After much research into renting phones for my trip to Italy (my current cell phone is digital so it does not have GSM). I realized that after renting charges, many surcharges, shipping, that it came to $115 dollars and that is before you even make a call. It is much cheaper to just buy a phone.<BR><BR>AT&amp;T has a phone (Sony Ericsson T68i) that is tiny and will work in Europe any time. You don't have to have an international plan, they just charge $1.29 per minute (calls between U.S. &amp; Europe). <BR><BR>The phone was only $100.00 (there is a $50 dollar mail in rebate). This is the best deal I have found so I wanted to pass this info. along.

Another option...<BR>I just bought a T-Mobile phone and plan that I can use in Europe as well. It's a Motorola V-60 tri band phone. Calls in Italy should be $.99/minute. The phone cost me $25 after rebate.<BR>They also rent phones, for less than AT&amp;T, I think.<BR>

Look at phones on Amazon.com before buying elsewhere. I ordered a Sony Ericsson (T300, I think) for 'free' ($0.01) and the plan is via T-Mobile. I haven't received or activated yet, but there shouldn't be any difference in doing it this way, other than you have to activate it yourself. (and you have to contact T-Mobile to enable the WorldPlan calling feature, the $0.99 pricing mentioned above).

My suggestion is to not wear an electonic leash. Its free, there are no roaming charges, international charges, surcharges, shipping charges, per minute charges. You don't need to be connected all the time. Buy a Wal-Mart calling card.

about the walmart calling cards. Don 't expect to have all the minutes that you think you have. The card is in units not minutes and you use around 6 or 7 units per minute to call international.

I have a motorola tri-band phone purchased through Voicestream (now Tmobile) and I have their World Plan feature and it works great.<BR><BR>jor -- I think Canoodle is talking about a cell phone, not a leash. Or didn't you realize that you don't have to answer the phone when it rings? &quot;You don't need to be connected all the time.&quot; Is that advice, a command, or are you urging Canoodle to take the profound philosophical stance you have on electronic communications? Sorry, jor, I don't mean to be rude, just sarcastic. I think it's amusing when people take your position . . . and the person who is, as you say, leashed to the office or the SO, or whatever, can be a pathic person.

The phone isn't a leash, it's a safety net for emergencies. We'll be driving around Sicily, and it will be nice to have in case of a breakdown.<BR>If I want to call home, I'll probably use my MCI card. With my international calling plan calls home are only about .12 cents/min.

Hi Canoodle:<BR><BR>You can get cheaper per minute rates if you purchase an unlocked GSM phone and buy a SIM for the country of your choice. If you are not making many calls, you may be better off just paying the higher per minute charges and sticking with a local company. If you travel frequently and use the phone a lot, you'd probably be better off getting an unlocked phone.<BR><BR>I found a couple of websites that have some very low prices on phones. Try:<BR>http://www.welectronics.com/gsm.shtml<BR>They have motorola phones for as cheap as $55. Regardless, you should be able to get a phone for less than $100. <BR><BR>http://www.gandhiappliances.com/gsmbrands.asp?CategoryID=17&amp;BrandID=6<BR>has the motorola triband 7389 for a few bucks less than welectronics if you were interested in that particular phone.<BR><BR><BR>I don't know what the situation for pricing in Italy is, but I know that the range in Ireland is about .19-50 per minute and the UK is very inexpensive. about 5p per minute after the first 5 minutes of each day. The first 5 minutes aren't bad either. If you but the SIM in Ireland for E20, you get E10 in calls plus another E10 if you fill out some paperwork, so it appears to be free.<BR><BR>Bill

Thanks for all the great advice. Since I will only need international calls for 2 weeks this AT&amp;T phone is perfect for me (I was already using them before). <BR><BR>I can still use my same cell phone number, same plan that I had in the U.S. It's just that with this phone it can be used anytime internationally.<BR><BR>I don't like the idea of phone cards since I have known people who have had trouble using them. I like having a phone on me for emergencies. I am counting down the days to Italy!