I travel internationally every year or so. My next trip is this summer to the UK. I would like to have a mobile phone, mainly to use in case of emergencies.
It seems that the choices are to get an
I travel internationally every year or so. My next trip is this summer to the UK. I would like to have a mobile phone, mainly to use in case of emergencies.
It seems that the choices are to get an unlocked GSM phone and buy SIM cards on arrival in each country, or to buy a Mobal World Phone.
I am leaning toward the Mobal, since they claim that there are no ongoing costs, the initial purchase price of the phone appears reasonable, the phone number and account does not expire and you only pay for what you use.
If you have tried Mobal, what has been your experience?
Robespierre is correct. If you will be using the phone at all, the Mobal airtime rates will break the bank. My current favorite SIM, especially if you might be calling home to the US (?) from the UK, is Mobileworld, available from Carphonewarehouse shops in the UK:
Get a 10Pound SIM and your rates are 5 pence per minute to the US (about 10 cents/min) and 15 pence within the UK (30 cents). Mobal World? $1.25 per minute to the US and $1.50 within the UK.
The Mobal World phone itself at $49 is a pretty good price. It is locked, but you can get an unlocking code for a couple of dollars online...[hint-hint]
Of course, if the phone is strictly an emergency contact device--just so folks at home can call you in an emergency--the Mobal World phone would do fine. But I suspect most people carrying a cell phone will want to use it.
My intention is to have a phone primarily for emergencies. I travel internationally every year or two, but rarely back to the same country. If I got a GSM phone, I think that I would wind up with a pile of wasted, mostly un-used SIM cards.
That is one of the things that appeals to me about the Mobal World Phone - the number never expires and I can use it in lots of countries as soon as I get off the plane, if I wish.
It might be mentioned that if you don't have a cell carrier (or the contract you have expires soon), you can use a T-Mobile subscription all over the world for 99¢ per minute and no other charges outside the US.
Many of their phones are GSM and quad-band. I got a free RAZR V3 from http://www.wirefly.com with a 1-year T-Mobile subscription.
Robespierre, you are right about T-Mobile having 99¢ calls throughout most of Europe, but in other parts of the world it can be considerably more expensive. I am a T-Mobile customer and I recently went to Israel. If I had used my phone there it would have been $2.99/minute!! :-0 I opted for the calling card.
Getting back to the question, if it's for emergencies only, then 99¢ isn't too bad.
