traveling abroad with the vibrant

[tacotim]

So i'm going to europe next week and looking for advice. I probably could get tmobile to unlock my phone as i've been with them for over a decade. But what options do i have for VOIP calls? I understand that the skype app has probs with the vibrant.
I'm open to ideas here.

thanks, Tim

 

[Hurracayne_dre]

So i'm going to europe next week and looking for advice. I probably could get tmobile to unlock my phone as i've been with them for over a decade. But what options do i have for VOIP calls? I understand that the skype app has probs with the vibrant.
I'm open to ideas here.

thanks, Tim

honestly just unlock the device and buy Sim cards from Europe to use to make calls.

 

[wildblue]

Without knowing how long you'll be in which countries, and what your usage needs are it's hard to give appropriate advice.

You can certainly have TMO enable the phone for international use (although I would suggest you verify this before you travel, as they failed to set it up for me on a recent trip despite telling me I was all set). However, if you need to make many calls or use a data connection it can be quite expensive.

Standard advice for the most cost effective solution is to get local SIMs in each country. They are typically very cheap to purchase and the call charges are much less than TMO roaming. Data plans will vary by country. You will need to get an unlock code from TMO but if you've had the phone more than 40 days that's not a problem.

Look into FringOut for free/cheap VOIP calls over wifi or 3G.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

So i'm going to europe next week and looking for advice. I probably could get tmobile to unlock my phone as i've been with them for over a decade. But what options do i have for VOIP calls? I understand that the skype app has probs with the vibrant.
I'm open to ideas here.

thanks, Tim

Hey, I think the best advice I can give to avoid excessive fees, is to just take your US sim card out and don't put it in once you leave the united states. Even if you don't use your phone, but it sits there on, background activity, such as email syncs, or weather syncs, stuff like that going on unknown in the background could cost you hundreds of dollars.

have fun

 

[psz]

Get the unlock code from T-Mo, and pick up a SIM in the country you're going to.


In China, it ended up being something like $0.40/minute vs International Roaming of $2.00/minute

 

[secularhuman]

So i'm going to europe next week and looking for advice. I probably could get tmobile to unlock my phone as i've been with them for over a decade. But what options do i have for VOIP calls? I understand that the skype app has probs with the vibrant.
I'm open to ideas here.

thanks, Tim

Make sure you have your unlock code BEFORE you leave.
Then just buy a SIM card over there with preloaded minutes.
Simple

 

[davidtheprof]

just back from 8 days in Europe, Germany and the UK.

In Germany, I used Nimbuzz/Nimbuzzout (and Sipgate) for VOIP on Wifi. Very good quality, only slight lag. Sipdroid was no good, too quiet and poor quality.

Truphone has just announced their own VOIP is now compatible with the Galaxy S.



for the UK, we unlocked our 2 Vibrants before leaving, and I used UK Orange sim cards on their Camel plan. Bought 250MB of data and 100 mins local UK calls for 5 pounds each (lasts a month, though main account balances don't seem to expire, maybe need to top up once a year at least.) Camel lets you call abroad from the UK cheaply, around 6p/min back to the US.

Phone worked fine everywhere, but several things:
1. when you switch sim card, the gmail password needs to be re-entered
2. got 3G in Germany, but UK only worked on low 'g' speeds (GPRS?) - not sure if this is due to phone or orange, and another sim card might have matched the phone's frequencies. Was on wifi most of time, so not a big deal.
3. the calendar gets messed up by the time difference - in the UK, showed everything as 5 hours later, but now back in US, events are shown at the right time. This is a bug that needs fixing.

happy travels!

 

[Hurracayne_dre]

I'm glad you had a nice trip. I have a cruise coming up so I may have to get my phones unlocked.