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How to travel to Europe with iPhone 6?

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cpeebles25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 8, 2011
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I traveled to Paris and London for a month without a phone but has been hard without calling on the go. Next month I'm heading over there again so is there any way to use my iPhone 6 over there? I hear unlock is one way and buy a SIM card but I don't know much about it and what the process is. Is there a better way or just find a burner phone there? I currently have a AT&T grandfathered unlimited data plan if helps anything.
 
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cpeebles25 said:
I traveled to Paris and London for a month without a phone but has been hard without calling on the go. Next month I'm heading over there again so is there any way to use my iPhone 6 over there? I hear unlock is one way and buy a SIM card but I don't know much about it and what the process is. Is there a better way or just find a burner phone there?
Click to expand...
Do you have Wi-Fi calling from your provider now? You might be able to use that over there.
 
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Applejuiced said:
Get a tmobile plan.
Unlimited data and texts are included in Europe.
Calls are 20 cents a minute.

T-Mobile ONE and Simple Choice North America
With T-Mobile ONE and Simple Choice North America, unlimited data and texting is included at no extra charge
https://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/roaming.html
Click to expand...

Or just pay $10 per day for a day pass on AT&T and use your voice, data, and texts as if you're home. Probably a better deal than TMobile for voice.
 
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SPX said:
Or just pay $10 per day for a day pass on AT&T and use your voice, data, and texts as if you're home. Probably a better deal than TMobile for voice.
Click to expand...
$10 a day? That's nuts.

You can get a prepaid SIM in most of Western Europe for about 10-15 euros. A typical prepaid SIM would be 15 euros for one month of service including 1500 minutes, 1500 SMS messages and 1.5 GB of cellular data.

I hope a UK MacRumors commenter will chime in.
 
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It wasn't mentioned yet, but if you go with a sim for anyone other than att make sure your phone is unlocked.
 
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cpeebles25 said:
I traveled to Paris and London for a month without a phone but has been hard without calling on the go. Next month I'm heading over there again so is there any way to use my iPhone 6 over there? I hear unlock is one way and buy a SIM card but I don't know much about it and what the process is. Is there a better way or just find a burner phone there? I currently have a AT&T grandfathered unlimited data plan if helps anything.
Click to expand...
Can you answer a few questions?
  1. Do you need to make calls to/from the US, to/from Europe, or both?
  2. Since you have an iPhone 6, your phone can do Wi-Fi calling. What percentage of your time do you expect to have Wi-Fi available? Can you hold off on making or receiving calls if Wi-Fi is not available?
  3. Is your iPhone already unlocked? If not, do you qualify to get your iPhone unlocked by AT&T? (Not under contract or in a payment plan.)
  4. How much cellular data do you think you'll need to use in Europe when you're not on Wi-Fi?
Based on your answers, the way to proceed may be one of the following (and I definitely have forgotten a few):
  1. Buy a local SIM for your phone. Advantage: cheap. Disadvantage: you've got to work out the logistics of getting the SIM card.
  2. If you will have Wi-Fi frequently available, use your phone strictly for Wi-Fi calling. Put your phone into Airplane mode, and then turn Wi-Fi back on. Then you can make calls to and from the US according to your AT&T domestic plans. Calls to and from Europe can be made over Wi-Fi via a VOIP provider very cheaply. $10 on a Skype account, for instance, will probably last you a month in Europe.
  3. Get an AT&T International Plan. Not cheap ($40 and up), but painless to set up.
 
Bart Kela said:
$10 a day? That's nuts.

You can get a prepaid SIM in most of Western Europe for about 10-15 euros. A typical prepaid SIM would be 15 euros for one month of service including 1500 minutes, 1500 SMS messages and 1.5 GB of cellular data.

I hope a UK MacRumors commenter will chime in.
Click to expand...
I'm in the UK. I use Tesco Mobile which uses the O2 network and you can get a pay as you go sim for 99p. Tesco do bundles called Rocket packs. If you top up £10 you get 500mb of data, 500 minutes and 5000 tests. £15 top up gets 2GB data, 1000 minutes and 500 texts. For £20 you get 4GB data, 2000 minutes and 5000 texts. Data is up to 4G depending on location.
 
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I have heard the call quality on t mobile overseas is good. My parents go to Europe every summer and they have t mobile. They get free 3G data, free unlimited texts and the .20 cents a minute on voice calls and they have had no probs and sounds good on my end if they ever called.
 
Matthew.H said:
I'm in the UK. I use Tesco Mobile which uses the O2 network and you can get a pay as you go sim for 99p. Tesco do bundles called Rocket packs. If you top up £10 you get 500mb of data, 500 minutes and 5000 tests. £15 top up gets 2GB data, 1000 minutes and 500 texts. For £20 you get 4GB data, 2000 minutes and 5000 texts. Data is up to 4G depending on location.
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Thanks for chiming it.

That's about what I presumed in my previous post based on other prepaid SIMs I've purchased on the Continent.

Suggesting someone to pay $10 per day to AT&T is nuts. Funny how after all of these years, some people spout this nonsense. Maybe they are clueless newbs who don't have a passport. Who knows.

A locally acquired prepaid SIM is the most fiscally sensible option for a short-term vacation for an American in Europe.
[doublepost=1487568767][/doublepost]
Reno Raines said:
I have heard the call quality on t mobile overseas is good. My parents go to Europe every summer and they have t mobile. They get free 3G data, free unlimited texts and the .20 cents a minute on voice calls and they have had no probs and sounds good on my end if they ever called.
Click to expand...
Unsurprising.

T-Mobile is the mobile division of the old German state telephone company that was privatized like many national carriers. No one should be surprised that T-Mobile service quality in Europe is "good" [sic].
 
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What you could also do is:

  • Bring a second phone or mobile router
  • Buy a prepaid SIM here in Europe
  • Use the the second phone or mobile router as hotspot
  • Connect your iPhone 6 (with its AT&T SIM) through WiFi to the hotspot and keep using it so you can be reached on your US number for calls, WhatsApp, etc.
 
Bart Kela said:
Suggesting someone to pay $10 per day to AT&T is nuts. Funny how after all of these years, some people spout this nonsense. Maybe they are clueless newbs who don't have a passport. Who knows.
Click to expand...

Or maybe they're an airline pilot who flies internationally about 110 days per year. ;-)

For me, I prefer to keep my local number and use my phone as if I'm at home. It's well worth $10/day to be able to do that.
 
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Bart Kela said:
Thanks for chiming it.

That's about what I presumed in my previous post based on other prepaid SIMs I've purchased on the Continent.

Suggesting someone to pay $10 per day to AT&T is nuts. Funny how after all of these years, some people spout this nonsense. Maybe they are clueless newbs who don't have a passport. Who knows.

A locally acquired prepaid SIM is the most fiscally sensible option for a short-term vacation for an American in Europe.
[doublepost=1487568767][/doublepost]
Unsurprising.

T-Mobile is the mobile division of the old German state telephone company that was privatized like many national carriers. No one should be surprised that T-Mobile service quality in Europe is "good" [sic].
Click to expand...
But you don't get to keep your own phone number and you have to have an unlocked iPhone? Is this correct? If so, I'd go with the 10 bucks a day plan too.
 
I use Google Voice; that's the number I give out to everyone. When I am traveling abroad I just get a local SIM and stick it in my factory-unlocked iPhone.

For free outgoing calls back to the USA I use Google Hangouts, VoIP over the local carrier's cellular data or if available, a WiFi connection. For free incoming calls from the USA, I have Google Voice forward to my free Talkatone number. For free SMS, I just use the Google Voice app.

Another option is to have Google Voice forward to a Google Chat (a.k.a. Google Talk) account which will ring your Google Hangouts app. Since Google Voice's recent refresh, I don't know how to configure this in the new interface. However, if you go to the Legacy Settings in the web browser version of Google Voice, you can find the setting in the old interface.

Sure, I can use the phone number from the local carrier's SIM to place local calls (or text someone locally), but the main value of using a local carrier's SIM is cheap cellular data, not voice minutes/SMS on the local network.

Far cheaper than paying $10/day to AT&T.
 
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Bart Kela said:
$10 a day? That's nuts.

You can get a prepaid SIM in most of Western Europe for about 10-15 euros. A typical prepaid SIM would be 15 euros for one month of service including 1500 minutes, 1500 SMS messages and 1.5 GB of cellular data.

I hope a UK MacRumors commenter will chime in.
Click to expand...

I travel to the UK regularly and I have a Three UK pre-paid that I keep active when I travel there. My primary phone is TMO and my SE gets the Three SIM. I just top it up at Boots when I land and activate the add-on. Screenshot 2017-02-21 14.48.30.png
[doublepost=1487706758][/doublepost]
SPX said:
Or maybe they're an airline pilot who flies internationally about 110 days per year. ;-)

For me, I prefer to keep my local number and use my phone as if I'm at home. It's well worth $10/day to be able to do that.
Click to expand...

This $10/day roaming is pretty new to AT&T so what did you do before then? I have a few friends in the Airline industry and they all switched to T-Mobile. But if the airline is paying for your phone I guess it doesn't matter.
 
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Bart Kela said:
T-Mobile is the mobile division of the old German state telephone company that was privatized like many national carriers. No one should be surprised that T-Mobile service quality in Europe is "good" [sic].
Click to expand...
The US version of T-Mobile is a separate company now. They have negotiated their own roaming agreements with European carriers.
 
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mrkramer said:
The US version of T-Mobile is a separate company now. They have negotiated their own roaming agreements with European carriers.
Click to expand...
Most likely T-Mobile USA is using T-Mobile European subsidiaries for roaming partners.

Deutsche Telekom is still the majority owner of T-Mobile USA (about 74% according to Wikipedia).

I've used local T-Mobile in a few countries in Europe, has worked well in my limited usage while on holiday.
 
E3BK said:
This $10/day roaming is pretty new to AT&T so what did you do before then? I have a few friends in the Airline industry and they all switched to T-Mobile. But if the airline is paying for your phone I guess it doesn't matter.
Click to expand...

I used a passport plan with AT&T previously.

As far as I'm aware, no airline pays for the cell phone of pilots.
 
For 30 days, it is probably worth getting a local SIM. I did a trip to Australia last month, and was wishy washy about getting a local SIM or just paying Verizon $10/day. I ended up paying Verizon, because otherwise I would have to worry about letting other people get the new number, paying international long distance if they called me, etc.

But 30 days, local SIM. Maybe put the old SIM in long enough after getting new number to redirect the old number to the new number for the trip.
 
If the phone is unlocked, just hit one of the phone shops (Vodafone, O2 etc..) and buy a paygo sim with data. That is the cheapest and easiest solution that I have found. The international addons (especially Verizon) suck and cost way too much.

But, that phone needs to be unlocked.
 
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