unlocking cell phone

patricia, The first thing you'll need to determine is WHICH technology your StraightTalk phone uses? I believe they operate on both CDMA and GSM networks. If your phone is a CDMA model, unlocking it won't be an option as it won't work in Europe anyway. If it's a GSM model, it may ONLY have the two North American frequency bands, so again it won't work in Europe. The easiest and probably cheapest solution would likely be to buy an unlocked quad-band GSM phone off E-Bay and use that for travel. You can use that either with a SIM purchased in Italy (you'll also need a Codice Fiscale and provide your Passport for registration) OR with a SIM from one of the travel phone firms such as Roam Simple, Cellular Abroad, Call In Europe, Telestial, Mobal, EuroBuzz or others. Here's one example of phones currently available on E-Bay: www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-in-the-box-Motorola-V551-AT-T-Unlocked-Quadband-phone-T-Mobile-Warranty-/251261566150?pt=Cell_Phones&hash=item3a805b3cc6 Good luck and happy travels!

...or go to Craig's List, type the word "unlock" in the "cell phone" section, and you will find plenty of local people that can "unlock" your phone. But like Ken says, make sure that it is a phone that can be used in the EU! I use a Staight Talk chip in my unlocked IPhones.(US only...ST will NOT work in the EU) When I activsted my ST SIM card I was asked for my phone's serial number, but I did not do that; I used the one printed on the red activation card. That way I can pull my ST SIM card out, and use it in any GSM phone that uses a SIM card.

Phones with prepaid sims are pretty cheap in Italy. When I last looked about a year ago a phone with prepaid sim and a few minutes of talk time was under 40€. Check the Trip Advisor Italy forum for the latest.

I bought a phone through everbuying. They are the cheapest. It takes a few weeks to be shipped but it works.
http://www.everbuying.com/Network_GSM(Quad%20Band)/Wholesale-Cheap-Cell-Phones-under-50-22-price_range-4.html
You can buy a SIM card in Italy, just get a codice fiscale first.
http://codicefiscale.it/
Enter data exactly as it appears in passport:
COGNOME=Last name
NOME= first name (incl middle name if applicable)
DATA DI NASCITA= date of birth (dd/mm/yyyy format)
SEX= M or F (same in Italian)
COMUNE o STATO ESTERO DI NASCITA=City of birth. If born overseas enter Country of birth in Italian (Stati Uniti D'America, Canada, etc.)

You might want to check out cellphoneshop.net. I just bought a quad-band android cell phone for Italy from them for under $40.

Guys, you might like to check the date of the Original Post.

This zombie post was just woken up by the person advertising his service a couple of days ago....