<p>This is obviously for European carriers, but one could hope that the EU finds a way to “stretch” those rules to the US carriers that are fleecing us! </p>
<p>This makes the option of buying a European phone for local travel even better. For data, it remains cheaper to buy a prepaid card in each country. You can get 2GB of data for 10-20 Euros. Data roaming is still very expensive. </p>
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<p>Expect service providers to go even lower to gain a competitive edge. As an example, here are the prices of a reseller in the Benelux</p>
<p>Outgoing calls<br>
(per second after the first 30 seconds)€ 0,33 / minute (VAT incl.)
Incoming calls<br>
(per second after the first 30 seconds)€ 0,09 / minute (VAT incl.)
Outgoing SMS € 0,10 / SMS (VAT incl.)
Incoming SMS € 0 / SMS (VAT incl.)
Data (charged per kb) € 0,50 / MB (VAT incl.)</p>
<p>When D1 was in London last summer, she bought a prepaid card for around $25 or $30. She had unlimited data, free incoming calls, and very inexpensive international calls. She unlocked her 3G iPhone, and was able to use it while in UK. I heard you couldn’t do that with 3Gs phone.</p>
<p>I must be an idiot; can you guys explain how you use a prepaid card for data on a phone purchased overseas??..I understand a prepaid card for phone calls, but how is it used for text?</p>
<p>Prepaid card might be a generic term we associate with the old phone cards. When it comes to smartphones, the prepaid card is actually a non-contract SIM or MicroSim card. As Olffort wrote, most versions will come with a combination of voice, text, and data. In general, although it varies from country to country, it comes with “some” calling minutes *(usually not that many,) quite a bit of text messaging, and variable amount of data. </p>
<p>I think that having unlimited data on a prepaid SIM is rather unique, and must have been a really, really good deal. My experience has been that the best I found was 2GB at around 12 Euros, but through a low-performing network. This is what is usually available to resellers such as supermarkets and grocery stores. The fastest and more reliable networks are usually a bit more expensive. </p>
<p>The unlocking of the older phones (3G) was easier. Without getting too technical, it is now harder because Apple has done everything humanly possible to make unlocking of its newer phone virually IMpossible, or very diifcult. Of course, I am pretty sure some have developed a solution, but not everyone wants to spend hours separating the “good” pirates from the crooks. Apple lost the jailbreaking restrictions, but played right into the hands of their main US vendors. Locked phones outside the US are not so common, but then, the phones are sold at full retail prices. </p>
<p>Note that the iPads are not locked and accept foreign MicroSim cards. Although the iPad does not have phone features, it is easy to add programs such as Skype or GoogleVoice with a addition such as Tapatalk to make it work using data. </p>
<p>One could hope to one day have a more transparent system of charges at a reasonable cost. It is utterly dumb for ATT and other US carriers to keep extracting a pound of flesh from people who like to use the same device when traveling. The World rates are really plain thievery!</p>