Roming and Mobile Data in Europe
 

Hello all. This is my first post here. There is so much useful information on this forum and I have been pouring over all of the information here to try and understand what my best option will be for an upcoming trip to Europe. I will be traveling mostly in France, Switzerland and Italy for 3 weeks in June/July. I need to be able to be reached for work while I am away. I also need to have internet/email access for work. I am a Verizon subscriber here in the US and I am not looking to switch carriers for a variety of reasons, so using T-Mobile or Cingular/AT&T is not really an option unless it is PAYG. I was planning on purchasing a new PocketPC, so I am just going to go ahead and get a TyTN or iPAQ hw6945. I am planning to forward my home Verizon phone to whatever SIM card I decide to get so clients can reach me by calling my cell or I may try the CBW 1-800 number, but I am concerned about reliability.

Originally I had planned to go the UM, callbackworld option, but I did not realize that I cannot get internet access with this method. So then I was considering purchasing a SIM in each country, but that would mean relying on the callbackworld 800 number since Verizon does not offer remote call forwarding. Again, I am concerned about relying on CBW for biz calls.

What I would like to find is an option that will allow me to roam with 1 number that will also give me data access. I am not overly concerned with paying a high rate for data access since I will try to use wifi whenever possible and only use mobile data when necessary. However I'd prefer not to pay $1 - $2+/min for incoming and out going calls.

So......

I was reading here and saw a few posts that mentioned Vodafone as having data access, which although not cheap has good coverage. If you activate the Vodafone Passport, they charge 75p per call for incoming. Outgoing is 75p per minute, however I can always use CBW for outgoing calls. This way incoming and outgoing calls will not be too much more expensive than using UM, but data looks like it is killer @ nearly $.02/KB. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a better option. Everything else I've looked at involves either multiple SIMs & phone numbers or slightly lower data cost but with high per minute roaming fees for incoming.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Does my math look right? Is there anything I am missing? This is frustrating because I would think that this would be a fairly common thing for business travellers to want but there does not appear to be an easy solution, except to pay through the nose.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance for any help you all can offer!

Why data?
 

Welcome aboard.

Silly question.... WHY do you need data ON YOUR PHONE? I know that is very convenient and nice to have. Is it for business or pleasure?

There are other solutions:

1. Take a laptop (don't know how you are connecting or will connect in each country); I never did this.

2. Use internet cafes

Last time I was in Europe (did not have laptop but had MDA wizard) I experienced the following:

1. Hotel in Germany had a T-Mobile wifi hot spot; only available if you had a German T-Mobile account. At least so it appeared to me.

2. Hotel/resort on Malta had a PRIVATE wifi network. In other words access was provided by a 3rd party and you paid them for access. They had PCs in the lobby and those were much easier to use than the phone.

3. Other small hotel in Germany had nothing.

4. Internet cafes are plentiful in most towns.


I cannot speak to the specifics of data on your phone in the countries you mention. SIMYO in Germany has just lowered their data rates and I already have a SIMYO SIM card. I am heading back to Germany mid-July.

If you know the hotels (places) where you are staying, you might want to check in advance what kind of data access they provide and what conditions they offer for data access.

Regarding call forwarding to a UM card, you might want to determine what that is going to cost PER MINUTE. Costs to +423 663 numbers may be quite exhorbitant and I am not sure you will be willing to pay. You might do better just to let everything go to your VZW voicemail and then access that from Europe using a calling card or otherwise. That is what I did last time; I checked both work and home voicemail from either my cell or the landline phone in the hotel.

Have a great trip.

Stan

Another solution would be to either rent or purchase a global phone with data capabilities from Verizon and you could keep your phone number overseas. There are such things as dual standard phones (including some smart phones with keyboards) that can work both in the USA on the Verizon network and outside the USA on GSM networks. Cost would be higher for data and voice than Stan's excellent suggestions, but if you need the convenience and your business is willing to finance this for a quick and reliable solution it might be worth considering.

Verizon's solution:

http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...utside_us.html

Short info to this: If you have a german T-Mobile account you can charge over your phonebill - several contracts also have free hours of WiFi included. Otherwise you have to punch in your CreditCard info and get online as well...

Chris

WIFI access in US
 

I don't travel much for business, but I do travel. Usually in US in major markets (Wash DC, Philadelphia), hotels offer FREE WIFI or ethernet access WITH YOUR STAY @ the hotel. Thus a phone or laptop can be easily used. An amenity and a must for the business traveller.

My point was that, in the very limited locations I mentioned in my post, free WIFI access as we experience it here in the US, is not very common in Europe. TRUE, I was not staying at the HILTON. The time before we were also in Versailles FR and the hotel had computers in the lobby, but, again, you had to pay for access. I did not have a phone with me and I cannot imagine they offered FREE WIFI. Did not see a sign nor were we told of the service.

As an aside, I don't frequent Starbucks or other such shops, but I believe many such establishments in US, including bookstores, offer FREE WIFI acccess.

I was in a cafe-bar in Duesseldorf (? - I really can't remember, but that is the most likely place) and they also offered internet access in the basement FOR A PRICE, of course, on their computers.

Stan

Thanks for all the quick replies. To clarify, I will be on vacation, however the nature of my job is such that I can do it anywhere in the world with a phone and internet connetion. The downside is that I am really never really "on vacation". I am going to moving around a fair amount and I am trying to pack light and as a result I am trying to find a way to leave the laptop at home. For the most part, I will mostly using wifi, internet cafes, etc. for email and internet but I will be out and about a lot and it would be nice to be able to check in just to make sure there are no fires to put out without having to stop what I am doing and find a hot spot or internet cafe. Really it is more for convenience and peace of mind than anything. Also, we will be in some smaller towns and it will double my chances of getting a connection.

Overall, cost is not unimportant but not the primary concern either. What I am looking for is the most cost effective way to:
* Have one phone number to receive calls (really only emergencies so hopefully few or none)
* Make occasional calls to the US and elsewhere in Europe
* Have wireless data access on my PDA so that I can check email and work related websites when necessary and I cannot get to a hot spot or internet cafe.

The rental option from Verizon is probably the most convenient, however all they do is give you a GSM phone with a Vodafone SIM and forward your phone to the UK number and charge $1.49 both ways, nearly $30/MB and $15 per day to rent the phone. At least they don't charge additional airtime for calls fowarded to the UK mobile number.

Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Do you mean $.02/kB? ($20/MB)? If not, please tell me how I can get that rate. :-)

You could consider getting a data-only sim, and switch around when needed (or just carry a basic phone for voice plus the fancy phone for data).

For data, Virgin Mobile UK (not the US one) is around $10/MB, and there's a Swiss one that is a similar price (see previous posts here). The VM one would have the advantage of giving you multiple roaming networks in each country, so good coverage. It's what I use for the odd times when I need data access without wifi (Nokia 770, plus Nokia 6131 phone).

Free wi-fi isn't unheard of in Europe, but it's not so standard in hotels. The B&B chain (budget out of town hotels mostly in France) had free wi-fi chain-wide (in the lobby and nearby rooms) when I used it last year. Many other hotels charge for it.

Hmmm...you might consider addressing the voice and data as 2 seperate issues.

For voice would recommend an international call back sim like the United Mobile solution you thought of with an unlocked GSM quad band phone. You call out, it hangs up, you get a call back connecting you to your party. Have used United Mobile in several Caribbean countries. United Mobile would be free incoming and outgoing would be 39 eurocents a minute or 49 US cents a minute from most European countries to the US (depending on whether you want a dollar or euro denominated sim card). Outgoing call costs can also be reduced using the Callback World callback solution you thought of but does add a layer of complexity to calling (you still get a bargain using direct dial compared to Verizon/Vodaphone rental rates you mentioned). If you make a brief call or SMS from your phone at least once every 9 months on United Mobile you can keep your card alive for trips. You can also set up an account on the United Mobile website for web refills or even autorefill so you never run out of airtime. Please note that callback sims do not work well in some handsets and there's also some links on this website that help sponsor it:

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/showthread.php?t=914

For data maybe try a Mobal or other data capable sim card with a GPRS modem card in your PDA at $20/mb or you can switch sims in the GSM phone, and tether. Their voice rates are extremely high, but it might be useful in a pinch for data only since their sim is free with $10 shipping. Still think the wifi or internet cafe solutions may the best and cheapest solutions for occassional access.

Other mobile data solutions might be to forward your work email to a text to voice or text to SMS service that can be retrieved from your cellphone.

Or just leave an email autoreply on your office email that you are out of the country and will only be checking email occassionally...for any urgent communications please leave a voice message on your office voicemail that will be checked frequently or you can be dialed direct at the following international cell phone number if it is an emergency but please note rates to call this number may be high depending on your long distance carrier.

Hi Ken. I didn't realize that Mobal allowed data. That is a good suggestion. The only problem is that I don't have another unlocked int'l gsm phone, so I'd have to buy one. I guess I can get one pretty cheap on eBay.

I am not sure if I explained the Vodafone option correctly - not the Verizon rental, but actually getting a pre-activated vodafone SIM and using that in my PDA. On the Vodaphone website it says that pre-paid users can activate the Passport feature. As I understand it, this gives you mobile data while roaming @ 10GBP/MB, which is comparable to the data rate for Mobal. As long as you use a partner network this also gives you free incoming calls, less a connect fee of 75p and outgoing calls are 75p per minute. So incoming calls would cost about $1.50 flat and out going calls would be about $1.50 per minute, but if I use CBW it is about $.40/min from a UK cellular to US or western europe landline. So it would cost $1.50 every time I receive a call, vs. free with UM and outgoing calls using CBW would be $.40 per min using Vodafone vs. $.29 for UM. Pretty close.... Plus using the Vodafone SIM I would not need a separate phone and SIM for voice, I could use my PDA with the Vodafone SIM for both voice and data.

Does this look right to you? Can anyone see any potential problems with this solution? I see several Vodafone SIMs on ebay that are pre-activated with roaming enabled.

Are the people calling you going to call your new number direct, or are you going to forward calls to your new UK/Liechtenstein number? Either way. the amount they pay (or you pay for the forward) is an important part of the incoming cost.

If it's assorted US customers you're probably going to need to forward from a US number rather than expecting them to understand how to reach you internationally, so the costs of forwarding to UM or a UK mobile are your costs (plenty of other discussions here on those).

I do think it's worth getting (as mentioned above) the Virgin UK or Swiss sims for data access. Half the cost of Vodaphone for roaming data. If you check email in the morning, you can switch sims for a while without worrying about incoming calls as the US is asleep. Even then, way too expensive for anything other than emergency checking of email, you'll need to rely on wi-fi for real work.

I've wondered about one of the international blackberry plans with a BB running mobishark? Opinions?

Stu, I am not familar with Mobishark. How would that work?

Thanks to all the great suggestions. I think my 2 best options are as follows:

1 - Get a global sim with free incoming calls (United Mobile? - suggestions?) and use CBW for voice. Buy local SIMs in France, Switzerland & Italy to pop in when I check email or go online.

Advantages
- Free incoming calls makes it pretty cheap for voice with CBW
- Local SIMs offer lowest cost for data.
- If I have trouble connecting with CBW, outgoing calls will still be pretty cheap on local SIM, especially local calls

Disadvantages
- Have to buy SIM in each country is not convenient. Not sure when I will be back to use again.
- Cost of buying separate SIM's may offset data costs savings.
- Hassle to change cards each time I need to use data services. Need to keep track of all the different SIMs. etc.

2 - Get a Vodafone SIM with Passport activated. Voice calls are 75p connect fee and then local UK rates when roaming on partner networks (incoming calls would be flat 75p). Data runs 10 GBP per MB (about $20).

Advantages
- Only 1 card to manage
- Incoming calls nearly free (flat fee of ~$1.75).
- UK based phone number

Disadvantages
- Not as cheap for voice as using a global sim with totally free incoming calls.
- Calls to UK mobile phones are more expensive than mobile phones based in other countries.
- High cost for data usage (~$20 per MB)

I really would like to have just one card for everything and be done with it, so I am leaning towards the Vodafone option. However I am not sure how much data I will be using but at $20 per MB, one could easily run up a high bill pretty quickly. How much cheaper is data with a local pre-paid SIM? If it is much cheaper, it may be worth the hassle if I end up using a lot of data.

As well as Vodafone, it's also worth looking at O2 UK's My Europe Extra, which for £10 a month gives free incoming calls, and 25p outgoing to Europe. Used with callback, you can find cheaper outgoing options than the 25p. Depending on how many calls and the length of them, this could easily work out cheaper than Vodafone, by saving all the connection fees.

At the moment, the callback operation ReturnCall still has a 2p/min rate for UK landlines, and from 5p for many others. It seems a bit haphazard in the time waited for the callback, sometimes 10 seconds, sometimes a minute, occasionally not at all, but is cheap enough to put up with this. With a Voipbuster or Voipcheap account as well, used for callthrough after the callback, then under 3p/min is possible to 40 countries' landlines.

On some foreign networks though, the trigger call may be charged, so I wouldn't bet on it as the only choice; but even then it is cheaper than the Vodafone connect fee.

Several carriers are now offer unlimited international Blackberry plans. Most of these include browsing with the Blackberry browser as well. If you are on Blackberry Enterprise Server, Mobishark tunnels back to your home server and creates a data connection that looks like regular Blackberry usage, but effectively gives you a TCP/IP stack.

Does anyone know how reliable skype call forwarding is? I am thinking about giving out my local skype number and activating call forwarding to the mobile number of whichever sim I happen to be using. I have not tried this before. Can I expect to miss a lot of calls using this method or is Skype call forwarding about as reliable as call forwarding from a regular landline or mobile phone?

I just thought I would follow up to add some information I've learned in my research. Of all the options I've looked into, the best options from a price/convenience standpoint for someone that wants to be able to be reached easily from the US and have email and internet access while traveling to multiple countries in Europe seem to be either UK Vodafone w/passport, O2 w/My Europe Extra, Mobal or buying a local SIM card in each country. Each one has its pluses & minuses.

Buying local SIM cards
Easily the least expensive option but also the least convenient. If you are planning to leave a local number for people to reach you that will be forwarded to your mobile number in Europe, you will have to update the forward number each time you get a new SIM and whatever service you use must either be online or have some way of updating the forward number remotely (and cheaply, ideally). SkypeIn with Call Forwarding or using a CallBackWorld 800 number can work, though I would have concerns about reliability. If you plan on making or receiving a lot of calls or using a lot of data, it probably would be worth the hassle. For occasional usage though, I think other options are more convenient.

O2 with My Europe Extra
This is probably the best option for someone anticipating moderate to heavy call volume but little data usage. Using this option your incoming calls are free (up to 1000 min.) and outgoing calls are 25p (~$.50) per min. but you can get lower rates by using a call back service. Data, however is outrageously priced at £15 ($30) per MB. If you plan on using a lot of data, you use up your credit quickly at this rate. Also if you only plan on making a few calls, this may not be the best choice the card is £10 ($20) and does not come with any credit (though I think you get some bonus credit when you register/top up) and the My Europe Extra option costs £10 per month so it will cost you $40 before you've made or received a call. The low rates will start to offset the upfront costs if you use more than 60 min. or so.

Vodafone UK w/Passport
This is probably the best option for someone who expects to have low to moderate voice and data usage. The SIM is cheap and includes some credit. There is no fee to activate Passport which gives you the same rates as if you were in the UK, plus a 75p ($1.50) connect fee. You can use a call back service, but it works best if you tend to have a few longer conversations rather than a lot of short calls. The connect fees will start to add up making this option a much lesser value. The data rates are still high at £10 per MB, but still 50% less than the rate you get from O2. One plus about this option is that I have seen lots of pre-activated Vodafone SIM cards for sale for a reasonable price on eBay, meaning that you can get your phone number and test it out before you leave the US. I have not seen many pre-activated SIM cards from other companies available for a reasonable price.

Mobal Global SIM
Given the other choices, I really don't see this as being a good option under any circumstance. The voice rate is high @ $1.25 incoming and $1.50 outgoing. The data rates is not cheap either at $20 per MB. I think regardless of call volume or data usage, any of the above would be better choices.

Also, I learned that with Verizon, if you activate their International Long Distance Plan, they will charge you $3.99 per month, and calls to Europe will be $.20 per minute, plus they will use minutes from your plan. If you have a SIM card in Europe that has free incoming calls, this is a pretty cheap way to stay in contact.

I am sure I missed a bunch of stuff, so anyone please feel free to add anything I may have overlooked or to correct any wrong information I may have inadvertantly included.