I've just ordered phone service from a company called T-mobile which rents phones for overseas service. Has anyone used them? If so, how did it go? Thanks.

Yes! And a gorgeous signorina invited me to stay a week with her in Venice. And then we had a menage a trois with Catherine Zeta Jones.<BR><BR>I won't be moving back to the United States. You can roast that dog of mine, if you want to.<BR>

Yes...T-Mobile is the new name of Voicestream. It indeed works. After you rent the phone, you pay 99 cents a minute to make and receive calls.<BR><BR>One thought..I'm not sure it pays to rent the phone. You can go to yahoo, do a search in yahoo shopping and buy a GSM dual band phone that works in Europe (not North America) for around $70 and it is yours to keep. You then can switch your T-Mobile SIM card from your US phone to the dual band phone and when you arrive in Europe you're set. If you only want one phone you can buy a tri band Motorola for around $90 and use the phone both in North America and in Europe.<BR><BR>The advantage of buyng the phone is you might prefer, if you are staying in one country for a week or more, to buy a pre paid service pack in that country. Some countries, such as the UK and Italy have incredibly cheap plans, France and Holland are somewhat more expensive. The nice thing is that simply switching the SIM card allows you complete freedom to do what you want.<BR><BR>Being a technological type myself, I also like the idea of getting the Nokia 3310 for about $100. Many of the internet stores in the US offer this phone. The phone is unlocked and is a dual band. You then buy an accessory called a dual sim cover and it does what it says. One side of the cover goes into your phone's SIM card slot; on the back of the cover are 2 sim card slots. So you can put your Voicestream SIM card in one slot and a local SIM card in the other and by turning the phone on and off it's like having 2 different phone lines. I think that's awesome.<BR><BR>But for simplicity sake, you might wish to use the T-Mobile (Voicestream) option you have chosen and realize it is fine.

Thanks, Jim, but I'm a cat person myself. Were you responding to another query, just trying to be clever while managing to be annoying, or are you smoking those funny cigarettes again?

Apparently you haven't seen the television commercials.<BR>

up pup<BR>

I have T-Mobile as my cellphone provider and used my phone just fine overseas (when it was Voicestream). I had a dual band 900/1800 as my phone at the time and had no probs using it in the UK and Ireland. Now I have a tri-band (900/1800/1900) which I fully intend to use when I go back to London next month, except this time I might go with buying a prepaid local SIM over there (once I get my phone unlocked). A note about going the prepaid SIM route...do make sure your cell phone is not "locked" to your US carrier...if it is then getting a local SIM in whatever country you'll be in will not work, you will have to use T-Mobile roaming (99 cents/min. within most of Europe and in calling/receiving back to the US).

I said: &gt;&gt;I had a dual band 900/1800 as my phone at the time &lt;&lt;<BR><BR>Oops, I meant a 900/1900, 1900 is the frequency in the US, while 900 and 1800 are the European frequencies.