Phones

[Nino224]

A relative is letting me borrow an iPhone not currently subscribed to any service plan. Is there a temporary plan or minutes I can purchase once I arrive in Spain to call the US?

 

[ivar]

Yes there are... but it expensive to call from these types of plans to the US from Spain.

Why don't you install skype on this phone before you go, and call from skype at any wifi hotspot? This cost nothing (if you call others on skype) and very little if you call normal phones.

If you decide to get a pay-as-you-go plan, make sure that the phone is not "locked" to your provider in the US. If it is, the spanish card will not work...

Saludos from -1c Santiago!
Ivar

 

[Nino224]

Interesting.
Are there many wifi spots along the English route?

 

[PilgrimChris]

Hello Nino

I too have been looking into the subject of phoning home from Spain.

Ivar is certainly correct with his advice on using Skype as a possibilty and my own research in these forums and elsewhere indicate there are plenty of WiFi hotspots along the route.

I also looked into the option of purchasing a pay-as-you-go sim for unlocked phones once in Spain and there is no shortage of information through google (and no doubt other search engines).
http://www.spanishsim.com is one of many sites you could look at for advice and costs.
I will be wishing to call the Uk and found very reasonable spanish P.A.Y.G sim deals.

Good luck in your search for similar Spain to US deals and remember Ivars comments on Skype. Last time i looked their own P.A.Y.G charge was about 1.4 pence sterling per minute and about 0.7 pence sterling per minute on limited 'contract' to call the Uk so i would imagine similar prices to the US and these prices include calls to fixed line numbers not just to Skype members.

If you find any information please post it here as I think it would be useful to all.

God bless you and i wish you all joy and contentment on your journey.

Chris

 

[ivar]

Not sure of how many hot spots you will have on the camino ingles itself, I have a feeling not too many... (JohnnieWalker would know more about this, he has walked this route many times).

In Santiago you will have no problem finding a wifi hotspot.

For more info on this, do some searches using the search box at the bottom of this page. Here is one of the many earlier conversations on this:
equipment-questions/topic2991.html

Buen camino!
Ivar

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Hola - I must confess I don't know the answer. Certainly I've logged on with Wifi in some places along the route from Ferrol and A Coruna - I'll take a note next time!

 

[jl]

I was surprised, when walking the Camino del Norte and the camino Primitivo last year how many places had wifi access as opposed to regular computers for use. There were even some locoturios that only had skype (or similiar) access and no computers to use. Cheers, Janet

 

[eslinda]

I had an unlocked/jail broken iPhone for my recent trip on the Camion Frances and bought a sim card from Eurobuzz but ended up not using it as it was expensive and a bit complicated (employed a call back system wherein call first bounced to the UK and then to my party). Little did I know that when I tested it at home to see how it worked, I chalked up abut $20 in calls to my own home phone -- 20 feet from where I was standing. Nevertheless, I did use the iPhone on a few wifi systems -- Tio Pepe's Albergue and an outdoor cafe in Astorga. After Astorga, I found it difficult to locate wifi but then I stayed in more pensions than albergues. Bottom line, it wasn't as useful as I thought it would be and since it won't work as a phone at all, if the phone was purchased in the U.S. unless it is jailbroken/unlocked (which AT & T won't do), you might be better off using a cheap phone with a Spanish sim card.

 

[daesdaemar]

You can buy a SIM card from Vodaphone in Spain for a pre-paid plan called Mi Pais (My Country). It costs 15 euros and includes 12 euros of credit. You can call call anywhere, but you can pick one country to call for very cheap, about 30 cents per minute. I got one on my Camino and it worked very well for me to call back to the USA.

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Yes -I use Vodaphone in Spain and the Tariff referred to is Mi Pais where you can pick one country and get a special rate to call there.

 

[AJ]

Last year I bought a Yoigo SIM for my phone in Spain. It cost 20 euros, had 20 euros credit and worked well. The year before I used phone cards in public phones which was much cheaper, but not as flexible.

This year I used an ekit SIM as I didn't want to get separate SIMs for France and Spain. It worked well, except that text messages sometimes took a few days to reach me. I have no idea why.

 

[SabsP]

Does anyone of you have experiences with a cellphone with dual sim-card features?
So basically one cellphone but two slots for two sim-cards. One sim-card that can be used for making calls to your country of origin ( and billed on your original account and therefore cheaper ) and the other sim-card ( prepaid ) to be used in Spain for making local calls?
Cheers.