traveling to berlin, phone help!

[thumb]

Hi all,

I know this has been asked in various forms countless times, but I couldn't find my exact question.

Me, my wife and three kids will be in Berlin for a month. We both have iPhone 4 (att). data, calls overseas, etc are not important to us, but calling and texting each other while in germany is very important.

What is the best way to do this? replace sims? would i need to jailbreak both phones? (if possible, i would rather not).

buy/rent phone there? i have never done this, is it straightforward? costly?

any help much appreciated.

 

[lordofthereef]

You can't do what you are wanting to do with an ATT phone without paying overages. It doesn't matter if you are calling/texting one another or not, you would still be paying for the roaming. Swapping sims won't do anything since your phones are locked. You can certainly buy some iPhones that are unlocked. For that matter, you can do that in the states too, for about $700 for the base model. There is also an unlocking service that has pretty good reviews. They charge around $150 per unlock, but it's supposed to be permanent. They advertise as potentially taking a couple of weeks but most people say the thrun around is a couple days.

 

[Applejuiced]

Hi all,

I know this has been asked in various forms countless times, but I couldn't find my exact question.

Me, my wife and three kids will be in Berlin for a month. We both have iPhone 4 (att). data, calls overseas, etc are not important to us, but calling and texting each other while in germany is very important.

What is the best way to do this? replace sims? would i need to jailbreak both phones? (if possible, i would rather not).

buy/rent phone there? i have never done this, is it straightforward? costly?

any help much appreciated.

I would leave the iphones at home. Depending on the type of iphone and firmware and baseband version you may but in most cases you probably wont be able to unlock them.
I'd get a cheap flip throwaway phone from there and prepaid sims. This will be way cheaper and easier.

 

[DerekRod]

yeah CutyourSim doesnt do the unlock anymore sadly you can buy unlocked iPhone 3GS for 375 each the 8GB model and then just sell them when you get home unlocked has alot of value

 

[thumb]

thanks for quick replies.

if i cannot use my iPhone, i don't need to replace with another iPhone. a regular phone would be fine. how would I do that easily and cheaply?

 

[YMark]

thanks for quick replies.

if i cannot use my iPhone, i don't need to replace with another iPhone. a regular phone would be fine. how would I do that easily and cheaply?

The easiest way would be to purchase a couple of GSM phones once you get to Germany. They're very inexpensive and then just purchase pay as you go SIM cards. You can purchase more minutes on them as needed.

 

[jjhoekstra]

You can buy prepaid phones in any electronics shop in Berlin, fi in Mediamarkt. They start at around 15 Euros or so. Activation on the internet will get you cheaper rates, any internet cafe will do. Take one iPhone for emergency, but keep it switched off till the need of using it arises, to save accidental charging and roaming fees. Don't forget to send the temporary phone numbers to your family. Have fun in Berlin. I lived there for 10 years and I loved it! And mae sure that you eat a "curry-wurst". It is the thing to eat in Berlin.

 

[lordofthereef]

I know ATT unlocks their gophones, unless their policy has changed. You can have a gophone in the states for under $20 a pop. Not sure how cheap they are in Germany.