Avoid Roaming!... Please (France/Europe)

[kissjo 2]

Hi, please,

I have a friend who is going to Paris... And she wants to know how she can avoid teh roaming?/..Caan she get a sim card there?.. Does she have to buy a new phone??.. Please answer, its kinda of urgent. She is travelling tomorrow..

Thajnks so much VJer.. U r the best..!

[blackjack123 0]

If her phone has a slot for a sim card then she needs to call her carrier to help her unlock her phone. Then she can buy a sim card there and use that in her phone.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Adrian Rexhaj

[LookyWhatIFound 38]

Hi, please,

I have a friend who is going to Paris... And she wants to know how she can avoid teh roaming?/..Caan she get a sim card there?.. Does she have to buy a new phone??.. Please answer, its kinda of urgent. She is travelling tomorrow..

Thajnks so much VJer.. U r the best..!

I don't know about France but I imagine she could buy a local sim card there but her phone should be unlocked ( as in, not locked with your current cellular provider) to do it. I guess like you said she can by a phone there, possibly used phone.

If she had more time to wait for them to send her a card, she could have got a international sim card from an online provider with relatively cheaper roaming, like onesimcard.com

Good luck.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

If she is currently with a carrier that is sim card based ( T Mobile or ATT for example) and her phone works on the bands that are used there ( there are 4 major bands ) and it is unlocked she will be able to use it with a different sim card. If it isn't usable she canm go to ebay and pick up a used phone paying attention to if it is a sim card phone and band and have a phone for about 20 dollars.

[Zara_ 3]

She can get local sim-cards there, I got one (from "orange") last summer and it was cheap and worked well

[cardinal 1]

France now requires you to show id with a local (french) address to buy a SIM card. To get around this rule I think you need a letter from the person hosting you along with a copy of their id showing a french address. This is I think a new rule because a few years ago I was able to buy a SIM card no problem. I just bought a phone card when I was there a few months ago and used it in pay phones, which thankfully you can still find. But yes, it is a pain

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

There are many companies that will sell you a SIM card for pretty much any country in the world. If you don't have a GSM phone that's unlocked then they'll sell you one of those, as well.

I used a company in L.A. called CellularAbroad years ago to get a phone and SIM card for my daughter so I could keep in touch with her while she was on a school trip to Italy. The phone and SIM worked great. In fact, they worked too good. None of the other kids or chaperones brought phones because the school had told them their US phones wouldn't work there. We were the only ones who bothered looking into getting local phone service. One of my daughter's teachers borrowed her phone to call back to the US while they were on a train. The next day there was a minor emergency with one of the other families, and the school called me to get my daughter's cell number in Italy. Within two days most of the other parents found out they could call my daughter's cell and there would be no incoming charges against her account. After that, it was a ritual - half the parents would call my daughter's cell every morning to talk to their kids. All the kids were pitching in to buy recharge cards for her TIM mobile account. My daughter didn't have to pay for another recharge card the rest of the time she was there.

I still have the Motorola phone I bought from them. I've taken it to Vietnam five times. I have a SIM for Vietnam, and an international account which is homed in the UK that works in most countries. I bought those SIM's from the same company.

I just checked, and they do sell SIM chips for France.

http://www.cellularabroad.com/franceSIMcard.php

No doubt you can get the SIM cheaper in France, but this method is easier because you'll have the card AND the mobile number before you leave, which means you can make calls the moment you step off the plane.

[Otto 83]

**Topic may be most appropriate in our Regional Discussion (Europe) forum (rather than K-1 Process/Procedures); moving thread there.

Edited May 23, 2011 by Otto

[Ironman140 45]

Great thread

Anyone know how to get the unlock code for a blackberry bold ATT phone so I can give it to family in Ireland ???

[EasternDE 35]

In France, I think the best is to get a "disposable Bic phone" :

http://www.bic-phone.fr/

19€, 30mns of communications (which means in France 30mns of calls when you do the call, unlimited if you get called).

You can recharge them with a Mobicarte.

Can't beat that.

Problem is to find them, the site says in newspaper stores, supermarket, ...

If you know someone in France, it can be purchased online:

http://boutique.orange.fr/ESHOP_mx_orange/?tp=F&ref=36488&IDCible=1&type=4&donnee_appel=ORESH&id=253231300287499&IDSPMob=10004189&IDSPForf=10000483