Which international card did you use during ED

[mpbruin108]

This is a simple question but I get so many different responses with rave reviews and poor reviews. For all those who have been to Europe, driving through Germany, Italy, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, which international sim card did you use on your unlocked GSM phone?

I would like one ideally that is truly prepaid with no credit card down. Just needed to do data really to text and look up stuff. No one is really gonna call me but I should have some minutes.

Just wondering what you guys used.

[dclowd9901]

Any chance you can consult with your current carrier? Most offer international service for marginally more than you already pay.

[Hobbination]

I just waited until night time hotel wifi for instabrag and email. It's smart...had to make 13 different calls to find a bmw dealer to charge $480US to change my oil, that and a mysterious 3mb total download cost me $300 w ATT but they turned on a euro data plan for me after the fact, saved a hundo... Best bet, shut down everything and hotel only wifi. The car comes w preloaded euro maps (God send)

[michaelw9]

I just used my regular phone with T-Mobile. Free data anywhere in the world. Calls are pretty cheap too. It's not the fastest speed, but it works in every country, and there's WiFi everywhere else when you need something big. But if you just need to check emails or look up phone numbers, use Maps, etc, it works fine.

If you want to go the Sim card route, which I've done before, you will need a separate one for each country, unless you're prepared for outrageously high costs.

[01ON19]

I used Blau ("Blue" in English). See http://www.blau.de/. You can buy their SIM cards all over. Best to have someone who speaks some English set it up for you. But, data option did not work on Blackberry Q10 phone I had. The guy told me that before I bought SIM card but I had some long calls I had to make. I think it cost 10€.

But, as has been already said, roaming in other European countries can be a problem. Expensive and/or difficult to reload credit. VOIP using Wi-Fi is the way to go unless you really want a local number for incoming calls. Truphone works well on my iPhone.

[Nex]

I used Vodafone. $30 euros for 2GB data.
My wife used Blau. $15euro for 1 GB data.
Both worked well in urban and rural settings. If I had to so it again, I'd just stick with Blau for 1 GB cause I ended up only using a fraction of the 2 GB.
As Kanuck said, make sure you get someone to activate it for you. Some stores will just sell you the card and let you go on your way. Insist they do the activation and make sure it works before you leave the store.

[akbm3]

Originally Posted by michaelw9

I just used my regular phone with T-Mobile. Free data anywhere in the world. Calls are pretty cheap too. It's not the fastest speed, but it works in every country, and there's WiFi everywhere else when you need something big. But if you just need to check emails or look up phone numbers, use Maps, etc, it works fine.

If you want to go the Sim card route, which I've done before, you will need a separate one for each country, unless you're prepared for outrageously high costs.

I used T-Mobile as well on my unlocked iPhone 4s. My "regular" plan is AT&T wireless. Before heading to Europe, I stopped by a T-Moble store and signed up for the $50 Simple Choice Plan, inserted the T-mobile SIM card into my phone and I was good to go.

- International calls were $0.20 per minute (calls w/i Europe, calls from Europe to US and calls from US to Europe).
- Free international data (albeit at 128kbs)
- Free international text

When I got back to the US, I reinserted my AT&T SIM card and cancelled the T-Mobile plan.

[m3heaven]

Originally Posted by akbm3

I used T-Mobile as well on my unlocked iPhone 4s. My "regular" plan is AT&T wireless. Before heading to Europe, I stopped by a T-Moble store and signed up for the $50 Simple Choice Plan, inserted the T-mobile SIM card into my phone and I was good to go.

- International calls were $0.20 per minute (calls w/i Europe, calls from Europe to US and calls from US to Europe).
- Free international data (albeit at 128kbs)
- Free international text

When I got back to the US, I reinserted my AT&T SIM card and cancelled the T-Mobile plan.

I might do this as well. How was it using the data at that speed? Fast enough?

[michaelw9]

Originally Posted by m3heaven

I might do this as well. How was it using the data at that speed? Fast enough?

It was fast enough to use Google Maps, look up things on line, read email, send texts, use data based messaging programs, etc. You probably can do everything just fine besides streaming video, audio, watching YouTube, stuff like that. Some web pages might be a little slow to load, but for temporary use when you can't find WiFi, and not having to be inconvenienced with SIM cards throughout, plus being totally free, it was fine.
The speed is artificially throttled, so it's not like when you have a bad signal and stuff doesn't load. If you do have a good signal, the latency is good and the data moves, it just takes a bit longer.

[akbm3]

Originally Posted by michaelw9

It was fast enough to use Google Maps, look up things on line, read email, send texts, use data based messaging programs, etc. You probably can do everything just fine besides streaming video, audio, watching YouTube, stuff like that. Some web pages might be a little slow to load, but for temporary use when you can't find WiFi, and not having to be inconvenienced with SIM cards throughout, plus being totally free, it was fine.
The speed is artificially throttled, so it's not like when you have a bad signal and stuff doesn't load. If you do have a good signal, the latency is good and the data moves, it just takes a bit longer.

Similar experience with data speeds.

[mpbruin108]

You know, I just called Tmobile (since I have T mobile but use an unlocked phone). It turns out the Simple Choice plans allows me to go internationally and text for free within the 3 countries I want to visit (Italy, Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Germany) to anyone in US or to those countries. Calling/receiving is just 20 cents a minute. Unless you use WIFI calling then it is all good and free.

So all in all, you should ask your carrier since it might just included already. Thanks for the advice akb3, michaelw9, and dclowd9901