Cellular Phones in Europe

How to rent or buy a phone if you're visiting from the United States or Canada

ABOVE: With a GSM phone from Cellular Abroad, you can exchange a Gruss or a Tschüss while you schuss.

When you're traveling in Europe, it's convenient--and reassuring--to have a cell phone that keeps you in touch with family, friends, and colleagues back home. Unfortunately for American visitors, most cell phones that work in the U.S. and Canada don't work overseas--or, if they do, high "roaming rates" make them impractical for leisure travel.

The solution? Buy or rent a phone that's compatible with the international GSM standard, and use plug-in "SIM cards" to make calls at European rates.

On my own trips, I use phones from Cellular Abroad, a U.S.-based company that supplies internationally compatible mobile phones to everyone from leisure travelers to Hollywood film crews. Using the international cell phone is easier and more convenient than calling home from a pay phone or with a calling card--and during a recent stay at a Rome hospital that had no phone in the room, the phone let me keep in touch with home and rebook flights. (After that experience, I wouldn't dream of traveling without the phone and Cellular Abroad's TalkAbroad SIM card.)

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