Hi,
I have posted on this and US forum so ANY help would be greatly appreciated especially since there seems to be many phone experts here.
My son is going to england this summer for a month and i would like to purchase a cell phone for him. Since my plan expires now also, I am thinking about a family plan. I had narrowed my decision to T-mobile but when I checked their network in the USA, it did not look so great. I live in PA and travel frequently throughout the mid-atlantic and NE part of the US. Can anyone tell me how service is with T-mobile here and abroad and can you recommend a phone that a teenage boy would like without a ton of bells and whistles, that will not break the bank?
Thanks so much!!

I am NOT, NOT, NOT a phone expert, so take what I say in that vein. I <i>am</i> a NE US resident with family in the UK. As I understand it, the only way to avoid paying big roaming fees is to have a phone that uses a SIM card &amp; to be able to &quot;unlock&quot; the phone in the UK &amp; use a local UK SIM card(which costs money). This may be more trouble than it's worth for just a month. Also, it seems silly to pick a carrier/plan you may have to contract for for a year or more because of a one month trip. My advice would be to find the carrier/plan that best suits your normal everyday needs &amp; if there's more than one that fits the bill, use their ability to service your needs for this trip as a way to choose.

My family recently visited us in the US &amp; paid extra to AT &amp;T in the UK to be able to use their mobile here. While they could call us locally, when we tried to call them on their mobile, our calls were charged as calls to the UK AND while their phone rang, they, for some reason couldn't answer &amp; get the call. There seemed to be no way to contact customer service for help either as everyone was passing the buck (or pound).
I think when they called us, their calls were also considered overseas despite being physically local(ie went from US/UK/US).

Might be cheaper for him to rent a phone when he arrives or buy one &amp; keep for futures.

I use T-Mobile and I live in the NYC area. I find their service to be good and rate plans better than anyone elses. I have also used them in Europe and the phone works fine. I also believe they operate in London too.

As long as you buy one of T Mobiles roaming contracts you will have no problem using it outside of the network as T-Mobile uses the same network as either Cingular or AT&amp;T. I travel all over the country and have no problems except fro in the remote areas.

As far as T-Mobile abroad, there should be no problems at all. FYI T-Mobile is a German based division of Deutsche Telekom.

http://www.t-mobile-international.com

P.S. T-Mobile now offers 1000 &quot;Whenever Minutes&quot; for $39.99 with no roaming or Long Distance fees. IInternational fees are higher, call T-Mobile for info)

Mara - I've had TMobile since it was Omnipoint and before that Voicestream. I am also in NYC - I have very good reception. I have used the phone in Wash. DC, Atlantic City, Philadephia, Detroit, various NYC suburbs and at the beach in Montauk LI it sounded perfect. Don't have the type of phone to use abroad though.
Mara

Personally I would try to get your boys input on what phone he wants and that suits your budget. After all he is the one that will be walking around with it, and I dare say that mobile phones ARE fasion statements (at least they are in Norway), even though you might decide to ignore that. But I would look up some of the mobile phone posts I've made which explains the problems with triband phones bought either in Europe or the US, so if you can find them quad band phones are best if you want to cover both Europe and US properly...

Cobos

This has been discussed quite thoroughly but here goes agaon.

1. Get him an unlocked tri band phone. If you get a T mobile phone with a T Mobile account you can get good deals on tri band phones. If it is a Nokia, it is dirt simple to get it unlocked. If it is another brand, in general T Mobile will provide the unlock code after several months. On their current phones, my suggestion is the Nokia 6610 a small tri band phone with lots of whistles and being a Nokia with a little bit of effort, you can find lots of web sites which will provide the unlocking code for free.

2. T Mobile is okay for roaming but it is dirt dirt dirt simple and cheap that once your son arrives in the UK for him to get a Virgin Mobile package which will contain a SIM card which is easy to insert in the phone and voila he will have a British mobile phone with a British phone number. Calls from his mobile to the US, for mobile phones, is cheap i.e. 20p a minute timed to the second. He will also be able to call around within the UK. It is by far the simplest most reasonable plan there is. Your calls to him will be free on his end, 29 cents a minute if you use T mobile, something like 35 cents a minute using most carriers but if you have 1016868 service, it will be 13 cents a minute.

Lots of other info but the person who said it was a hassle for a month is quite quite wrong. Even if you are going to the UK for a week, it is easy, worth it and do remember one thing about the UK unlike other European countries; the language of the country is believe it or not English. He will be able to ask and gets lots of assistance.

The starting pack for Virgin Mobile is &pound;10 with &pound;5 worth of credit and their service packs now include a swipe card where he can top off at any mobile phone store and believe me they are all over the place in London for &pound;5 at a pop.

Re NE: I'm happy with my T-Mobile coverage in the areas between Boston-Providence-New Haven-Hartford-Worcester and SE Mass.
I had Cingular but switched to VoiceStream/T-Mobile ~3yrs ago.
Regards, Walter