Just found out the following:
If you have a legit iphone your carrier can and will unlock your phone for free (they need your IMEI # of your phone) and then you can go to any carrier in another country and sign up for a new contract

This may be helpful to someone else...
Alfred

Looks like there IS another nutter among us 

Try www.simyo.com. Very cheap calls, loads of data and no contract. Just a €5 or €7 minimum spend on the best tarrifs. 

I have just changed to Pepephone, which is reputed to be the cheapest in Spain. Their service is excellent, and use Vodaphone or Movistar for connections. For 6.90 euros per month you get 656 mb of internet, with a cost of 1 cent for each additional megabyte you use. Call costs to national landlines and mobiles are 15 cents connection and then .09 cents per minute. Messages are 15 cents each.
You can take your existing number with you and they sort the changeover out with your current provider, and make no charges for the simcard or delivery. They also provide new numbers for a small cost. There is no contract time, so you can leave whenever you want. You do need to have an unlocked phone.
They are only available on-line at www.pepephone.com.
I certainly have no complaints and it is the first time any courier service has actually delivered anything to my home half way up a mountain on a rough track, and on time to