This looks like exactly what I am looking for, a simple phone with a $7/month prepaid plan and unlimited minutes rollover. Same price for local, long distance, roaming, and international calls they claim... but I wonder if that's just a sneaky way of saying that it's still $7 per month, but if you call from Mexico (or, for that matter, Alabama) the $7 worth of minutes you bought just get used up really, really fast?

One thing I haven't been able to find is TracFone coverage map for Mexico.

International Long Distance

Call Mexico, Beijing, London or your next-door neighbor for the same price!

Now with America’s #1 Prepaid Wireless Service you can call over 60 international destinations directly from your TRACFONE at no additional cost.

Their website certainly suggests they have coverage there.

OK, a bit more research shows me that TracFone won't work for me long-term. Once I'm in Mexico TracFone cannot make outgoing calls, and I can (if I understood the gentleman correctly) only receive calls from other TracFone users who have signed up for TracFone's ILD ("International Long Distance") plan.

I think I'll just follow Tony's advice and throw myself on the mercy of the local AT&T store, see if I can get a pre-paid plan using my existing phone and keep the same phone number so that none of the three people who know it will have to update their lists. The existing phone is more feature-rich than I like, but heck, like Bitt says, I don't have to learn how to do anything to it except recharge it once in a while, flip it open and talk when it rings, and key in the phone number when I want to call someone (as long as I remember to press the green button when I'm through "dialing".)

tanstaafl.