My son is going to Valencia, Spain for a summer internship. I am going to be taking him in late May.

I have an ATT iPhone (with the International plan attached), but was wondering how well that works in Europe? That plan limits cost to $10 a day, but is more for mainly western hemisphere use...

Also, does the GPS feature on the ATT phone work there also?

Thanks for any input! Bill

Can't help you with the phone question -- my time in Spain was before cell phones, but a suggestion for Valencia.

I worked in an auto manufacturing plant in Barcelona. The vendor of some equipment that we were considering, hosted us on a tour of the Ford plant that used that equipment in Valencia, and they took us to lunch at a very old restaurant (can't remember the name) where paella was first served. Outstanding meal!

We were just in France, and we have AT&T, phones seemed to work fine, and the GPS did as well.

No issues with my iPhone in Barcelona last fall with the $10/day plan. GPS worked but my tethering was turned off

I have a few suggestions.

First set up WiFi calling on the phone, at one time all calls the US numbers were free on WiFi with ATT. No idea if it still is.

All the carriers change the rules and plans often. So check to see what the current rules are.

If it's a European-compatible cell phone, just have him buy a sim card over there.

It will be a fraction of the cost of your international plan.

I have had ATT, sprint/Nextel screw up in Europe.

Verizon worked well but Vodaphone had a big piece of Verizon wireless at one time and so it was working well on their network.

Buy a MagicJack especially if he is bringing his own computer. If he has access to the internet where he can plug in the calls back to the US are free.


Here is a link to buying a sim card in Spain.

Vodafone and Orange are big players there.

https://www.traveltomtom.net/d...im-card-for-tourists

$10/day is pretty expensive for any more than a 2-3 week trip. You can buy a local SIM card and go on a prepaid basis, which will be a lot cheaper. I've done it in Germany and Austria before. Can't remember if I ran up against my data limit, but I think I was still using a Garmin GPS at that time. Wifi is everywhere in Europe, so he shouldn't need too much data, as long as he stays on wifi. I remember walking past the Apple Store in Munich and they have a pretty strong wifi signal there, so there were tons of foreign tourists crowded around the windows using the store's wifi.

I used an ATT iphone in Spain, Germany, France and Denmark. It works very well. The time I went to France was on a personal phone but the company reimbursed me. The others were on a company phone. GPS worked well also as I used google maps.

Another vote for getting a sim card. It's so easy and cheap comparatively.

did quite a bit of traveling in 2022. My $0.02:
- iPhone to iPhone worked much better than other variants
- Get VPN for your phone (Most guys used Nord)
- "Signal" app is secure and cheap and works good (With wifi)
- AT&T cellular was expensive but worked good (Except data, very limited)

Thanks for all the replies!

It seems a lot easier to change a Sim card than to buy like a burner phone, that was my only thought I was going to try to do.

I have to look up about the eSIM, as I’ve never heard of that before! Learn something new every day on the forum!

We have a 10+ day trip planned for July.

The $10 per day for AT&T caps at $100 per month.

The phone needs to be unlocked to add a local eSim, which would cost less than $100 monthly. If you are on a payment plan for the phone, they will not unlock your phone.

We have 4g/5g phones, and AT&T "says" we would get the fastest speeds available. It's AT&T, so I generally don't trust anything they say.

They also say that if your domestic plan includes hotspot data, you can use the hotspot (for your iPad, laptop, whatever..).

If his phone is a modern one you can look into getting an eSim card.
Do your own research, but I plan on using Airalo the next time I’m in Europe. You download the app in the states, follow the directions for the countries you’ll be going. Then put the phone in airplane mode when you fly out and turn it on when you’re at your destination and voila!

Edit to add: just looked up the cost in Spain and you can get 20 GB good for 30 days for $26 USD. You can add more any time.

quote:

Originally posted by steve495:
We have a 10+ day trip planned for July.

The $10 per day for AT&T caps at $100 per month.

The phone needs to be unlocked to add a local eSim, which would cost less than $100 monthly. If you are on a payment plan for the phone, they will not unlock your phone.

We have 4g/5g phones, and AT&T "says" we would get the fastest speeds available. It's AT&T, so I generally don't trust anything they say.

They also say that if your domestic plan includes hotspot data, you can use the hotspot (for your iPad, laptop, whatever..).

This is exactly what I just set up for my stepmother who is on her way to Israel today.

Much better than when we went to Ireland in 2012 and it was a more involved process with more hoops to jump through to get an international data plan set up.

In the UK, I buy a sim card from the machine in arrivals for 30GPB. Use it for 3 weeks, then put my Verizon card back in when I land back in MPLS.

I get 60gb data, unlimited calls and text and everything works just like here.

I can't believe that Espana won't have the same thing.

It's probably more lax in Spain than in Germany, but in Germany you have to have a local address to buy a SIM card. I just had a local friend do it for me. IIRC, this law was passed after some folks on the terrorist watchlist were too easily able to get new SIMs for their phone that authorities were tracking. I'm sure that stopped them. LOL.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
It's probably more lax in Spain than in Germany, but in Germany you have to have a local address to buy a SIM card. I just had a local friend do it for me. IIRC, this law was passed after some folks on the terrorist watchlist were too easily able to get new SIMs for their phone that authorities were tracking. I'm sure that stopped them. LOL.

Not an issue for foreign tourists, you just provide the address of the hotel you're staying at and the clerk will get through the legal stuff they have to do.

Back to OP....yes purchase a SIM card, the international plans from US mobile providers can be eye-wateringly expensive thus, a local SIM card is a much better option, just make sure your phone is unlocked. in Spain, I believe Vodaphone, Orange and Movistar are the big carrier/brands. If you buy at the airport, it'll be expensive, train station a bit less, best to get settled first, then pick one up at a local shop. Just make sure to check if there's international calling options, if that's what you're looking to have.

Before the scamdemic I was in UK, Czech, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland AT&T worked in all those places

No issues in Helsinki and Estonia last week for me.

All I did was dial the regular UsA phone number I have for people and they answered. If they called me. They called as usual. Couple people didn’t know I was 1/2 a world away.

Also, everyone in Europe uses WhatsApp. It uses data, so you need to be on wifi or keep in mind the data limits. But when I've used it on wifi in Europe to call back the US, the call clarity is way better than any cell service. You don't know what you're missing until you try it.

I was just in Spain in September and used an eSim service called Airalo. It's a data only service, but then he could call and accept calls using Facetime or equivalent. $26 gets you 20 gigs for 30 days.