phones away from homes OYE!?

Karen, yes, texting works. It isn't necessarily cheap, though it is cheaper than making a call. It all depends on what you plan to do with the phone. Make local calls? Call to the U.S.? Be easily reachable by folks from home? Communicate among those traveling with you? Other factors: Do you plan to use data? How long is your trip? Cheapest option for local calls and communicating among your party: Get prepaid SIMs (or even low-cost phones) once you are there. In between option: Get a SIM from a travel phone company. Several advantages including ease of adding credit and the possibility of a local U.S. number that will call a number you have that works overseas. But beware, you have to be careful which company you use and must carefully weigh all the added and sometimes hidden costs. Some have had trouble with some companies. Most convenient option, even if most costly: Stick with you home company. AT&T's international plan does give you a halfway decent rate on texting as I recall. If your trip is short and your needs are few, I'd be inclined to stick with that plan. If you need to make longer calls to the U.S., buy a prepaid calling card and look for pay phones that you can use. Or, use Skype (or something similar) over a wifi connection through a smartphone or a netbook. If you stay with AT&T, be sure your phone has the necessary radio bands to work in Europe (900 and 1800) and be careful you don't accidentally use data if you have an IPhone or other smartphone. Here is a link to a message thread that has a pretty good discussion of the options: cell phone in Italy

I understand your frustration. Even being here on the helpline for years, knowing all the options, it's confusing deciding which would work best in any particular case. Here's what I did on my trip to Spain in May. I have an Android smartphone with Verizon. It's not a world phone, so I knew I couldn't use it for calls. I also have an unlocked, basic phone that I bought from eBay (cost me $35, as I recall). When I arrived in Spain I purchased a SIM card for my eBay phone (9 euro, with 9 euro of credit on it). I carried my Android phone in airplane mode with the wifi turned on. With that phone, I had access to all of my apps and the internet whenever I had a wifi signal (which was almost all the time where I was traveling). I used the eBay phone for local calls and to call to the US three times, and I didn't use up the credit. If I had traveled to another country, I could have continued to use the eBay phone until the credit ran out (which would happen faster, since I would then be roaming). But since it was with the Orange network, I could buy more time anywhere they sold Orange minutes. Regarding texting, I downloaded an app called HeyWire with which I could text via wifi for free on my Android phone. It worked fine most of the time, and cost nothing.

thanks since our trips are not that long 10 days.. I think I will go with the phone we have with all data turned off... texting is not that expensive and should work..we will see

Karen, check out the messaging rates on A&T's international roaming plans. You can save a bit on text message costs. Wireless International Rates

Karen, Paul provided a good synopsis of the options for travelling with a Cell phone. It would help to know which model of Cell phone you're using, whether it's unlocked, whether you have data or need that capability away from Wi-Fi areas, and a general idea on your expected uses. The rate of 99¢ that you were quoted is about the "usual rate" for international roaming with North American networks. Since customers from this side of the pond use the network infrastructure of foreign networks, there's a cost associated with that. AT&T and other networks are billed for that use, and since it's not their network they don't have much control of the costs. They simply pass this on to their customers (with a mark-up, I'm assuming). To answer your question, YES, texting does work and it's usually the cheapest way to keep in touch with people back home. I've been using a travel SIM for the last few years and the cost is 69¢ for each sent message and received are FREE. You could certainly buy SIM cards in France and Italy, but each time you do that the number and terms change. It can be very complicated to figure out the best plan as there are lots to choose from, and most of the information will be listed in the local language so you may need help setting it up. You could also consider using a SIM from one of the "travel phone" firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, EuroBuzz, Call In Europe, Telestial or Mobal. Most of these use numbers based in the U.K., have the same rates in most countries and billing is often post-paid (calls charged to a credit card). That's the option I've been using for the last few years and it's worked well. The most important consideration is data use, since data roaming charges can be HUGE (ie: five figures!). Happy travels!

I don't like trying to use another phone so I always take my iphone( AT&T )and that is what I use. Two trips in the past few months and I add the international texting plan... it is $10 for 50 OUTGOING texts and incoming are free. So make sure your outgoing are long texts and not just one word answers. I also add the international calling plan for while I am gone, and yes it is about 99c a minute, but I would only use it rarely or if emergency. It works almost everywhere I go...even lots of remote areas. Just be positive you have the data roaming turned off and it will work just fine for you.