What phone/service for use in the UK, Europe and Australia

[bylo]

Originally Posted by brainwave1989

Does anyone have suggestions for what phone and carrier but serve my needs?

Outside North America you will need an unlocked 900/1800 band GSM phone. For use within NA you will need also the 850/1900 bands. My suggestion is to get a quadband phone. Then you can use it in NA with an inexpensive SIM from T-Mobile or AT&T.

You can buy used phones on eBay (with all the risks that entails) or you can buy new from places like http://www.puremobile.com/ A phone like the Motorola V3 is quadband, popular and relatively inexpensive. The V180/V188 is even cheaper. If you don't need a built-in camera, bluetooth, etc. then there's no need to pay for it.

As for carriers that depends on your usage patterns. Cards like Mobal and UM are more expensive than country-specific cards but are more convenient (same number everywhere, no need to swap SIMs, etc.)