This Spice D-80 Dual Mode Handset looks like a cool GSM phone for traveling with both a domestic and a foreign SIM. Pity it's not a flip phone…and that it's only going to be sold in India.
I think US carriers will be forced to unlock all their phones and accept some competition…eventually. Maybe some day they'll even start selling phones like this. (But in the long run we are all dead.)
I picked up my last two phones from On The Go Solutions, http://www.onthegosolutions.com/, which sells unlocked phones, many of which they buy from overseas. Currently using the HTC Touch, which was imported from the UK. They are pricey…because they are unlocked and unsubsidized. But they work with any carrier and the support from On the Go has been terrific. — Bret
Most phones in Australia are unlocked, and there’s alot of models that support quad band.. Especially in the PDA sector. However we just shut down the old CDMA (Call Division Multiple Access) network as it was outdated. 3G is spreading like wildwire covering basically all capital cities and large rural towns, however the move to convert to HSDPA is now on.
We really do have great coverage and speeds.
Also you can get dual-SIM adapters from places like Ebay, however they only allow operation of 1 SIM at a time with a programmed quick switch button.
http://www.grandcentral.com seems to make this obsolete
But it doesn’t. It might be a way to solve phone number portability if you live in a country where it doesn’t exist, but it doesn’t get around coverage areas and locked phones (unless you’re someone who doesn’t mind — and can afford — juggling a bunch of handsets and service plans.) I’m sure that the google founders can afford their new service (but I’d bet they’re worth enough that the phone companies fall over backwards to ensure that they get all the portability they want for free) but mere mortals might not find dealing with multiple service plans to be worth one #/lots of phones.