using skype in Europe

You have several options: *Skype via wifi, although bandwith can be very limited on free wifi. (McDonalds has free wifi all through France.) *Purchase a disposable cell phone/pre-paid minute plan when you are on the ground. Might even be able to purchase ahead of time via the internet, depending on what country/countries you are visiting. *Purchase a sim card and minutes from a provider in Europe. The downside is that it is often way more expensive to do this for an iphone than a regular phone. Cell phones are much more expensive to operate in Europe. The plans are more expensive. Everyone around me uses text messaging, as you can get unlimited text messaging for only a few euros a month. Also it's usually 10 SMS = 1 minute of air time on pre-paid cell phones. Another option you have is to just buy a telephone card and use public telephones when you can find them.

You can use an iPhone in Europe with an AT&T international calling plan, but it is still expensive [INVALID] about a dollar a minute. AT&T's website will have details about all of their international calling plan rates. The international data plan is also very expensive. Like, $200 for just 200 MB data. Compare to $25 for 2 GB data in the US. Using Skype with wi fi at your hotel will be way, way cheaper.

I used Skype on my last trip. Think I bought a $10 pre-paid on my lap top. Made about 8 calls and still had plenty of time left. Think it was 2cents a min. Can't beat that price.

thanks for the replies, did anyone purchase the unlimited package or just pay per minute?

The answer will depend on how much you plan to use a phone and for what purpose. On our last trip to France we needed to call the States regularly. We also expected a number of calls from the US. The house we stayed in didn't have internet, so we used the iPhone Skype app to call the US from a local cafe with wifi. And we set up a Skype-to-Go number in the US so people could call our Blackberry French mobile # at no cost to them and a small Skype fee to us. Our Blackberry is unlocked, so the Virgin Mobile prepaid sim card we bought in France worked fine; it gave us free incoming calls and cheap calls in France. That setup worked for us because of our extensive use of the phone. If you don't anticipate using the phone much, the simplest approach may be to use Skype where you can and otherwise just pay the per minute charge on ATT's international plan. Even though you pay for in or out calls, if you don't use it much it won't matter. Re the data usage, we kept a close eye on the usage (you can reset the phone's "meter" when you get to Europe) and found the big data hogs are email and Google maps. Surfing and searching the net doesn't use that much, so if you limit checking email to the times you have wifi (or other internet availability) and don't download a map, one of the lesser-priced ATT data roaming plans could be sufficient. Last, a great iPhone app is Michelin Restaurants which we used numerous times to find restaurants as we traveled. It has maps built in so you don't use data to find recommended restaurants in Europe.

As outlined above, you can call AT&T and purchase an international calling plan for around $5/month, which will get you relatively cheap per-minute rates. The cheapest option is indeed to use Skype in a WiFi hotspot. It's free for Skype-to-Skype calls and about 2 cents per minute for calls to landlines and mobile phones. This is by far the best method if you don't need to receive calls or make calls frequently on the go. Just purchase some Skype credits, find a WiFi hotspot and you're ready to go.....this is what I plan to do with my iPhone 4 next month. I found that some of our hostels even provide a Skype contact, so it will be totally free to "call" them if I need to.

Gary, I took my Iphone and my old Razor with me on my last trip to Europe. My Iphone was jailbroken and unlocked, so I bought, and installed a cheap pre-paid EU "phone only" (no data) SIM chip when I got to Europe. I bought this at a EU electronics store. Then I used my Iphone to make cheap EU calls, and used the WiFi for my Email, etc. But I turned off the 3g functions since the cost to use it would have been prohibitive. I really had to have immediate access to phone calls to and from from home (because of some relatives with health problems), so I put my regular AT&T chip in my old AT&T Razor, and signed up with AT&T for their overseas "phone only" plan. If you use the AT&T 3g function in a smart phone like the IPhone, it can get really expensive! Since the AT&T overseas "phone only "rate is also expensive ($1.99/minute AFTER you sign up with them for a temporary $5.99/month overseas calling plan),I used it only for emergencies. Anytime that anyone leaves a message on your phone, you also incur that $1.99/ minute rate, so I changed my voice mail message and asked people not to leave a message unless it was an emergency. When I was in the EU, I could have bought a pre-paid EU SIM chip that had a phone a data plan, but the store that I used did not have someone that spoke good enough English to help me select the best option.

I'm not sure I follow your approach, Steve. Which country was this? The only European country I know of that incurs a $1.99/minute charge on ATT World Traveler calls is Poland; most others, including Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, are $.99. In a few like Belgium it's $1.29. The norm is for incoming calls to be free in Europe, so the European # would seem to be the one to give people to call rather than the ATT number. If there was no data plan with the European sim that was installed in the iPhone, I don't understand the concern about data roaming charges as the iPhone wouldn't receive data, or am I missing something?

If you have a laptop/netbook you can, via wifi, use google's new g-mail phone service. It's new and allows for phone calls to be made via the internet. Just scroll down (after you register and establish an account) the left side (in g-mail) and find the call button. A phone numeric board appears, then dial. It's as simple as that. I use it all the time here in the states. It's FREE on the domestic front for the remainder of this year. GREAT technology from these people. International rates are about $.02/minute. You'll need a microphone however with your laptop/notebook.