This ought to be an easy answer, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. How does one make a local mobile call overseas? Does it vary from country to country?

ATT says that my phone will act like a local mobile overseas and "you should find out how to make a local wireless call when you arrive." So, how do you make a local call overseas? It can't be that hard can it?

(I only use my cell for emergencies like reservations for dinner or calling the rental car agency when I got a flat tire. I have a Mobol phone which works fine for me in Europe. I just haven't been able to use my Treo overseas for anything other than calling the US. Yes, I've signed up for international roaming. I get a network fine, I just can't figure out what numbers I have to dial to call someone locally.)

If you have a GSM phone it's easy once you find out how to dial a +. (often you hold the zero down to dial it). Dial +<country_code><city/area_code><number>. You should generally leave off any leading zero in the city code.

So, if you're in the UK and you see a phone number that looks like this: 0845 123 4567 dial this: +448451234567

Thanks! I do hold down the "0" for a "+". I didn't think it could be that hard.

You can also dial things "local style" but the way to do that depends on the country you are in.

It's generally easier to reprogram all your numbers in your phone (including the US numbers) to include a + before the country code (1 for the US). This way you can dial any number in your phone from anywhere in the world.

All my phone numbers are now:
+[country code][phone number]
So, for the US it's :
+14151234567
For, say, Czech Republic it would be
+420[phone]
Germany:
+49[area code+phone]

Makes things very easy without having to remember local prefixes for dialing international or local numbers. GSM is smart enough to determine what to dial.

ditto-couldn't be easier
for nokia phones, hitting the * key twice in succession will get you the + sign

My problem is that I don't have the numbers in my phone book. I only use my phone in an emergency to dial a local number, like trying to get hotel reservations when I thought it would be easy to find a hotel and everything is booked or trying to call my local guide in Tashkent at midnight who was supposed to meet me at the airport for the 11 pm flight (and the itinerary doesn't have the hotel for the night listed). But, now I know just to hit the plus and the country code.

Ditto! works everywhere.