Hi!

I'm wondering whether I should take my home mobile number (switzerland) along or whether I should buy a spanish prepaid SIM-Card. I'm staying for 3 months.

How much costs a prepaid SIM Card? Is it free to receive calls? can you receive international calls?Which company to choose if i want to send messages to other euorpean networks? how much is a sms?

thank you.

Hi I am studying in spain right now, and here is what I have found witht he phones. I bought a vodafone cell phone, with the prepaid card in it. The phone itself cost about 70 euros, and included 30 euros worth of free calls, and 100 free text messages. When that is gone, it will cost me around 10cents a minute to make calls. ALL incoming calls are free on my phone, they dont cost me a thing. As far as international calling (I am from the usa), I do call on my cell phone, but ONLY with a eurocity calling card. Otherwise, I think the price would be really high. When I want to add more mintues to my cell phone, I just call a number and charge it to my credit card. It has been really easy so far, adn seems to be woth the money.

* Is it free to receive calls?
Incoming calls are free providing that you use your Spanish SIM card in Spain. If you use the "roaming" service, ie, use your Swiss phone with the Spanish SIM card abroad, then you do pay some money from the incoming calls.

* can you receive international calls?
Yes, you can. Just tell your friends/relatives to dial 34 before the cell phone number.

* Which company to choose if i want to send messages to other euorpean networks?

All the three companies allow you to send messages to other gsm networks. Just put the phone number with the 00 (international code) and then the country code and finally the phone number.

* how much is a sms?
Within Spain is about 15 cents. It'll cost you about 60 cents to send a text message abroad. Check rates with each company.

Don't forget that there are websites that let you send sms for free through the internet.

I was in Barcelona last month and I brought my cell phone with me. I have an Ericsson T68i, which is a tri-band phone I use at home in California, and which works most places around the world. When I arrived in Barcelona, I shopped around for a local SIM card, which can be found, among other places, in big deparment stores like FNAC and El Corte Ingles. The best SIM card deal I found was with VODAFONE because they don't have an "activation fee". Essentially for 20 Euros, I got a SIM card and 20 Euros worth of calls. When the 20 Euros is used up, you can reload by buying a "recharge" card from any newstand, though the minimum amount was about 30 Euros. Sorry but I do not remember the cost for calls and for SMS and MMS. Anyway, it was convenient to have the cell phone for calling restaurants, museums and the like while on the move. The 20 Euros worth of calls was just enough for my 4-day stay.

Just curious Cornelio, did you have to unlock the phone at all? I work with a bunch of attorneys who go to Europe often (Spain mostly, lucky for them) and they take one of our Nextel phones. It's expensive so I usually suggest that they try to get a pre-paid sim card from Vodafone or elsewhere. No one has done it, but every time one of them comes back they mention how they could have taken their own tri-band phones rather than trying to get the Nextel phone to work. That's what I'd prefer them to do, too, because it's always me who has to call Nextel...but that's another issue.

Thanks.

Depends on how you got the phone. If you buy the tri-band phone in the open market, they are usually unlocked but are generally more expensive. If you buy the phone in conjunction with a contract with a carrier, the phone is usually cheaper but it will be locked and only that carrier's SIM card will work with the phone.

I personally got my tri-band phone with AT&T with a 1-year contract and yes, the phone was locked. I was able to unlock it for about $20. It involved buying a cable through the internet and some software for unlocking. The procedure involved hooking up the phone to your PC and then running the software which will give you the unlock codes. Be very careful when you enter the unlock codes because if you mess it up, it could totally disable the phone.

As I was looking up how to unlock the phone on the internet, I found that there are many services being offered for unlocking the phone. Some require you to mail the phone to them and others actually do business in their home and if accessible, you could just drive to their location and they will unlock it right there. In fact, I remember a guy in your neck of the woods, San Francisco, that does this service and I believe he lives near 19 Ave, though I can't remember the specifics.

As for the attorneys, their tri-band phones would definitely work in Spain, assuming the phone is unlocked. Even if they're locked, however, it's not such a big deal nowadays getting them unlocked for about $10 to $20.

These tri-band phones are so convenient. I just came back from a 2-week trip to Asia and was able to use prepaid local SIM cards. What's more, when I return home, I just pop my local SIM card back in and I'm in business again. Pity those folks in the US who don't have GSM service in their area yet and so they can't use the tri-band phone at home.