At the time I bought my 8830, the world-roaming capability was a minor point in its favor. (I didn't even have a passport!) Well, here I am off to Europe for a month this summer, so I've been trying to sort out the options. Sprint has international coverage - voice and data - nearly everywhere I will be at $1.29 a minute and $0.016/kb.
That's not bad, as I will be on vacation and will only need minimal voice and less data capabilities. I expect my costs at the above rate to be something under $200 for 19 days traveling.
Can I do better? I've glanced over the SIM offerings but none seem to cover Sprint, data, GPS or 3G. Is there a chip I can buy that will give me full coverage and moderate time for these at, oh, say, $100 or less? Or am I best off just remaining with Sprint for this jaunt?
This is probably old news for you since you posted in March but I'm in Europe now and loving my 8830 WE. $1.29 a minute's not bad. I've also been using data roaming and my costs so far (8 days) has been $32. The only thing that pisses me off is that Sprint doesn't support text messaging abroad which everyone uses over here.
Not knowing what part of Europe you're traveling to. It will definitely be a good idea to follow dgully's advice. However - I am in Germany and I don't know of a mobile subscriber that has a prepaid SIM with data coverage.
does Sprint not have an international unlimited data plan? I activated that from VZW when travelling and my total cost for data for 19 days was $64.99. I would highly recommend getting that rather than coming home and finding overage charges.
I also never used the voice while overseas - where I was, it was $2.49 per min - much cheaper to carry an extra cell with a local SIM.
Not knowing what part of Europe you're traveling to. It will definitely be a good idea to follow dgully's advice. However - I am in Germany and I don't know of a mobile subscriber that has a prepaid SIM with data coverage.
I agree. I was in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Czech Republic in late December, early January and I was hit extremely hard on Voice charges! I can't remeber about data though. I think I had applied unlimited International data, so I was alright there. Phone worked perfect though. This was the main reason I opted for my BlackBerry 8830 WE and not the Curve.
