Advice needed for worldwide cell plans

[Kollektor]

Hi Everyone. I figured that since there are some world travellers and international business types here, this would be the appropriate place to pick some brains. A business associate wants a GSM PDA phone with data connection and push email capabilities. I personally prefer the tri/quad band Treo 650/700, but apparently my friend is having a hard time finding a carrier with reasonable worldwide rates. He doesn't want to spend a fortune in roaming charges for GPRS services.

He thought that the Blackberries might be better suited for him as he's heard of worldwide plans and rates, etc.

So here is my question:

For a world traveller, which is the best phone model and plan? He will probably buy the plan in the US, but is not a US resident, and will be travelling most of the time in any event.

Thanks so much for your thoughts and advice.

[chubbchubb]

I am not an expert on US mobile rates but what I've heard from friends, they are not really cheap and roaming is expensive. Treo is a nice but somewhat bulky device. I own several mobile devices (phones, smartphones, pdas) and my current push favorite is the blackberry curve. It has a very nice size/weight/capabilities ratio plus quadband & the push...

[et10yl]

I'd go with an unlocked tri or quad band phone, then just pick up a prepaid sim card where ever in the world he happens to be travelling. It's a lot cheaper than having to pay for a "world plan" and roaming charges. The only downside is that your number will change with each prepaid sim from each country. I've done this.

Depending on the phone model and the connection speed of the country that he's in, he could also opt for prepaid data rather than voice, and then run voip over the phone. And that way he'd get to keep one number. I've not done this, it's only in my theoretical realm right now, though I'd love to try it out on my next trip abroad.