<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by GadgetFreak:
900, 1800, 1900 will work pretty much everywhere. Some areas of Europe you can get by on only one of the two European frequencies but you are better off with both. Motorola is coming out soon with a quad band GSM phone soon. It will have the triband "world phone" frequencies plus 850. It will be pretty pricey but lots of nice features. Contrary to the above opinion I would not get a TDMA/GSM phone as a backup here in the states. I have a friend that has one and he had to borrow my GSM only phone a lot to make calls in the New York/DC areas. Around big cities in the states GSM is fine if you get a phone with good radio performance (not all GSM phones do perform well). If you are going to be away from cities in the US a lot get Verizon. In Europe it is all GSM and the coverage is great. I was making calls from the middle of a moor in England.
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If he has a GSM phone, why would he have to borrow a GSM phone to make calls? What advantage is he getting from your GSM phone that isn't on his, unless his phone has really lousy coverage?
I have a GSM/TMDA/Analog phone, and besides the subways of New York, I have yet to be in an area that I couldn't make a call from. If I was GSM only there would be many areas I couldn't have used, as about half my calls are TMDA with it.
I don't believe a GSM only phone has the coverage it needs to be useable in the states yet unless you stay in very limited areas.