cell phone purchase in Austria & Italy

Gary, Have you looked at the basic phones offered by the "travel phone" firms such as Call In Europe, Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Telestial or Mobal? One option to consider would be to buy an unlocked, quad-band GSM phone off E-Bay, as that would allow you to choose exactly the model and features that you're looking for. You could use that with a SIM card either from one of the above firms, or purchase one when you arrive in Europe. One advantage of using a "travel SIM" is that the rates will be the same regardless of which country you're in. If you were to purchase a SIM in Austria, the rates would increase when you use the phone in Italy, since you'd be "roaming". Another advantage of the "travel SIM" is that they usually operate on a post-paid basis, with calls charged to a credit card. I find this preferable to using a PAYG SIM since there's no need to top-up and no possibility of "running out of minutes" in the middle of a call. However, with a post-paid plan, one has to be careful not to lose the phone as there could be unexpected charges until the loss was reported. Happy travels!

Thanks Ken