disposable cell phones Italy/France

They used the term "disposable" to mean that they were cheap and didn't come with any contract to rent them from a company over a period of time. They intended to just buy a new SIM card if they ran out of minutes and then get rid of them when they came home but then decided that we might be able to use tem.
They used them to communicate btween two cars traveling together in Italy. I'm not sure what you mean by "unlocked"

I'm not sure what a "disposable" cell phone is. Is it just a cheap phone? In any event, if they're "unlocked," then you should be able to just buy SIM cards in France and activate them with the instructions that go along with the cards.

Cathy, The term "disposable cell phones" is perhaps not the best description to use. I've never seen anyone buy a Cell phone and then throw it in the bin when they get home (although that probably does happen on occasion). I assume you're referring to "inexpensive PAYG phones". The term "locked" refers to the fact that some carriers lock their phones so that they will only accept SIM cards from their network. If a SIM card from a rival network is used, it won't work unless the phone is "unlocked". AFAIK, most phones sold in Europe are unlocked, so you should be able to buy SIM cards when you arrive in France. You shouldn't have to "activate" anything on the phone. The activation will take place with the SIM card, and the staff where you buy the SIM cards can help you set them up (since the menus will likely be in French). One other option would be to use SIM cards purchased from one of the travel phone firms. Usage is a bit more expensive than with SIM's purchased in country, but the advantages are that they usually use post-paid billing (no top-up required) and you'd have a working phone as soon as you step off the plane. What brand and model of phones are they??? If they're a quad-band model, you may be able to check to ensure they're unlocked before you leave home by inserting an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card. If they're unlocked quad-band phones, they should work. If they're a dual-band phone (ie: only the two Euro frequency bands), the SIM may work but they won't be able to find a network. Happy travels!

Here's what you need to do: 1. Find someone with a US phone on the T-Mobile or AT&T network, if you don't have one of these yourself. It can be any phone on one of those networks, EXCEPT an iPhone 4 or 4S (these use a special smaller "microSIM" instead of the standard size). 2. Take the SIM card out of the US phone (it's under the battery).
3. Put the US SIM card into the Italian phone, reinsert the battery, turn on the phone, and see what happens. 4a. If the phone almost immediately asks for a SIM PIN 2, the phone is locked, meaning it will only work with a SIM for the company it was bought with. You can get it unlocked to work with any SIM card, but if you don't get it unlocked, it won't work with an Italian SIM. However, the Italian SIM should work in France , but it will be roaming, meaning you will have an Italian number, be paying higher rates (still not too bad within the EU), and will not be able to recharge it easily (you may be able to figure out how to do this online). 4b. If the phone starts up normally and says "registering" or "searching for network" or something like that, the phone is unlocked. If the phone is quad band, it will probably find the AT&T or T-Mobile network, and could actually work in the US (on an Italian number, until the credit runs out). If the phone is dual band, it will have the two European bands instead of the two North American ones, and after quite a while of trying, it will say it was unable to register. Don't worry - it will work in France when you insert an French SIM. continued..

continued.. According to what I've read elsewhere, the cheapest French prepaid SIM plan is currently with Lebara.
http://www.lebara.fr/?isoCode=en_GB (can't make it an active link because it has a question mark, so copy and paste this into your browser). Here are the rates: http://www.lebara.fr/prepaye/tarifs You'll see that calls back to the US are 1 eurocent per minute plus a set up charge, and calls within France, while not quite that cheap, are very reasonable. And it says calls to other Lebara phones are "free on recharge" - not sure what that means, but free is always encouraging! If you need to get the phone unlocked, you can try searching for the model number and the word "unlock" - there are places that do it in person, and for some phones you can buy the code online.

I used LeFrench Mobile (www.lefrenchmobile.com) on a recent trip to France, and would recommend it. I got it in the US before I left, and it worked fine. However, since I couldn't get a phone number until I made my first call from France, I'm not sure that there was any advantage to having gotten it in advance, except that I didn't have to stop into a shop first and also no activation was needed. As one poster suggested, LeBara also seemed like a good choice.

Cathy I'm sure the phones are just fine. I live in France and would be perhaps wary of using Lebara. When you get here, go to any Phone House or Orange or SFR store and buy a SIM. Orange and SFR are the big reliable brands and will work just fine; plus if you need to top up your phone, you can find their recharges anywhere. As far as I know, Lebara is for immigrants from the Maghreb (northern Africa) to call home to their families cheaply. I'd go with something simpler. Just my .02.