Hi -

For what it's worth, I just completed a detailed analysis of different cell phone options for travel abroad. Thought that some of you might be interested. (Thanks also to expert Fodorite techies for their links & thoughts in previous e-mails.) Here's the scoop:

We are travelling to 4 countries in Europe in early May. Our party consists of two families. We'll be there for approx. 2 weeks. We wanted a phone to keep in contact with each other while wandering about during our day trips. We are staying in the same hotel or apartment each night. (Forget about calling home! That's why we're on vacation! We'll probably stop at an Internet cafe to send brief updates on our trip....if we aren't too busy imbibing the local wines and beers!) We estimated call usage of 10 minutes/day, each family. (10 minutes outgoing/10 minutes incoming)

Here's what I found. (And these costs are PER PHONE. So, multiply by 2 if you need two phones):

1. Cheapest option for two weeks: buy your own GSM phone & purchase SIM card (either local or global). Cost: $200 (includes cost of phone, shipping, SIM card). Cost goes down if you already own a GSM-enabled phone, if you buy a separate SIM card for each country you visit (which means a separate phone number in every country...but not a big deal if you're only staying in France or Italy, for example), or if you make less calls.

2. Most expensive for two weeks: renting a phone. Cost: $300-$450 (based on cost of phone, shipping, and 10 min. incoming & outgoing usage/day for 2 weeks). Cost goes down slightly if you make less calls.

Holy moly! Guess what we decided? We're travelling to Europe the old fashioned way! As in, here's where we'll be at noon. If you're not there, then we'll see you at dinner or the hotel. Ciao!

Hope this helps others in a similar dilemma.

How much of option 1 was the cost of the phone itself? I already have a quad band phone, as does my daughter, and we can get them unlocked. I'm thinking that the local/global SIM card is an option for us.

I purchased 2 new GSM phones off of eBay for $50 each and purchased Global Explorer SIMs from Telestial for $50 each. $200 investment and worth every penny.

Kellye - The cost of the phone under Option 1 was about $100. You can find good deals on eBay or buy new on-line (the cheapest from Telestial was $99).

Let me clarify something also: when deciding how to proceed, you need to consider two important issues: 1. how important is it to be connected (possible emergency at home? must not lose contact with kids in Rome? etc.) and 2. will you be going overseas again in the very near future?

In our case, our kids will be with at us all times (ages 5 and 7)...so we don't have to worry about them going off for the day or worry about getting a call from grandma back in the States that one of the kids is in the hospital. Second, unless we fall into a pile of money, we won't be going back to Europe for at least two years. BUT, if we were....and we intended to use the phone alot....we'd just buy the phone. It's a good future investment.

It's a very personal decision, dependent on many issues. Also, our Paris apartment has a phone (with free local calls & to the U.S.), so we can make restaurant reservations via phone if we want.

Thanks for that feedback NThea. I already has a GSM quad band phone (actually 2) which I will be unlocking before the trip. I am going with my 13yo daughter and leaving my husband and other two daughters home--gone for about 3 weeks. Complicate that with my intention to go off and do some exploring of my own while my daughter is in her ballet intensive classes (purpose of trip) and that she may need to find me and the phones with local service becomes a necessity, not an option for us. I just want to do it as cheaply as possible! I have T-Mobile in the US and our international roaming charges range from $.99 to $2.99 in the country where we will spend the most time--far too steep to stay in touch.

Another great option:

http://www.united-mobile.com/cms/web...p;idcatside=26

Kellye, if you're going to unlock T-Mobile phones, be advised that it took them a month to send me my code.

BTW (not to scare you, but...) the unlocking instructions contain the following language:

<i>NOTE: If the phone displays, &quot;Please wait to enter special code&quot; or &quot;Contact service provider,&quot; you will have to wait for it to change back. Please be aware that the phone must stay powered on to do this. If the battery is low, be sure to plug it in. It could take 15 minutes to an hour to change back. <b>If the phone does not change back, the handset will need to be replaced.</b></i>

I'm a great fan of local and international sims but if indeed you have T mobile USA and sign up for international roaming you will be able to text message each other with the sender of the message paying a mere 35¢ for each sms message while the recipient pays whatever his or her T Mobile USA plan is...I think one can sign up for unlmited reception of text message for a fee or at most 5¢ a message to receive regardless of where somebody is. That could work

The following site provides a list of international sims:
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.html
Other sims are available at telestial.com, as mentioned in one of the posts above, and at ekit.com. Before buying a cell phone and sim, verify that the phone and the sim are compatible and that the sim provider is responsive to questions. Also, find out what you have to do to keep the sim alive.

Just be aware that telestial and other US based local sim card providers triple and quadruple the price you would pay if you waited for arrival to buy the local sim card.....and they give you no choice of provider. While some people claim this is okay by them for the &quot;convenience&quot; forewarned is forewarned.

#2 son and I are on a T-Mobile Family Plan, and our SMS traffic from/to Germany last month was included in the monthly fee. Off-network text was 35&cent; outbound and 10&cent; inbound.

Robespierre,
Do you pay the extra supplement for texting? We don't currently pay that since it is my husband and myself and one phone line for the children to use as each needs it (they are 8, 10 and 12--really bought it and signed up for family plan because the 12yo was starting to have an activity schedule that sometimes make a cell phone to call us helpful). We just don't have a need to text normally. If I bought their &quot;cheapest&quot; texting bundle, would it cover all phones in the family plan or just the one it is purchased on? Thanks for the feedback.

We find that $20 a month for the Shared Unlimited Messaging Bundle is our best option.

On our T-Mobile blackberry plan, international roaming includes unlimited data so we just email. Not instant message but still goes through in 10-15 minutes tops, often much faster.

Telestial buyers, beware!!

Be aware that the Telestial cards are not what they seem. They quote rates for countries, and when you go, the cards don't work! My card worked fine in Germany, but not in the Bahamas or Ghana. Something to do with local regulations, they said. Which means they should stop advertising rates in those countries! So I had to buy a new card anyway, for each country - which was much cheaper, and what I should have planned to do all along.

I have already purchased one unlocked phone from ebay (under $50 all included), and I intend to get another. We will buy the sims once we arrive in Germany. I just hope the phones work as advertised...

I am thinking that if all works well I will have two working phones for less than $160 including sims. I will let you know how it works.

For Germany, see how you like this: www.smobil.de

.01&euro;/min between smobil subscribers (great for keeping in touch with a party, but not as good as some others for calling home). It's not hard to find a Schlecher store - there are 10,000 of them all over Europe.

Thanks for sharing.

We took our Cingular phones and had the 'world package' or whatever added. It was important to us to be able to be reached by others at home by a consistent (and easy) phone number, so we attempted to minimize our phone use. No problems and for minimal use, was probably the simplest thing.

No question about it: Cingular and T-Mobile International Roaming are convenient, and your number doesn't change - at a cost of $1.29* or 99&cent; per minute. We use our T-Mobile as an emergency contact.

* Cingular's charge if you don't pay $5.99 a month to get their 99&cent; rate. T-Mobile's doesn't cost anything additional.

World Class roaming is free with T-Mobile, but roaming is $2.99 in Serbia which is where we are spending a bulk of our time. My husband just returned from the Bahamas and it was $2.99 there as well. Check the country listings on the T-Mobile roaming page--costs vary!