For the most complete and up-to-date information on this topic, be sure to check out TracFone's own web site.  This is just a quick summary of some points that I've become aware of.

1. A TracFone won't work if it is outside the United States (except for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
2. A TracFone can receive international calls, however, to make international calls, you need to use an international long distance calling service (one such service comes bundled for free).
   
3. The international long distance calling service that comes bundled (for no extra cost) with a TracFone is limited to 60 countries (when calling a landline number).  (Compare this to over 250 countries supported by other services.)  If the person you're calling is using a cell-phone, this number drops to just 7 countries!  (as of the time of this writing, in September 2007)  (I worked around this limitation by signing up for a separate international long distance calling card.)
4. A TracFone is not allowed to send an international text message (based on TracFone's Terms and Conditions of Service).  Receiving an international text message also appears to be officially unsupported (based on the blanket language in the Terms and Conditions disallowing international text messaging).

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