using my phone in europe?

[fallfornoone]

Hey guys
so it looks like purchasing a sim card in Europe is the way to go. I have an iphone 6 with Verizon. I am trying to find out if I can simply put the sim card in and go or if I need to unlock my phone or something. Anyone know?
Thanks

[Doheny]

Call 611 on your phone and they'll tell you.

[Citadelgrad87]

I was in France last year. I have verizon, and an android phone. I didn't switch sims, my phone works internationally, but I did get a voice plan that cut call cost in half. You can activate right before you leave and turn it off when you get home.

TURN OFF ROAMING DATA. USE ONLY WIFI, and it's pretty much everywhere in Europe. Data will kill you.

Download "what's app", and tell your contacts here to do the same, free, yeas a FREE texting globally, including photo attachments.

Take photos. Be safe. Have fun.

[intradubio]

I don't know much about iphones but with Android I used Google Hangouts Dialer to get cheap wifi calling when I went to Switzerland.

When I rented the car they gave me a portable hotspot for a small additional cost. It really was nice to have internet at pretty much all times for calls or google maps or whatever.

Like the guy above my Verizon phone worked in France. But it didn't work at all in Switzerland.

[CandG]

Where do you land in europe? Some airports have SIM card kiosks right there in the terminal, and others have none and you have to fend for yourself finding one at a local market. Which will be fun, when you can't use your phone's internet or gps til you get the SIM card.

Your iPhone 6 is probably locked, unless you bought the phone outright without a contract, so you won't be able to use another carrier's SIM card in it until it gets unlocked. If you are not in contract, Verizon can unlock it for you. If you ARE in contract, there might be a 3rd party company that can help you.

FYI, if you plan to go to Europe regularly, you might consider switching to one of T-mobile's international plans. No more messing with SIM cards, just turn your phone on when the plane lands in europe, and you're good to go, you even get free unlimited texts and data, and phone calls are like $0.20/min but you can always just use skype or something. Just something to consider. It's what I've been using for about 2 years now, and no complaints except for the 4g speeds being sort of slow when I'm in europe.

[Doheny]

Let us know what you find out OP, I'm curious too.

[fallfornoone]

Where do you land in europe? Some airports have SIM card kiosks right there in the terminal, and others have none and you have to fend for yourself finding one at a local market. Which will be fun, when you can't use your phone's internet or gps til you get the SIM card.

Your iPhone 6 is probably locked, unless you bought the phone outright without a contract, so you won't be able to use another carrier's SIM card in it until it gets unlocked. If you are not in contract, Verizon can unlock it for you. If you ARE in contract, there might be a 3rd party company that can help you.

FYI, if you plan to go to Europe regularly, you might consider switching to one of T-mobile's international plans. No more messing with SIM cards, just turn your phone on when the plane lands in europe, and you're good to go, you even get free unlimited texts and data, and phone calls are like $0.20/min but you can always just use skype or something. Just something to consider. It's what I've been using for about 2 years now, and no complaints except for the 4g speeds being sort of slow when I'm in europe.

Ill be landing in Germany. I am currently in contract with Verizon. I was wondering if my phone would be locked. It most likely is.

I guess it wont be as plug and play as I thought but hopefully I can get the 3rd party to unlock as you suggested.

[Doheny]

My daughter travels overseas a lot and just buys a phone when she lands. It's pretty common and they're available pretty much everywhere.

[NiteQwill]

Ill be landing in Germany. I am currently in contract with Verizon. I was wondering if my phone would be locked. It most likely is.

I guess it wont be as plug and play as I thought but hopefully I can get the 3rd party to unlock as you suggested.

All Verizon phones are unlocked, out the box.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/aboutus/commitment/safety-security/device-unlocking-policy.html

Just buy a prepaid t-mobile sim card in Germany and you are good to go. Should be about 28 euro for a 1gb card.

Frequent Europe traveler.

Sent from my phone, excuse the errors.

[fallfornoone]

All Verizon phones are unlocked, out the box.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/aboutus/commitment/safety-security/device-unlocking-policy.html

Just buy a prepaid t-mobile sim card in Germany and you are good to go. Should be about 28 euro for a 1gb card.

Frequent Europe traveler.

Sent from my phone, excuse the errors.

Thank you

[Marauder2003]

If you use a foreign SIM card your USA phone number is not available to call into so you will have to tell everyone what your new number is.

I bought my Verizon Galaxy S5 May last year before leaving for Italy. All I did was sign up for the international plan which included some extra data allowance. When I got back I cancelled it. My Italian friends just called my USA number if they needed to. They told me to install Whatsapp. We texted using that. I was on WiFi as much as possible. And you can call using the app.

https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/28000016

[ke6guj]

All Verizon phones are unlocked, out the box.

http://www.verizonwireless.com/aboutus/commitment/safety-security/device-unlocking-policy.html

Just buy a prepaid t-mobile sim card in Germany and you are good to go. Should be about 28 euro for a 1gb card.

Frequent Europe traveler.

Sent from my phone, excuse the errors.

yup on verizon iphones being factory unlocked. I think it has something to do with the terms of one of the frequency auctions they won recently.


and if you are a frequent international traveler, definitely look into Tmobile. their international voice and data roaming can't be beat right now. Free texting, free 2g data (you can buy 4g blocks if you wish) and calls for 20cents/minute. We have people traveling throughout south america, hong kong, south korea, etc, and I end up with roaming charges in the$25-100 range for travel during the month for a user whereas with Sprint or ATT, that would be in the thousands of dollars.

with tmobile, I don't have to worry about having my users find a kiosk at the airport to get a local SIM and worry if the phone is unlocked. with tmobile, I just loook at the list of supported countries and just send them on their way.

[Abu Riyah]

Just an additional note on T-Mobile...despite the free international data supposedly being limited to 2G, I actually found that recently I was getting 3G/4G (H, H+, LTE) in most countries/areas, including Afghanistan, Kuwait, UAE (Dubai), Romania, France, Germany, and Ireland. The per minute rate is very reasonable, especially for the few voice calls I normally make, and the ability to use my own number all the time is great.