eBay, Rogers, Mobile Phones, France

K. has the GSM phone I took to Croatia with him somewhere in the wilds of Mexico. We’re spending 30 days in France in April and May, and I needed a GSM phone to replace it.

There are various companies that offer unlocked GSM phones at retail, but I didn’t want to pay the $300 or so that this would cost. So I clenched my teeth and made my first jump into eBay since buying a set of German-language lobby cards for Heaven Can Wait five years ago.

Much to my surprise, 21 hours later I was the nominal owner of an unlocked Sony Ericsson T610 phone for $150. Turned out the seller is in Bradford, which is a hop skip and a jump from one of my ancestral stomping grounds in Brantford, and just 30 minutes or so from where I sit here in Carlisle. Phone should be in the mail to Charlottetown shortly.

On a trip into Burlington today to visit Indigo for some France-book browsing, I noticed a Rogers Wireless depot in the same plaza. I went in to inquire, and found that I could purchase a Rogers “pay as you go” SIM card for only $25 (they tried to get $50 from me for the same thing at the Rogers outlet in Moncton back in mid-winter). So I bought one.

In theory, once the phone arrives, I can pop in the Rogers SIM, connect up to the Rogers website to activate the phone and get a Charlottetown number, and I’ll be off to the races, and will officially become a part of the problem.

Next challenge: figure out which of the three French GSM providers is best, and try to dig up a North American source for a SIM, or decent instructions for locating same once overseas.