International Phone, Recommendations

[Bibble]

First, forgive me for my ignorance. I know next to nothing about phones or how they work internationally.

I am in Europe, usually in Switzerland, until August and want a phone that will let me access the internet and check my e-mail. However, I want it to be on my Verizon family plan back home in the US. Is there a way I could buy the phone here and have them put it on my plan (e.g. if I went to vodafone)? Or would my mom have to buy it in the states and ship it over here?

Also, could you guys recommend a phone? My friend has the Storm, which is nice but I feel as if my fat fingers would make it difficult to use the touch screen. Also, he says he can't check his gmail on it for some reason. How is the Blackberry World Edition?

Thank you for your help.

 

[corkyg]

In Europe, the system of choice is GMS. Verizon is CDMA (so is Sprint.) In the USA, the carrier with Euro-style GMS is AT&T. Also T-Mobile - a child of the German GSM network. Vodaphone is GSM.

 

[DivideBYZero]

The only true CDMA world phones I know of are the BlackBerry 8830 and the Storm 9530.

 

[NYHoustonman]

Samsung Saga (i770) supports both CDMA and GSM (overseas) as well.