What to use to contact UK - Mobile / Email

I wonder if you can help.....

Some friends have just left the UK to go across the USA in an RV, and have emailed me to find a suitable method for them to email and phone back to the UK. Can anyone suggest what they should buy, bearing in mind that they are only in the USA for a year? I was thinking a mobile phone with email capability, on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, as we have here in the UK. Any recommendations are greatly received.

Thanks

Kev Jackson

There is a product that has hung on despite all of my predictions about an early demise and actually it might be the best match for your friends. It doesn't work as phone, but it enables e-mail wherever one can find a pay (wired) phone and it uses now-ancient technology, but it works. I would have them look at www.Pocketmail.com

Here is a link to <a href = "http://www.pocketmail.com/us/press/in_the_press">media reviews<a/>, and here is my <a href = "http://www.roadtripamerica.com/rw/rw11.htm">earlier commentary<a/>.