VERIZON iphone and ipad use in europe?

[irish]

here is the situation....
my sister is traveling to paris, london, and then going on a cruise leaving from barcelona for 10 days. she has a VERIZON IPHONE and an APPLE IPAD. she needs to be able to send and receive emails to keep in touch with her daughter here in the states..questions are:
1 will she be able to access her email accounts on the IPHONE in a WIFI enabled area? if not..
2-will she be able to access her email accounts on the IPAD in a wifi enabled area?
3-what would be the LEAST inexpensive way to make calls from the cruise ship?
she will be in europe for 4 weeks.. all suggestions welcome

TIA

 

[persia]

CDMA is useless outside the US, so no regular calls or mobile data, but Wifi is wifi, so she should be able to use that to check email, use Skype (or net talk) for calls.

JWire is a good tool for finding hotspots anywhere in the world. When she's at a hotspot she can use it to check for a hotspot in another destination.

Robert

here is the situation....
my sister is traveling to paris, london, and then going on a cruise leaving from barcelona for 10 days. she has a VERIZON IPHONE and an APPLE IPAD. she needs to be able to send and receive emails to keep in touch with her daughter here in the states..questions are:
1 will she be able to access her email accounts on the IPHONE in a WIFI enabled area? if not..
2-will she be able to access her email accounts on the IPAD in a wifi enabled area?
3-what would be the LEAST inexpensive way to make calls from the cruise ship?
she will be in europe for 4 weeks.. all suggestions welcome

TIA

 

[irish]

ok so if i am understanding correctly, this is what she should do..
download the SKYPE APP to her verizon iphone, find a wifi"hotspot" and then she can make calls using her phone.. correct? ALSO, from any WIFI HOTSPOT, she WILL be able to send and retrieve her email using her verizon iphone.. correct?
TIA

 

[Passepartout]

On the cruise ship, they will have internet time 'packages'. Usually priced about $.75 per minute ala carte, to something like 200 minutes for $100 plus a bonus of 15-20 minutes of she buys early in the cruise. It generally won't support Skype- and in fact is barely faster than dial-up. I am able to use my iPad- sign on- download email and sign off in 2-3 minutes. Then compose any necessary replies, sign back on, send the replies and sign off. Total, under 10 minutes once or twice a day. I tell a couple of offenders to not send me big picture or joke files while I am gone. Few things aggravate me like having to pay $20 or more in internet time to download someone's cute kitten picture!

I take my iPad off the ship and find a handy internet hotspot on land in the ports for more extensive use. And just on WiFi. The cheapest way to have good voice contact will be the iPad(II) or iPhone in WiFi mode with Skype at an Internet hotspot. Of course my iPad is a 1st generation with no camera, so no Skype for me.

Bear in mind that her Verizon phone (on CDMA) is incompatible with most European GSM system cell phone systems. It just won't work. She will find that keeping it in airplane mode will make for better battery life and lower potential cost. It should work using Skype on WiFi. There are also inexpensive pre-paid phones in Europe that she can buy that will enable her talk habit.

There is no such thing as 'inexpensive calls' from the ship. It's all satellite time and expensive. I am not sure the ship's cell phone system is GSM exclusively or not- only that it's expensive.

Jim Ricks

 

[loafingcactus]

If you have a Verizon phone that doesn't have the right thingee for Europe, Verizon will rent you a loner phone on your account. You just call, they mail it to you, and then you mail it back after the trip. Another option.

 

[Passepartout]

Here's a link to their Int'l roaming rates ($.99 to $1.29/min) http://b2b.vzw.com/international/Global_Phone/Europe/Spain.html
I didn't dig to find the cost of the 'loaner' phone.

Jim

 

[loafingcactus]

Lol, yes, I guess a "loner" phone would make for a depressing vacation.

Before iPhoned myself I always had a dual signal phone "so I could use it anywhere." But then I never once turned it on in Europe because I was too cheap!

 

[persia]

I have an AT&T iPhone and in order for me to use it outside the US I had to jailbreak and carrier unlock it. I've fulfilled my AT&T contract with no late payments. I've fulfilled my side of the contract yet AT&T will not unlock the phone for me, so I jailbreak. Fortunately it IS legal in the US....