One provider for cellphone internet services in multiple Western European countries?

March 24, 2006 4:30 AM

EuroCellServiceFilter: I'll be travelling in Europe from mid-April until September/October to many, many countries, but 2-3 months throughout Italy and 4-5 weeks in Spain, followed by more inside. What cell service providers (if any) offer plans for data services in multiple countries throughout (Western) Europe at reasonable rates? I'd be happy with something that will do data for my 3-4 months in Italy+Spain, and then just use internet cafes during the rest of my trip. This is primarily for using with my laptop.

I've used Wind pre-paid service and their 19 euros a month unlimited internet service in the past in Italy and was content, but Wind's data services don't seem to reach outside Italy (at least not a year ago, the last time I was in Italy - I don't even know if they still offer unlimited internet services at a fixed rate). I don't really care what country my phone number ends up being from, but an Italian or Spanish number is preferred, bonus points if provider actually has shops in Italy, where I'm starting.

The rest of my trip is a ~8000 mile motorcycle trip from Italy through northeastern Europe: Moldovia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, over to Moscow, up and around Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, probably ending in Germany or Austria. What's a decent provider who will let me actually make a phone call from most or all of those countries? Let's assume that if I need to use my cell phone from any of those countries, I won't care what the rate is, and that I'll just find internet cafes for data.

I'm considering renting a Thuraya for those two months of my trip, but I had acceptable cell service from Wind (but no data service) for most of my south-eastern European motorcycle trip in 2004 (down the coast to Albania, over to Macedonia, north to Sofia, Belgrade, Bratislava, back through Vienna, south to Italy - 13 countries in all) so I'm thinking a Thuraya/satellite phone might be an unnecessary expense. Then again, Russia is a complete unknown to me.

posted by cactus to Technology (7 answers total)

If you have a GSM phone, practically any phone service provider will allow you to roam throughout Europe. But the roaming charges are abusive, both for outgoing and incoming calls. If you have an Italian number, incoming calls are free in Italy, but as soon as you go to Spain, if someone calls your Italian number, you'll be charged for the leg of the call from Italy to Spain, plus a roaming charge. It can add up to .50-1 euro/minute. Think about getting a prepaid card for each country you visit. You'll have to keep changing your number, unfortunately.

As for data, here in Spain I'm paying Vodafone 39 euros a month for 1Gig of data. In most cities and airports I get about 300Kbps using the 3G network, but in rural areas the network is only wired for GPRS ("2.5G"), which runs at dialup speeds. I'm not sure if they require you to sign a contract; data might not work with prepaid cards. They have other plans that cost less money up front but charge you more per Megabyte. I use a PCMCIA card, but with the right cable or a Bluetooth connection you should be able to connect your phone to your PC and use data that way. Data services have roaming charges, too.

You'll want to go and talk to Movistar, Amena, and Vodafone shops once you get to Spain. Check all the charges; they rob you any way they can.
posted by fuzz at 5:13 AM on March 24, 2006

Have a look at this moneysavingexpert.com article on European roaming. It's focused on UK users and voice/SMS use but there are links to various providers.
posted by i_cola at 5:22 AM on March 24, 2006

there's a Vodafone Passport service, no data, only calls (it's available also from Italy, lots of vodafone shops there)

here is the corresponding Wind service for calls, and for data

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for, so sorry if I got it wrong!
posted by funambulist at 5:26 AM on March 24, 2006

and this is the Italian page for Vodafone Passport

I see the service is also mentioned in the link i_cola posted, I agree it's rather useful. I've used it recently when travelling in Europe, it's very easy to set up, the phone will detect the local network to use in each country, and the flat 1 euro for each call plus local rates for the rest of the call is not bad really (unless you make/get a lot of really short calls!)
posted by funambulist at 5:35 AM on March 24, 2006

bleh, the link redirects to the main page... but anyway it's exactly the same as they say on the English page so nevermind. Just know you can activate it from within Italy too.
posted by funambulist at 5:38 AM on March 24, 2006

For laptop use in Spain, you might be better off using the many and easy to find "locutorios". While most have reasonably priced computer use, in many you can hook up your laptop to have even cheaper internet use. Check around. Especially if you are looking to have data hookup to an overseas server, using a cellphone connection would not be the best option.

Other options for internet use are using a wireless card and accessing the internet at some cheap and sometimes free sites. Check out the advice mentioned here.

The same site also has info on cell phone services. As has been said, if your phone can accept sim cards from other countries, you will be good to go.

Your trip sounds fantastic, have a great time.
posted by JJ86 at 5:45 AM on March 24, 2006

Best answer: Last summer I used the annoyingly-named Global Riiing SIM card (there's other roaming cards on the linked page as well). From most EU countries (except Estonia and maybe others) calls are 40 euro cents a minute and incoming calls are free. It's more expensive in Russia and you can't use it at all in Estonia for some reason. You have a Liechtenstein phone number, and making outgoing calls is a bit trickier because you have to wait for a ringback: the outgoing call is dropped, your phone rings, you answer it and proceed as normal. In my experience the network seemed to be busy more than with other providers; I would get a network busy error message, or occasionally I would make a call and never get the ringback. But for use in multiple countries it was definitely convenient.

For countries where this won't work I second the buying a new SIM suggestion. The SIM I bought in Estonia was really cheap (about US$10, with US$5 phone credit). Russia is a bit trickier, since I think you generally have to get different SIMs for each region. I didn't get one in Moscow but I did in St. Petersburg. Apparently there's quite a bit of bureaucracy involved in letting foreigners buy SIMs in Russia; I had to ask around and kept getting pointed to different places before I was finally able to find one of the few places that would do it. If you don't care about the cost then the Riiing card or something similar is probably the better solution for Russia. You might also want to check what the rules are for using foreign SIM cards and phones. I didn't have any problems, but in Russia you never know.
posted by komilnefopa at 10:04 AM on March 24, 2006