[snaimon]

I don't think there is UNLIMITED DATA on prepaid in the countries you are visiting. Won't an internet cafe be sufficient? That would simplify matters.... voice only. You might consider the United Mobile Data offer if you must always have data. Or the United Mobile voice offer, UM+.

Worst case would be 2 SIMs for each country. Germany has either SUNSIM or SOLOMO which have good roaming and I think good data & roaming data rates.

I still recommend either US or EU calling cards which you can use from a hotel or residence. Must you REALLY be reachable on a cell phone FROM the US at all times? Can you rely on a hotel or residence where you can be reached more economically? You can also use the calling cards to call US from a NATIONAL card (SUNSIM, SOLOMO or Austrian mobile). Either use the local 800 # directly or employ another service like ONESUITE or ENJOYPREPAID rather than calling US directly from the mobile phone.

I think we are going to need to know your estimate of calls, inbound from US, outbound to US from each country you visit, calls between you and your wife, other calls in each country.

EXAMPLE: I think calls between UM+ phones are 25 ecents setup + 29 ecents per minute in all countries with free inbound. If you are spending most of your time in Germany, calls among SUNSIM phones are 8 ecents per minute in Germany. Well, you can easily see that if the preponderance of your calls are between you and your wife in Germany, then the SUNSIM option is clearly less expensive. Roaming calls SUNSIM to SUNSIM are 49 ecents setup and 19 ecents per minute SEND, 9 ecents per minute to RECEIVE -- about the same as UM to UM.

Austria has some SIMs with very low rates; not sure how they are on roaming, however.

Maybe others will offer their thoughts.

Stan