ita

I am not well versed in the technology of cell phones and the information already posted confuses me. Please can someone answer my questions in simple terms? Should we have a cell phone while driving the back roads of Provence? We would not use it for phoning home, but just for emergencies. Are you ever very far from civilization in case of an emergency with your car? I thought I could get a phone with our car from Autoeurope, but they are unable to ship to me in Canada. Their source here would be close to $200cdn for a one month rental (including loss insurance but not cost of calls). From previous posts it seems the consensus is to buy a phone rather than rent one. We will be starting in Nice. Can you not walk into a store there and get a cell phone? If yes and posters think we should have one, but do we have to be aware of? I know this subject must be tedious but please help me. Thanks.

rex

<<Should we have a cell phone while driving the back roads of Provence? ... Are you ever very far from civilization in case of an emergency with your car?>>

I have never wanted a cell phone in Europe for this reason.

<<Can you not walk into a store there and get a cell phone?>>

Yes you can, and for those wanting to stay in touch with "back home", that is what I recommend (I realize that does not apply to you).

Best wishes,

Rex

ita

Rex: thank you for the fast response. Would you please clarify for me. Are you saying that we do not need a phone for emergencies just for calling home? I keep in touch with my family by email or with a phone card.

passantd

this is simple.....

1. get yourself a gsm cell phone from t-mobile, at&t, etc but make sure it is quad band so that it includes 900, 1800 and 1900...it will also have 850 but that is US only.

2. to call home, use a calling card. It is much cheaper and you can call an 800 number from the hotel rooms so you don't have to pay the hotel for phone use.

passantd

sorry...i meant to say make sure it is multi band...not quad band. Quad band is nice but not needed for Europe but you should have 900, 1800 and 1900 for sure. The 850 is great for the US but not needed in Europe. If you want to get a GSM phone on AT&T I would recommend the Motorola V600 -- quad band phone.

rex

<<Are you saying that we do not need a phone for emergencies ...>>

That is exactly what I am saying. If you don't need one "at home" for emergencies, then I don't see why you would need one in Provence for that reason.

gracieb

I rented one via my cell phone provider. The phone comes with a # that someone could call from home in case of an emergency. I could have had my calls call forwarded if I had wanted to. The cost was $2.99 a day plus $1.49 cents per minute and $20 shipping charge. We used it 5 times. Twice to reach National regarding a rental car (and it was worth it to me to be able to reach for a phone and be instantly connected) and three short calls "home".

I never considered buying because chances are that technology changes would make today's phone obsolete by the next time I travel to France.

Yes, a phone card would be much cheaper, but I've experienced aggravation with phone cards in the US and didn't want to deal with that overseas. As it turned out, no one in my Paris hotel was able to dial out - even to place a local call. They never had a reason why. I had to go down to have the front desk dial to confirm dinner reservations, etc.

I'm glad we rented. Worked for us.

gracieb

Oops. Forgot about an additional call. We called the hotel in Cannes right before midnight to let them know we were in route from Roussillon - we left there late after a wonderful dinner. (It was a free room based on hotel points and I didn't want them to release the reservation)

So a big yes to "Was I glad to have a cell phone as I drove from Provence to Cannes in the almost-in-the-middle-of-the-night. Should we have been on the road at that time? Probably not. Were we glad we had a cell phone with us? Absolutely!

Itallian_Chauffer

While it is true that (some) At&T, Cingular and T-Mobile utilize Gsm technology, and offer multi-band (800, 850, 1800 and 1900), I found that their phones come "locked" (that is to say, they are only compatible with their SIM chips.
We go to Ireland at least once a year, have family and friends there and have found the ubiquitous coin and card payphones and phone cards are rapidly becoming an endangered species.
We purchased and unlocked Tri-band GSM phone from one of several sites on the internet (Google 'unlocked GSM Phones')for a little over $100 US , plus another $15 for a car charger. Then we purchased a Vodaphone Ireland pay as you go SIM for approx $50 (which included $15 worth of call time) which gives us unlimited incoming calls and 50 cent per minute outgoing with an Irish phone number, so no Roaming fees of $1-2 per minute. We also got a T-Moble pay as you go SIM for US use. Not our principal cell phone but good for lite useage, stateside.
For less than what a single two week rental would have cost us, we have a multi-purpose phone for here and Ireland that should give us 3-5 years of service.

skatterfly

I am by NO means an expert on this, but the Nokia phones from AT&T can be unlocked and new SIM cards can be put into them. At least that's one thing I learned on this post:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34503316

We recently bought new GSM phones and re-upped our AT&T contract. The phone I bought can be used in Europe, though I'll either have to pay through the nose on AT&T fees or unlock it and buy a European SIM.

If I hadn't needed a new phone anyway, I would have seriously pursued the phone rental thing. Are you sure they wouldn't ship you one to Canada? Is it a security thing? That seems strange. Would they be willing to ship it to you at your first destination in Europe?

I haven't ever had one when travelling, but this time I have a baby with me and will need to stay in touch with other people in my party. And I think if I were driving again (my last driving in France was 1999 and 2000 in Italy both without cell phones) I would probably want one. Not because I ever had any driving troubles.... but because mobile phones have become so ubiquitous.

Good luck. I know this mobile technology is a bit tricky...

~k

ita

I don't think it is a security matter; it is the hassle they get at customs, I suppose re duty charges.
Rex: I do have a cell phone in my car at home, just for emergencies, which fortunately haven't happened.

xyz123

In simple terms...I know you're in Canada so the posters about the US mobile phone companies just don't read..

In the year 2004, I insist my daughter has a mobile phone with her whenever she is driving. God forbid there is some emergency and she has to pull over to the side of the road, would she have to start looking for a pay phone booth to call for help? Isn't it best to have a mobile phone with you just in case??

Yes, you can absolutely walk into a mobile phone store upon arrival in Nice I think you said. For ablut $100 US you can almost surely buy an inexpensive mobile phone which will work in France along with a local French service. Perhaps being Canadian you also speak French (believe me, I realize not all Canadians speak French but then again, many do)...and the person selling the phone will explain all the ins and outs of using it. Calls on French mobile networks to North America are not cheap but calls made to you are free with the caller paying somewhat more (don't know exact Canadian rates) but it sure as hell beats throwing away $3/day for a month. The phone is yours to keep and perhaps you might find other uses for it or sell it to a friend or sell it on e bay or something like that.

For anybody spending any time at all driving in the year 2004, a mobile phone is a virtual must.

This business about the technology suddenly changing in the next 6 months or a year, well it will. But the old phones will not suddenly becme obsolte. The basic phones will work quite nicely for a long time to come.

Hope this was simple enough to understand without going into details. You can read other threads for more technical explanations.

Finally your local mobile carrier in Canada might be able to explain to you the ins and outs of whether their technology is compatible with European technology.

But the way you describe it, the simplest thing by far is to go into a local French mobile store and work through them. There are mobile stores for each of the French networks, the biggest two of which are Orange and SFR. Or you can go to a chain known as the Phone House, which is a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse in the UK.

lonhro

Why don't you just take your own cell phone with you? I travel to Europe frequently and simply arrange with my service provider in Australia to have the phone set for international roaming. Then in Europe, the phone automatically picks up the local service provider and I can make and receive calls just as if I am still in Australia. Best wishes.
Lonhro

isabel

OK this is probably a really stupid qustion but how do you know if your phone is unlocked? I know obviously once you get to the place and try to put in a SIM card they can tell you if it's unlocked or not, but how can I tell at home before I go. The phone in question in my case is a French phone with a French SIM card. So I know it's got the right bands to work in Italy but how can I tell before I go if it's unlocked so I can buy a SIM card in Italy?

xyz123

lohnro..

Often times in North America we are contrary minded. So it is with mobile phones. While the vast majority of the civilized (and not so civilized) world uses a system called GSM for mobile phone service, GSM is far from universal both in the United States and in Canada. To compound this situation further, while most of the world tried to standardize things in the early 1990's by adopting certain frequencies for use with GSM systems, for a variety of reasons, the US and Canada did not want to or were unable to, take your pick, go along. Therefore the GSM systems in use in the United States and Canada use different frequencies for transmitting and receiving signals which means:

1. Phones designed for use in North America only will not work in most of the rest of the world. Americans and Canadians travelling abroad cannot use their basic phones but must rely on being on a GSM carrier and then procuring a phone with the frequencies needed to work in most of the rest of the world.

2. Citizens of the world coming to the United States or Canada have the same problem. Your Austrailian phone, unless it has the frequencies used in the United States and Canada, even if it is GSM (which it is) will not work here.

3. Once the frequency problem is resolved, then the rates you pay to your own mobile carrier while in a different country, are obscenely high. This, BTW, is called international roaming. Often for a short trip one can live with this rip off. OTOH, if you are going to be in a country for more than a cuple of days, it may pay to invest in a local service on a pay per use basis.

So if I came to Australia (something I really wish I can do someday), I do have a tri band phone which operates on worldwide frequencies. So it would probably pay for me to get an Australian pay per use carrier. The beauty of GSM phones is they operate with a little chip called a SIM card. Change the SIM card, and the whole phone changes from phone number to mobile carrier. (Of course there is the problem of locking described in another thread).

If this is not confusing enough, Japan operates on its own system and GSM phones will not work in Japan (nor will American and Canadian non GSM carriers).

Hope this helps you understand that Americans (and Canadians) can be so contrary minded when it comes to changing things to align themselves with the rest of the world (see the Metric system and the outdated Farenheit scale we still use because some old fuddy duddies in Congress are so opposed)....

xyz123

Isabel..

There really is no simple answer. If you bught the phone in France, chances are very strong it is locked. If you go to a mobile phone store they can try another carrier's SIM card or you can try a friend's SIM card and see if the phone boots up or gives you some sort of an error message.

When you arrive in Italy and go to a mobile store, the store personnel might be able to try a SIM card and may even be able to unlock the phone (actually most assuredly they can. the qquestion is will they or will they try to convince you it can't be done to sell you another phone)...

lonhro

To xyz123:

Thanks very much for that information on mobile phones in the USA. At last I can understand why Americans talk on this site about buying or renting a mobile phone in Europe rather than taking their own with them.
I know it is a long way to get to Australia, but you should try and make the effort to come down here. You will not be disappointed. Regards.
lonhro

Cicerone

I live in Europe and would suggest you consider the following if you are going to go expense of having a cell phone for "emergencies":

1. You will need to know how to reach emergency services by phone. In most EU countries the numbers are as below, but this is not always the case. Keep a list handy (I tape them to the back of my phone.)

Ambulance 118
Fire 15
Police 112

2. In my unfortunate experience, you will rarely find English-speaking personnel at the other end of the line, even at emergency numbers.

3. In order to get emergency help to reach you, you will need to know your precise location, i.e. what town you are in our outside of, the name of the road, local landmarks etc. Again, in my experience, you will not always know the street name or town name, nor how many kilometers you are from the nearest town. For example, there are hundreds of no-name lanes in the countryside of Provence, I don't think anyone but a local could give adequate location or direction information to emergency personnel. In addition a person whose first language is not English may not understand your Anglo-French pronunciation of streets and towns.

Given the above, I have concluded that its is faster and better to just get out of the car and either flag down a passing car (hopefully containing a local) or walk for help.

dawgheels

Here is another question re: phones, If I rent one here will it work in France, Italy and Austria? How is the reception in Innsbruck? Thanks

xyz123

It depends on the rental company...the answer is probably. The SIM package they use when renting a phone to you generally is valid in one country (you will get a phone number with an international country code with sme specific country) and they use international roaming. Of course they then jack up the rates tremendously and for the most part, renting a mobile phone is one big rip off.

The solution as always is if you will be in one country for more than a few days, to have an unlocked phoneand buy local SIM's.

If you are doing one of those if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium type trips, whether in a group or independently, I guess the only alternative is renting. Or sign up your local (assume you are in the US) mobile service with an international carrier such as T mobile, sign up for international roaming (called world class), procure a world phone, and pay their asinine international roaming rates which, however, are still cheaper than most rental companies.