I'm sure this has come up many times to bear with me.. I travel to Europe and the UK often enough to want to start using a mobile phone. I, of course, want to do it as economically as possible. As I understand, I need to get an unlocked phone and a SIM card. Any suggestions on the best place to get a SIM card. My next trips will be to Germany. Finally, once I have the phone and the SIM card is there a third component that I would need to get inexpensive rates to the states? Thanks.

there are a few choices. I'm still learning, so I just have my opinion. I asked my carrier (t-mobile) for a international phone. (looks the same as a normal cell phone, no extra charge). To dial us, I use the plus sign, and dial. it is about 2.00 a minute. BUT the text messages are way cheaper and easier to use with the time difference. Plus they/you can text message thru a computer.

I recently bought an unlocked quad-band phone on e-bay, then signed up for Telestial's Riing service. I have a global SIM card that can be used anywhere in the world, and my phone number is based in Liechtenstein. It's not cost-efficient to use the phone here in the USA, though it works here, but everywhere else in the world it's pretty cheap!

Another question.. Is there an advantage to a quad-band phone?

Do a search, this topic comes up almost every few days.

But in brief, once you get an unlocked cell phone that is tri or quad band, all you have to do is stop in at the first cell phone store you pass in whatever country you visit and get a SIM card. In England they are £10, in Italy €20, etc. Prices of calls to the states vary but are WAY less than $2.00 a minute. Usually about 30-50cents. Plus incoming calls are free. If cost is any concern to you this is the way to go. Having your US carrier activate international calling is easy, but very expensive.

Maybe this will help someone. My husband just ordered a quad band phone from the following site.

http://www.thetravelinsider.info/roa...bandphones.htm

Most quad band phones are made from motorola and it is claimed by those who know better than I do that motorola phones in many respects are inferior to those of nokia.

Having said that, it depends on what you're doing about your US mobile account. If you want to use the same phone with your US account and a European account and your US account is with T mobile, you only need a tri band provided it is tri band 900/1800/1900. If you have a cingular GSM account, you would probably want a quad band as you need both 850 and 1900 for Cingular and 900 and 1800 to have complete European coverage. Cingular tri bands lack 900 and that could be a problem sometimes in Europe outside urban areas and also somewhat restricts your choice of what gsm European carrier you might wish to buy the sim card for..

If your US account is not gsm, say with Verizon and/or you don't intend to use the phone with a US gsm carrier, a dual band (900/1800) will do fine thank you very much. Some art dirt cheap on the web.

If you travel to more than one country get a global SIM card like one of these www.geosim.eu It goes in an unlocked handset and will work pretty much anywhere.