Buy world phone or rent a GSM mobile for Europe?

[travy]

Has anyone rented/bought a GSM cell for Europe just for their travels?

I'm trying to figure out what I should do. I was planned on getting the Blackberry Tour out of Verizon later this month. But I'm wondering if it'll be cheaper just to get a unlocked phone and buy a sim card in Europe.

I'll be all around Europe for a minimum of three months(I hope longer).

I actually haven't looked that much into buy/renting a GSM phone. Opinons?

One main reason why I would go with the tour is GPS/maps/ translations apps. I doubt I'll be doing that much calling and texting though just because of the price.



So, ideas?

[space virgin]

Verizon runs on the CDMA network and the phones probably won't work in Europe. You'd be better off picking up pay-as-you-go SIM cards in the countries you visit which will most likely ONLY work with GSM phones.

Personally, I'd buy an unlocked tri- or quad-band GSM phone here and take it with. Your local craigslist should have a plethora of these for cheap.

[simply_angelic]

renting i ridiculously expensive. BUY!

[MeTurk]

You can get pay as you go phones very cheap here in Europe, there's allot of competition in the market and the EU is stepping in to increase the competition and fairness. They do plan to standardise prices across Europe and cut down on roaming charges (when you cross into a new European country) but I'm not sure what stage their at with that.

Although roaming may not be of any use to you, you might be better off buying a new sim card entering some countries.

Overall I don't think you'll use a mobile all that often, it's really only for emergency, if your meeting up with other people you've met on your travels nobody likes to use mobiles because of the cost and just arrange times and places. Your much better off popping into an internet cafe to make international phone calls and Europe's well geared for doing that due to the mobile population the free market created.

[travy]

Thanks for the informations so far. So far, most of my travels will be just by my self. That's why I thought the Blackberry Tour(world phone) would help with having GPS apps/translations apps/ect.

I'll still debate on this a bit...

[travy]

I eneded up buying a RIM Blackberry Tour through Verizon. I'm liking it a lot so far. I have an application that tells me all the all the London subway tube times and locations.

I'm glad I got this phone. I hope it works well over there.