I land in Madrid in exactly 30 days. I'm wondering if anybody has an opinion on the best deal for a cellphone nowadays. When I lived in Barcelona, Movistar was offering a pretty good deal. What's the status quo in your beautiful city?
Posts: 7 | Location: Denver, USA | Registered: 16 September 2002
Jer, you are so cute :ks: . I was just trying to impress all you Madrid posters with my cool command of the Spanish language...anyway, on to business. So, Vodaphone, eh? Okay. A good price and a pretty phone with easy texting capability and all that good stuff, right? Allrighty then...I will have to check it out Jan 9
Posts: 7 | Location: Denver, USA | Registered: 16 September 2002
I was just trying to impress all you Madrid posters with my cool command of the Spanish language...
Yeah but if I did not change it to English you would have impressed them into never finding the thread in searches
By Jan 9th, the Xmas specials will most likely be all over :cry: E-mail me privately at jeremy@onspanishtime.com if you want to set something up before you come over. I can hook ya up and reserve a cool phone for you for when you arrive. For most shopping after Jan. 6th the "Rebajas" (Sales) begin but cellphones are NEVER included in those after Xmas (Reyes) sales, the deals on cells are in summertime and before the Epiphany (3 Kings Day) on Jan 6th .
Yes RC but it is hard (impossible) for bernabeubaby to know what cell carrier her friends will have.
Odds are they will have Vodafone since they offer the best overall calling rates and conditions, BY FAR!!! Especially to land lines and other Vodafone phones.
Take it from me, I have over 70 cellphones and years ago when the Movistar network was stronger, I used to use them but now Vodafone is right up there in network strength and their call rates and offers are WAY better so I have switched all my phones to them
Movistar has reduced their "SIM life" to 7.5 months (from the 12 it used to be) and the call credit life to 6 months (from the 9 it used to be).
When you add funds to your prepaid phone (Movistar), the credit life is reset for only 6 more months and then you have 45 additional days to receive calls. After that 45 day "grace" period, you lose the phone #.
Not sure why Movistar has reduced these periods of time but I think it has to do with the fact that they make millions (of �uros) on "caducidad" (expiration) of SIMs since when your SIM card expires, you lose the call credit which you had paid them for without using the call time AND you have to buy a new SIM (Movistar SIMs are the most expensive of the 3 cell carriers).
Vodafone still provides for a 9 month credit life and 12 month SIM life.
Surprisingly, Amena provides the best deal in this area with a 12 month credit life and 12 month SIM life.
Right Jer, but I use Movistar and in my case, changing to Vodafone wouldn't be a good deal since almost all the people that I know use Movistar too, so if I had other carrier I should pay a higher rate... and since I cannot persuade them all to change, I thought that "if you can't defeat the enemy, join them!!" . BTW, you're right, the prepaid SIMS have a limited life, but that's not a problem when you've got a contrato card
My name is Lucca, I live on the second floor...
Posts: 51 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 31 August 2003
1. Which cell phone is on your Wish List? and Why?
Do you have a recomendation on which one to buy?
For me, I'm salivating over the Motorola MPx200. Do you have any thoughts on this model? It looks like it has all the stuff I want (Small size, MS OS, Outlook, 1 Gig storage, Video, MP3, etc basically a 'dumb terminal') and none of the stuff I don't want (camera, data entry, etc I use my PC and real camera for that stuff)
But the European price is very high. But have a look HERE. With this rebate, the phone could be had for about $20! That seems pretty hard to beat.
2. Unlocking a cell phone from the U.S. and using it over here
This model claims to be
quote:
intended for business users with tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900)
.
If that is true, and I could get this phone "unlocked", would it work here in Madrid using Vodaphone's network? (I assume Vodafone operates on the 900 frequency)
Anyway, that's the one on my christmas list. If you have any recomendations about buying a 'wiz bang' phone for use over here, I sure would appreciate it.
Recommendations??? Well, that is a tough one with so many great phones out there. Hard for me to recommend one since the prices go from next to nothing to very expensive. Besides, everyone has different needs when it comes to cell phones.
If money is no object, go for the SONY-ERICSSON P800 (or the even newer P900).
Vodafone has it on special here for 120 Euros if you sign up for a 1 year minimum contract. See THIS PAGE (temporary offer so page may not be there for long).
Compact, stylish, full color, built-in camera, bluetooth, etc, etc, etc...
Well, just my personal opinion. In the USA, "MOTOROLA" is synonymous with "CELL PHONES" as they were the pioneers in the field but here in Europe, Nokia, Alcatel and Ericsson (Sony-Ericsson as well) are where it is at.
I do not have experience with the MPx200 and I am not a Motorola fan.
You said you do not want data entry but be careful, the MPx200 has data entry, it is just tedious data entry with the phone keys instead of easy data entry with PDA phones like the P800.
Of course it would be a GREAT deal at $20.
When you say the phone will cost $20, you are of course referring to signing up for an AT&T service plan and then breaking the contract no? I saw their plans and the cheapest is $39.99/month, if you had to stick with them for a year minimum that would put a SERIOUS DAMPER on your plan to get the phone for $20 Not up on the phones in USA so not sure what type of guaranty AT&T would have to keep you on the plan and paying the $39.99/month until they got their money out of you for the phone.
2) Yes, the phone is tri-band. The MPx200 is marketed here in Spain (WEBSITE) so, in theory, it can be unlocked here but may be difficult to find someone to unlock it since the less common the phone here, the harder and more expensive to unlock it.
If you can have it unlocked in USA before having it sent over, that would be best.
Okay Jer, I can't wait to hit the rebajas but I'm sad to discover that mobiles aren't included. But I'm comin in on the 9th: there's no stoppin me. So, let's talk about a deal; if you still want to. I looked into those product web pages and yeah, they look pretty good, and pretty expensive. I think it would be neat to have all that extra stuff, but all I really care about is being able to talk, you know. Also, I had this huge clunker of a phone (very cheap, naturally, and bright orange) when I lived in BCN. I don't want a repeat of that. It was too heavy!!
Posts: 7 | Location: Denver, USA | Registered: 16 September 2002
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
:cry: E-mail me privately at 
