Traveling in Europe with Pearl

L

lol.aries:.~

New member
I'll be in Europe in May for a couple weeks. I have an unlimited data plan with T-Mo. What do I need to know about connectivity for e-mail and voice calls before my trip? I need to check in with the office for voice mail and to be able to respond to business e-mails while away.

Thanks for your assistance.
 
First of all, You'll have to get the BB unlocked if you want it to work in Europe. Second you'll have to call TMO to get the international on your account. For voice and emails you should be able but since I'm not with TMO I can't help you with the price of that...
 
You do NOT need to unlock your BB to have it work in Europe. You only need to unlock it if you want to use other SIM cards, like, if you wanted to purchase a local prepaid SIM while in Europe. It would give you cheaper calls, but you'd lose all data features, and would have a different phone number while over there. Thats a fine option for some people, but probably isn't what you want, if emails are your real concern.

When you activate "Worldclass" service on your phone (which is free), it lets you make calls from any affiliate GSM service, of which there is coverage nearly everywhere in europe, at least in the cities. There is a separate per minute charge for phone calls, which you can look up by country:

http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

It will tell you the cost per minute of phone calls, plus whether or not there is GPRS coverage there.

The one thing I don't know for sure, which you should ask a CSR, is whether or not GPRS coverage means your BB plan will work, and if there is an additional cost for data, which there probably is. You'd probably want to disable programs that poll, like BBWeather, auto sync programs, etc, so they don't eat up data usage if its not unlimited.

peace,
sam
 
Thanks Phidauex, never travelled with a unlocked phono so didn't know if that was possible to work without unlocking it
 
Some people like to travel with an unlocked phone, because you can buy local prepaid SIM cards to use in your phone. If you were going to be spending a while in a country, you may want to buy a local SIM, so you can make calls for 30c a minute, instead of 1.99 a minute through Tmobile's worldclass. Then you'd also have a local phone number, so your friends in that country could call you without having to use international long distance.

But if you are just passing through, and aren't expecting to make a ton of calls, or receive a lot of local calls, then its not worth the hassle, and the initial expense of a prepaid SIM. Prepaid SIMs also aren't worth it if you are expecting to use your BB data service, since they won't support it.

peace,
sam
 
Read what Sam said twice -- if you plan on talking a lot, using a prepaid SIM (in your unlocked phone) is key. I talked on a $78 HKD (about $12 USD) prepay sim in Hong Kong for two weeks and used GPRS to download daily weather updates, currency conversions, and stuff like that -- and came home with the sim still half full (and I talked quite a bit). It was about 1 to 2 cents USD a minute to talk (*).

Compare that to the two times I called Voicemail on my T-Mobile SIM from HK and paid around $7 for the privilege; international roaming can eat your wallet if you don't watch out. Buy a local prepay, activate it to get the phone number, then call and change your T-Mobile voicemail to say "Hi, I'm in France here is my local number XXXX, call me here." then don't use your T-Mobile SIM anymore.

==
(*) http://www.peoples.com.hk/p_prepaid_supertalk_default_iso.jsp
 
You'll want to look for what they (sometimes) call an "IDD" prepay sim, meaning one that can roam to other coutries different from where you purchased it. Many prepays don't allow you to do that by default, and are cost in-effective when using them.

Example using the same website as above:
http://www.peoples.com.hk/p_prepaid_iddtalk_default_iso.jsp

Click the link to open a popup and you'll see a couple of countries that are free (USA, Canada), but scroll down to like Macau (a mere 70km west of Hong Kong, another SAR of China) and you'll see they want $1.99/min HKD not free.

I'm not dialed in (heh) on the Europe prepay scene to know a lot of the carriers and options, but a lot of the crowd on HowardForums does -- try checking over there in the T-Mobile forum, this topic comes up all the time. Some of the guys have developed some slick tricks on forwarding their real number and such...
 
Thanks for the extra detail, rivviepop! Do you know anything about using the BB mail services while overseas? Do they stay on if you are on WorldClass roaming? Do they stay on if you have a prepaid sim (I doubt it, but maybe)?

I suppose if your BB mail works while on Tmobile, you could always buy a local SIM, and use it for phone calls, and once a day, pop your Tmo SIM card in and check your mail... The OP seemed concerned about his ability not just to make calls, but to respond to business email.

BTW, if you want to get your phone unlocked, Tmobile is pretty nice about it. You need to be a customer, in good standing, for more than 90 days, and you can unlock one phone per line every 90 days. Just call them, let them know you are travelling internationally, and making a more extended stay somewhere, and that you intend to buy a local SIM card. You might get transferred a few times, to the department that handles unlocking. They'll probably try to sell you on the WorldClass roaming, which is fine, have them activate it (since its free, and will work as an emergency fallback before you get a local sim), but have them send the unlock code anyway. They'll ask for your IMEI number, so make sure you write it down before hand (find it in Options>Status, or under your battery). The code'll hit your email box in a day or two, and includes instructions on how to unlock the phone. I think they are the friendliest phone unlockers in the biz.

peace,
sam
 
Alas, I'm afraid I do not -- I've not had the chance (yet) to do so, it's been mainly Nokias while I'm out and about. Send me a plane ticket to Greece though and I'll *positively* call you when I get there and say if it works or not.
 
Sam, please take a look at this from TMO:

BlackBerry Unlimited International E-mail

Make the world a little smaller. Send and receive unlimited e-mail while you travel for one low monthly fee. You must be using a carrier that provides GPRS Internet service to send or receive e-mail. Voice calls are billed at standard international rates.
$19.99 per month

I was in Ireland for a few weeks last year and signed up for this and it worked very well. I cancelled it upon my return and wasn't charged any more. Make sure they also sign up for World Class International Service - free to sign up, you just need to have it activate to make voice calls overseas.

I hope this helps.
 
Ahh, I can't believe I didn't see that on the TMO site! Thanks ljbyar!

That sounds like the ticket, there.... If you were doing email and no phone calls, just add that for the month you are overseas, and you are good to go (assuming the local carrier does GPRS, which is easy to find out from TMOs international coverage check).

If you want to do a lot of phone calls too, just get your phone unlocked, and buy a regional SIM as well. Put the regional SIM in to make calls, and then once a day or whatever, pop your TMO SIM in to do your emailing.

Or just get a cheap unlocked world phone for the regional SIM, and forward your TMO calls to that number while overseas.

Lots of good options, and none too expensive.

peace,
sam
 
Back
Top