Edited by author 07-29-2005 12:41 PM
Jim:
you have to be careful. Some phones will work. Others won't.

Phones that won't work in Europe are ALL phones that use America's original standard, CDMA.

For a US-bought phone to work over here, it must be a GSM phone. But even then, you may have a problem; there are some phones which don't work on European frequencies. To work over here, it must be a tri-band phone at least - and a lot of American GSM phones are not.

Jade:
There are two main reasons why your UK phone might not work in New York.

First, it may simply not be tri-band; it needs to work properly on the 1.9 GHz frequency they use in North America. If it isn't, it can't be made to work - end of story. Equally irritating, if you don't know how to make it work, is a tri-band phone which doesn't automatically switch to 1.9 GHz, and needs you to find a setting buried in a pile of menu options... that varies from phone to phone.
But second, the thing may have a tri-band radio, but it may not be paid for. You may need to ask your operator for "roaming" to be enabled.
And sadly, even if you do, and pay for it, experience shows that a lot of them screw it up, and you get to NY and the thing simply doesn't work, and you can't call home to complain.