quote:
Originally posted by wacky
roaming will cost me if my phone is bought in Europe? or did you mean if I bring a phone from Canada? cuz I'll be getting it in Europe, most likely
Yes, you pay higher rates if the phone is bought within Europe too.
Most likely you'll buy a cheap prepaid phone (which most of the time comes with anywhere between 10 an 30 euro of credits). That phone will be tied to a network provider from the country you buy it in. So if you use that phone in another country (even within Europe) you will pay higher rates. But as long as you don't have endless conversations you'll probably be fine. In the case of text messages sending a text messages from/to other European countries is close to the normal price for me.
quote:
Originally posted by wacky
from what I seem to have understood, the UK does have some great deals but the rest of Europe not so much.. and I won't be visiting the UK so the great deals don't apply 
Just looked at the first Dutch store that happened to came to mind: For 20 euro you can get a
very basic phone with 15 euro of credits to call with.
The only things that you may have to look out for:
* It says the phone is dualband, but it doesn't say which actual frequencies. CookieRevised/Adeptus, will it work in all of Europe? I haven't had anything other than quadband in a while so forgot which one we actually use
.
* It says "maximum of 15 euro credits"... It could be you only get a part of those "free" credits after registering (which will be nearly impossible to do for you). But you can buy more credits without registering in a lot of stores. Just make sure you have enough credits when you leave the country where you bought the phone, you won't find credits for one European country's provider in another European country... or at least not easily.
EDIT:
To give you an idea of the rates you would be paying... if you bought the phone linked above which is on the Dutch T-Mobile network:
When you use it in the Netherlands...
Calling within the Netherlands: 0.35 Euro/Minute
Being called: free
Sending SMS: 0.23 Euro/Message
Receiving SMS: free
Calling to Canada: 1.00 Euro/Minute
When you use the Dutch phone in other European countries (including Belgium and Switzerland)...
Calling within Europe: 0.51 Euro/minute
Being called: 0.23 Euro/Minute (
which is why you want to make sure you have enough credits with you)
Sending SMS: 0.13 Euro/Message
(yes, sending SMS when you are abroard is acutally cheaper... yay EU forcing maximum rates)
Receiving SMS: free
Calling to Canada: 1.25 Euro/Minute
So yeah, because it is prepaid you will already be paying higher rated than a contract and using it in other countries adds even more to it. But I guess it's not much worse than using a Canadian phone in Europe would be. Although if you buy the phone in Belgium or Switzerland rates will be different, but probably not too much.
/ 
