Michael Feldman
2008-08-05 01:12:22 UTC
Hi there,
A few months ago, I started making queries about callineurope.com. I was
interested in a way to get a cheap but reliable GSM phone setup for a
4-week-long trip to Europe in June and July.
Several people have written me to ask how it worked out. In the
meantime, I'd completely forgotten just which forum I'd posted the
question to, so someone reminded me. My newsreader has expired the
original message, so instead of following up to it, I'm sending this out.
callineurope.com worked out very well. The first good news is that it's
a small company (in Connecticut I think), with a few knowledgeable
people handling telephone queries. [No Indian call center.:-)] They'll
answer your questions and process your order over the phone.
I and my younger son bought the $19.00 phones with $29.00 SIM cards and
a pay-as-you-go calling plan (the plan is explained in detail on the
website); my older son already has a Cingular GSM phone so he got the
unlock code from Cingular and just bought the SIM card. The cheap phones
are very basic - no video, monochrome screen, but we didn't need
anything fancy, just brief voice calls and text messages. If you wanted
more, you could get any of several more expensive phones from them.
They sent me and older son French SIM cards, so the voicemail prompts
were in French, but they sent written instructions on how to ignore the
prompts (and my ear for French isn't too bad). That worked out OK.
Oddly, they sent my other son a British SIM card. They explained why,but
I don't recall the explanation.
We used the phones mostly in Italy and Holland, with a couple of days in
France. Generally reliable service - we rarely if ever couldn't get 3-4
bars. Since all the phones were foreign, dialing each other required the
full phone number - 00 33 ...., even if we were a block apart in Italy.
But the phones know which country they're in, and the billing system
adjusts the rates accordingly.
I just received my first invoice by e-mail, for calls I made in June. It
totaled about $40.00, biled automatically to the VISA card I used to buy
the phone. I looked through the detailed call report and found nothing
incorrect or strange. I'll get one more bill at the beginning of
September, covering the first week of July. On July 8, I was back in the
US and stopped using the phone, which is dual-band wouldn't work here
anyway. So now I'm back to good ol' Verizon.
Bottom line: callineurope.com is on the level and does seem to have a
fair deal compared with other choices.
Overall I'd recommend it. Now that we own the unlocked phones, when/if
we go to Europe again we are set. The SIM card expires after a year,
unless you put $60.00 on it, so for our next trip we'll need a new card.
But that's pretty cheap and will probably get cheaper over time.
Too bad US cellphones are (mostly) incompatible with worldwide GSM - it
would be far easier if everyone adopted the same standard. As it is, we
are (as usual) going it alone here in the States. Oh well.
I hope this helps others sort out some of these issues!
Mike
A few months ago, I started making queries about callineurope.com. I was
interested in a way to get a cheap but reliable GSM phone setup for a
4-week-long trip to Europe in June and July.
Several people have written me to ask how it worked out. In the
meantime, I'd completely forgotten just which forum I'd posted the
question to, so someone reminded me. My newsreader has expired the
original message, so instead of following up to it, I'm sending this out.
callineurope.com worked out very well. The first good news is that it's
a small company (in Connecticut I think), with a few knowledgeable
people handling telephone queries. [No Indian call center.:-)] They'll
answer your questions and process your order over the phone.
I and my younger son bought the $19.00 phones with $29.00 SIM cards and
a pay-as-you-go calling plan (the plan is explained in detail on the
website); my older son already has a Cingular GSM phone so he got the
unlock code from Cingular and just bought the SIM card. The cheap phones
are very basic - no video, monochrome screen, but we didn't need
anything fancy, just brief voice calls and text messages. If you wanted
more, you could get any of several more expensive phones from them.
They sent me and older son French SIM cards, so the voicemail prompts
were in French, but they sent written instructions on how to ignore the
prompts (and my ear for French isn't too bad). That worked out OK.
Oddly, they sent my other son a British SIM card. They explained why,but
I don't recall the explanation.
We used the phones mostly in Italy and Holland, with a couple of days in
France. Generally reliable service - we rarely if ever couldn't get 3-4
bars. Since all the phones were foreign, dialing each other required the
full phone number - 00 33 ...., even if we were a block apart in Italy.
But the phones know which country they're in, and the billing system
adjusts the rates accordingly.
I just received my first invoice by e-mail, for calls I made in June. It
totaled about $40.00, biled automatically to the VISA card I used to buy
the phone. I looked through the detailed call report and found nothing
incorrect or strange. I'll get one more bill at the beginning of
September, covering the first week of July. On July 8, I was back in the
US and stopped using the phone, which is dual-band wouldn't work here
anyway. So now I'm back to good ol' Verizon.
Bottom line: callineurope.com is on the level and does seem to have a
fair deal compared with other choices.
Overall I'd recommend it. Now that we own the unlocked phones, when/if
we go to Europe again we are set. The SIM card expires after a year,
unless you put $60.00 on it, so for our next trip we'll need a new card.
But that's pretty cheap and will probably get cheaper over time.
Too bad US cellphones are (mostly) incompatible with worldwide GSM - it
would be far easier if everyone adopted the same standard. As it is, we
are (as usual) going it alone here in the States. Oh well.
I hope this helps others sort out some of these issues!
Mike