I need a cheap phone for my dad that will work in India and Europe

[Inspector Jihad]

He just needs a basic phone, preferably a candy bar style phone that he can put a sim card in and use in india and europe. I know there are different bands...would a quad-band cover all GSM technologies?

 

[cronos]

Any quad-band GSM phones should work just fine.

Something from Nokia maybe?

 

[Zebo]

Any quad-band GSM phones should work just fine.

Something from Nokia maybe?

This Nokia is not locked to carriers because they refuse to play ball and works internationally being quad band.

 

[corkyg]

Best bet is to rent a pre-paid phone in country at the airport.

 

[vshah]

anything on this page should work:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_ex_p_76_0?rh=n%3A301185%2Cn%3A283273011%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A668705011&bbn=283273011&sort=price&ie=UTF8&qid=1279599312



OP, does he need an Extra phone while traveling, or could he just use the same one he uses in the US. if you have tmobile, they'll send you the unlock code if you ask them.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Most phones are quad band in the 2G regime. It's 3G that becomes tricky. Almost every Nokia phone and SE phone out there as UMTS 2100 which works in Euro frequencies. Phones like the Nexus One should work fine too, but once again you'll have to decide if you want 3G. I think 3G isn't even hard to get.

Grab a Nokia or a SE phone. There are Motorola phones out there too.

http://gsmarena.com

 

[HumblePie]

Best bet is to rent a pre-paid phone in country at the airport.

This. Unlike the clusterfuck of carriers and phones we have in the US, other countries aren't so stupid. It's much easier, and cheaper just to get a cheap prepaid phone in whatever country you are traveling to. When you leave the country, just drop the phone off for recycling. There are no extra fees or contracts in most countries besides the US. Don't bother with buying a phone in the US for travel overseas. It's not worth the hassle, expense, and headache you'll get.

 

[zerogear]

http://www.beyondetech.com/html/products/d996.asp

CHeck them -- they carry a bunch of dual-sim quad-band unlocked phones, and are usually less than 200$

 

[vshah]

This. Unlike the clusterfuck of carriers and phones we have in the US, other countries aren't so stupid. It's much easier, and cheaper just to get a cheap prepaid phone in whatever country you are traveling to. When you leave the country, just drop the phone off for recycling. There are no extra fees or contracts in most countries besides the US. Don't bother with buying a phone in the US for travel overseas. It's not worth the hassle, expense, and headache you'll get.

not true if you travel often. buy one cheap phone, and just get the prepaid sim at your destination instead of spending $25-50 dollars to get a phone every time. just get one phone that you know how to use, pop in a sim and go. much less hassle/headache imho

 

[DivideBYZero]

Nokia, Nokia, Nokia. Pick up a cheap used GSM one on eBay, then get a pay-as-you-go SIM at your destination.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i should have been more clear. it needs to be a basic phone. just phone calls, my dad doesn't even text. and he travels quite a bit so i think its better if we buy a phone. it should be fairly cheap...like 50 bucks or so since it just needs to make phone calls.

we have verizon at home so this will just be for few weeks at a time when he's travelling.