Help! We are going to Paris in about two weeks and will be staying mostly in the central part of the city. We have Verizon service here in California, but need to know if we can get reception on our cellphones there. If not, what is the best way to keep in touch with business matters that may take upwards of an hour or so each day? Yes, yes, I know we shouldn%26#39;t do that, but my wife has her own business and she needs to keep in touch. If not for business, for her own sanity.
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your phone PROBABLY won%26#39;t work... butttttt check with verizon customer service about your phone and your plan. I think you need a phone with a certain type of chip in it or something to use internationally... which your phone may or may not have. Also I think your plan needs to include international regions so thats a seperate thing you need to look at.
I cant offer too much advice about ways you can keep in touch, but have u researched the prepaid cell phones for international use? maybe those are good, i dont know though.
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I think you%26#39;d be better off looking on the Verizon website as it really depends on your cellphone.
You need a triband or %26quot;world phone%26quot; which operate on 2 or 3 bands of GSM (GSM 900/1800/1900).
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Im in so.Cal as well and with Verizon. It is relatively cheap to rent an international phone with them. They will send you the phone a few days before your departure date. you can set up the entire transaction on the phone---but no earlier than a month before your trip.
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Im sorry--I forgot to add, if you are planning on spending as you said an hour on the phone---it may not be worth your while using the cell. While the rental rates are cheap, the per minute rate is approx $1.10 per min.
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I ordered a Siemens phone from Cellular Abroad (go to www.paris.org and you will get a discount if I remember right)here in the states, and they overnighted the phone with a French chip for 15 minutes of usage when I arrived in Paris. After arrival, I went to SFR on Champs Elysees (there are other locations), bought a new chip for a longer period of time and I have a French telephone number while I%26#39;m in France. . They activated my service which made per minute phone calls to USA about 90 cents a minute. Do remember that if you buy service for 90 minutes and you%26#39;re calling US, it will actually work for about 45 minutes. Calls inside France are about 40 cents a minute. When I returned home, I put a T-mobile chip in and have regular cell service here. This set-up can work all over the world with the appropriate chip for any country you visit. If you travel alot, this will be a big help.
Alot of American companies can give you international service, but it%26#39;s very expensive--i.e., $2.50/minute.
Having a French telephone number is very ooh-la-la! It is also very practical travelling around if your hotel needs to get in touch with you for messages.
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About the Cellular Abroad phone. Will this phone work with the regular cards you can buy in the tabac? When back in the States where do you buy the cards? It is all in English, right? Thanks for any help.........been looking for something. We have two cells phones in Paris and since we are French language morons we just can never figure them out.
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The cheapest way to keep in touch will be internet.
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From Joel (born Parisian...)
We have a different system here, but a lot of phones now can work on both network (in France, these phones are called %26quot;tri-bande%26quot;, as they are able to work on the 3 existing frequencies). Check if YOUR phone is valid for the european frequencies (on the web site of the manufactor for instance).
Also check with Verizon if your service includes the calls from and towards Europe.
But do not forget to unwire and enjoy our city!!! Bon s��jour �� Paris
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The Cellular Abroad phone comes with the SFR chip which fits under the battery. You won%26#39;%26#39;t be buying more chips, you%26#39;ll just go to a SFR location (easy to find), and they will re-program your chip according to the amount of time you buy. The re-programming instructions which basically tell you to punch in a series of numbers are in French, and even though I speak French, I don%26#39;t hear as fast as they talk, so I just ask someone to do it for me. My minutes gave out at La Chatonniere in September, but I had already bought new time, so I just asked one of the French visitors to fix my phone, and he was happy to do so.
When I got back to US, I took the French chip out, stored it with my passpost to be re-programmed when I go back to France this year, slipped the T-Mobile chip in and my US service was instantly back in business. As someone else mentioned, this Siemens phone is a tri-band phone which is compatiable all over the world, but only a few American phone companies have this capability and these chips. I was on AT%26amp;T service, but had to change to T-Mobile for this type service. This phone can text message, play games on internet, all kinds of things---I%26#39;m not that technologically advanced, so I don%26#39;t use it all! The Cellular Abroad info will tell you this, but call and talk to them. I love my phone, but I would have gotten the larger size Siemens if I had known about it because I was used to an old time bag phone for driving. The owner of my chateau had the larger size, and it would have fit my lifestyle more.........I am very pleased with my phone and love having a French telephone number!
All the salespeople at the Champs Elysees store speak English.
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I like the idea of staying in touch via e-mail! Much cheaper! But how about staying in touch with the group of us going~ I can def. see someone getting lost or at least to be able to communicate when we are in Paris with each other. Espeically if we plan on meeting somewhere~ What would be the best option for communicating with soemone in Paris via the phone?
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