Roming and Mobile Data in Europe

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by ripit

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/MB. 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!

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

[GadgetKen]

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

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by snaimon

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.


Stan

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

[snaimon]

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