quote:

Originally posted by Dream Beamz Verizon actually has a $60 a month unlimited international plan but you have to be grandfathered in on it. My friend is living in Ibiza this summer and uses the heck out of that plan

Ah, good to know...but again, it's not available either.

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quote:

Originally posted by PatMcGroin what are some options for those of us without unlocked phones? im with sprint so theres no sim card slot and the cdma network sprint runs on means its not compatible in spain. gaaaaaaaaaaay i know. but is there some cheap prepaid phone i could purchase on the island? all i care about is a bit of data. phone calls and texting wont be necessary. i guess if i could text a little that would cool but like i said not necessary.

I used to have Sprint for 14 years...I had a World Blackberry Tour for a long time. Unfortunately, those phones are locked. It's probably possible to buy an unlocked one, get a Sprint SIM card and go from there. But, it's a lot of hoops to jump.
I finally left when Sprint discontinued their unlimited data plan. I was debating between the Nexus S and the iPhone, and finally made the decision to use AT&T and get an iPhone.


A couple of ideas (as stated by others):

1. Buy a cheap GSM unlocked phone on eBay and get a prepaid SIM. This will allow you to do voice and SMS cheaply. No fancy interweb things like Facebook on your phone.

2. Rent a phone. More expensive, but can usually have your choice of available phones (at least Blackberries).

3. Jump to AT&T or T-Mobile, get an unlocked phone and then a pre-paid SIM.


You really need to understand data usage...what is "a bit of data"? 50MB barely lasts a week using Facebook (let alone Google Maps, Foursquare, Google, etc...) Wi-fi helps, but it's really slow in the public areas, and only decent at restaurants.

What are you planning to use the phone for?

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quote:

Originally posted by dollaroff I used to have Sprint for 14 years...I had a World Blackberry Tour for a long time. Unfortunately, those phones are locked. It's probably possible to buy an unlocked one, get a Sprint SIM card and go from there. But, it's a lot of hoops to jump. I finally left when Sprint discontinued their unlimited data plan. I was debating between the Nexus S and the iPhone, and finally made the decision to use AT&T and get an iPhone. A couple of ideas (as stated by others): 1. Buy a cheap GSM unlocked phone on eBay and get a prepaid SIM. This will allow you to do voice and SMS cheaply. No fancy interweb things like Facebook on your phone. 2. Rent a phone. More expensive, but can usually have your choice of available phones (at least Blackberries). 3. Jump to AT&T or T-Mobile, get an unlocked phone and then a pre-paid SIM. You really need to understand data usage...what is "a bit of data"? 50MB barely lasts a week using Facebook (let alone Google Maps, Foursquare, Google, etc...) Wi-fi helps, but it's really slow in the public areas, and only decent at restaurants. What are you planning to use the phone for?

facebook, foursquare, google, lol. i understand how data works. i monitor mine very closely as is so that wouldnt be much of a problem. if texting is relatively cheap i would send a text here or there but defiantly no where near my usual several hundred per day. how the heck do you rent a phone though? honestly this is the first time ive ever heard of such a thing.

ease of setting this all up is rather important to me. i really dont wish to jump through 20 hoops just to save $50.

What I did last year and it served all my needs. If I needed the internet I went to an internet cafe to check check FB and emails.

For the cell phone part. I live in NYC but I'm pretty sure they ship outside also. I went to J&R Musis/Computer World and bought a brand new unlock phone. They have a large quantity of unlock cell phones for sale at all price ranges. You need to make sure its Quad Band. It was a sony ericcsson for $120. Obviously you can buy them on Ebay for cheaper, but I figured it was an investment that I could lend out to other family members when they go away.

I order my Orange sim from simsfromspain.com They offer other sims from Vodafone and Movistar depending on what you are looking for. On the island i found there were more Orange stores on the island. Also, at the Madrid airport they are magazine stores that refill the cards easily.

The moment I landed at Madrid, I called the number on the Sim card package and gave them all the info they requested and the sim card was activated. Incoming calls were free. It really comes in handy if you speak Spanish, but they do have English operators.

I found it great to have a cell phone that worked. Because I went by myself but met a lot people online also going and we just texted a lot where to meet up.

quote:

Originally posted by ravracer16 What I did last year and it served all my needs. If I needed the internet I went to an internet cafe to check check FB and emails. For the cell phone part. I live in NYC but I'm pretty sure they ship outside also. I went to J&R Musis/Computer World and bought a brand new unlock phone. They have a large quantity of unlock cell phones for sale at all price ranges. You need to make sure its Quad Band. It was a sony ericcsson for $120. Obviously you can buy them on Ebay for cheaper, but I figured it was an investment that I could lend out to other family members when they go away. I order my Orange sim from simsfromspain.com They offer other sims from Vodafone and Movistar depending on what you are looking for. On the island i found there were more Orange stores on the island. Also, at the Madrid airport they are magazine stores that refill the cards easily. The moment I landed at Madrid, I called the number on the Sim card package and gave them all the info they requested and the sim card was activated. Incoming calls were free. It really comes in handy if you speak Spanish, but they do have English operators. I found it great to have a cell phone that worked. Because I went by myself but met a lot people online also going and we just texted a lot where to meet up.

that method did data as well or no?

if its as simple as just buying an unlocked phone here then getting a sim card there then thats what i'll do. i do have a layover in madrid so that gives me time to work it all out.

I think they offer a MasMovil simcard for internet service. But you can always call their customer service. They mail you your simcard to your home, so you will have your sim before you arrive, but you have to activate when you get to Spain.

This method was easier for me since I had a 2 hour layover at Madrid before I went to Ibiza and wanted to have my phone working before I landed in Ibiza, being my first time and all and not to familar with the area. And from what I remember the airport did not have any cell phone stores to buy sim cards, just magazine stores that refill cards.

But I believe Ibiza town had a few Orange stores, so if you needed a data plan they could help you there. But I was fine without one, I was staying at Playa D'en Bossa and just used an internet cafe next to Bora Bora that charged a couple of Euros for 30 minutes. And I only did that to print out my boarding pass for my flight back home.

the hotel i booked has wifi in the rooms so i'll be covered there. its just when im out and about on the island that i would really like a phone. for quick googling, and as gay as it is, for foursquare checkins, and to check facebook, things like that.

so im going to look into getting an unlocked gsm phone thats quad band. then all i need is a prepaid sim card that does data which i can then activate while on my layover.

im googling masmovil but honestly i barely understand the way our cell phone companies work, so if anyone can point me in the right direction regarding sim cards with data thatd be great.




edit: alright so i guess masmovil is the way to go. i guess i'll just pick up one of their prepaid cards at the madrid airport and then call in and set it up.

just trying to figure out what kind of unlocked phone i should get now. and where can i find information regarding any settings i may have to change so the internet works?

thanks in advance guys.

Last edited by PatMcGroin on Jul-13-2011 at 02:09

The simsforspain site has the masmovil internet sim card

http://www.simsforspain.com/masmovil.html

I really don't remember seeing a MasMovil or any other cell brand store at the Madrid Airport and I walked around it a few times just for future reference turning out to be next summer Ibiza.

J&R has a large quanity of the quadband unlock cell phone. It's basically on what you are looking for. Sony Ericcson seem to be more user friendly.

Any unlocked phone will work fine... I used Orange and Movistar before with no problems in an unlocked USA phone... I even used a brand new "locked" AT&T iPhone 4 over there a few months ago without a problem with Orange but the only way it would work was with a Gevey Sim Card (you have to place the carrier's sim on top of the Gevey sim and then slide it in the slot)... once you follow the instructions, it works perfectly.

As someone mentioned before me, Orange allows you to activate data... 50mb a week for a low fee (forget the exact amount). In my opinion, 50mb is more than enough data if you're only checking emails, fb, basic news, etc.

My personal recommendation would be to buy a used unlocked iphone (new or old)... they work perfectly and if you have access to wifi, which I'm sure you will at some point, you can make free calls & texts back to the USA with apps for Google Voice + Talkatone or Skype (or anyone with Whatsapp installed - I'm sure there are others too). This is what I did and I couldn't have been more pleased.

Masmovil is something I've never used but it sounds intriguing for the data prices (20mb for 1 euro?)... maybe I'll even give one of these a whirl because data is honestly more important to me than phone service.

I used Phone Rental to rent a phone for my first Japan trip (before my BlackBerry was quad-band). I'd look at them first.

To buy the SIM card, I bought an unlocked phone in Canada (I saved about $150 versus having one shipped from Canada or Hong Kong) as I was already planning a trip up there in May. That took 30 minutes.

FYI: AT&T now sells unlocked phones in the U.S., so that's an easier step.

The SIM card took about 30 minutes to purchase and activate. It took about 30 minutes to get the adult-filter unlocked. It took me 30 minutes to find a site so I could top up my SIM.

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quote:

Originally posted by PatMcGroin facebook, foursquare, google, lol. i understand how data works. i monitor mine very closely as is so that wouldnt be much of a problem. if texting is relatively cheap i would send a text here or there but defiantly no where near my usual several hundred per day. how the heck do you rent a phone though? honestly this is the first time ive ever heard of such a thing. ease of setting this all up is rather important to me. i really dont wish to jump through 20 hoops just to save $50.

I'm not you're not going to monitor it closely, but it's _really easy_ to hit your limit within a day or two.
Plus, you can't (well you'll suck up 200KB+ per picture) upload pictures at the disco either. That's no fun.

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Last edited by dollaroff on Jul-19-2011 at 05:29