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Need help deciding on a carrier to use while in Europe.
I'm going to be in Europe for roughly 3 months and was wonder which carrier has the best rates, coverages, and phones. Basically, over all, what is the best company. I've been looking for awhile now and so far the top two I've found seem to be Nextel and TMobile. I'm going to be living in London but I will be traveling a lot. I plan to spend some time in Ireland, Italy, France, Scotland, and Germany just to name of few, though I'm sure I will be traveling other places as well. I was just wondering what y'all could tell me. Any help would be appreciated.
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Tmobile will be pretty good in the EU. They're owned entirely by Deutche Telekom, the German national carrier. Solid coverage over there, more than likely. Look into Orange & Vodaphone, they're pretty big there but you can't get service here with them. Vodaphone will be solid in the UK, they're the biggest carrier there.
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I was just there and it seems that Vodefone had the by far the best coverage in most countries, with the exception of national carriers that cover one or two countries. Vodefone and T mobile are both excellent in the UK but I am not sure Italy and Spain have T mobile in many areas. It could have been the roaming agreements with my Euro Sim card.
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zjc2a said:
I was just there and it seems that Vodefone had the by far the best coverage in most countries, with the exception of national carriers that cover one or two countries. Vodefone and T mobile are both excellent in the UK but I am not sure Italy and Spain have T mobile in many areas. It could have been the roaming agreements with my Euro Sim card.
I have another question then. If I were to go with T Mobile, would there be another Sim card that I could purchase for my phone while I am in Italy and Spain? I don't know much about this Sim card thing, so if this is a completely rediculous question please forgive me. 🙂 Thanx for all your help.
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quinstar said:zjc2a said:
I was just there and it seems that Vodefone had the by far the best coverage in most countries, with the exception of national carriers that cover one or two countries. Vodefone and T mobile are both excellent in the UK but I am not sure Italy and Spain have T mobile in many areas. It could have been the roaming agreements with my Euro Sim card.
I have another question then. If I were to go with T Mobile, would there be another Sim card that I could purchase for my phone while I am in Italy and Spain? I don't know much about this Sim card thing, so if this is a completely rediculous question please forgive me. 🙂 Thanx for all your help.
You...
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I have Verizon now. Could I do this with my current phone and just change my plan? It's an LG VX 4400.
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Verizon here is on a CDMA network Europe they use GSM. You will have to rent a GSM phone from Verizon to use it over there. That could get expensive if you call the US or recieve calls from the US frequently.
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Ok, due to the responses I have decided to go with T Mobile. Next question. I know absolutely nothing about their phones. Which phone would you recommend for everything that I need it for? Which phones do you think get the best reception? Also, where do I buy the prepaid SIM cards? Am I going to have to buy them when I enter that country or is there anyway that I can get them before I go?
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quinstar said:zjc2a said:
I was just there and it seems that Vodefone had the by far the best coverage in most countries, with the exception of national carriers that cover one or two countries. Vodefone and T mobile are both excellent in the UK but I am not sure Italy and Spain have T mobile in many areas. It could have been the roaming agreements with my Euro Sim card.
I have another question then. If I were to go with T Mobile, would there be another Sim card that I could purchase for my phone while I am in Italy and Spain? I don't know much about this Sim card thing, so if this is a completely rediculous question please forgive me. 🙂 Thanx for all your help.
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Whatever phone you get, if you plan on traveling extensively, make sure it supports AT LEAST 900/1800/1900... 900 and 1800 are used abroad. T-Mobile uses 1900 MHz exclusively here in the US.
I have heard good and bad about buying prepaid SIM's on EBay... you can also get them in the country you are in. My good friend Geo the world traveler tells me get them away from the airports, the agents in the airports will rob you blind!
I have heard good and bad about buying prepaid SIM's on EBay... you can also get them in the country you are in. My good friend Geo the world traveler tells me get them away from the airports, the agents in the airports will rob you blind!
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To reasearch coverage try looking at www.gsmworld.com Click on GSM Roaming near the top and then GSM Coverage Maps on the left side of the new page. Pick a country and off you go.
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Hey Bettyboopadoop,
My best friend recently took two separate trips to Europe and used TMobile while he was over there. I know from speaking with him that he was very happy with their service.
My best friend recently took two separate trips to Europe and used TMobile while he was over there. I know from speaking with him that he was very happy with their service.
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If your going to the UK first, have a look in the supermarkets, Tesco or similar, they do phone and sim deals quite cheap.
Then you can get it unlocked at a bootsale or market and then buy a sim in the next country you go to and so on.
Then you can get it unlocked at a bootsale or market and then buy a sim in the next country you go to and so on.
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If you are going to use T-Mobile, they will unlock the telephone you buy before you leave on your trip. That way the foreign sim card will work. I do not know of a time frame before they do the unlocking, but it may be nice to have the service for over one month, at least.
I would not fool around buying foreign sim cards on e-bay. As someone said before, there are phone kiosks all over the cities, department stores, super markets, etc. I can vouch for Spain in that respect, someone else here vouched for England.
Good luck.
I would not fool around buying foreign sim cards on e-bay. As someone said before, there are phone kiosks all over the cities, department stores, super markets, etc. I can vouch for Spain in that respect, someone else here vouched for England.
Good luck.
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