Steve: Looks like you and I are in similar situations -- trying to have a GSM (Europe compatible) phone in NM.
My TMo coverage is good enough .. especially if I can buy a cell repeater as you mentioned; new to me. By "good enough" I mean it will work at home (I often have to move to a window!) and SFX. Not St John's, generally. Verizon definitely rules here. Beyond coverage, there is the compatibility issue. Fabio bought a phone in Italy .. from WIND .. which works with the ATT broadband spectrum apparently. TMo and ATT differ in their broadband .. I *think* but am not certain that ATT is more compatible with europe's broadband. But while traveling, most folks don't use a broadband plan .. voice and SMS is just fine. That's certainly proved true for me in Italy .. especially if the phone has WiFi. I'm starting to think that WiFi plays a part in all this .. sorta a backup/office approach to cellular broadband. I'm thinking about just how much DO I use broadband. I've only had Edge so not sure I really understand how useful 3G/4G are in practice. Another potential game changer is the iPhone 4S (and other) "world phones" which Verizon sells. I don't know about its 3G/4G compatibility with Europe, and how Verizon plans to enable the GSM half of the phone. Some rumors are that they will only enable it for "international use" i.e. you can't put in a local SIM in europe for travel .. instead it just extends your phone into europe at expensive international rates. On top of all this is cost. Most folks I know using broadband cellular are spending $90/mo or more. I pay $58/mo for a good plan at TMo. Unfortunately, the carriers are requiring a data plan if you get one of their subsidized "smart" phones (iPhone, Android). All this is driving me to weird scenarios. Like get a dumb GSM phone for voice/SMS only, and buy an iPod for WiFi only data use. Yet another gadget to carry. Another is go for buying my own unlocked GSM phone. I'm told that the pro-rated cost with plan savings makes the expensive phone cost no less than the subsidized one and naturally gives you a lot more freedom. For example, don't get a data plan, use WiFi for that, and settle for US/Europe voice/SMS + WiFi for data. And the MVNO's are making monthly plans available .. as does TMo. This goes nicely with an unlocked phone. If you need broadband for a while get it by the month. The combinatorics are horrid! Lets keep in touch about sensible cellular use in NM/Europe. -- Owen
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