I will be on a 2 week tour of Portugal, Spain and France. I have just had my cellular phone unlocked with the suggestion I buy SIM cards as necessary. Will one SIM card work for all of Europe or will I have to buy one in each country. Also we do we buy the cards and how much do they cost. By the way I live in Canada and have had the assurance that my Blackberry will work in Europe. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Contributor 
53,081 posts
34 reviews You will almost certainly need to buy one SIM for each country in Europe. Each country has its own networks and international roaming charges, especially for 3G, can be excessive.
Here in Portugal a pre-pay SIM typically costs a minimum €10 - ie that much worth of calls or access time.
There are mobile phone shops everywhere eg Vodafone, TMN (PT blue store) and Optimus. Many large malls also have 'Worten Mobile' shops where all the kit is on display.
Best to go to store and ask. Most of the staff will speak English if you don't speak Portuguese.
Contributor
7,250 posts
214 reviews
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This post has been removed at the author's request. The author may repost if desired.
Posts on the TripAdvisor forums may be edited for a short period of time. Once the edit period has expired, authors may update their posts by removing and reposting them.
To read more about editing your posts, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/help/how_to_edit_your_posts
You need to unlock your BB before going to Europe (purchase the code on Ebay). Then you can buy SIMs in Europe. If you arrive in Lisbon first there is a Vodafone shop in the airport. Your credit is good for both voice & data; incoming calls are free. Yes, your BB will roam in Europe with Canadian SIM but believe me you wouldn't want to see the bill back in Canada. Also I don't think that your mail will be pushed to your BB automatically if you remove the original card.
Edited: 2:10 pm, June 14, 2011hkto - can you please clarify for me whether I will have to pay roaming charges if my Blackberry Curve is unlocked and I use a European SIM card or will I just pay the cost of the European SIM card. I did have my Blackberry unlocked at a kiosk in the mall while I waited for $25 + tax.
Thank you to all that responded.
There are no roaming charges with foreign SIMs in their own country but you'll be charged roaming in another country. So buy a separate SIM in each country that you'll be visiting.
You'll be using prepaid credit & can purchase more if it expires. Vodafone Portugal charges 10E minimum (with SIM card included). Last year they offered 20% bonus on purchases over 15E. As I said before I don't think that your mail will be pushed to your BB. I have an Android phone where I do get notifications for Yahoo & Gmail (but not Hotmail) regardless of the SIM used.
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
