I live in the US but I was in London last April and bought a prepaid tmobile cell phone. I will be in spain in a couple of days and I wanted to know if I still will be able to use the sim card since it is still Europe. Will I have to purchase a whole new phone or just a sim card. Or can I keep what I have?
Other - Europe - 2 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
My phone works in both the UK and mainland Europe but it automatically changes network. Check with the shop you bought it from or the tmobile website for more information.
2 :
It depends on the network and whether you have one with simlock. Some networks allow you to use the prepaid account from abroad too, (Spain will count as abroad,) some do not and some only under conditions, like using a special code. Only when you know the provider you can tell. And these rules change over the years, so what was true 5 years ago may not today. If your phone is simlocked you can not put in a new card, but if you have a simcard where you live (either yours or from a friend or even from a phone company willing to help,) you can check it. If it takes one foreign card it will take all simcards. Even when it can not find a network, if it recognizes the card it will work with a different one. If you can not get it to work with a different simcard it will tell you that the card is not right or that there is no card at all. In that case you can get the phone un-locked. If it is a common model they can do that for you in the states, otherwise you can try to get in done in Spain. Do not spend more than $20 on unlocking the phone, unless you can use it at home too. I do not know what kind of phone contracts are available in Spain, but I do know that having a 'local' contract will be much cheaper to use locally than a British one, but to call the USA, I do not know the different tariffs. I have had a prepaid phone in England, it cost me 40 pennies to phone within England with that phone, about 80 penny with my Dutch prepaid phone, phoning to the Netherlands cost about the same with both. But that was a few years back, and conditions and prices differ from then. (Dutch phones became even cheaper, also phoning abroad, I do not keep track of the prices in England.) If it is not economical to bring that English phone over, consider your own phone or contact your phone company, and check what they can do for you.
