• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Tips for traveling in Europe?

soulcurrent

soulcurrent

Member
I'll be in England and France for a week. I've tried to find information about using my Incredible while I'm there but it's not been an easy task. When I called Verizon the rep asked me where I was traveling to (London and Paris) and then spent 5 minutes unable to find those in her list. I had a feeling she failed geography in school so I told her the countries and suddenly BINGO she found them. She could tell me nothing more than "it's expensive".

From what I understand I can't use my phone unless Verizon has partnered with a carrier over there, and then it will be wicked expensive with Verizon's international plans. True? I also read that Skype won't work on wifi but fring (?) will. How does that work? Just connect to wifi in the hotel and I can call home, without incurring Verizon's intl fees?

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
My Skype works well over Wi-Fi. There are 2 Skype versions, one for Verizon customers and second for everyone, but the Verizon one also supports Wi-Fi calls in new version (in old version it was bound to mobile data only).
I think even with (expensive) roaming plan Incledible can't work in Europe. We use GSM and WCDMA (whis is different from US CDMA), but Incredible has just CDMA2000 and EV-DO.
One remark to hotel Wi-Fi : many cheaper hotels here in Europe have free Wi-Fi, but all expensive have just expensive Wi-Fi, so I recommend to ask when booking (they advertise Wi-Fi, but you don't recognize before arrival that it costs 30$ a day)
 
Verizon is worthless over seas. Even a world phone is useless because the unlimited international data plan is gone. Your phone will be reduced to an ipod touch / pda.
 
I was in Munich and Venice last fall, and also carry a Droid incredible. Pretty simple: don't make any phone calls, and only use data when when you can get free WiFi. My Munich hotel didn't have WiFi and local WiFi rates were ridiculously expensive. Once I got to my Venice hotel, I had free WiFi.
 
You could go and get the new incredible 2 which will be a global phone. I would still not even bother making calls still, unless your not worried about how much the international roaming costs are going to be.
 
I've heard you can rent a phone from VZW for use in Europe...just starting to look into it for my son for this summer. Person I spoke with said the rates were "reasonable" but didn't remember the specifics...
 
Reasonable? Better check again...depends on what you call reasonable. If it is for emergency use only, ok. If he plans to take on it several times a day, and you check on him everyday...probably not. You could probably expect a $100/week then in that case. You would be better off making free Skype to Skype calls, assuming he can get some free WiFi on his smartphone over there, or if he's taking a laptop.
 
If the communication requirement was just to chat when it's convenient, Skype is fine, as you note, but the reason we're getting our a phone is for emergency use...we'll skype over his laptop to chat about tapas and other important topics. :)

That said, based on what we've found we're going to have him purchase a pre-paid SIM card when he gets there, and borrow a phone from a relative who lives in Spain. Very convenient to have family available...
 
soulcurrent said:
I'll be in England and France for a week. I've tried to find information about using my Incredible while I'm there but it's not been an easy task. When I called Verizon the rep asked me where I was traveling to (London and Paris) and then spent 5 minutes unable to find those in her list. I had a feeling she failed geography in school so I told her the countries and suddenly BINGO she found them. She could tell me nothing more than "it's expensive".

From what I understand I can't use my phone unless Verizon has partnered with a carrier over there, and then it will be wicked expensive with Verizon's international plans. True? I also read that Skype won't work on wifi but fring (?) will. How does that work? Just connect to wifi in the hotel and I can call home, without incurring Verizon's intl fees?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Click to expand...

Leave phone home. roaming will bankrupt you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom