Hi fellow travelers!
Our daughter's cell phone was just pick-pocketed in Paris. She is leaving for Verona in a few hours, and will need to replace her cell phone soon. Any tips for a physical store in Verona that could help her? Used phone would be fine. She has an old SIM Card that Sprint said they could help turn on once she has an actual phone to go with it.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Bummer! Is she going to be in Europe long or just needs one for the rest of a vacation?
Sprint SIM cards FYI are not like SIM cards for GSM providers (like T-Mobile and AT&T in the US). Sprint SIM cards are specific to the PHONE. You can't take a Sprint SIM card from one phone and put it in another to transfer service, like you can with T-Mobile, AT&T, or all of the European mobile providers. For example, I have a Moto E4 with Sprint service. I had to buy a new Sprint SIM card that is specific to the E4. My old Sprint phone had a different Sprint SIM card in it that would not work in the E4.
When I had T-Mobile, I could take my SIM and put it in any compatible phone and have T-Mobile service. Can't do that with Sprint.
Sprint uses CDMA technology in the US, but Europe uses GSM. Sprint phones in Europe are roaming on partner networks there (on GSM/LTE networks) - Sprint doesn't have actual service there. I don't see how a Sprint SIM helps your daughter at all at this moment, unless she somehow manages to buy a make/model of phone in Europe (one that supports CDMA and Sprint in the US) that is compatible with the Sprint SIM card she has. I doubt she'd find one easily over there.
Her best bet, if she really must have a phone for the rest of her trip, is probably to buy a cheap Android from a mobile store there and also buy a prepaid Italian SIM for it (maybe together) - could be a TIM or Vodafone store would be able to handle this. Then at least she could have mobile data and an Italian phone number for the rest of her stay. When she gets home to the US, buy another Sprint-compatible phone and transfer her service over to it.
Thanks Andrew!
We appreciate your advice about the Italian service! She travels there for a couple of weeks, then on to Austria for a couple. She will return to the States in September.
We will follow up with Sprint again; they are the ones who told us the above option was do-able!
If she needs access to her Sprint number, she might be better off if you were to buy a replacement phone for her in the US and ship it to her in Europe, given that she'll be over there a bit longer. Buy it, transfer her Sprint service to it, etc. before you ship it to her, assuming you have the authority to do so. She's going to need a new Sprint-compatible phone when she gets home anyway. It's just the matter of the shipping cost plus the delay factor of her not having a phone until she gets it from you.
But if she can live without her Sprint phone number until September, she could as I said above just buy a cheap phone and SIM card with local service to get by.
Andrew, you have given us so much good advice!! We are very grateful.
She has been working in Paris for a year and had no issues until today during the World Cup celebrations. This has been quite a day all in all!!
We feel quite blind in how to best help her. If she decides to get a cheaper android with service, would it be a smart phone able to link into some of her apps? Would it also work in the rest of the EU as she continues to travel?
Thanks again!
We feel quite blind in how to best help her. If she decides to get a cheaper android with service, would it be a smart phone able to link into some of her apps?
She could certainly buy a smart phone over there. Yes, she should be able to install most of the same apps she had on her old phone (assuming it was an Android too). Google uses the Google Play store for apps, and which apps are available country to country may vary - but most of the common apps she surely used ought be available in Europe from the Google Play store in which ever country she activates the phone in. Or, Google may base that on her original Android account and direct her to the US Google Play store anyway - not sure. But...yes, almost certainly, all of her old apps will be easy to re-install. I wouldn't worry about that unless she has some problem. Probably very easy.
Would it also work in the rest of the EU as she continues to travel?
Probably. The EU has done away with most roaming fees especially for data between EU countries. So if she buys a French SIM card and travels to Italy, she'll have a French phone number but her data should still work in Italy or elsewhere in the EU, for no extra fees. She can buy a prepaid SIM with a plan probably good for 30 days, with a certain amount of calling minutes. The plans vary. I don't know how many calls she actually makes with her phone. Most younger people seem to care mostly about data. They know how to make VOIP calls with Skype, WhatsApp, etc. and don't really need the calling minutes per se.
One tricky thing about buying a prepaid SIM in say France: she may get say 30 days of service, but she may have no way to renew it once she leaves France. (This is called "topping up".) How she can "top up" (add credit to the SIM, get more service for another 30 days) varies between each different provider. It may turn out to be easier for her to buy another SIM in the next country she's in after the first 30 days of service ends.
I suspect, if she has European friends, that they know all about this kind of stuff and can help her. The thing they can't help her with is getting her Sprint number back.
Good luck!
Thanks. Again!!
We appreciate your time and further explanations!!
You're welcome! This stuff can be very frustrating, I know!
