I am curious, could one of the experts on this forum advise if I am reading the verizon webpage correctly? It looks to me like they do have several phones that utilize GSM service. I keep reading that Verizon phones don't offer this capability. Here is the link to the webpage.

http://aboutus.vzw.com/international...one/index.html

(I actually added this message to the bottom of an earlier thread and then realized that I might not get any response to my question by adding it to another thread. - Sorry for the repeat)

you simply need a triband phone, then you need to make sure they turn on the service.

This type of dual technology phone has been around for a while but they are very expensive and as I understand it, verizon then charges a great deal for a sim card.

I assume verizon wireless has call forwarding...if you go the local sim route, you can open up a voicestick account, set up call forwarding to a local sim and forward calls to your verizon phone to voicestick.

I have a quadband Motorola Razr..it was NOT "expensive." Cost less than $50

Razr quadband and CDMA? Sounds interesting , where did you buy it. I "only" can buy the quad and WCDMA version here, but it's expensive.

Thank you all for your responses. I thought that one of the phones verizon offers was the same one that my husband had. Turns out that it isn't. I may keep this in mind for the future though.

Dukey - did you say that you purchased that Motorola quadband at Verizon for less than $50?

Thanks again all.

FYI .. I just rented through Verizon Wireless a phone that I'll take to Italy for two weeks (in about two weeks from now). You get a Great Britain phone number.

$3.99 a day
$1.49 a minute
$22 shipping
$300 deposit

a bit steep but worth it to me for the times when I'll need a phone .. and the peace of mind. And I will not forward my regular cell phone to that number .. too many unwanted calls (especially for $1.49 a minute)!