Best International Phone/Plan

[Ryan009]

I need so feedback -

My folks do ALOT of traveling and often times its cruises to the orient or europe or australia or whatever.

He asked me to find out what the best phone/plan would be that would work in the most locations.

We have Sprint now and I'm pretty sure that's not the answer.

I looked at Cingular and it looks like it works in a ton of countries but many of the roaming rates are $2-$3/minute or more.

Would I be better off just getting a satelite phone?

Any feedback is appreciated

[dmapr]

You should check out one of the global roaming prepaid SIMs. Here's a comparison.

[Fire14]

To add to this, you want a Quad band phone that is unlocked to use the International Pre-Paid SIM's.
That is the cheapest way for them to go, and with Cingular you can buy a Quad Band phone and request it to be unlocked for international travel, after 90 days.

[Telekom]

Originally Posted by Fire14

To add to this, you want a Quad band phone that is unlocked to use the International Pre-Paid SIM's.
That is the cheapest way for them to go, and with Cingular you can buy a Quad Band phone and request it to be unlocked for international travel, after 90 days.

As will T-Mobile with no hassle.

[josh68684]

Yep!!!!
Just get a PrePaid Sim card, and put it in unlocked GSM cellphone

[noahm]

You should definately check out www.telestial.com. They offer unlocked GSM phones (although you can find cheaper prices elsewhere), and most importantly prepaid sim cards for most countries. You shouldn'y ever need to py over about 1.30-1.40 per minute, even calling internationaly, while roaming, if you do it right.
In addition to individual country cards, you should check out the roamer cards like the Explorer and Passport. They work in almost any country with one number worldwide, although you pay a little more for this convenience! Hope that helps.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by noahm

You should definately check out www.telestial.com. They offer unlocked GSM phones (although you can find cheaper prices elsewhere), and most importantly prepaid sim cards for most countries. You shouldn'y ever need to py over about 1.30-1.40 per minute, even calling internationaly, while roaming, if you do it right.
In addition to individual country cards, you should check out the roamer cards like the Explorer and Passport. They work in almost any country with one number worldwide, although you pay a little more for this convenience! Hope that helps.

While Telestial is a great resource for research (as in what's available), they're grossly overpriced. If there's any chance to get the same SIM card locally, you'll save a bundle.

Also, pay close attention to rates on global roaming cards -- most of them have decent rates in Europe, but not so good on this side of the pond.

[xe306]

It seems to me that you would be better if you bought an unlocked tri-band in Europe, and bought a local SIM card to go with it. The quad band doesn't offer additional advantages, so far as I know. A tri-band will certainly work in the US, if you can find GSM.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by xe306

It seems to me that you would be better if you bought an unlocked tri-band in Europe, and bought a local SIM card to go with it. The quad band doesn't offer additional advantages, so far as I know. A tri-band will certainly work in the US, if you can find GSM.

A quad-band will work much better in the US because it'll find a lot more GSM than a European tri-band will