Correct, it won't work at all in Europe, not even for emergency use.

Thanks; I'll try ebay.

caution...when going to ebay you need a phone with both European frequencies...not too many dual bands with the two European frequencies are available and they don't save all that much money over a cheap tri band model but you must make sure by reads the specs of a tri band that it is 900/1800/1900 and not repeat not 850/1800/1900...of course the safest is a quad band (850/900/1800/1900)...almost all phones sold on ebay are unlocked so that should not be a problem.

From what I can tell with a little Google research, the Rome aiport TIM store is open 7 days a week.
However, on another message board I read that they do not sell SIM cards because of terrorist fears. I have no idea if this is true or not.

Yes, it seems like a risk to wait until I get there. OTOH, the Telestial cards are so darn expensive both to buy and in their per minute use. Ultimately, I don't plan on using it a lot, but I would like to have the phone just in case.

What's a girl to do?

Kristina...

Are you from the USA (maybe you answered that earlier in the thread but I missed it.

If so, is your wireless carrier either AT&T AKA Cingular or T Mobile USA...

If so, you're in luck.

You may already have a gsm phone with one of the European frequencies or may be eligible to upgrade to one...in that case simply call the carrier to get international roaming (free on T Mobile and ask for the free plan on Cingular)...in that case your phones will be usable in Italy and all through Western Europe albeit with a very high calling and receiving rate but you said you don't plan to use it...only want it for emergencies....in this way anybody can call your regular cell number and instantly be put through and you can also use relatively cheaply text messaging.....

OTOH, if you have verizon or sprint or a pay as you go plan, then you're out of luck on this score as these carriers don't use the world wide technology but other technologies (which may be just as good but work in far far fewer places and not at all in Europe)..in that case the easiest thing to do might be to investigate the mobal plan (www.mobal.com) again you'll get a cheap gsm phone and a sim card that will work throughout Western Europe at inflated rates again but at least you'll have something for emergencies.

xyz123-Yep. I have Sprint. Ok for domestic usage, but I'm screwed when I travel.

Since I've been averaging 1 or 2 international trips a year, both to Asia and Europe, I'm going to invest in an unlocked Quad band phone, probably off of Ebay. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use it with Sprint so it will only be for travel.

I looked at Mobal, but the calling rates are prohibitive; $6.95 a minute to call the US from Vietnam and incoming calls at $1.95 a minute.

I think I'll just get the extra phone, take it with me and if I can get a SIM card there, great. If not, I'll have it for the next trip.

If you live in an area covered by T-Mobile USA, just buy a SIM from www.tuyo.com on ebay. Costs are about $6 for the SIM incl $10 calling credit. You get a local number, airtime is 10ct per minute, calls to other countries are from 2ct. Without recharging, the SIM card is valid for 3 months.

There are many other alternatives for making cheap calls in the US. You're not limited to one number or phone company only. Just invest $6 and you can use the same GSM phone wherever you are and just swap the sim card.

A T-Mobile GSM phone can be used in Europe IF T-mobile unlocks it for you which they will do if you have your service plan for over 90 days.

you forgot to add sher...

provided it has one of the European frequencies and even that might be a problem if you buy a local sim...

If you are not buying either a local or international sim, if the phone has either European frequency and you are using your T Mobile sim card, it need not be unlocked...but you must sign up with their international plan...that is free and will enable you to use the phone in Europe albeit for a high price.

xyz123. Yes, I did forget to ad that. I really wanted them to be aware that you just cannot open up your T-Mobile phone, replace the SIM and dial.

We switched over to T-Mobile in November. I am planning to have them walk me through the unlocking since they offered.

I am most familiar with my own phone and so we will just buy a SIM upon arrival.

I did go the international SIM route with a callback service, but since we only go to one country at a time, I just buy a country specific SIM. It is pretty reasonable and I feel that if I have one or two euro of calls left on it when I return, so be it.

I really don't feel the fixation of having the number before you leave for occasional travelers. I am not talking about those of you who travel often and I can see how it would be confusing for those back home to change numbers.

But one quick call upon arrival and home has the number. It would be very easy for me to have the T-Mobile international call service, but that IS expensive in my book. I like to call home when on vacation. We use our phone often.

I'm so with you sher on the value of having a mobile phone where you can be reached 24/7 but I have a method of making the importance of having the number in advance totally irrelevent...

My local provider, Verizon, allow use of their remote call forwarding service even for international numbers...no matter where I travel whether domestically in the USA or to Europe..I can have all calls into my landline forwarded to my mobile phone with whatever sim card is in it...I find the international cards very useful for that as I don't have to constantly change it...for making calls I either use a local sim with a calling card or, as in the UK where calls to the USA can be had for as little as 3p/minute, I use the sim.....

Once you've seen the advantage of this, and realize it can be done not too expensively, you end up hooked for life!

I have a cable telephone service. It is a local cable company and I have been very happy with the service.

They allow me call forwarding which we do when we go to the house in Florida. Since I have unlimited long distance with this company also, my family just dial my number and I answer in Florida. But I forward the call to the house not my cell phone as the service in that area is spotty.

Now, I think you have given me an idea about forwarding the calls to my cell phone. And an international SIM would work well for me in this instance as I would need the number to program into the phone before leaving.

What do the calls cost you for your home phone do you think? I realize the incoming calls are free but it costs to connect to an international number on this end.

Just for the sake of completeness - it is <b>NOT</b> necessary to go out and buy a tri- or quad-band phone to use in Europe. As long as your phone has 900 mHz and 1800 mHz, you're covered all over the continent and UK.

telestial.com will sell you an unlocked one for $50 - with a $20 airtime credit!

In my case, my international sim card is on United Mobile + which means I have a British (+44) number which is not in the UK but one of the channel island (Jersey)..that being said, I also have local sims, acquired before the advent of international cards of any degree of reliability from the UK, France, Germany and Italy....I also have an international card from O9 which is located in Iceland...each has its uses to me (the Icelandic card still works very well with enlinea a long distance callback service and that gives me by far the cheapest rates to call the USA other than the new local UK sim cards from T Mobile UK where the rates to call the USA are as low as 3p/minute but I digress...

My ld carrier is AT&amp;T and any call forwarding I do to international sim cards routes through AT&amp;T..they have a cheap international package at $3/month which brings the cost of calling most of the local European sim cards to about 29¢/minute...the cheapest call forwarding although I'm not really happy with the quality of the calls...O9 with enlinea you can get a US toll free number for I think $1/month or something like that and then if people call you via that you pay the enlinea rate to Iceland which currently runs about 16¢/minute but as noted don't really like the quality of the calls so I don't go in that direction but it's there in case (also a big deficit of O9 is it has no roaming agreement in Switzerland)...so figure on 29 or so cents per minute (as always when checking international ld rates of any particular carrier, you must always be aware that using the European standard for mobile phones of caller pays the freight, you will always see two rates listed, one to landlines which will be very cheap and one to mobile number which will be around what I said.

Again the nice thing about my verizon landline which is not universal is that I can remotely set the call to number so I can switch from the German sim to the French sim to the UK sim to my heart's content and the caller never knows the difference (AT&amp;T is very reliable and the calls go through pretty quickly; although sometimes callers get confused as a European ring tone is different than a US ring tone) but it works for me!

bookmarking

Well. I cannot forward my calls to my cell phone in Europe from home as the system will only take a series of ten digits.

So. I will just call home with the number and my parents will use their calling card which really costs them very little.

...look up a firm called kall8 (www.kall8.com)...will give you a US toll free number you can key to European sim cards....may not be as cheap as call forwarding via ld carriers but the prices may be ok for you.

Thanks