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Here in Europe, unlocked pre-paid phones are the standard. When you go on vacation, the first thing you do is drop into a mobile phone shop and pick up a new S

Here in Europe, unlocked pre-paid phones are the standard. When you go on vacation, the first thing you do is drop into a mobile phone shop and pick up a new SIM for whatever country you happen to be in this week. When I moved back to England from Spain, I walked into a store, paid 5 pounds, and received a SIM with 5 pounds credit on it. The whole operation took upwards of a minute and a half. It's just so simple, straightforward, and cheap this way. It's amazing that people in the US tolerate it any other way. Especially since you can walk into any T-Mobile or ATT store today and get a prepaid SIM for any unlocked handset.

billpaetzke 16y ago
How can you get a data plan with that? Is that included with the pre-paid SIM? (I don't know because I have a very simple phone--but good to know for when I get a smartphone)
- barrkel 16y ago
  Different carriers have different policies. I use an O2 UK prepay SIM, and they have a kind of "subscription" you can sign up to, the web "bolt-on": they charge 7.50 GBP against your credit once a month, and you have then have "unlimited" web access for that month. You can cancel at any moment, so there's no obligation; and if you don't have 7.50 credit come billing time, you simply don't get the unlimited web access. In other words, the downside risks are negligible. Another difference is that SIM credit is generally measured in actual currency, rather than minutes. Different calls then cost different amounts of currency; but if you buy credit in bulk (20 or 40 GBP instead of 10), you usually get a 10 or 20% increase in nominal credit value. Also, calls received are free if you're not roaming to a different country. Mobile phone numbers have different prefixes to local numbers; they essentially have their own area code. This also means that calling mobile phones is more expensive than calling a landline, especially from a different operator. (There are usually special deals for intra-operator connections.) I use a Vodafone Ireland SIM when I'm roaming. It has a different approach to the data plan; up to 50MB data per day costs 0.99 EUR. If you don't use any data on a day, it doesn't cost anything. If you try to push it to the limits, in theory it means that you could get 1.5GB/month for 30EUR/month. The Vodafone SIM data charge seems to be the same in all countries I've been in; Vodafone is in almost every European country, but it also works in France (SFR is 44% owned by Vodafone) and the US (on AT&T).

billpaetzke 16y ago

How can you get a data plan with that? Is that included with the pre-paid SIM? (I don't know because I have a very simple phone--but good to know for when I get a smartphone)

barrkel 16y ago
Different carriers have different policies. I use an O2 UK prepay SIM, and they have a kind of "subscription" you can sign up to, the web "bolt-on": they charge 7.50 GBP against your credit once a month, and you have then have "unlimited" web access for that month. You can cancel at any moment, so there's no obligation; and if you don't have 7.50 credit come billing time, you simply don't get the unlimited web access. In other words, the downside risks are negligible. Another difference is that SIM credit is generally measured in actual currency, rather than minutes. Different calls then cost different amounts of currency; but if you buy credit in bulk (20 or 40 GBP instead of 10), you usually get a 10 or 20% increase in nominal credit value. Also, calls received are free if you're not roaming to a different country. Mobile phone numbers have different prefixes to local numbers; they essentially have their own area code. This also means that calling mobile phones is more expensive than calling a landline, especially from a different operator. (There are usually special deals for intra-operator connections.) I use a Vodafone Ireland SIM when I'm roaming. It has a different approach to the data plan; up to 50MB data per day costs 0.99 EUR. If you don't use any data on a day, it doesn't cost anything. If you try to push it to the limits, in theory it means that you could get 1.5GB/month for 30EUR/month. The Vodafone SIM data charge seems to be the same in all countries I've been in; Vodafone is in almost every European country, but it also works in France (SFR is 44% owned by Vodafone) and the US (on AT&T).