<p>Does any know if Sprint cell phones work in France 
? D will be traveling w/ French Club to France during spring break. Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>They offer an “international roaming” coverage, which works in France – check the website, there’s a coverage map that shows per-minute charges while overseas. Seems you should make sure her phone is a “PCS Digital Quad-Band” or GSM phone since those are the ones supported. Their website includes a toll-free number to call to activate this international service. I haven’t tried it myself.</p>
<p>Depending on the cost/roaming charges, you may be better off using Skype. (VOIP, free to download, free from computer to computer, very cheap from computer to land line phone). We use it all the time from our home in Mexico. If she will have a computer and headset/mic with her, you can talk regularly for free/cheap.</p>
<p>Sprint (which dh has due to it being the only thing that worked with a Treo) has terrible international service in general.</p>
<p>I don’t believe Sprint’s typical phone will work in most parts of Europe since they’re not GPS phones which is what Europe uses. Cingular and T-Mobile are both GPS type phones. Sprint and Verizon aren’t. You can check with them and see if they have something that’ll work. You can also rent phones either before leaving or after arriving that will work.</p>
<p>If your D will have a laptop with her and internet access, she could use it to communicate including Windows Live Messenger (free) or Skype or others. </p>
<p>When my D was in Europe she just used her T-Mobile phone. It worked fine with no issues although we checked with the company to make sure international roaming was enabled first. We made all the calls short so it wouldn’t be too costly. If there’s a plan for longer calls or if she gets a lot of calls, you’re better off buying a SIM chip in Europe to get lower rates.</p>
<p>It sure is nice as a parent to be able to know they arrived safely and are doing okay every now and then.</p>
<p>Most of Europe is [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gsm]GSM[/url”>GSM - Wikipedia]GSM[/url</a>] based. Cingular is GSM based; they may be a better choice. Perhaps renting or pay-as-you-go service is an alternative.</p>
<p>Sprint, Verizon and most of Alltel are [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cdma]CDMA[/url”>Code-division multiple access - Wikipedia]CDMA[/url</a>] which is incompatible with GSM.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I finally called our local Spirit store today and was told Spirit only cells two phones (v expensive) which are compatible w/ international cell phones. To rent an international compatible cell phone from Spirit would cost $75/week plus $1.29/minute calls. I went to Wal-mart and purchased a $10 AT&T world-wide prepaid calling card. Problem solved 
.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion of using Skype which is free when used from computer to computer. For a small charge you can also call from computer to a land line phone. </p>
<p>Another cheap alternative which can be used with any phone is to set up an account with companies such as net2phone. You call the equivalent of an 800 number in the country and then pay about 6 cents per minute for calls to the US. You add funds to your account with a credit card when the balance runs out. This way you can keep the bills to less than $20/month even with a lot of calling. </p>
<p>I definitely do not recommend bringing your GSM (Cingular now AT&T) phone to Europe. International roaming charges are extremely high and bills easily run in the hundreds of dollars per week. </p>
<p>If you absolutely need to be able to reach the person while she is in Europe have her buy a disposable phone locally with a local phone number. They go for as little as 30 Euros. Their minutes are not used when receiving calls from the US. You can also put a local GSM chip (you can buy these in all the local cell phone stores) in your US (GSM) phone if you have it unlocked by Cingular before departure. As per previous poster this does not apply to Sprint or Verizon.</p>
<p>If D purchases a disposable cell phone in France w/ GSM, should she call us on our land line? If she calls our Sprint cells or if we call her using our Sprint cells will the calls be $1.29/minute? </p>
<p>This may be helpful to look at:
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/technology/15basics.html?em&ex=1174190400&en=9913a4480bfb4ce1&ei=5087
[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/15/technology/15basics.html?em&ex=1174190400&en=9913a4480bfb4ce1&ei=5087
</a></p>
<p>VERY helpful…thanks mememe245.</p>