Reason this is being sold bare-bones is because this phone is OLD and doesn't have tri-band world-phone GSM 3G of UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ of 850/1900/2100MHz.
Operators worldwide are moving to GSM 3G which is based on WCDMA (similar to VZW in the US and AT&T/T-Mobile) in order to triple network capacity.
They are still running small chunks of old GSM/EDGE 2G for roamers though (it's through the same platform, modular, etc.).
If you only need voice rural I think it's fine.
But if you use a 2G GSM/EDGE phone ONLY in high density urban areas in Europe/Asia/Middle East/South America I think you may have some problems (2G GSM/EDGE has capacity limitations unless the majority of subscribers have moved to 3G GSM in those countries...).
There is a reason AT&T is overlaying their ENTIRE USA 2G GSM/EDGE network with a UMTS/HSPA+ one finishing in year end 2012.