Someone did. Patrick Gentemann, founder of Call In Europe, gave customer service back to travelers of Europe, and a chance for the rest of us to give corporate America the finger. He made the familiar phrase, “When in Rome,” a reality by starting a service in 2006 that finally brought mobility back to mobile phones.
“The main reason we started Call In Europe is that people were tired of being overcharged,” Gentemann says on Call In Europe’s Web site. Then he sang Italian music to my ears: “We came up with a solution that’s very affordable and easy to use, and you can keep the same phone number forever.” Had I really died and gone to Rome? Because of Call In Europe, I could start to plan a trip to see my friend now living there, the city I had lived in during college, the Rome that had inspired my life-long love affair with travel.
But Gentemann didn’t stop at cheap calls while sipping cappuccinos by the Trevi Fountain. Call In Europe took it a step further and solved the conundrum completely. Travelers who can unlock their tri-band GSM phones—as my ex and I did after four attempts—can use the Call In Europe cell phone services for a one-time fee of $29. You get a European SIM card that requires $60/year in usage to keep the account active (which is why it’s good for frequent business trips to Europe). You also receive a local cell phone number without prepayment, monthly fees, or contracts, and you get $10 of free airtime. On top of that, Call In Europe gives the option to forward all calls from one’s U.S. cell phone number to the new European number for a small fee.
While you could pay up to $1.29 per minute to use your home U.S. service cell phone while walking the cobblestone streets from piazza to piazza, or downing your pint of Guinness after work hours (of course), Call In Europe gives you service to the world at half the price. With their plan, you can call anywhere in the world for a flat fee of $0.69 per minute, and incoming calls cost only $0.29 per minute.
