cell phones in europe

[Guest]

Last year in the Netherlands I got a KPN cell phone which worked wonderfully as we cruised the canals of that country. This summer we will be leaving Holland for Belgium and France. Will my KPN cell phone work in Belgium? What about France?

Jerry McDaniel
San Francisco

 

[ccscott49]

Depends whether it is a pay as you go or contract phone, pay as you go, as a general rule won't work outside its country of origin, contract phones can normally be allowed to. This is a general rule, you will have to ask KPN.

 

[vyv_cox]

I have a Motorola three-band GSM phone and KPN is my service provider. It works almost everywhere on earth, except Japan and cities in USA where GSM is not available. Colleagues working in Malaysia use similar phones on KPN account beacause the service is far better, and not much more expensive, than using a local provider. It will work perfectly in all European countries

My wife has a pre-paid KPN phone, it works in UK, France, Belgium, Spain on voice but not on SMS.

 

[vyv_cox]

Confirmed with my wife. You need to buy the pre-pay cards in The Netherlands, those purchased elsewhere will not operate. SMS will receive but not transmit.

 

[ccscott49]

Its a pity the UK phones don't do that!

 

[Boatman]

Colin, some of them do not sure which providers though. Certainly most of the other countries pay as u go phones work internationaly but the access is sometimes a pain in the ar**

 

[Guest]

True, only dutch "prepay" cards will work, but it is also possible to "reload" your Dutch kpn phone anywhere in the world if you have a Eurocard/Mastercard. Visa unfortunately doesn't work (guess what I have!).

You will also need to add a special access code (*100*fullnumber#) when using your phone outside the Netherlands.

 

[dickh]

I have used a Pay as You Go phone in France, Belgium and Holland without any problem at all. I'm on Virgin pay as you go with direct debit, which automatically gives you International Roaming and a monthly bill. No free minutes, but at 15p/min for the first 5 minutes a day thereafter 5p/min. You pay extra for international calls as all other providers. I've found it much cheaper than a monthly account

 

[VMALLOWS]

I totally agree with dickh that Virgin probably offers currently the best value both in UK and for roaming for typical customers. Last time I checked, EU/UK was 35p/m inbound; 55p/m outbound. I used all available networks recently in Portugal and France and all came in at the precise rate advertised, itemised by network. (this is the pay-as-you-go, no monthly fee, DDR tarriff). Importantly, you can make calls within the same country, or to anywhere else, which is often not possible with other 'pre-pay' packages (notably BT).