According to my US carrier (T-Mobile ex-VoiceStream) I have been enabled to use my Motorola cellphone in Europe (in my case Italy). It's $1/minute and is just for emergencies.<BR> I plan on calling their customer service center this week to doublecheck and ask about dialing procedure.<BR> But I was wondering if anyone has any experience good or bad using a personal US phone in Europe. Also what is the dialing procedure, for a regular phone in would be say 01-401-555-5555. Anything different on a cell? Charger is dual voltage, just got to get an adaptor which I kept forgetting.<BR>TIA Regards, Walter<BR>[email protected] <BR> <BR>

You need a GSM phone or a triband phone. I would verify for certain that your phone will work.

There is no question shown on my computer screen. If the question was whether American cell phones work in Europe, the answer is usually not. There are a few exceptions.<BR><BR>In the UK, you may consider buying a &quot;pay as you go&quot; mobile phone. The term &quot;cell phone&quot; is not commonly used in the UK. These phones are relatively cheap. This explains why it seems that every has one. If people call you, they pay, not you. So your American friends can call you and it is free for you.<BR><BR>I<BR> bought my mobile at the Link shop in Gatwick Airport (upper level landside above the departures level-public area before security) but there are many places that sell mobile phones.

Hi, Walter - I have one of those VoiceStream phones and I was able to use it in Europe without any problems. As I recall, I dialed the same as I would in the U.S.: 1 + area code + seven-digit number.

Had a similar question myself a few months ago. In the meantime I signed up with on the T-Mobile plan with the basic Samsung phone with GSM. Albeit, it get a bit expensive to call from Europe to the US. It is quite reasonable to call from US to Europe ( and for that matter to any country that is serviced with T-Mobile system. The connection have been great. <BR>Have used in Germany and Russia and had no problem. <BR>If your phone is GSM you should have no problem. The process for dialing to or from a foreign country is to first dial/press the * , then dial as if you were on any other landline. Country code, area code, local #. <BR>

Here's some more detailed information about dialing:<BR><BR>http://www.t-mobile.com/international/faqs.asp

Here is the URL for a thread, started by me, about using US (and other) cell phones in France. You might find it instructive.<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...ext=Cell+phone

Thanks everyone! I just wanted to doublecheck. The &quot;kid&quot; who enabled my phone just made it sound to damn easy, I thought there would be a glitch somewhere if I didn't check it out. Regards, Walter <BR>

I had a glitch, I'm adding this so if this post comes up in a search it might be helpful to anyone else who's lost in this hi-tech World.<BR> I didn't realize that you had to go deep into the &quot;Menu&quot; and switch the band. You only have 2 choices, so it's the other one.<BR> Dialing was easy: To the US just hold-down the &quot;0&quot; key until a &quot;+&quot; appears and then it would be 1-area code-7 digit number.<BR> People calling you from the US would just dial as they normally do.<BR> In Italy use the city code even for a local call. And I *believe* that to call another local cellphone you might need the &quot;+&quot; but I could be mistaken. Regards, Walter<BR> <BR>

I have a t-mobile tri-band gsm phone which I had &quot;unlocked&quot; and my service was enabled for international calls. However, when I go to Italy I take out the t-mobile sim chip and put in a prepaid Italian one (telecom italia mobile - tim). The calls are cheaper that way, plus you don't pay for incoming calls. Make sure your phone is unlocked. T-mobile wont tell you about that. Otherwise you won't be able to put another company's chip in. You can get the unlock code by emailing them and giving your serial number. They email back the code, which is just a couple of keystrokes on the dial pad. Good luck!