europe from U.S with droid

[coke4r]

HELP....europe from U.S with droid

Please before everybody tells me to search this, trust me i have searched everywhere. I will be travelling in a couple weeks to england, france, switzerland, and italy. I have a droid and my wife has a droid2. I know that i cannot use my droid as normal over there to make calls. I really need to call people that are also in Europe and not the states. All that i find is in searches is people trying to call back home to the states but that is really secondary to me. I have seen numerous things mentioned about google voice and skype. I have honestly never used either and am pretty "slow" with all of the lingo that goes with them. I have read that I can get a loaner from verizon as well and really do not want to have to, unless this is the very last resort.

So I guess to make a very long question short, can someone help me figure out what is the best way to be able to contact people from my droid while in Europe?

 

[coke4r]

Anyone?

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[boostedhonda]

I've seen most people suggest just getting a prepaid gsm phone and using that overseas.

Sent From My Gingerbread Droid 1

 

[Droid Firefighter]

Take it with you, put it in airplane mode so you don't waste the battery. Use it as a phone book. Get a prepaid phone that you can give to a friends kid in Europe or throw it away when you come back. I looked into it for my mom and its significantly cheaper to do it this way. Good luck and have fun. Don't forget to call Verizon a get the D2 activated for global use.

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[boostedhonda]

Take it with you, put it in airplane mode so you don't waste the battery. Use it as a phone book. Get a prepaid phone that you can give to a friends kid in Europe or throw it away when you come back. I looked into it for my mom and its significantly cheaper to do it this way. Good luck and have fun. Don't forget to call Verizon a get the D2 activated for global use.

The Droid 2 isn't a global phone. Only the d2g is.


Sent From My Gingerbread Droid 1

 

[jacobbond]

I would pick up a cheap GSM phone. There is some networks in Europe that use CDMA technology (what the Droid and Droid 2 use) but its not as prevalent as GSM which uses a SIM card. Google voice only works in the US but Skype would work if you use wi-fi, but you wouldn't have a local phone number. I'd suggest getting a cheap GSM phone, its the best solution.

 

[tennvol]

Or call vzw and rent a phone to use.

Personally I would try and buy a cheap gsm phone. Im about to travel to the uk for my annual trip to Scotland and im going to use mobile uk payg. Calls back to the us are 5p and a month of unlimited data is something like 15gbp. That's a steal

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[jacobbond]

That is a pretty nice deal - good find there tennvol! 15gbp for unlimited data seems like a good deal, what kind of speeds do you get? 3g?

 

[tennvol]

I just went to top up my TM UK SIM (leaving tomorrow for Scotland) and noticed that the price is actually 5GBP for a month of unlimited data.

TM UK's coverage is pretty good everywhere except for my inlaws house (stone house) and I generally have 2G everywhere except city centre of Glasgow and around larger population bases.

My wife has a VodaPhone SIM in her blackberry and gets service everywhere, but the price is crazy high, IIRC it's like 15GBP for 250mb of data...which is like 1 day for me.

The cheapest way I get inbound calls is forwarding my US VZW number to Google Voice, then sending the GV to localphone, then localphone to my UK SIM. Rate is $0.17/minute from localphone to my TM UK Sim (incomming calls in the UK are free for all providers). GV needs to allow international call forwarding.

This is my first trip with a Droid overseas so hopefully things will work out, I'm taking my unlocked GSM BB with me as a backup though.

 

[jacobbond]

Thanks for the update. I asked about the speeds because I know certain providers in the US who promise unlimited data then slow you down once you reach a certain threshold. Google voice will forward to a UK number?? I thought it didn't really do anything international.. How did you manage that?

 

[tennvol]

Ill check the speeds tomorrow when I get there.

You're right, GO will not forward to a UK number. I have to have GO forward to localphone.com then forward to my uk sim

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[xan]

FWIW; VRZ told 3 of my friends that their phones would work in EU. -They did not work at all!

id would even be skeptical of their loaners.

I would get a prepaid when you get there.

 

[jacobbond]

Ill check the speeds tomorrow when I get there.

You're right, GO will not forward to a UK number. I have to have GO forward to localphone.com then forward to my uk sim

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Localphone.com is really cheap compared to Skype and some other services. How is the call quality? Do they charge for forwarding calls?

 

[jacobbond]

Ill check the speeds tomorrow when I get there.

You're right, GO will not forward to a UK number. I have to have GO forward to localphone.com then forward to my uk sim

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Localphone.com is really cheap compared to Skype and some other services. How is the call quality? Do they charge for forwarding calls?

 

[tennvol]

FWIW; VRZ told 3 of my friends that their phones would work in EU. -They did not work at all!

id would even be skeptical of their loaners.

I would get a prepaid when you get there.

Didn't your friends do their research on their own? Did they have global phones? Were they using another carriers sim and if so was the phone unlocked?

Lots of variables here that would cause the phone to not work.

I've never had any problem using a vzw world phone loaner. Pretty easy process, call them up and the overnight you the phone, you activate the phone, and then mail it back to them when you are done. Not sure why you are weary of them, have you ever even tried to use the loaner program?

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