We're traveling throughout Scandanavia via train in August and we need to be accessible via telephone with relatives in the USA. Any suggestions on which phone companies provide the best access in Scandanavia? Will my Sprint or GTE Wireless get good reception over there?

I'm not an expert on this but unless you have a dual-band phone that will use the GSM standard the phone you use in the US won't work there. <BR> <BR>You can rent a GSM phone from Omnipoint (I think they are now Voicestream)for about like $29 for a week or $49 for a month plus the time that you use. If you go to www.omnipoint.com you can get a number to get in touch with them. <BR> <BR>I used them last fall for a trip to Europe and I just rented a handset from them today for a trip to Europe we're taking in a couple weeks. <BR> <BR>As far as reception it was very good. We called home from an alpine meadow in Bavaria and the reception was outstanding. Omnipoint (Voicewstream) has coverage maps available for each country they service so you can see where they project coverage to be spotty. If you get bad reception , you can always have the phone roam (I guess that would be what you call it) to another celluar network that Omnipoint has agreements with. My recollection was that there were about 3 providers in each country we were in. <BR> <BR>Hope this answers your question.

even a U.S. style GSM phone will not work in Europe, the frequencies are different. <BR> <BR>U.S. GSM typically use 1900 Mhz, European dual band GSM operate at 900/1800 Mhz. <BR> <BR>my home GSM provider, Pacific Bell, has outrageous european roaming rates: $2.50 per minute!

Hi Jean, <BR>I own a Motorola Timeport, which is a triple-band cellphone. I use it in the US, Europe and Asia. You definetely will need a phone with GMS standard and you`ll have to talk to your provider if they`ve a roaming contract with either Telia(Swedish provider) or another provider that covers the region. <BR>As far as the coverage goes-Scandinavia is one of the most developped regions when it comes to cellphones. I think one of two people own one, only Italy is further in that topic. Therefore I think the coverage should be good(where are all those brands originating, NOKIA..Ericsson?) <BR>I would advise to rent a phone at home or in one of the big cities in Scandinavia. Another possibility should be to rent it at the Airport you`re flying into. <BR> <BR>Have fun <BR> <BR>Miriam

A dual (or triple) -band GSM phone which you can buy or rent in the USA will work in Europe. We also rented one from Omnipoint last year. It was an Ericsson Model I-888 World Phone. Worked like a champ, with great clarity. I have since purchased one for myself here, and intend to take it with me to Italy this year. The service is from Voicestream (Omnipoint). Nokia has just come out with a dual-band GSM phone as well. This phone is really well designed - you just turn it on wherever you are and it finds a network to connect to, whichever continent you are on.

I have a Timeport L7089 as described and it works both here and in the States. However, even with this, you are dependent on your network provider having roaming agreements with companies in the area in which you are using the phone. Generally, this is not a problem. It may be of interest that the industry is working through the GSM Global Roaming Forum to overcome these problems and to develop phones that are GSM and non-GSM compatible. More details at http://www.gsm.org/news/press_releases_64.html.

I also have the motorola timeport L7089 and it was almost useless when I took it to the States. Works only in VERY selected areas and then developed a fault which affected the sim card - Virgin's answer to that was 'Oh it's a glitch - sorry!' <BR>