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cai said:
Miguelito:
This is a very comprehensive report about this issue. I have one question though, on the last paragraph you say: "I don't believe that an unlocked phone will be usable with a Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile Deutschland) SIM...", did you mean to say "locked" instead of "unlocked". In other words, a USA t-Mobile locked telephone was not sure to work with t-Mobile in Germany, even though they are the same company and one buys a German chip - the USA lock prevents it from working anywhere else.

Please let me know, as I am going to Spain this summer and am in need of a telephone.

Thank you.

Yes, sorry - I meant to say "locked" - locking the phone precludes you from using another carrier with that phone. So ideally if the phone is unlocked (has no subsidy or Sim lock) you can use it with any GSM carrier for which your phone functions ( the phone's "radio" must utilize the frequencies that the carrier operates on (T-Mobile USA uses 1900 Mhz, Cingular and AT&T use 850 Mhz ((& 1900 Mhz in some cases))). German (and other European carriers) use 900 & 1800 Mhz. My T-mobile phone only works on 1900 (U.S.) and 900 (Europe) but that was good enough in Germany; I had no holes in coverage there.

The Motorola V66 is tri-band (900, 1800, & 1900 Mhz) so it will function with T-Mobile USA and any carrier in Europe. You should buy at least a tri-band if you want to use the phone when you come back to the states ( also the new Motorola's (V400 & V600, and a few other phones are Quad-band so that you could use them with ANY GSM carrier worldwide).

So that's the thing; get a GSM tri or Quad-band phone that is not subsidy locked to a specific carrier and you can buy a prepaid SIM to put in it and have a local European phone number. The calls are much cheaper. You can also set up with a call-back service that gives you cheap long-distance rates to the US from Europe, but that's another story!

PS - Most calls to your cell phone in Germany are paid by the caller NOT by you (if someone calls you from a landline phone to your cell phone, THEY pay the charges, not you)!

Hope this helps.