Ovidiu Predescu's Weblog

How to best use US cell phone in Europe?

I will be traveling next week to the Cocoon gettogether in Ghent, Belgium, to make a presentation on the Cocoon control flow. I would like to be able to place phone calls and be called on the cell phone while I'm there. What is the best way to do it?

Since here I only had a CDMA phone, which obviously doesn't work in Europe, I went out today and bought an Ericsson T68i phone with a Cingular plan (amazing phones, by the way!). Now the only problem is that their international roaming charges are something exorbitant: $4/minute to receive a call from US while in Europe, and $2.5/minute to place a call anywhere in Europe, again while you're in Europe.

I was looking for a less expensive solution, and Steven told me to look for some prepaid cards. A quick search on Google revealed this site, which has calling card with $0.17/minute from Belgium to US. Now suppose I buy one of these cards. The only thing I don't understand is how will I be able to make use of the cell phone in Europe without being a subscriber to any of the local carriers? How about making calls elsewhere in Europe? It appears such a calling card allows you to call only US.

Also how in the world do I get a European local phone number so I can be called from US or elsewhere?

Could someone please enlighten me?