I have read through the sticky and I truly wish I understood some of the terminology better. It probably would make a lot more sense.

I need a cell phone that I can use in Europe. Countries vary from season to season. My immediate needs are Ireland, England, Greece, Italy, and Croatia. I'm considering purchasing one from www.mobal.com. It's $49 or $99 depending on the phone that you choose. The $99 has more coverage. Per minute rates are $1.25 - $1.95 approx. In Great Britain, incoming calls (which I assume include incoming calls from the US) appear to be free. That seems too good to be true. The price also includes the charger and the adaptors. It's a one-time only purchase with no additional fees other than per minute useage.

I currently have a Verizon piece-of-crap phone that meets my needs (minimally) here in the US. It is not unlocked and I do not want to try to figure out how to unlock it as it's on its last legs. It has suddenly decided that the charger that I've had for 3 years "is not our charger" so half the time it's a battle to get it to charge. I need a new one but I just haven't been in the mood to go through the comparison-shopping battle.

While I travel to Europe with some frequency, I never bring a cell phone. I rely on email at internet cafes. However, recently some things have changed and due to some family health situations, I need to be reachable. I would very much appreciate any input. Thanks!

What you're looking for is an unlocked GSM phone. They're easy to find and cheap to buy. Specifically, you want a tri-band or quad-band GSM phone - this will cover anywhere you'll be in Europe. With your GSM phone, you'll need a prepaid SIM card.

Prepaid SIM cards are available everywhere (airports, newspaper shops, etc). Prices will vary widely depending on what countries you're calling and you'll need to do a little research based on where you're going to be and how many calls you expect to make/receive.

That said, if you don't want to hassle with finding an unlocked phone, don't really feel like researching the various prepaid options, and (most importantly) don't think you'll make/receive a lot of phone calls, the Mobal phone looks fine. The price isn't bad, you know you'll have coverage (the $49 phone should be just fine), and if you're not expecting many calls you can ignore the price per minute.

Tim

Consider T-Mobile and include Hotspot at Home.

T-Mobile will unlock the phone for you so you can use a local SIM card.
And/or... if you frequent places with wi-fi, the phone will operate using local Wi-fi (any service you don't need to log in to - or T-Mobile's service). While on wi-fi, you get unlimited usage & any calls initiated while on wi-fi remain free even if you roam to GSM (although those started while on GSM remain billable even if you roam to wi-fi). I don't know if wi-fi remains free if you use a non t-mobile sim.

For use in Europe, you'll want a GSM cell phone with the following characteristics:

1. Unlocked, unless you use international roaming with your US-based carrier. Most cell phones sold through cell phone companies like AT&T or T-Mobile will be locked to be able to use SIM cards only from that carrier. Some places like cellhut.com offer unlocked cell phones.

2. Has the 900 and 1800 GSM band capability. Quad-band phones will have those bands, plus the 1900 and 850 GSM bands used in the US. Tri-band phones sold in the US typically have 850/1800/1900, which may give spotty coverage (900 is more common than 1800 in most parts of the world). Tri-band phones sold in 900/1800 markets typically have 900/1800/1900, which covers both of the needed bands, plus the more common US band (which should give decent coverage in urban areas of the US). Some cell phone vendors in the US do offer 900/1800/1900 tri-band phones. Dual-band phones sold in the US are generally 850/1900.

Verizon uses CDMA, so Verizon cell phones that do not also have GSM capability will not be useful in Europe.

With a suitable phone, you can buy a prepaid SIM card appropriate to the countries that you are visiting (usually once you are there, or you can buy them before going at a higher price). Or you can use international roaming with a US-based GSM carrier like AT&T or T-Mobile.

Cheapest by far is a prepaid SIM in each of the countries you're going to visit, and an unlocked GSM phone. The downside is that your number will keep changing, and it's an international call for people calling you.

Most expensive but most convenient is roaming with your US-based T-Mobile or AT&T phone. People can call you at your regular number. However, the minute costs are huge.

Incoming calls are free because the person calling you pays more to call a mobile than a fixed line phone.

In general Irish phones in the UK are better value than UK phones in Ireland and are not charged for receiving calls, or have a small charge. From September any EU mobile can receive calls anywhere in the EU (but not Croatia) for 24c (€0.24+tax), this would be additional to the charge to the person calling you.

So if you just buy a SIM in Ireland and go to Italy the person calling from the US will pay maybe 25-30c to call the Irish number and the prepaid credit for the Irish phone will be reduced by 30c or so for every minute for calls received in Italy.

All you need for Europe is 900/1800 mHz - anything else would be useless in the US, as Verizon uses an incompatible technology.

The best game in town at the moment appears to be Telestial - $49 for an unlocked phone with $20 airtime on it. Some other SIM vendors can beat their airtime prices, but getting a reliable phone at that price is spectacular.