Can I do this? go phone US/Europe? If so, pls advise..
 

I do some travel from US to Europe, Mexico, and Carribean.

I am looking for a phone, not sure if it should be tmo or att that I can purchase here, and do the following with:

1. get phone in US with pay as you go plan. AND
2. use this phone in europe/mexico with prepaid sims purchased in other countries. (I realize I will have different phone numbers here and there, and that is OK)

If I can do this, which carrier is better? Also, which phone do I get?

Also, how does one re fill the phone here in the US? Is it via the sim card, do I get a new sim card to put in the phone each time, or do I just re fill the same card?

Thanks.

It's possible, but most GoPhones are not going to support the bands used in Europe. GoPhone service doesn't support roaming, so there is no need for GoPhones to support the frequencies.

If you get the phone unlocked, you can use it with carriers that use those frequencies (I got my GoPhone unlocked and I use it on Rogers in Canada, which does use those frequencies, and I put my T-Mobile and Red Pocket SIMs in it for US use sometimes). That would allow it to work in Mexico, and in some Caribbean areas, but not all (some use European frequencies), and not in Europe.

If you don't care about fancy features, you can get a cheap unlocked quad-band phone like the Motorola RAZR V3, and use it almost anywhere on Earth that has GSM service, including with GoPhone.

You refill the mobile account, not the SIM. The SIM is the piece of hardware that lets your account work in a given phone. Think of it like your cablemodem or DSL modem. It's just a tool to use the service.

Jim,

thanks for the help. Where do I get an unlocked phone? Do I have to purchase full price at ATT or Tmo for a quad band gsm? (I am assuming full price purchase since I don't want to sign up for a plan).

Second part. If I want a winmo phone, such as treo or htc, can I get one of those unlocked, and again, where?

Thanks!

There are many places where you can buy unlocked phones: eBay, TigerDirect, HoFo's adds, etc. Unless you want a top-end quad-band phone it might be cheaper to buy two; one for Europe another for the US.

You certainly can get unlocked smartphones. I got my Treo 680 unlocked from importgsm.com three years ago. It's quad-band, has EDGE data access (which is the fastest non-3G data technology), and I can use it with any provider I like that uses GSM. It's been to the US, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein and worked fine.

You will pay more for an unlocked phone than for a locked one.

You can also get locked phones unlocked. This requires some technical expertise in some cases, so I don't necessarily recommend it for the beginner. Some shops can unlock phones for you as well, and this requires no special expertise, but if you buy a phone and expect it to be easily unlockable, and it isn't, you might be disappointed, so I recommend that you do some research before you buy a locked phone with plans for future unlocking.

if your going to europe you can buy a cheap dual band payg phone/ sim free for like nothing.....in france check out 'phonehouse.fr shops' and in ireland check out there sister company carphonewarehouse.ie

they will sell you an unlocked phone with a payg sim plus credit....for like nothing...or very little

so if for instance i got an unlocked centro, if i understand correctly, i could just get a pay as you go plan for here from att? Also, who assigns the phone number , and where do i get it? My idea was that I just go to say walmart with $50, and I can get a card to refill minutes.

My next question is, If I get a centro, how do I get data? Do I have to subscribe to a 'real' plan, or can i just either buy a data plan pay as you go, or do they transfer minutes fromt he calling plan?

Finally, looked on ebay for unlocked phones. How do I know phone is ok? I am very technical on vzw, when getting a used phone you have to check with them to have them check the esn and make sure it isn't locked or stolen, and that vzw will actually activate it? With a real 'unlocked' phone, I am assuming that it means that you can put any sim into it?

Sorry for all the questions, but I really appreciate the help. Thanks.

Look carefully at the seller's history. I've seen cases where someone bought a phone as unlocked 900/1800 and it turned out to be the 850/1900 version of the same phone. Unfortunately manufacturers sell phones with one model number in two different versions. Once, long ago, I bought a phone as a tri-band Moto L7089 and it turned out to be the 1900-only version of the same phone. Seller had little history and vanished shortly afterward. One of a very few bad deals I've made on eBay.

What is a centro? Is that a gophone? I have no clue what bands the centro has. For Europe you will need 900 and 1800. AFAIK, VZW standard phones are CDMA (esn); you need a GSM phone, quandband best.

Yes, the SIM from ATT or TMO will be assigned a phone number when you call to activate it. Or it may already come out of the box with a number. You will probably have a choice of the area code and the 3 digits AFTER the area code. They will ask you where you live and assign a number based on that.

I doubt your (ATT centro?) Walmart phone is going to work overseas with a standard ATT or TMO or other prepaid setup.

Also, as DRN suggested, check very carefully if you buy off eBay. Some uneducated sellers have no idea what UNLOCKED means. I always recommend ASKING THE SELLER at least one question. In your case maybe how do you know the phone is unlocked. The higher the seller's feedback and the fewer the neutrals and negatives, the better your chances. Stuff does happen, however.

Foreign SIMS, including the internationals, at least the ones I have bought, have the number already tied to the SIM card.

Keep asking your questions.

The Centro is a Palm phone. Quad-band GSM / EDGE.

The centro is a quadband smartphone by palm.

Centro Smartphone - Features, Details, Reviews : Palm USA

Are you sure? The Timeport was tri-band from the start; in fact, it was the first tri-band phone available, and there was never a single-band version of the 7089 (or WAP-enabled 7389). However, it did not support automatic band selection, and this confused a lot of people. You had to dig down in the menu to find the "Change Bands" option to toggle between 900/1800 and 1900.

OK. one more piece of info needed on sim cards. I saw a few att phones on craigslist that are quadband. a centro and a razr. However, the owners want to keep their sim cards!

How do I get a sim card if I get a used phone. I was at wallmart yesterday and noticed that the new gophones come with their own sim card. But if I get someone elses phone, where can I get a new sim card? Do I have to purchase a plan from ATT?

Final question: A co worked mentioned that he thought he had an old cingular go phone. Can att re fill these, and again, same question as above. How do I get a new sim card if he doesn't have it. (thought it was lost from kid playing with it). Thanks for all the help!

It depends on what sim card you want. For AT&T and Tmobile you can get them on ebay or walk into a store. They may even give it to you for free as long as you add credit to it right there. For sim cards in other countries, you can do the same. Walk into a store and get a sim card that suits your need. You can also get them on ebay. Heck! In some countries you can get sim cards from the street vendors, at the airport and in vending machines.

Bossman has it right. And you can often buy a new phone with a SIM and some airtime cheaply. I bought my AT&T SIM with a basic Motorola dual-band phone in June for about $20 at Wal-Mart. It came with $10 of airtime. I kept the phone (and got it unlocked) but a person could sell a brand new phone like that reasonably easily, and end up getting the new SIM for five bucks or so net.

OK. Just as I was thinking I was understanding all of this (I know you can't believe I do IT for a living, just having vzw cdma makes all of this unfamiliar) a curve comes in.

ATT Gophone offers razr quadband. Also, on craigslist I saw a att centro (quadband), but it says can be unlocked on TMO?

So I am not sure I really understand the unlocked. I had thought that if I got the gophone quadband, I could use it here, and take the sim card out, go to europe, purchase a simcard there (have a new number) and it would work. But photojim says he unlocked his gophone?

So my questions are: 1)why do you need to unlock the phone, and 2)why is the att centro on craigslist unlockable on TMO?

Again, thanks.

A phone needs to be unlocked so that you can put any carrier's sim card in it. Subsidized phones are usually locked to a carrier and will only take that carrier's sim card. So, say you buy a phone on AT&T or tmobile's website they will only take an AT&T and tmobile sim respectively. So, if you want to use thet phoen with say a prepaid sim you buy in europe or if you want to put a tmobiel sim in the AT&T phone or vice-versa, you will need to get it unlcked. This can be done for free by contacting your carrier or by doing it via a 3rd party. Tmobile and AT&T will give the unlock code for their phones as long as you have been a customer in good standing for at least 90 days. OTOH, you can just buy an unlocked phone from ebay, amazon, buy.com, etc. and you are all set.

Thank you for all your help. I think I understand pretty much enough to know what to try to do. Appreciate all your time.