European mobile phones in America

[392ihc]

Good day to everyone!   My Russian fiancee will have her interview at the Moscow Embassy on May 25!!  If all goes well we will be traveling home that next week.  Today we had a discussion about an American cell phone for her........maybe even when she will arrive at JFK because she will be in a different line than I will.  Anyway, she insists that all we need is a sim card for her phone for America.  I have read the European phones will not work here.................simple question, but difficult to find out any information!
Thanks a bunch!!

Mike

[Faux Pas]

I read that too. I know my phone never worked in Russia. When my wife came to the US for the first time she sent me text messages from her phone with her Russian phone number. This was in Bush airport in Houston. In fact it was the only way we communicated. I was waiting for her to come out one door of customs and they sent her to her departing gate through another door. Without her texts, I would have never known.

[aikorob]

If her phone is a quad band phone, it will work on all GSM networks worldwide; a tri band phone will work on SOME networks here.
All she will need is a SIM card for TMobile or Cingular (the 2 biggest)  www.gsmworld.com has a lot of info on which frequencies are used by different networks

Get her model number and look it up online---it will tell you in the specs.

When my wife arrived, she had a quad band Nokia---we just signed her up at Cingular; and she put in their SIM card.

[FredC]

Why not just go to Wal-Mart before you leave and buy her the cheapest TracPhone that they have. If I remember correctly it will cost you $29.95 and comes with 1 hour of air time. Then she can have it with her when she arrives here. It could be the easiest solution.......Fred

[392ihc]

Of course!  I guess this was too simple for me to think of!!  Always missing to simple solutions....   
Thanks.
Mike

[Al_C]

Why not just go to Wal-Mart before you leave and buy her the cheapest TracPhone that they have. If I remember correctly it will cost you $29.95 and comes with 1 hour of air time. Then she can have it with her when she arrives here. It could be the easiest solution.......Fred

The problem with this is if they have problems meeting up at the airport.  Since the new phone will not be in her hands yet, it could be a chicken and egg problem.

Look at www.ipipi.com, an international SMS service that is very reasonably priced.  You pay by the message, but the cost to buy a block of message time is only about $50.00 or so.  This way, she can SMS you no matter where she is in the world, your airport included.

Once she is here, you can go to the nearest store of your cell phone service provider and let them figure out how to get her phone working on your account.

[ConnerVT]

The problem with this is if they have problems meeting up at the airport.  Since the new phone will not be in her hands yet, it could be a chicken and egg problem.

I have a TracFone that has been mailed to Russia three times now.  So the phone can easily be in someone's hands before traveling...