Hi everyone. I hope y'all had nice holidays and I wish everyone once again a happy and healthy new year.

I do have a question about cell phone in Switzerland.

We are going to Switzerland hopefully in May and I was wondering if anyone here has any advice.

I have a Motorola Razr from Bell Canada and it is not capable of working in Europe. It is not GSM or whatever the term they use.
I will be either buying or renting a phone but if any of the canadian ladies/gents here have had any experience with cell phones in europe I would appreciate any information you may have.

thank you
Sincerely
Mrs.Moose


Thank you.

Actually, I think you can use the Razr in Europe. It's a quad band phone - the only place you can't use it is in Japan. You may just need to ask your service provider to set your account up with international roaming.

However, I'm sure with someone with actual experience will chime in soon. I won't know for sure until I head to Copenhagen in June.

Hi, actually I called Bell Canada, "their" Razr is not quad. Fido, has a Quad Razr but not Bell Canada.

I have another question, so when you use your cell phone in europe, and you want to call back to the USA or Canada, what do you have to dial, do you have to dial a country code/access? or do you just dial say 1212xxx xxxx?

Getting a straight answer from Bell is a joke, I've spoken to 3 different people with 3 different answers.

We are so far behind compared to what you have available.

US / Canada is 001 then the US number. On some phones, it is the + sign for the 00. We ahead of the times folks from the US have no problem using tri band phones (that is the key word) in Europe. In fact, we get better service in Europe.

As we discussed this am, you may want to rent a phone for the time you are away.

If you have an Amex Platinum card, they offer a very reasonable rental rate. I don't know if that is available for all Amex card holders, it very well could be.

I've gotten so many different answers from Bell and even from Motorola.

I can't believe how complicated it is for us compared to you.

Do you have to go get new SIM cards? I don't want to get a SIM card, I don't even know what a SIM card is and why do I have to prepay for it? I'm totally confused.

If Bell could just give me some straight answers, I'm willing to buy the a840 (it's the only phone from Bell Canada that will work in europe I'm told).

My latest saga was the person told me to go to Cuba it's cheaper to forget Switzerland I give up

I have a platinum card, I will call them, it might only be available to US residents.

Thank you if they can give me a decent answer they will have my business. I just want the simplest way to call Canada from Switzerland from a cell phone and for someone to call me in Switzerland to make it simple for them.

I'm just tired of dealing with Bell, I can't get a straight answer and no I don't want to go to Cuba and I can't go to Cuba, I'm american, I just live here thank you, so the man says, well get canadian citizenship and then you can go.

I don't want to go I just want a phone that works in Switzerland and I want to know how it works. I know where I want to go thank you.


Thank you

Hello Mrs. Moose,

Well, I don't blame you for not wanting to go to Cuba! Heck, I'm cuban and I don't want to go there either :) !

I know what you mean about dealing with the phone company. I rather have a root canal, seriously.

Last year my teenage son was going to Spain for 5 weeks and I needed a way to stay in contact with him. We ended buying a Siemens phone for him through an online company call Telestial. There are others but I think at the time it offered the best price. I researched the rental option but it wasn't cost effective for the length of time that we needed the phone. Maybe if you need it for a very short time it's cost effective.

The Sim card is a little computer chip that goes in the phone and it gives it the phone #. Without it the phone is useless. There are Sim cards that are good for all Europe, there are some that are country specific. We bought him a Spain sim card which gave his phone a Spain phone # and included a credit for time. When the credit expired ( based on the phone calls he made) he had to recharge the phone by going to a magazine stand or cell phone place ( at least in Spain there seems to be one in every corner)and pay for additional credit.

At least under the plan he had, he didn't pay for the calls he received.

Later this year when we go to England, if I want to use the phone I'll have to buy a new Sim card.

I have a T-mobile phone by Motorola. It's a QUAD Band GSM Phone and with TMobile service you can use it anywhere in the world. They have arrangements with most international cell phone companies to allow their phones to be used anywhere. They do charge $0.99 to 2.99 US per minute but I have a constant phone number so people at home can call me without cost to them and I can pay the cost per minute to receive or make calls. I used it in Spain, France and England last year and Tahiti the year before. I can also use AOl Instant Messenger on that phone for 5 cents per message. Or I can send and receive text messages too

Folks, as hard as it is to believe, it appears Canada is years behind the US. Mrs. Moose spends considerably more than we do in the states and their Moto is not the equivalent of ours.

I know many of us looked into renting phones or getting SIM card in a local country, perhaps some of you can dig up your research?

Mrs Moose and Andi: I would love to help you but, truth be known, I cannot figure out my local cell phone have not a clue what SIM cards are...thank goodness for those in the know on LCT - good luck :) :)

I cannot believe I just deleted the rental info I used 2 years in a row. It was expensive...about $300 for a week (that's with the phone calls), but I cannot remember the name. I did find them by searching for Global Phone Rentals. Like any phone from the sea or Europe, coverage was spotty, but at least I could keep in touch. It was in Florida. If I find any written info, I will let you know.
Lynn

We paid $190 for the Siemens GSM phone including the Spain Sim card ( I think it had like 15 Euros credit included) . We bought it through a company called Telestial. The calls he received did not cost him anything. I was using prepaid phone cards to call him so it didn't cost me much either.

Go HERE for an explanation of phone options (buying and rental) in Europe. It's from the Slow Trav site.

Good luck!

Wendy had a cell phone with her in Europe, I believe. Oh, Wendy?

Wendy will probably see this tomorrow when she has a break time at work. I'm not sure how much she checks her computer at home on weekends.

I'm like Joanna when it comes to cell phones. Sorry that I can't be any help.

Mrs. Moose,
Why not try something like this?
http://www.rentaphone.ch/eur/en/contact.htm
Sorry, no personal experience with cell phones in either Canada or in Switzerland. But, if they are renting cell phones in the airport terminals in Switerzland that sounds easy enough to do. I am just assuming that you are arriving and departing from Switzerland through airports, if I'm wrong then sorry for wasting your time.
Debbie

Hi,thank you all. I am going to fly in and out of Zurich and will be travelling 2 weeks in Switzerland, no other countries planned.

Chatcat had/has the solution that I need. Which is a "local home phone #". That would be the best solution for me.

Thanks chatcat, you answered one question, the people who called you didn't have to pay, you paid.

At least I now know what a SIM card is. Thank you.

As an example of how much it costs here, I'm with Bell, they have the best USA/North American coverage that I can have from here. I pay over $100/month for 400 minutes of USA/Canada talk time. That is before taxes, but includes call waiting and voice mail. Plus $8.95 for system access fee plus tax of course.

Thank you all for your help. I now have a better understanding. At least I know what a SIM card is.

I'm glad I started 4 months early, lol.

Aren't those costs unbelievable. All I can tell you is that I lived in Switzerland for over two years and Doug had a US system and I had a Swiss System. It was superior service everywhere with both systems except the train tunnels in the Gothard Pass. They are really with the times and any phone Cingular or T-Mobile works fine. No dropped calls.

If Mrs. Moose lived closer, I still have my Swiss phone she could use. She'd only need a pre-paid SIM card once there. A reason to visit NYC!!

Mrs. Moose,

A simple option would be to just purchase an international calling card. I'm not sure if COSTCO has warehouses in Canada or not. COSTCO sells international calling cards quite inexpensively. If Canada does not have COSTCO, then I'm sure other stores that sell calling cards would be easily accessible to you.

Calling cards are easy to use great alternatives.

Hi, no I didn't have my cellphone with me. I too have a CDMA phone (Bell Mobility), and it won't work in Europe either.

But I believe the Razor is GSM, because I have a friend who bought one just to use in Europe. But I could be wrong--I'll ask my friend tomorrow at work, he can give us the entire scoop.

In the US, all Razrs are not only GSM, but quad band. It is hard to believe that the Canadian version can't work in Europe.

I just looked up the Razr on Canada Mobility website...which is the newest version of the Razr...with an MP3 player...and it says it is 1x dual mode CDMA phone (1900 and 800 CDMA). Is this tri band...quad band?

No - it's just like my Verizon phone - not usable in Europe. In my part of California, Verizon is the best phone - but - not usable really outside the USA/Canada - even though I have a Palm Treo - which on another carrier would work in Europe. So for travel, I have a T-mobile, which for my area is not the best carrier but as a local carrier, they also have agreements with many of the international carriers so the phones work everywhere. I pay $39.99 a month for 1000 minutes on it. And it works as if I were home when I am in Monte Carlo/France/Italy/Spain/Portugal/England and Tahiti. Testing it for Germany, Greece, Turkey and Croatia in May and along the ports for CROSS too. I did need to be established with T-mobile for 6 months before they opened it (unlocked it) for international service, so it's wise to plan WAY in advance. You can often buy phones at the destination with a local number very cheap and use a prepaid sim card in it. The problem for me is that I need to have a number in my local area code when I travel for my staff and clients to reach me.

Kathy, Doug has T-Mobile and the phone worked in all the areas you mentioned.

Folks, if I were to mail my european tri band to Jean, could she pick up a local SIM card? I thought one could do this?

Andi,

I don't see why not. Is this the phone you used in Switzerland?

Thanks, Andi - that's great to know - one more thing off the check list for My Oceania cruise.

Re-reading Mrs. Moose's post, I see you mention Bell. That's the problem--Bell Mobility does not do GSM (they are supposed to provide some kind of limited service fairly soon.)

My friend says that your version of the Razr is CDMA only, and there's not much you can do about it. (He has a GSM version that he bought in Europe, but he can't use it with Bell!)

I intend to move to Rogers/Fido when my current phone dies, they are GSM.

He says that most phones sold in N.A. are crippled, as well as "locked". The providers then make it very difficult for you to sync your phone numbers, your photos or ringtones with your computer. The freedom to use the data on your phone any way you like is restricted on phones in the North American market, not so in Europe.

As for locking, locking ties you to a particular provider. He says you can get any GSM phone unlocked fairly easily and cheaply (something that's basically just reprogramming the chip).

He says that whatever phone you buy in europe, you'll be able to do more with it.... and, dollar for dollar, you'll pay less in the UK, e.g., if you were to buy a RAZR from Rogers without a contract, you'd pay probably $300. That's more than the same, uncrippled phone from england.

A footnote: I noticed onboard Navigator in the Caribbean that the onboard cell coverage did not cover Bell (can't remember what it did cover, silly me, but I believe Rogers was in there.) Again, it's the GSM thing.

Yes it is. Now if we could find out where to get a local sim card for the phone, I'd pop it in the mail for her. Kathy, you're welcome. You will have no problems with T-Mobile. It is great in Europe...better than in the US even!! T-Mobile is a large supplier in Europe.

For $49.00 US you can buy a cell phone that will work in over 160 countries around the world..
the calls you make are charged to your credit card and there is NO monthly fee to use their service.
The opnly thing is you need to use it once a year.
Check out
Http://www.mobal.com
The service is great.

Hi Ladies,

Wanda has it just about right about the Bell Canada thing, but it has great coverage in the USA/Canada. It even worked in Alaska and on the cruise ship while we were in port except for Skagway.

Andi (Sedona) thank you but like Chatkat, I need a local # if possible. I'm exploring Claudia's link and Bell has just come out with a GSM phone, it's not a Razr but it's a motorola a840 and they tell me I can have it for about $100 because of loyalty points and whatever. I may get that. I will explore other options too.

I have 4 months time to explore my options.

Thank you so much for all this info. I'm going to look at Claudia's link now.

Andi thank you again. The bell deal isn't so bad it's $2.49 a min and I keep my same contract which I have anyway. I just have to get the new phone. They grovelled today when I threatened to leave "Bell" Between Mr. Moose and myself we have 4 lines plus high speed internet. They grovelled and offered the phone for $100.

Thanks so much

Hmm, that's good news, since I too can get Bell to grovel any time I like (cellphone, 2 land lines, high-speed internet). And I don't have a contract right now. So, the next time they call me to try to entice me, I'll keep this in mind! I'm not in a hurry, since I won't be going to Europe any time soon .

Hi Wanda, yes, I have 2 cells (one me and one hubby) 2 land lines and high speed internet. And no contract on either cell because they expired. You can get them to grovel.

I looked at Claudia's link and it gives a UK number. I figure I might as well just buy the Bell Canada phone and swich back and forth from my razr to that one (for europe) I will have a local # and this way I will have the phone and can use it again if we go back to europe other times.

Thanks everyone for all the help and advice. Really most appreciated.

To those travelling, happy, healthy safe travels.

all the best
Mrs. Moose

Mrs. Moose, it seem as though you have received a lot of great info. Thanks for posting this, I appreciate being able to look at this thread and get educated on the options. I know we will be looking at the information provided by Claudia for our future trips.

Wishing you safe and happy travels.