look up your phone on phonescoop or a similar site. if it's not 850/1900, it's probably not going to work very good in the US. the US uses 850 (band) a lot, and i believe Europe tends to use 1900 (band). that's why you'll find 'world' phones which use 850/900/1800/1900 (all of the world's gsm bands).

that would be my first step. if it is 850/1900, you can try cingular and t-mobile. but, the phone MUST be unlocked to any gsm network. if you're not sure what this means, try a search for unlocked phones in the forums to learn about it.

and the same goes for the prepaid phone here, and using a Euro Sim over there. it needs to be unlocked to accept the Euro SIM. but this might be able to be done by the cell guy at the time of purchase if you explain the situation/purpose.

good luck. fill us in on the results.

welcome to the forum!

I have a GSM cellphone which I bought in europe while there. It uses a standard SIM card which allows one to change handsets by merely swapping SIM cards.

On which cell phone networks in the USA can I use this cellphone? Where can I get an appropiate SIM card?

Or can I buy a GSM handset here for use with a prepaid plan & later insert my european SIM card to use the same phone over there?