I need to get a cell phone to use in Landsthul Germany for a couple of months.  I am not familiar with the area at all, and don't even know what providers are there.  Does anyone know of one I should get, calling to the US a lot.

They lost the war? [;D]

Edited to add: In all sincerity, I don't have a clue. Have you done a Google search? You might be surprised at the torrent of results you get.

You also may want to look in travel websites, since I'm sure the topic is hardly unique. Good luck!

"It's a whole otha' country!"  -Forest Gump

Very efficient. They make a mean Schnitzengruber......

Same solution I would suggest here: get a prepaid SIM card from one of the local providers (let me check my notes...)

Either get a tri-band phone here, and use it with the SIM card you buy over there. Or just buy a phone on ebay Germany and have it sent to your Landstuhl address.

Incoming calls on European cellphones are free; the calling party pays. You're "area code" will be different from the local area code.

SIM card: Subscriber Identification Module, a little chip that can be put into any compatible GSM phone.

GSM: the standard for cellphones outside the US. US GSM phones however are not compatible with European ones, due to them working on different frequencies. That's where you need a tri-band phone if you want to use the same phone all over the world.
A pair of cheap throwaway phones like the Nokia 3310 (for Europe) and the Nokia 3390 (for the US) will do just as fine.

They lost the last two world wars? [:D]

Thanks for the info Kar.  Does anyone know how the coverage in the area is, and who the best provider might be?

Seeing how Germany is about the size of Montana, and has about 55 million mobile telephones, you can assume that there are no issues re/coverage. I'd stick with Vodaphone, one of the 2 major GSM providers (the other major one being T-Mobile).
Their prepaid package is called CallYa.
Smaller providers are E-plus and O2. Expect lesser coverage from them.

[url]http://www.vodafone.de/preise_tarife/callya/index.html[/url]

Thanks a lot Sar!  I just have to have my friend translate now, and I should be set.  I swear, you can ask any question on AR15 and have it answered in no time.

They seem to like to vacation in France quite a bit. I hear they get really good service there, unlike anyone else.