AT & T in Europe!

Lyn,

When you select your phone handset, be sure it's a quad-band model (and therefore equipped with the two Euro frequency bands). Be aware that you might have to manually do a "network search" when you arrive in Europe, so that the phone can "find" the new network.

With regard to the Blackberry and I-Phone, be VERY careful as the charges for data roaming (ie: Internet browsing from the Phone) can be extremely expensive! I saw one post recently from someone that found a $3000 cellular bill waiting for him when he returned home (he was using an I-Phone).

When you sign up for your Cell plan, be sure to get a clear idea of what your roaming charges will be, and ask if they have any plans similar to T-Mobile. Unfortunately, I suspect you're not going to find much difference in price, as the roaming rates are negotiated among all the GSM network operators so they're pretty much the same.

Good luck! Let us know what you find.

I have used my AT&T phone (Motorola RAZR) in Europe with no problems. You need to add foreign calls to your account (that's free), and for $5/mos you can buy a cheaper per/min rate (add this when you travel, remove it when you're back home). It's not cheap; more than $1/min, but for a few quick calls back home its still cheaper than buying SIM cards for each country you visit if you only spend a few days in each of them. And your friends/family can call you at your usual cell number.

AT&T will unlock your phone so you can insert a different SIM after you've been a customer for a while; you'd have to ask them how long it takes to qualify. There are also services on the net that say they can unlock a phone you mail to them.

I've used my AT &T Raz'r phone in Switzerland and Italy and Mexico with no problems. I've text messaged, and called, and had calls from the US. The service is better in Europe than it is here. It's a bit expensive, but well worth the security of knowing my family and reach me when I'm on holiday. I did not have to do anything to the phone before travel....it connected to the local cell service where ever I was...no "unlocking" needed.

I didn't sign up for the European plan, as long as I kept my min/use to 20 min, it worked out to be about the same price as paying the $5 additional.

Just make sure that the phone you choose is tri-band and absolutely will work in Europe. Not so sure the new iPhone is worth the expense just to have something that looks cool. my friends that ran out to buy one have issues with battery not lasting very long!

I have thought about this too, but instead will just make sure I check my e-mail every other day and give my grown sons and house sitter the email addresses and phone numbers of the hotels we are at.

Kyn,

Send me your email address and I will send you a step by step guide to finding a phone for use in Italy. Make sure the subject says "Phone in Italy" or something similar or I might get it confused with SPAM.

John
jpezz@myway.com

Lyn, I was looking for cellphone alternatives for Italy too. I found this website which provided good information- http://www.summerinitaly.com/planning/cellphones.asp
Hope this helps.

Lyn,
when we travel overseas we just rent a phone from Travelcell.com. It is really inexpensive and calls to you are free.
pam

I've been thinking about buying a Mobal World Phone(www.mobal.com) for $49. It's good in 150 countries and good for life. You only pay for calls, no monthly fees, etc. Anyone used these?

We used a Mobal phone a month ago in Italy and Paris. It worked fine, although luckily nobody had to call us from the US, so I can't verify that it would have worked for that. I can't imagine why it would not. Our total credit card bill for 5-6 short calls was about $21. As you say it is yours for life-actually right now friends are using it in Europe. We figured as long as you know people well enough to trust they will pay the minutes bill, why not share?

Just make sure you have a quad band handset and you should be fine. AT&T roams in more countries internationally than the others. Check out the International Roam section on their website. It lets you select the place you will visit and gives you all kinds of specific info, including rates and maps. Enjoy your trip.

Why would anyone want to pay roaming charges. An Italian SIM card is very reasonable, gives you a local number for calling hotels, etc. Quad phones are available for a lot less used than buying new. See my posting in http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti134.html. Your family can call from the U.S. if need be by dialing 011-39 then your Italian phone number.

I have AT&T and tried to use my phone in Europe. I had some major issues. There are things to keep in mind.

1) the morons at the stores don't know their back ends from their noses. Don't trust anything they tell you. AT&T doesn't train them to do anything but push accessories and plans on customers. Call customer support even if you sit on the phone for 4 hours.

I went into the store to make sure my phone would work in Europe. After asking the question 3 times I was told 3 times that my phone would work without doing a single thing to my phone or plan. When I turned my phone on in Frankfurt I was not allowed to use any local signal. I emailed Cingular from Europe. I was told that I needed to activate international calling and could only do that from the US.

2) Your AT&T phone SHOULD work in Europe because European cell phone companies use the same signal type as AT&T. If you can get your phone enabled through customer service in the US to work in Europe then you should be fine.

Here is my experience with Cingular now AT&T in Italy. I took my cellphone to Italy in 2005 and it worked great. The only system it picked up was Vodaphone.

I went back this past spring and took the same phone. This trip I would pick up other systems besides Vodaphone. I presume that Cingular/AT&T contracts with these other services? Vodaphone still worked good when I could get it, but the other systems, TIM and Wind and maybe one other that I can't remember, which I picked much more often than Vodaphone, did not work that great. I kept getting messages from those services that I had dialed an invalid number when I knew better because it all worked with Vodaphone.

having just returned from england and italy today, my motorola worked great there. call at&t and follow mike's suggestions. they quoted 99 cents per minute (in and out bound) for italy & switzerland; $1.29 per minute for great britain and greece. the only thing i didn't like was that if i dialed incorrectly, not only did i receive a recorded message (which is standard), a text message would follow. at&t warned me of this, so i didn't pick up, but plan to have them delete for me tomorrow.

Just got back from all over Europe, and my AT&T phone worked fine. All you do is call the international customer service # (look on the website), then activate which plan you want. I chose the no monthly fee & $1.99/minute over the $5.99 monthly fee & $.99/minute. Then when you get there, you MAY need to manually change your frequency from USA to Europe. I did it as soon as we landed, and there were no problems.

With regard to a SIM card, there are disadvantages...The activation is a pain. Several people in our group never got theirs activated after 3 weeks in Europe! If you don't plan to use your phone that much, it's just not worth it. You also lose all your info...Any numbers stored, etc. are gone.

If I had it to do all over again, I would still take my phone & use it there. It was so simple & didn't cost me that much.