My Wife and I will be in Germany and Austria for 3 weeks next September.
According to Verizons website, my HTC Incredible II will have no problem in Germany and Austria if I sign up for the proper global data plan. Cool.
Provided that I have a data connection, GPS should work, shouldn’t it?
I’m just using Google Maps at this point. How is Google’s data for Germany?
Thanks, and Happy New Year.
I can’t answer your question about Google maps, but…
The only advantage of using your Verizon phone in Europe is that people can still dial your USA number and reach you, but it will be expensive, and you pay for all calls and texts to your USA number while you’re in Europe (after all, they are only dialing a USA number).
Call Verizon and make sure your phone is unlocked so that it can accept other SIM cards. Then get a European SIM card with a European telephone number. I recommend Lebara or Vodafone. Calls to the USA (and megabytes) are far less with a European SIM card than what Verizon charges. When necessary, you can call your own Verizon number and retrieve your messages and call the other party back. Put your Verizon SIM card in once a day (or so) to retrieve text messages. People who know your European number can text you (for about 25 cents) and you can call them back.
Three of us went to Australia in November. We all had different cell phone carriers, and all three of us obtained AUS SIM cards. We all spent about $40 each over a period of 14 days including almost daily calls back to the USA, texts, and occasional internet usage to find restaurants, etc.
I second the use of a European pre-paid SIM card. Much cheaper.
Another way to deal with the voicemail to your US VZ number is GoogleVoice. If you set up a free account, just register yor VZ number with it and set it up to use GV for voicemail. While your VZ phone is out of the country, all calls to it will drop into VM - which you can check from the web - with no international call needed.
You can even register your foreign SIM number with GV and calls to your VZ number will be forwarded - but that is not free (but pretty cheap compared to VZ global roaming).
The one thing people recommending SIM cards are overlooking is that, unless it’s some sort of special “global” phone, Verizon phones don’t generally *have *SIM cards.
If the OP doesn’t want to buy/borrow/lease/rent a temporary phone for Europe, they’re stuck with going through Verizon’s global service plan.
In the U.S. the two main carriers that use SIM cards (GSM phones) are AT&T and Tmobile. Phones designed for those two carriers, if unlocked, can easily swap out SIM cards and use cheaper, native service when traveling overseas. With other carriers, you’re pretty much stuck with whatever (expensive) global services they offer.
Huh, just noticed the OP stated their phone model, so I looked it up. At least according to this, it sounds like it is a “global” phone with the capability of accepting a SIM card. If so, just gotta make sure Verizon unlocks it for you so that it accepts foreign SIM cards.
I third the recommendation to use a German SIM, and second the recommendation to use a VOIP service like Google Voice or Skype.
As far as your other question, yes your GPS will work fine. But I assume you are going to rent a car? If that is the case, please spend the little extra to get one with GPS. Many of the BMWs you can rent will come with built in GPS. And that isn’t considered a luxary rental, they are likely all BMWs there. Remember, it’s Germany.
Anyway, get a car with built in GPS, it won’t be that much more expensive. And it will have valuable Data such as speed camera locations, gas stations, and other stuff like that. Much better than using your phone. Also, it will remind you of the speed limit in your area. Your phone isn’t going to do that.
Verizon’s global service plan requires a phone with a SIM card. CDMA (VZ’s technology) is not available in Europe. The OP, however, does have a dual (CDMA and GSM) phone. Those CDMA-only Verizon phones will not work in Europe.
My VZ phone was CDMA only. When I went to AUS, I went to Best Buy and for $100, bought an unlocked GSM phone.
Thanks for all the good info. We are not renting a car, so the GPS will be used for walking and finding attractions.
I’m not really that concerned with costs that much, and will mostly use the phone for the occasional text or email. I also want to be able to call my Wife in case we get seperated for some reason.
Anyway, where would I buy a German sim card? Are they easy to swap out?
[Sgt. Shultz]I know NOTHING![/SS]
You can buy them on eBay. When I went to Australia, two vendors of SIM cards had a booth at the Brisbane Airport.
Yes, they’re easy to swap. Open your VZ phone. Some phones have a micro-SIM card, so be sure to buy the correct size.
This should require a “normal” mini-SIM. Almost all Verizon LTE phones use a micro-SIM card, which isn’t required for any non-LTE device. The exceptions include one older device which came out with LTE before they were using the SIMs and the newer Apple products which use the nano-SIM.
Also, Apple is incredibly obnoxious for constantly changing their SIM type.
Thanks again.
You can get the SIM at the airport. They will even swap it for you. There are tons of TMobile shops in Germany just like in the states, so if you get to the airport late and everything is closed, don’t worry about it. There are stores everywhere, and at least one clerk will speak pretty good English.
Have you actually priced the cost of using a US-based cell phone overseas? There are horror stories of people gone for several weeks, not using a global plan or local SIM card, only to come home to a bill of several thousand dollars.
These are usually tied to ‘roaming data’ usage, which is very expensive - and most don’t know that data is constantly in use by your phone as it checks for new mail or receives notifications of various updates to Facebook, LinkedIn and so on.
So, the horror stories come from people who think that since they are not using email, web etc., they are not using data - when they actually are.