Tri-band Without 900 Useless?

[Triband81]

Originally Posted by traveldad

great input. i appreciate the detail. sounds like i need to research roaming contracts for the international sim and compare with effendi's list. then i'll chat with my daughter about any holes in coverage and gage her level of comfort. then we'll make a decision on a 900/1800 phone.

at the moment i'm leaning toward getting a cheap, no frills, 900/1800 phone for backup. not a major investment. that way she'll have her se for sending pictures back to her sister. (that could get expensive!) and she could also use the backup with a local sim in case some of her travel friends decided to split up for the day.

thanks again to all for your feedback.

In order to add my 2 cents, E-Plus and O2 both have a well built-out GSM 1800-only footprint. E-Plus will probably do better than O2 out in the countryside since they have never needed to rely on a domestic roaming agreement like O2 still does in some areas by roaming on T-Mobile.

Secondly, I have used E-Plus for close to 6 years and I haven't had any problems with them in any major German cities. Since the incoming calls are free in Western Europe, it might be a good idea for your daughter to try out E-Plus and O2 in each place she visits to get an idea of which network works better for that area.