International sim card

The cheapest option will be to buy a local pre-paid SIM in each country - you'll have to use a different number each time and there may be a delay while you are registered to use them, but this will give you the cheapest rates available. Alternately, you can get an international SIM card, which will be slightly more expensive than the local SIMs, but you can get this before you travel and you'll keep the same phone number. There are a lot of international SIMs on the market, so I'd do a bit of research to check which works best for you. A whole bunch of them have recently been flagged by the Indian government for only working approximately 50% of the time, so I'd avoid anyone on that list. My preference is a GO-SIM.com card, which not only gives you the option of working in multiple countries, but also on multiple networks within those countries. So if you're in an area where one signal is patchy, you can switch to another network at the same price. Not even a local SIM card can do that.

arlene,

You'll first need to ensure that your phone is unlocked before using any other SIM cards.

To begin with, you could check international roaming options with your home cellular network. Some of them are quite reasonably priced. If you want to use a travel SIM, you could have a look at iRoam, Cellular Abroad, Mobal or similar services. The data allowances with travel SIM's are often a bit limited.

The cheapest option will be to buy a local pre-paid SIM in each
country - you'll have to use a different number each time and there
may be a delay while you are registered to use them, but this will
give you the cheapest rates available.

I've bought a few sim cards over the years and for my usage they weren't a great deal, because I never tapped out the time I prepaid for. I've also bought the VOIP cards and they were miserable to use. I travel a lot so its been worth switching to TMobile and getting on their international plan. Even the ATT plan isn't that bad.

I agree that your first step is to see what your current carrier can offer for these countries. It's certainly the easiest, and depending on what you want to use the phone for, it may not work out too expensively. Of course, if your phone won't work in these countries, or if you want to use it extensively and you don't have a good deal with your current carrier, a local SIM can be great.

I find the Prepaid GSM website very helpful for these matters, but be aware that their forums can get VERY technical, so don't be afraid to ask for clarification.

Here's their listing of International SIM cards: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/international.php and their forum for these: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=25

Here's their listing of local SIM cards for Spain: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/spain.php and their forum for these: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=b93bfdb7becae1e3cf7575a85a3c777e&f=33

Here is their listing of local SIM cards for Morocco: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/morocco.html and their forum for these: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=24