Well, if you also have a US SIM card it will work in Philly, but otherwise no.

This is why I finally caved and spent $400 on a global phone/pocket PC. One device. Works worldwide. And I get email, music, GPS, etc.

I don't know what cell phone plan you have for your regular cell phone, but I have Cingular (AT&T), and a razor phone, and the international support plan, and my phone has worked absolutely everywhere in the world - even in Liberia, where it wasn't supposed to work. It definitely worked in Switzerland and Italy. It wasn't hard - and I don't have to do anything. I turn on the phone when I get to the country - it searches for a network that AT&T has a relationship with, and it's up and running. People just call my regular number and I get the call. Internationally, I dial a few extra digits and can call anywhere. I also couldn't go the SIM route - I tried it a couple times, and could never figure it out, and once it just didn't work.....

StCirq - If grandmere bought the $49 Siemens A55 from Telestial, it won't play in the U.S. no matter what SIM is in it - because it doesn't have our frequencies. It's a dual-band with 900/1800.

My Italian SIM card (from TIM) works in the US (as long as I change the phone to US frequency - some phones adjust automatically). It roams on AT&T. When I turn the phone on, I get all kinds of interesting texts in Italian. I don't usually use it here because I assume the rates aren't good.

And that's the point of getting a local SIM card when in Europe - to get (much) better rates. If your US phone works in Europe and the rates aren't an issue to you, then use your US phone.

I think LAWoman means "then use your US carrier."

Yes, Robes, you are confirming what I meant. I would have to carry my "USA" phone with me to call from PHL; will just find a pay phone; not carrying 2 phone with me.

Thanks, all.

Robespierre asks: "Does Telestial have roaming agreements with T-Mobile or AT&T - or how exactly does that work?"

The Telestial "Passport" sim card works in most all countries, but as it's a UK phone number, using it in the US is fairly expensive, per minute (but less than AT&T's international roaming rate, I believe). My Razr is a quad band, so it will operate in the US and in Europe. I don't mind paying a fairly expensive per minute rate just to call my daughter and say "I've landed, meet me at baggage claim." When I installed the sim card, it searched for a network and came up with T-Mobile. Later, while attempting to learn to use the phone, I accidently pushed the "locate network" option and it changed to AT&T. Funny to receive a message saying "Welcome to the USA".

I just looked it up - Telestial is $1.99 outgoing and $1.79 incoming in the U.S. This is about twice what AT&T and T-Mobile charge for international roaming.

I took my cell phone on this past trip. I am with AT&T-Cingular and I was able to talk with people back in the USA on the current plan I have. Of course there were some pretty hefty roaming chargers, but I took the phone for emergencies and tried to keep the calls down.

You're right Robespierre, that's what I meant. Thanks.

Okay, now we're on International Roaming.

AT&T
• Call CS and sit on the phone or go into store to activate
• $1.29 per minute, unless
• You pay $5.99 per month (one day or thirty)
• Then it's 99¢ per minute

T-Mobile
• Activate on my.t-mobile.com
• 99¢ per minute

With Telestial's Passport Sim card, it costs $1.49/minute for outgoing calls while traveling in the U.S. Works for me for that one "I'm home!" phone call.

My daughter uses AT&T/Cingular for her cell phone service and she had to sign up for their World Connect service so that she could call me while I'm away (she has no land line).

Near as I can tell, using TIM card in Italy, rate is .30€ per minute for calls in Italy & .56€ per minute for calls to US. Just for purposes of comparison.

mark

I rented a cell phone from TravelCell.com for 3 week trip to Turkey, Greece, & France. It was about $100 to rent, air time minutes are addtional. I went with TravelCell as rental fees were reasonable and airtime minutes were lower then some other companies. They give you everything from instructions, country calling rates, to the cord to recharge the phone, so you have no problems on using.

The way the phone worked is you are assigned a UK number and for certain countries incoming calls are free to you (but not people calling you). When you dial it rings the UK number and rings back to you in a few seconds and call goes through. We also took the option to pay $5 and get an #800 to give to family and friends. This is easy to dial, but you pay for the calls for airtime minutes with additional $.50 per minute extra. If you need US calls forward it can be done with this number.

Someone earlier mentioned mobal and I have to second that suggestion. I've had my mobal phone for about four or five years now. It cost $49 and I only pay for minutes. The per-minute charges aren't bad and when I figure that I only use it about ten minutes per week I feel that the cost vs ease of use is worth it. I only have to make a call every 18 months to keep the service active. There is no charge except for minutes used. Instructions for inserting the SIM were followable and easy. I am also confounded by this SIM/TRIBand/900/850/1800/1900 stuff so I really appreciate the simplicity. It has always been dependable and worked everywhere (mostly western europe so far!)

Basically what I found out from my wireless carrier, Sprint, is that you need a GSM capable phone such as a Blackberry. My girlfriend found out the same information from her carrier, AT&T.

My phone from Telestial arrived yesterday afternoon. I have inserted the SIM card and battery, and charged it overnight. But when I turn it on, it just indicates that it is seeking a network for several minutes. I'm assuming that it won't be able to find a network (and consequently I'll be unable to use it) until I'm in Europe? Do I also have to wait until then to set up voicemail, time and date, etc?

The $49 Telestial doesn't have any of the bands used in the U.S., so it won't work until you're over there.

Cell phones get their time hack from the cell sites, so that will be automatic. Voicemail requires a connection. I don't know anything about etc.

You won't be able to set up voicemail on the cell phone as Robespierre has correctly pointed out the phone lacks any frequency used by a US gsm network...you might be able to set up voicemail by dialing your number from a landline if the card that comes with the sim card contains a voicemail pin code...every network is different about whether this is allowed or not but you certanly won't be able to set up the voicemail from the phone.

As far as time and date, both T Mobile USA and Cingular, if you could register on them which you can't, do automatically set the date if the phone allows it (that is if there is a menu entry to automatically set the date)...I have found most of the European networks do not automatically set the date and time...you will, however, probably be able to set the time and date manually in one of the menus (but then again, what time do you set...the time here? or the time in England? or the time in France? (they're all different of course).....but not meaning to hammer home th epoint as the phone will not be able to register on any US network, obviously the automatic time function, if it exists on this phone, will not work!