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Practical tips on how to stay in touch back home whilst travelling through Europe.
Phoning home whilst travelling has always been expensive and the convenience of using a cell phone (mobile phone as there known in Europe) to do so has traditionally been seen as an unaffordable luxury of the rich and famous. However the advent of so called Ethnic MVNOs has changed all of this for the smart (and well informed) traveller.
Ethnic MVNOs are effectively the fusion of a low cost, no frills, national mobile operator and a calling card operation. Typically Ethnic MVNOs ensure that the international call quality is of a higher standard than that typically offered by calling card providers, this of course justifies a slightly higher per minute price than that offered by existing fixed line calling card operators. However for these products offer great rates for those travelling through Europe. Typically calls to the US are tens of cents per minute rather than several US dollars per minute – yes truly a ten fold saving per minute.
Here’s how to do it.
You will need a basic European standard mobile phone (which conforms to the GSM standard), typical examples include a Nokia 1600 or 2310, a Motorola F3, a Samsung C120 or a Sony Ericsson J100. Why not visit a selection of UK based online retailers:-
The Carphone Warehouse
Dial-a-phone
VirginMobile - under construction
If you can’t easily obtain one before you travel then purchase a cheap pre-paid model upon arrival in Europe. It is essential however that you obtain an Unlocked version, so called ‘unlock’ codes are widely available from street traders or via the web.
OK, so you have the phone, what next?
Upon arrival in a particular country you need to obtain an Ethnic MVNO SIM card and apply some air time credit (often know as TopUp). It’s important to obtain a SIM card in each country you visit, otherwise you will be charged roaming rates which are expensive throughout Europe. You simply follow the handset manufacturers instructions to change the SIM card (or ask the person who sells you the SIM card to do it for you, offer to purchase extra airtime credit from them).
If you store your frequently contacted numbers in the phone rather than the SIM card then your address book should work as you change SIM card for each new country.
How much airtime credit should I purchase?
That really does depend on how much you want to stay in touch back home, however be careful not to buy too much as when you leave the country you will not be able to obtain a refund for your airtime, you may however be able to sell you SIM card to another traveller.
What about incoming calls?
That’s actually quite a tricky question, the simplest thing to do is to notify your friends of your new mobile number as you obtain it; this is OK if you have a limited number of friends.
An alternative is to use a flexible call forwarding service, such as FleXtel, which I recommend. Flextel provides you with a UK national mobile number (an Anchor number). Before you travel you simply give you friends the Anchor number. As you travel from country to country obtaining new mobile numbers you can reprogram the call forward to forward all calls to the Anchor number to you new number. A good provider, such as Flextel, will also provide a backup voicemail facility, just in case.
Current Ethnic MVNOs
In my view Lebara Mobile has the most Ethnic MVNO operations across Europe, as of summer 2007, they are live in: The Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium. Rumour has it more are on the way!
Ortel Mobile operates in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Carphonewarehouse (a large UK mobile phone retailer) operates MobileWorld in a number of European countries.
Lycatel (a leading UK calling card operator) also operates a MVNO in The Netherlands.
Flexible call forward services.
As a telecommunications professional, I recommend
FleXtel.
(Click on the link above, we get a very small commission from any traffic through the numbers you take out, it's your way of saying a little thank you to us!) Remember to take out a "Personal 0701 Number", you will need this type of number to allow international call forward. If you have any problems you can use Flextel to call forward to a voicemail announcement of your choice.
If you feel like making a comment about your travel experiences why not visit our Call4Less Blog.
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