very new to this and need help
 

I'm taking a study abroad trip to spain and I've heard that, in order to save money on calls within Europe, I can have my LG vx5200 unlocked and possibly just buy a SIM card for it (and get a prepaid phone card).
Is it as easy as it sounds? I just have to go to Verizon and get it unlocked and then I can buy a SIM from one of these vendors you list (united mobile, travelsim etc.)?? without having to deal with an actual carrier like vodafone or movistar?
If that is the case, let me know which you recommend or if I'm missing some key details, please help me out
thanks

sr

In your case, unfortunately, it is not as easy as it sounds if Verizon is your US carrier....you see Verizon uses a completely different technology than is used in Spain and the rest of Europe...thus your verizon phone is probably useless...it doesn't operate with sim cards which is what the European and a couple of American carriers use (although some verizon phones are dual technology but I don't think your phone is) so scratch that idea...nor will you be able to use your verizon service in Spain and the rest of Europe without renting a phone from them and paying asininely high rates.

What you need is an unlocked GSM phone with the frequencies operating on the 900 and 1800 band...such phones are easy to acquire on ebay or at some internet merchants in the USA and then when you arrive in Spain you can just get a sim package of some sort and be all set with all the perks of a Spanish gsm provider (free reception of calls, a Spanish telephone number whatever)...or you can wait till you get to Spain, walk into a mobile (it's called a mobile phone in Europe not a cell phone but it's the same thing) and buy a cheap gsm phone along with a sim package; none of which will be intimidating as it is done every day of the week when visiting various European countries.

There is a lot more you can read up on but that's the basics. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. There will probably be somebody here familiar with Spain and Spanish sims (I'm not) who can help you or make suggestions depending on your exact itinerary and exact needs but the bottom line is verizon is incompatible with European travel.

Be careful that the phone you get has 900 & 1800 MHz. On HoFo I've been advising another Verizon customer who knew that he needed a GSM phone and bought an unlocked Nokia 6030. The problem is that he bought the US model which is 850 & 1900 MHz and won't work in Europe.

haha.. after removing the battery etc., I found no SIM card, so what you're saying is probably correct.
The program coordinator referred me to this site called platform3000 (sounds stupid) that can rent or sell me a sim card. the one thing that I like about it is they offer a "virtual number" for family back home to contact me at. it's a local US number they dial here, which then forwards the call to me in spain, leaving my family to pay only a domestic rate. besides that though, take a look at these rates and let me know if they seem a bit high ?
http://www.piccellwireless.com/lates...&package_id=40

or is that about what i'd pay with travelsim and others?

You do NOT want to get a Travelsim or other similar card as you mentioned. If you are going to be in a country for more than a week, get a prepaid for that country. You can get an idea of costs by looking at various descriptions of offering by Spanish carriers on this very web site. You often will find "sales" at reduced prices when you get there.
Incoming will be free for you. Calling a Spain mobile from the U.S. can be as little as 25 cents. Calling out will be much cheaper than using an "international" SIM.
You can find phones on Ebay for $50-$75. Best that you get a QUAD band phone that can be used or sold when you get back here rather than just a 900/1800 GSM phone that can only be used overseas.
Having a Spain number will make it possible for locals in Spain to call you. People aren't going to pay the outrageous rates to dial Estonia or Lichtenstein to call you.

...mike

It looks like they "loan" you a SIM card after you pay 17.50€ and you pay for the usage. I didn't see a weekly or monthly rate. Did I miss it? The rates are not too bad but you can duplicate what they by using a local SIM and a US forwarding service such as VoiceStick.com.

hmm.. all very helpful information, guys. I think I'll go ahead and just purchase a phone (either a used one here, or something new from over there) and go w/ a prepaid card in Spain. I like the sound of having free incoming calls from the states. If all else fails (and depending if I have an internet connection) I'll just be using ichat to stay in contact w/ home.

thanks for the help
sr

Get a phone that does internet, and a Yoigo SIM, and you can have unlimited GPRS for 1.39 euros per day. Alternatively, you can put the SIM in a datacard in a laptop/pc and browse just like you do at home, (not quite as quick though <g>).

hmm.. well i won't be on the internet that much, and i'd rather not pay. i'll mostly be using the free wifi in the computer lab.
that yoigo site looks cool though.. first i've heard of it. 49 Euros for a phone w/ 20 Euros of credit doesn't sound bad. it appears there's no free anything though. it looks like they charge 12 cents establishment and 12 cents/min for all calls, regardless of whether they're incoming or not.
snidely: which carriers do you know of that have free incoming?

All carriers in spain have free incoming calls. You get a phone number with a mobile phone prefix (6xx in spain) and the caller pays the charge via higher rates for calls to numbers with such a prefix. The only time you have to pay for incoming calls is when you are in another country and roaming there.
As far as I know this is how it works in all of europe.

Yoigo has cheap rates but even with prepaid you have a minimum consumption of 6 euros + VAT per month. Also Yoigo is relatively new and has really bad customer service. Probably it will work ok but if there is a problem, e.g. with the activation of the sim card it can literally take weeks to be solved.

Another cheap option are virtual network operators such as Carrefour movil (http://www.carrefour.es/movil). On the plus side carrefour movil is cheap and the phones in their prepaid packs are not locked the provider. However they provide no 3G or internet services at all and the service isn't much better than at Yoigo.

You could also go for one of the big providers such as orange or vodafone (movistar is quite expensive). The rates for orange or vodafone are quite similar.

6 euros per month isnt much, (or is it?).

I had great customer service during the one call I made ... I was trying to find somewhere to top up and eventually called customer service. he didnt speak English, but with my very poor Spanish, he eventually got through to me that I should try internet/phone shops and anywhere that topped up other networks.... he was extremely patient, and wouldnt let me go until he was sure I had understood him.

The Phone House made sure my sim was activated there and then - they even got me to call them to make double sure. I dont know what they would have done if it hadnt worked, but it did.

Did you have a problem getting your sim activated?

That obviously depends how you use it but I agree normally 6 euros per month isn't much. They also have a more expensive offer without minimum consumption. In the beginning they couldn't actually change your tariff to that but I guess that it should be possible now.

I use Orange but a friend of mine has Yoigo. He had problems getting the sim card activated. Problems with activation of the sim occur with other operators as well and usually you just call the customer service, they activate the card manually and within a day everything works fine. However in my friends case it took them weeks to get this done. They were friendly and kept opening incidents reports for his line. They told him they would fix it and get back to him but it took a lot of calls from him and several weeks until they would actually do fix it.

If you want to be absolutely sure that the sim is fully activated you should have the guy in the phone shop call your new number. Because often you can make calls with a sim card that is not fully activated but others cannot call you.

And dont uy o on a Saturday or Sunday

I bought my TIM SIM on a Sunday, and the shop told me it wouldnt be activated until the Monday.... presumably to do with office hours or working day or something.

I bought my WIND SIM on a Saturday and the shop said it may not be activated until the Monday ..... but it was activated by the saturday evening.

In both instances, I was told that it couldnt be activated there and then because it was the weekend.

Richard

i guess i'm deciding between yoigo and vodafone then. for those who have used yoigo before: are you certain that incoming calls (in spain) are free? because the site lists 12cents/todas las llamdas.

i wasn't really anticipating the need to call customer service or anything.. i just need something that's cheap and easy to re-up

On the site it says todas las llamadas to emphasize it's the same price for calls to fixed lines, calls to yoigo mobile numbers and calls to mobile phones from other operators. With other operators you often have differences in prices depending where you call.

Incoming calls (in spain) are definitively free with all providers.

One more thing. If you plan to travel to other European countries during your stay you should be aware that for their prepaid customers yoigo currently only offers roaming in Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal, UK, and Sweden.

Carrefour movil (and the big providers of course) cover significantly larger parts of Europe.

Richard. I have a Nokia 6310i (oldie but goodie) that I used in Europe a while ago. It is unlocked and I can buy a SIM in Italy where I'll be traveling for a month. Do the SIM cards in Italy automatically allow you to use the phone as a modem,i.e. data? I will be staying mostly in a villa in Tuscany so no good internet service there. I have an IBM Thinkpad T40 which unfortunately does not have bluetooth. It does have infrared but I'm still trying to make that work re: modem. Can't seem to find the right driver for IRda. Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks!

Italian prepaid SIMs have a wide variety of plans, programs and "bolt-ons" that are generally activated or deactivated by texting a particular phrase to a particular number. I don't know all the plans because they seem to change them almost weekly. At one time, long ago, Wind had an unlimited GPRS plan that give you full Internet access for 20 Euro per month. I traveled all over using my laptop tethered to my T68i. It was slow but much cheaper and more convenient than an Internet cafe.

Wind dropped that plan and changed to other and then changed them yet again. Look on the Italy page for the (more or less) current information. But your plan will work: I've done it.

I just wanted to reiterate what Krabat and others were saying. A lot of my north American visitors need extra assurance on this fairly basic issue that the rest of us take for granted. There are very very few countries in the world where you are charged for incoming calls, and the USA just happens to be one of them!

For the rest of us (including everyone here in Europe), incoming calls are 100% free on any prepaid or postpaid cell/mobile phone. This is of course provided you are in the country where the SIM card is primarily intended to be used in. e.g. If you buy a Vodafone SIM in spain you will not get charged to recieve a call in Spain (regardless of where it comes from). However, if you take the SIM elsewhere in Europe (even if you are still on Vodafone), and if someone were to call then you you will get charged!