I will be in Italy, France and UK in June. I still work when I travel and will need an easy way for clients to call me. Having spent some time researching phones, I am looking for some experienced feedback. I need to have a US based number for the clients to call, so the really cheap European options seem unworkable. Of the remaining companies, Telestial will give me a US number that TMobile will let me forward to without charge. I will then pay about .55 per minute for calls. Also, there is Skype, if I am willing to bring my laptop, since I don't carry a phone with data capability. It looks to be about 16 per month for unlimited calls, but I would be much less accessible to clients. Can any of you comment on either of these services? Have I missed another company? Looked at callinEurope, Mobal etc, and they were pretty pricey and could not offer a US number. Telestial has some pretty mixed reviews. Thanks once again!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32222 posts
Valerie,
One option you might look at is the "Direct Connect" service from Roam Simple. They provide both a European SIM as well as a local number in your area that's "mapped" to your travel number. You can either provide that local number to your clients, or simply forward your regular cell to that number.
Give them a call to obtain more specific information. Of course, in order to use any of the travel phone services, you'll need an unlocked, quad-band GSM Phone.
Posted by
Dallas
1021 posts
This year we used a French sim in our TMobile phone in conjunction with a Skype US number. There are two options with Skype to forward calls to a phone in Europe from a US #.
1) Skype-to-Go. Set up a free US number for people to call, then a speed dial # they use to call your European mobile #. Normal Skype rates apply; under the unlimited world plan, you'll pay about 17 cents/minute to Skype, but nothing for the incoming call in Europe. Each time you change sim cards, go on-line to Skype to change the #. A disadvantage is that Skype-to-Go has a limited amount of phone numbers it will recognize as being authorized to use your number, so some clients might have to use a password to get into the system. But there's no cost to set this up. This was our choice and it worked fine for getting cheap calls at no cost to our callers.
2) Online Number. For a fee, set up a US number that anyone can call from any phone, and add Call Forwarding. Any call to the online number then gets automatically forwarded to your European mobile #. Each time you change sim cards, go on-line to Skype to change the #. In addition to the fee for the online number, standard Skype rates apply as above.
You'll have to weigh whether the bother and cost of dealing with multiple sim cards is worth it for your situation. In France, check out Lebara for cheap sims and rates within France and to other countries.
One other thought: now might be a good time to invest in a wifi-capable phone. The Skype app on our other phone, an iPhone, worked great in France for making cheap calls to the US when we had wifi. The iPhone is much handier than toting a laptop around, but of course has its limitations. We had a data roaming plan with AT&T, but used it sparingly, relying mainly on free wifi.
Hope this helps.