“Call in Europe”Solving the European traveler’s cell-phone problem at lastby Lucy KomisarThe first crucial task when I land in Europe has in recent years been to get a local cell phone SIM card for my unlocked phone. With the excruciating dollar-euro exchange, that was getting more and more painful, especially if the trip involved stops in several or more countries. Till now, the alternatives for cell-phone calling in Europe have not been favorable. You can use your US number with a GSM tri-band phone and pay $1 or $2 or more a minute. Not only does that cost you, but it discourages local European callers who have to dial long distance every time they ring you. Or you can get a local SIM card. I have a stack of (now expired and useless) SIMs for the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In each case, I’ve had to waste time by visiting a cell phone shop and figuring out which prepaid minutes plan to get. When I first bought local SIM cards, the dollar-euro exchange was not so disastrous for us. But SIMs that used to cost $20 or $30 now cost $30 to $45, plus minutes that run $.50 or $.60 locally to a dollar or two a minute “roaming” if you call or travel across borders.  But there’s another and better way, especially if you are visiting more than one country. It’s called “Call in Europe.” There are many advantages.
 Call in Europe was founded in 2006 by Patrick Gentemann, a telecommunications executive who ran telecom companies in Europe and the US for 17 years before starting this innovative firm. The company is a partner of SFR, the top rated cell phone company in France, and its parent company Vodafone, serving customers throughout Europe.
I used Call in Europe on my last visit there, which included travel in France, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy. I arranged everything in the US. I got the number before I left, so I could give it to contacts in the US and abroad and put it on my home answering machine. I got a French phone number. Call in Europe numbers are either French or British. On the sign-up sheet, you indicate what country you are traveling in. If there are more than one, you can call the help line to consult, but generally French numbers will be cheaper on the Continent. There’s a one-time fee of $29, but that includes every country you visit. In France, as with local cell phones, my incoming calls were free. (This holds true in the UK with a UK number.) Outgoing calls from France cost $.39 a minute, no matter where you call: to France, to Europe or to the US. That’s a less than half the .55 euros for French prepaid cell phone local calls or the $1.10 to dial elsewhere in Europe, and more to North America. When I visited Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy, I didn’t have to get new SIM cards. In a Europe zone of 30 countries (outside the base country, France or the UK), the price is $.39 a minute for incoming calls, $.69 to call locally and the rest of Europe, and $.99 to call the US. Plus, I didn’t have to buy minutes in advance and lose the ones I didn’t use or face the problem of running out. The system just charges your credit card for time used. I even got a sheet of stickers with my Call in Europe phone number that I put on my business cards. I didn’t bother to use the forwarding service, but for $.10 a day, you’ll get this feature and then pay $.29 cents a minute extra to have calls forwarded from your US number to ring on your European SIM card phone. I used the SIM card in my own unlocked GSM phone. If you don’t have a tri-band phone, you can get travel kits starting at $48 (plus shipping) that include a phone and SIM card. Or you can rent a phone for a month for $49 plus usage. You can also put Call in Europe SIM cards for voice and data in unlocked Blackberries and smart phones. There are local help numbers in the US and Canada, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Austria. Until we get one-number one-price international calling, Call in Europe is an excellent interim solution. Call in Europe
822 Railroad Avenue
Greenwich, CT 06830
(877) 730-5305
info@callineurope.com
http://www.callineurope.com/ by Call in Europe. | 