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9:42 pm
I just purchased the Nokia phone on the $100 free phone deal.
I travel to Europe (mainly to the UK) frequently. What do I have to do to use this phone there?
I suspect it means buying a new sim, but any idea what they cost and where they can be purchased?
4:20 pm
Terry C said:
I just purchased the Nokia phone on the $100 free phone deal.
I travel to Europe (mainly to the UK) frequently. What do I have to do to use this phone there?
I suspect it means buying a new sim, but any idea what they cost and where they can be purchased?
With the 1600, you will have an unlocked phone, so any SIM will work. Not sure about the 2610. Also the 1600 is a quadband device so it will be OK for the networks in Europe.
I don't know if you'll be able to use the SIM though - it depends what kind of agreements Speakout has with the European carriers, but you can get a SIM, with a UK number, on eBay for about $10. Then you'd be charged the local rates in the UK - much cheaper than the roaming Canadian rate!
5:05 pm
The 1600 is dual-band only, available in either GSM 850/1900 (North America) or 900/1800 (Europe and Asia.)
http://www.nokia.co.uk/A4221077
You'll have to buy another (pre-paid) phone for Europe.
11:59 pm
Operating frequencyDual-band GSM coverage (GSM E850/1900 and E900/1800)
Automatic switching between bands So either 850/1900 (North America) 900/1800 for Europe / Asia change in the menu, so it will work in UK with another sim card providing the phones unlocked
12:15 am
The website is misleading. There are actually two models. The 1600 is 900/1800 and is intended for sale in Europe. The 1600b is 850/1900 and is intended for sale in NA.
By "Automatic switching between bands" I believe they mean switching is automatic between 900 and 1800 (the 1600 model) and between 850 and 1900 (the 1600b model.)
The phones 7-11 sells are all 1600b. They're unlocked but will work only in NA.
To work in Europe you need either a 1600 (which BTW I saw selling in Austria in September for €50 alone) or a quadband, unlocked GSM phone. You can buy them in Canada from places like http://www.puremobile.ca/ A low cost quadband Motorola is the V220 which they sell for $81.
I'm not sure if the 7-11 SIM will roam in Europe (with the appropriate phone) but even if it does the per-minute cost will be astronomical. You can buy country-specific SIMs there or look into so-called "global" SIMs like Mobal or United Mobile (Google for more info.)
3:22 pm
Bylo said:
I'm not sure if the 7-11 SIM will roam in Europe (with the appropriate phone) but even if it does the per-minute cost will be astronomical. You can buy country-specific SIMs there or look into so-called "global" SIMs like Mobal or United Mobile (Google for more info.)
The 711 sim will not work in Europe, or even the USA. Speakout roams ONLY in Can:wqada.
In England, The Carphonewarehouse sells the MobileWorld sim which is only 5p (10 cents) per min to call Canada. It is 10p per min to call the UK.
They only work in the UK.
It is prepay, for I believe 10 pounds with a free sim. The sim expires if not used for 60 days, and there is no way to use it from outside the UK, so use up your 10 pounds while there.
You cannot save it unless you travel there every two months.
If you give it away, you are in danger of being arrested as a terrorist (only half a joke--See the poor bloke in Australia who was arrested because his cousin was one of the failed bombers, and the Australian had happened to have given his cousin his sim 8 months earlier)
3:56 pm
In England, The Carphonewarehouse sells the MobileWorld sim which is only 5p (10 cents) per min to call Canada. It is 10p per min to call the UK.
They only work in the UK.
It is prepay, for I believe 10 pounds with a free sim. The sim expires if not used for 60 days, and there is no way to use it from outside the UK, so use up your 10 pounds while there.
You can get free SIMs from T-Mobile. They'll even ship them to Canada if you fake out their web form, e.g. by putting your city and province in Town and Canada plus postal code in County. You'll have to play around with their postal code because they validate it. UK format is a bit different from Canadian, e.g. X9X 9XX but if you put your correct code in County it doesn't seem to matter. I've received my SIM using this technique even though I have yet to activate it.
In other countries you can get SIMs and airtime cheaply at kiosks and phone shops. See PrePaidGSM for what's available worldwide.
The important thing is that your phone supports both 900 and 1800 MHz bands. Some cell operators use only one or mainly one, so if your phone doesn't support it, you may get lousy coverage. If you have both bands you won't have to be concerned about this.
And as I mentioned above, International prepaid cards like Mobal and UM may be better bets because they work everywhere, albeit at much higher per minute rates, are more convenient and don't expire for a year or more.
