Re:Omnipoint (Score 1)

Omnipoint (or the other US GSM carriers) should now have 3 phones that work internationally. The Bosch and Ericsson World Phones are dual band. The Motorolla Timeport is tri-band. I'd suggest getting the Motorolla phone. I'm not a big Ericsson fan. I had it for a while but lost it on a train. The Tri-band is really a big benefit if you are in major cities. With the roaming coverage from the US via Omnipoint you generally have roaming ability on all 4 carriers. On the dual-band phones you only have the ability to access 2 of those (the other band is the US freqs). Prices differ per roaming agreement. Renting phones there isn't a bad idea. I ended up having to buy one. And whatever expense it is here, getting one in europe w/o a contract, expect to pay double what you pay here. Thankfully I had someone to run it through to. The benefit of the Ericsson is that it has a built-in IR modem, so assuming you aren't running NT, you can in theory connect to it w/o cables. Dial-up I used IBM/ATT Global services. They used to be really cheap before they implemented their "roaming" policies. They seem to cover most of the major cities with decent connect speeds. It does get pricey by the time you get your bill, or if you are on as much as I tended to be (work related).