Cellular service in Scandinavia

Buy a cheap unlocked phone on Amazon and then a SIM card upon arrival, or buy a phone/SIM combo once you get there. Do enough research first to make sure the phone will be compatible with the local GSM system (you likely want an unlocked quad band GSM phone, to be technical). Or you could open a TMobile account here and use it there, and then turn it off.

Phred, is a quad band phone still what to look for? I think most carriers have moved on from the old GSM 2G standard or soon will be doing so. 2G networks I am pretty sure that is happening in the U.S., and I know that even 3G systems are being turned off here and in Europe. Global 2G / 3G Phaseout

Quad band may work this spring and summer, but not as well as if the phone could use 4G or 5G technology.

You want not only want a phone that is at least 4G (LTE), but there are a lot of different LTE bands (frequencies), and (surprise!) the frequencies used in he US are not always the same ones used in Europe.

This website is helpful though not perfect - you could type in the make/model of a phone to check its frequencies in a certain country, but there are often multiple versions of the same phone, so it's hard to know exactly what model you have.

https://www.frequencycheck.com/

For example, I have a Moto X4; the one I have has 29 frequencies (some versions have only 20). In Norway, there are two mobile carriers, Telenor and Tella, and both use LTE bands (frequencies) 3, 7, and 20. My Moto X4 has those three so should work fine there. But my old Moto E4 does not have those three so would work there at all (at least on LTE).

You need to make sure your phone has those three LTE bands to make sure it will work well in Norway. Other countries' mobile companies may use different LTE frequencies.

having gps daily could be helpful

You don't need phone coverage to use GPS on the phone. Most GPS apps have an option to download "offline" maps to your phone using wifi. I use GoogleMaps and always download a map of the city/country I am going to - even when I am on vacation in my own country

I’d only need it for emergencies,

In what way? You can always call 112 if you need to.

As I understand it, Tracfone doesn’t work at all in other countries. I don’t know if an emergency number would work then. But I was thinking more of needing to call back home in an emergency, not getting actual help in the country. Different kind of emergency.

Calling emergency numbers is always possible as long as the phone has contact with a network and the battery is not flat.

Pam:

As I understand it, Tracfone doesn’t work at all in other countries. I don’t know if an emergency number would work then. But I was thinking more of needing to call back home in an emergency, not getting actual help in the country. Different kind of emergency.

Pam, you can unlock your Tracfone after a certain period so you could buy a SIM card for it in Europe. Here's more info on unlocking your phone:

https://support.tracfone.com/expresshelp/policies-and-procedures/how-long-does-it-take-to-unlock-my-device-for-another-carrier

If you just need to make calls home to the US, there are easy ways to do that just using WiFi. First, install the Google Voice app. This will let you call US phone numbers for free. It may require you to choose a new phone number (it's secondary, your original number does not change).

You can also install Skype. Skype lets you make free calls to someone else with Skype, but you can also call regular phone numbers for a few cents per minute. You have to buy some Skype credit ($10 at once? I forget. It does expire after a few months unless you use it occasionally.) to make calls to actual phones.

But you can use Skype or Google Voice on WiFi with no phone service at all. (And no need to unlock your phone.)

You can try it now: see if you can first install the Google Voice app. Then, put your phone in airplane mode, then turn on WiFi (assuming you are on a place where you are on WiFi like at home), then try making a call to another phone with Google Voice. If for some reason you can't get Google Voice figured out, try Skype in the same way, though you do have to invest $10 to buy some credit first.