Shoutbox

I live in the US, but I am from Europe and go back there fairly often.  Basically, there are two issues for people traveling from North America and trying to use their phones:

1) US and Canadian carriers use several different mobile phone systems, Europe only uses one (GSM).  If your phone doesn't have a SIM card, it is not a GSM phone.  Non-GSM phones are bricks in Europe; the other networks (CDMA, TDMA, iDEN) simply don't exist there.

2) If you have a GSM phone purchased from your carrier in North America, it will be carrier locked -- meaning that locally purchased low cost European SIM cards won't work in it.  It is possible to "unlock" a phone using various hacks or paying someone to do it for you, or sometimes asking the carrier for an unlock code (though most of them are assholes about it and I only know of one US carrier that actually might give you one and then only if you are at least 3 months into your contract).  An alternative is to purchase an already unlocked (or never locked) phone from a third party; just Google "unlocked GSM phone".

So, what you need is an unlocked GSM phone.  If you want to keep your current non-GSM carrier in Canada and just have a phone for your trip, you could buy a very cheap basic phone.  If you are not opposed to switching your Canadian carrier, you could buy a nice phone of your choice and use it both at home and abroad.  I believe Rogers does GSM in Canada.

You could also try to buy an unlocked GSM phone in Europe, where you can probably pick one up at a local shop instead of having to mail order, but I have not tried this and can't speak about the pricing, etc.  In general, electronic devices are more expensive in Europe, but unlocked phones are a specialty item here, so the opposite may be true.

Once you get to Europe and have your unlocked GSM phone in hand, buy a prepaid SIM card.  These are typically sold at any news stand and similar places.  Your card will come with a local number for that country, which you may want to communicate to your friends and family so they can call you.  Incoming calls are free.  Calls initiated by you will be very reasonably priced, even calls to other countries and back home to Canada.  Just remember you have to dial your numbers with international country codes (e.g. +1 prefix if calling US or Canada).  Generally, the prepaid cards will still work at the same or slightly higher rates if you go to another country.  It's very easy and you really can't go wrong.

Most prepaid cards are also good for data service if you want to tether your phone to your laptop, and they can be recharged, although I have ran into situations where normal credit card payments were not accepted for the recharge and the only option was transfer through local banks.  In that situation, hopefully you will know someone in the country you can give some cash to and have them do it for you.