All travelers know to be weary of cell phone rates and charges when traveling overseas.  Many phone carriers apply expensive charges to their clients when roaming.  Verizon charges $1.49/minute in other countries and $2.49/minute when on cruise ships, Tmobile has roaming charges as expensive as $4.99/minute, and AT&T will charge about $100 for a 20 minute call from Russia.  Many rates can be charged to you even if you are not using your phone to make calls, depending on your phone.  For example, the iphone automatically checks email and performs internet data updates even when you are not using it for calls or using the internet.  These settings are ok while you are in the states, as these features are free for users here, but when traveling these rates can really add up.

 There are many ways to avoid such charges.  One is using Skype; Skype launched in 2003 and has been growing in popularity ever since.  With Skype you can avoid phone costs when over seas by using the VoIP (voice over internet protocols) and it will charge you only a few cents per minute, and if you are a frequent traveler you can add voicemail to your account for $20/year.  Or if you travel often you can purchase one of the new traveler-friendly phones, such as the new phone from Cubic Telecom, which works in 160 countries, and their service plan, MaxRoam, cuts costs up to 75% by letting you set up local phone numbers in several different countries.

 Some more tips for traveling over seas but avoiding the cell-phone costs;  Adjust your settings:  some phones, such as the iphone, have settings like “airplane mode” that you can set you phone to that will shut off the cellular, Bluetooth and WiFi to avoid charges; Get an international number tied to you phone:  services such as Megellan allow you to purchase an international phone number to link to your cell while traveling so people can reach you at their local rates; or you can rent a phone:  there are many locations where you can rent cell phones, and many airports in these places have kiosks where you can rent one.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 9:17 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.