[elydoug]

I am travelling to Europe this summer and will be through Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Turkey. I have called VZW and asked about activating my Storm and they have done so and also say it should work seamlessly in all of the named countries. My question, that stumps them, is if I activate the 69.95 monthly data plan, what will work and what won't? Will my GPS (BB Maps and GMaps, not VZ Nav) Poynt, Viigo tell and show me where I am and what I am near? VZW will commit to saying email only(?) but the other stuff should work. I would like to use it to navigate around the various cities we will be visiting and also getting information about these areas on the fly. Once on the international data plan won't my phone work just as it does here? I would think I am connected to the various GSM networks with the Storm's sim card and would now function as if I had bought the phone there. Or am I asking too much? I can't believe that there isn't some dedicated tech support at VZW for this.

[latin_teacher85]

i don't think this belongs in this thread! this is about the os NOT about inquiring about services abroad! you should post it in another thread where you will get more answers pertaining to your question.

[Craterz]

Google maps should work just fine. Bring the areas you will be visiting up with google maps now, on your phone. If it shows the detail now, it will when you are there. I've used it to get around Taiwan. You can even try mapping directions with it. Like I said, if it works now, it should work while you're there. Its just a matter of having a data connection.

Actually, with or without the data plan the GPS will work. But of course google maps requires a data connection to download the map overlay images .

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[BigVDawgy]

I am travelling to Europe this summer and will be through Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Turkey. I have called VZW and asked about activating my Storm and they have done so and also say it should work seamlessly in all of the named countries. My question, that stumps them, is if I activate the 69.95 monthly data plan, what will work and what won't? Will my GPS (BB Maps and GMaps, not VZ Nav) Poynt, Viigo tell and show me where I am and what I am near? VZW will commit to saying email only(?) but the other stuff should work. I would like to use it to navigate around the various cities we will be visiting and also getting information about these areas on the fly. Once on the international data plan won't my phone work just as it does here? I would think I am connected to the various GSM networks with the Storm's sim card and would now function as if I had bought the phone there. Or am I asking too much? I can't believe that there isn't some dedicated tech support at VZW for this.

BB Maps and GPS work, I have not tried Poynt or Viigo whilst over there so can't help you on that one.

[IslesFan]

I've spent time with the storm in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and the UK. Both times I've gone to europe I've activated the global email plan. I don't subscribe to VZ Nav, but Visual Voicemail worked. Google maps worked great, and everything else worked as I would have expected. We were using BBM to keep in contact between me and my friends.

[Craterz]

i don't think this belongs in this thread! this is about the os NOT about inquiring about services abroad! you should post it in another thread where you will get more answers pertaining to your question.

It'll get moved by a mod to the proper sub-forum at some point . Don't fret yourself!

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[elydoug]

Thanks for the help. I'll just take it with me and try it out. I'll post my findings in the appropriate sub-forum when I return.

[Limjelo]

I've been all through central and western Europe with my storm and I've yet to find something that doesn't work.

Google maps, Viigo definitely work.

One piece of advice, don't have verizon put you back to your normal plan the day you get back to the states. They have screwed up my bill the last two times forcing me to call them to straighten it out. They have a tough time with the time difference and billing.

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[TheNamelessOne]

They have new global vznav for 19.99 it will work globally.

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[subtech]

Just got back from France last week. (Ireland too, very briefly)

All I can say is EVERYTHING WORKED.

Ubertwitter, googlemaps, Viigo, Qik, etc. There is no difference in service than what you experience now. (Aside of the higher voice charges)

You're all good.

[Limjelo]

...There is no difference in service than what you experience now. (Aside of the higher voice charges)

You're all good.

and higher SMS charges.

[Dasle]

I'm over there now and the one thing I'd like to add that some people haven't mentioned yet: While the GPS does work, if you're using BB Maps, give the phone a few minutes to connect to a satellite. It takes a while since you're so far away from where you used it previously.

I had kept trying before and canceled it before it found something...and one time I was on a train, so obviously that wasn't the best idea , but once I was actually in one place and patient with it, I got it to find my location and has worked great since!

[wdcbrucefan]

I used my Storm in France (Paris, Bordeaux & rural areas) last month. Had absolutely no problems. I ran email, Google Maps w/ GPS, Facebook & browser mostly.

Calls were clear, caller ID works. Just remember to drop the extra zero from overseas phone #s when dialing.

I actually found the internet browser to be faster, but I can't quantify the difference from normal. My home base is Washington, DC.

Google Maps w/ GPS was highly accurate down to several meters. And highly useful driving around on streets with no names, etc.

For Facebook, I think the time change plays havoc w/ the status updates that you see. But, no biggie.

The only thing that I found slow was vyMail, the YouMail app. It took forever to load a message. But, better than incurring a cost for a call from France to the US.

[IslesFan]

I used my Storm in France (Paris, Bordeaux & rural areas) last month. Had absolutely no problems. I ran email, Google Maps w/ GPS, Facebook & browser mostly.

Calls were clear, caller ID works. Just remember to drop the extra zero from overseas phone #s when dialing.

I actually found the internet browser to be faster, but I can't quantify the difference from normal. My home base is Washington, DC.

Google Maps w/ GPS was highly accurate down to several meters. And highly useful driving around on streets with no names, etc.

For Facebook, I think the time change plays havoc w/ the status updates that you see. But, no biggie.

The only thing that I found slow was vyMail, the YouMail app. It took forever to load a message. But, better than incurring a cost for a call from France to the US.

Yes... I noticed that my storm was way faster in europe than back here in the US, even after you consider all of your data is going back to the US anyway.

[subtech]

Yes... I noticed that my storm was way faster in europe than back here in the US, even after you consider all of your data is going back to the US anyway.

I'll second this. I found the data connectivity to be much snappier. Vodaphone 3G was really fast.

[Dasle]

Hmm...I'm in Europe now and really hadn't noticed it. I guess I'll have to pay attention when I get back to see if it gets noticeably slower then.

[elydoug]

Thanks for your generous replies. I can't wait to be able to post my own findings! Crackberry users are the greatest!

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[TheNamelessOne]

Yea I too went to Denmark and France and their 3g speed is much faster than ours.

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[jgreen1024]

By the way, if you use the Storm to tether to a laptop, that function will likely not work in Europe. I called VZW data support while there and they said it doesn't work reliably in all countries. Countries they said it definitely doesn't work in included France, Italy, Germany,and the UK (which happened to be all the places where I was..) When I ran VZ Access Manager it would hang on a status message that said "Initializing" and would never let me click on "Connect".

On the phone itself, everything worked great. Google Maps + web browser changed my life as a tourist in a foreign country.. no maps to carry, no tour books, and I had the ability to translate languages when I really needed to read something.

[rplakas]

See my post in the main Storm forum: http://forums.crackberry.com/showthr...28#post2878228

[mstantn]

I made a point of getting my Verizon Storm unlocked before I left for 2 weeks in the UK. I assumed I would get a SIM card there to temporarily replace the Verizon SIM, and save money on the roaming charges. I went to Orange and they said they didn't offer a pay-as-you-go SIM that provided data as well as voice. I didn't have time to explore the other providers there and ended up roaming on Vodaphone. I emailed Vodaphone to see if they offered a SIM card for the Storm that would provide data as well as voice and they never replied. I finally called Verizon and signed up for the $69 international coverage.

So, can anyone recommend a SIM to install in my Storm the next time I go to Europe? Even with Verizon's international plan, calls in the UK are $1.00 per minute.

By the way, Google Maps worked fine while I was in the UK except the program usually couldn't locate me, inside or outside. As soon as I was back in the states it worked fine.