vB Easy Archive - help on pay as you go phones

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help on pay as you go phones
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Posted by: jbinbi

Not sure the best forum to ask this, but will try. I have vzw curve. I am going to travel to europe. i know my curve won't work there. i could also use another phone here for younger family member that i don't want to get a plan for.

i was thinking of getting att go phone. i would think att since its gsm would work in europe. i just get a pre paid sim card when i go over there, and it should work , correct?

I don't know anything about pre paid phones, but i was thinking that here, i can give that phone to family member, and buy a pre pay sim here,or somehow fill the phone with minutes?

Does this make sense?

Second part to this question is I should be able to do the same thing with an unlocked smart phone (treo or htc, etc.) as well? Not sure I understand unlocked phones, but assume that they are gsm, i can purchase the pre paid sim in europe and use it for voice and data, and here in the states, i can purchase pre paid minutes on either att or tmo (both gsm) without getting on a plan with them?

Any help on whether this is possible is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Posted by: DRNewcomb

I'm going to suggest you look at www.prepaidgsm.net and if you don't see the answers there, then come back and ask the part that's not answered.

Posted by: mrcamp

As the DrNewcomb. suggested, check out that forum he pointed out.

I would also suggest that you can just get an unlocked phone that has at least the 900/1800 bands on it, and purchase a sim card at your destination. So, if you buy the phone here isn the US make sure it's a triband or quadband. They are cheap these days. I also know verizon has a couple of phones that have CDMA/GSM capabilitiers. 2 that come to mind are the blackberry world edition and the storm.

Posted by: jbinbi

Thanks for the advice on the new forum, I was hoping to find something like this and you gave it to me!

I already have a curve, and don't want a storm. I am waiting for the new niagra (vzw's bold), but that probably won't be out for another 3-6 months.

Also, purchasing an inexpensive phone I can take overseas AND use here for other family members as pay to go would be much less expensive than getting a phone from vzw with a plan. With vzw , on BB, you MUST have a plan!

Posted by: DRNewcomb

You can buy an unlocked multiband GSM handset and get a T-Mobile prepaid SIM. If you put $100 on the T-Mobile prepaid you get "Gold Reward" status which keeps you active for one year. After that you can keep the phone active for only a $10 top-up once per year. This could be a good spare phone for the US which you can use with a local SIM when you travel overseas. However, keep in mind that a quad-band phone may actually cost more than two dual-band phones.

You may also want to look at www.celtrek.com for international roaming.