usage in Europe: 1 -You can get an unlocked world phone or two, or 2 -you can extend your current plan to include international coverage, but only if your phone is compatible with overseas networks. Option one is the preferable way to go, mainly because of the cost. You get an unlocked GSM "World" phone that supports quad-band frequencies. Switch the American SIM card with a European SIM card and use the European SIM card like a phone card with pre-paid minutes. American carriers, however, do not like people leaving their services; therefore, they lock their phones, so you can't simply walk into a phone store and ask them to unlock your phone. You may have to go to eBay or Amazon to find unlocked phones. Verizon does not use the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), which allows for international use overseas - (AT&T and T-Mobile use it). Verizon I believe still uses Code Division Multible Access (CDMA), which does not work in Europe. Also, Europe uses a different band frequency then the U.S. The U.S. uses 850/ 1900 and Europe uses 900/ 1800. Your phone will need to be a tri-band or quad-band phone to be used in Europe. Some day, things should be simpler when using a phone in Europe. Sadly, that day is not yet here.

Actually, US carriers may provide you with an unlock code. I purchased a used LG CU515 quad-band phone from digicircle.com and AT&T provided me with the unlock code. At first I assumed AT&T wouldn't do this and so I tried buying a code online and even though they listed my phone, they couldn't provide the code. I called AT&T customer service (1-800-331-0500), told them I had purchased a used phone to use in Europe. They had me give them the IMEI code (under the battery) and a few days later I got an email with the unlock code. While I don't have an AT&T cellular service, I have AT&T home phone and internet service so I don't know if they would have been so helpful if they had never heard of me. Also, if it's a relatively new model, they might not be so helpful in that case either, but I don't know.