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[expatinuk]

I spend a couple months a year in Europe and simply bought an inexpensive cell phone to use there.  It was easier than trying to deal the US companies. In most EU countries, you do pay to receive calls and there is a surcharge for out of country calls.

This is changing. The EU has determined that phone companies cannot charge for roaming throughout Europe.

[dolljepopp]

I live on the Continent and still use a cheap pre-pay mobile I bought about three years ago when I was regularly here.  I don't pay for receiving calls.  The phone is really basic, but it works just fine.  When I am out of this country, I restrict myself to SMS.

When I left the States, I bought a cheap pre-pay for there as well and converted my old monthly service number to the new phone.  I have only recently added a landline -- after several years of being mobile-only.

It can be very expensive to call a Euro-mobile from a US phone, though -- just so your friends and family know this in advance.

[stickball]

I live in the UK now and bought a cheapie phone from Phones4U and use "pay-as-you-go" service.  I top-up as needed.  Much cheaper than the monthly plans (I don't use the phone that often...).  Going to the states tomorrow and will see how it works there...

[science_expat]

Somewhat off topic but does anyone know about mobile phones in Japan?

According to Lonely Planet they don't use GSM so I may be screwed with my tri-band phone.

[merce]

I'd just get a phone there.

There are tons o' Americans and other non-continentals who show up at The Phone House in France (Is the name the same in Spain? I can't remember but it's a blue store too-- www.phonehouse.fr) buy a 30 Euro phone that comes w/ 20 euro's worth of minutes on it already. Use texto w/ everyone and you'll be fine.
Mine even plays R.E.M. when it rings!

You can't really have a convo w/ someone from the states on a cell there. Just use the pay phone in a nice place (I like hotels or the library lounges) for calls to/from the Americas.

[monkfish]

Somewhat off topic but does anyone know about mobile phones in Japan?

According to Lonely Planet they don't use GSM so I may be screwed with my tri-band phone.

According to the GSM industry organization, NTT DotCoMo and Softbank both operate 3G GSM networks on 2100, but no 2G GSM networks.

[wegie]

Somewhat off topic but does anyone know about mobile phones in Japan?

According to Lonely Planet they don't use GSM so I may be screwed with my tri-band phone.

Pretty much all i-mode in Japan. The husband unit was there for a weekend last year and it was like falling into a communications black hole.

[orienteer]

I travel extensively from the UK to Europe, and North and South America.

My experience is that there is no simple cheap mobile solution.

If I was spending time in one European country I would by a pay as you go mobile with SIM in that country. In the UK this can be incredibly cheap; and it would be fine for in-country calls.

The problem is when you travel outside your European country of origin, to another country in Europe or beyond. It is a phone company scam, but it is expensive to dial and to receive anywhere but your country of purchase. The EU is trying to do something about it, but it is going to take years. I would check what deals you can get from the US providers.

I have found it cheapest to buy a skype-in number, which is particularly useful if you are travelling with a laptop and/or are going to have internet access. At the very least this means people can dial you - using a US or UK number or whatever you chose - and leave voicemail if you are not at your pc at the time, and then you can call them back.

When I was in Brazil, I even managed to enable call forwarding from my skype-in account to my local cell phone, but it didn't always work that well.

[magimax]

It never ceases to amaze me how we travellers complain about how difficult it is to be in touch when only a few decades ago we would have had to rely on telegraph!  :-)

I don't mean that in a snarky way, at all - I really am amazed at how quickly we come to accept things as the status quo.  I could never imagine having to use telegraph!

[orienteer]

good point magimax. It is also something of a mixed blessing - great to be able to talk to loved ones, but not so much to the back-home office....

[magimax]

good point magimax. It is also something of a mixed blessing - great to be able to talk to loved ones, but not so much to the back-home office....

LOL!  Exactly!

[zharkov]

I would like to re-visit this old topic, as plans for Europe are in the making, and I expect that some things may have changed in a year.

One specific option I'm considering is getting my ATT phone enabled for European GSM and paying a $1.00 to $1.39 per minute to roam.

Although the main use would be to call home (US), we'd also like to be able to call friends in Europe.  But I was thinking, if I use a US phone in Germany (say) to call Berlin, won't that be an international call? And thus very expensive?  (That is, if it works like that at all.)

I also toyed with the idea of getting an iPhone, and using it to look up web sites while in Europe.  But again I expect that would also cost a fortune, roaming plus data charges.

I was also wondering if they sold the equivalent of Go Phones in Germany, and whether they'd make sense to use for calling within Germany and back to the US.  (A Go Phone in the US costs as little as 20 dollars and the per minute charges can be  much less than 1 dollar a minute.)

[pink_]

I ended up buying a phone in Europe last summer, and it was pay-as-you-go.  The phone cost about 40 Euro, and with that, I got about 40Euro credit to make calls if I gave them my email address and signed up for some on-line promotion.  Calling within one country is charged to the person who makes the call, and it's free for those who receive.  Texting was very popular because it was cheaper.

I ended up buying a calling card to call the US--it was still cheaper than any cell plan, though some of my colleagues used Skype which they said was even cheaper.  I didn't have regular internet access, so that wasn't an option for me.