Phone in Paris and Berlin

Is your (or your wive's) phone a "GSM" phone? All the networks in Europe use GSM, but some of the networks in the USA use a different standard which does not work outside North America.
If the answer is yes, contact your network provider and ask them how much it would be to give "roaming" in Europe. It will then work anywhere in Europe that has 'phone coverage.

If you don't already have a GSM phone, or your network provider wants to charge too much, you can buy "pay-as-you-go" phones in Europe for under €20. There are lots of posts on this website about them. These work anywhere in Europe, and you can add credit over the internet.
There are lots of campnaies that sell such cheap phones, you can even buy them in some supermarkets.
Two examples of companies selling cheap phones: http://lycamobile.com/ and http://www.lebara.com

If you do use your own phone, it retains it's US number, wherever it actually is. So somebody in Europe has to dial 00 1 xxx .... (the code for the USA) to ring you, and you still need to dial 00 49 xxx ... to call a German number.
If you buy a 'phone in Europe, it will have a 'phone number from whichever country you bought it in.

According to your link, your basic Indian cellphone is GSM, so all you have to do is get a SIM card. See http://lycamobile.com/ and http://www.lebara.com for examples of prices.

Telephone boxes are getting rarer. Nobody uses them because everybody has a mobile phone. But some do still exist in large cities.

Porcupyn,

The easiest option would probably be to use your wife's Android smartphone, along with the T-Mobile international roaming, since TM uses a GSM network in North America. For occasional use of the phone with data it should be a very cost effective option, but it would be a good idea to speak with your local TM customer service rep's.

How old is the Android smartphone? You'll need to check that it has the necessary frequency bands used in Europe (it should have if it's newer). You'll also want to consider whether data use is important during your trip. TM does provide inexpensive data roaming, but I believe this is mostly at 2G speeds. If you want 3G or faster, you'll probably have to pay more.

You won't be able to use either of your phones with European SIM cards unless the phones are "unlocked". The phone that you used in India should also work in Europe, but you might check with the provider to find out if the SIM is still active.

One other important detail to check is to determine the voltage requirements of whichever phones you're planning to travel with. If the "Input Voltage" specifications on the phone charger indicate "Input 100-240 VAC", you'll only need an inexpensive Euro Plug Adaptor.

You asked about EuroBuzz (EB) on another thread.

EB sells SIM cards for GSM/quad phones for $9. (I have an IPhone4 and it meets the requirements.) The card is programmed with 2 phone numbers -- one USA number for people back home to call you & one EU number for you to use while in Europe. This month they are selling one phone w/programmed SIM for $29. Other months you may see 1/$29; 2/$39. The phone numbers are yours to keep.

EB charges after you begin using their equipment. The charges are $.79/min per call; $.79 per outgoing text (incoming texts are free); $.79/MB (equivalent to $0.00077 per KB).

For more information go to www.EuroBuzz.com.

I use Business phone service Springfield, VA which is cheap and also works good in other country too.

I got the Eurobuzz phone and SIM card deal and it worked just fine. There aren't a whole lot of payphones that I saw anymore, but there were a few. Better to have a working cellphone.

Porcupyn,

There have been a few mentions of EuroBuzz, so I wanted to mention another service you could consider. I've been using Roam Simple for several years, and very pleased with the service. It's always been reliable and cost effective (although data can be pricey).

I recently used a smart phone and a dumb phone, both on T-Mobile, and they worked great. I'd had to get a new dumb phone for my husband so that it would be a quad band phone. That's easier said than done since the people in the store don't really know what they're talking about. The only problem we had was figuring out the combinations of + and 1's and 0's to get his to dial correctly. I'll look at his phone later and post what that was. Mine puts the + in automatically. We got better coverage in Paris than in Indiana.