REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE - travel advice on staying in touch while on the road

Exorbitant telephone rates are a thing of the past. Overpaying for overseas calls is now the exclusive territory of busy business travelers who mistakenly use their hotels IDD phones and then are presented with a massive bill on checkout.

With the explosion of cell phone use and internet based talk services, travelers in the know can save hundreds of dollars over the course of their trip, be it a weekend away in Paris or a year or more on the road.

Saving money doesn’t mean sacrificing quality or clarity in the phone connections - it just means more time under a palm tree on your island of choice. 

Google Talk (google.com/talk)

 

This free VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) was released in the third quarter of 2005, and has since been a popular way to stay in touch. Talk to anyone who is online and used Google Talk – and with the ever growing popularity of Google products, that will soon be almost everyone.

Linked to Gmail users, instant messaging as well as phone calls are available through this service. It also works with Blackberry (http://www.blackberry.com/GoogleTalk).

To see what other clients work with Google Talk, visit: www.google.com/talk/otherclients.html

 GoogeTalk is compatible with Mac’s iChat and video chat is also available for those with web cams. (mail.google.com/videochat)

Skype's Unlimited World  www.skype.com

We are all familiar with Skype, the free talk service that has dramatically changed how people stay in touch. While it is useful to communicate with people who are online, much like GoogleTalk, it now offers a cheap service to receive calls anywhere Skype is legal (more on this in a moment)

Unlimited World, Skype's new $13 a month service gives you unlimited talk (well, unlimited means six hours a day which is more than most people will need unless you are a teenager) to 40 countries plus three private phone numbers  of your choice, in a variety of countries (USA, Canada, the UK, Japan…).

From these three numbers you can receive calls from anywhere in the world, and through your system preferences, choose which phone number you want to show up on your contacts cell or home phone when you call them. Very useful.

 On the road, using Skype is best done through your laptop, connected to Wi Fi, but can work in an internet café as well (where it can be noisy and crowded).

You don’t even need to sign in to Skype to see if you have a message – Skype will email you to inform you. You do have to retrieve voicemail messages while signed into Skype, which makes staying in a hotel with Wi Fi a smart option.

I have used Skype's Unlimited World for several months and have had no problem whatsoever with the service, though there are sometimes the usual Skype audio quality problems, the cost simply cant be beat. With many contacts on unlimited talk plans back home, they can call me for free wherever I am in the world, and I can pick up as though I am in the United States.

If you have a secret wish to be a spy or simply be somewhere you don’t want someone to know, this service is perfect. Whether you pick up in Tahiti or Midtown Manhattan, only the background noise will let your caller in on your location, so better pick up in a quiet place.

Note: in countries like the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives, Skype is banned and unless you know how to set up a proxy server to get around this you’ll have to wait till your next destination to log in for messages.

The Unlimited World Service from Skype can be purchased month by month or annually. You can cancel it as soon as you return from your trip. As I mentioned earlier, the service says ‘unlimited’ when in fact there is a 6 hour cap per day on calls. Still, it is a very good deal that is sure to get sweeter as time goes by – the forty countries covered (Japan, Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, France……) also covers cell phones in the USA, which is now becoming the only way to reach people in America these days.

Click here for more info: Skype's Unlimited World

3 and 4 Band Cell Phones

I am no technical expert, but I do know that cell phones work on a particular band, or frequency. Out of four, countries operate on a combination of two bands, and depending on the receivability of your cell phone (4, or ‘Quad Band’ as it is known, is best) it will or will not work in different countries.

Frustrating and confusing, yes, but it is getting easier and cheaper to have a cell phone that works in more countries, even the United States where SIM cards are now available.

GSM was originally developed in Europe, and only came to the US recently.

Initially, all countries with GSM service used the 900 MHz band.  In the past few years, service providers have increasingly been adding 1800 MHz coverage, due to congestion in the 900 MHz band.

Almost without exception, all international countries that use the non-US international frequency bands have 900 MHz service, and many have some 1800 MHz service as well.

Two particular frequency bands are used by GSM services in the US, while two different frequency bands are used by GSM services elsewhere in the world. Most countries in Asia, for example receive in the same 2 bands, while Japan is a different beast entirely. 

Choose your phone carefully because it may be useless in another region. Most cell phones sold in Asia work in all other Asian countries, except Japan. My advice would be to buy a phone in a place like Bangkok, (MBK or MahBoonKrong department store is a good option, ask a local for a good shop they know)

 

A run down of the different types of cell phones:

Dual Band: Cheapest but most likely only useful in a small or limited number of countries. Its ok if you are going back and forth between your home and another country, but for long term country hopping, this choice is not recommended.

Tri Band: works in most countries, but not always in places like Japan, Argentina, and the USA, because the two bands in use from the four available depends on the country (confusing indeed) Again, most tri bands sold in Asia work in Asia.  

The two common Tri Band variations are:

900/1800/1900 - Excellent for international travel, and very good for use in the USA

850/1800/1900 - Excellent for use in the USA but not really suited for international travel

Note: many GSM phones sold in the US are locked, meaning they can’t be used in a nother country, while phones sold in Asia, like Hong Kong or Singapore, are unlocked, meaning they can be used anywhere, as long as the bands the phone can receive is what the country the phone is being used in uses for their mobile network.

Quad Band GSM Phone: This is the best choice phone, because it will work in more countries, though they are often much more expensive than Tri Bands. Eventually most phones will be Quads to ease in cell phone use in different countries, especially with more people traveling for business. 

Personal Experience

I have a $70 Nokia Tri Band cell phone that I have used for over a year, and have successfully received calls in over 20 countries with it. (see SIM Card Purchase below) I keep the SIM cards in a small pouch and when I return to countries I have visited just pop them in. Note that some phone numbers associated with SIM cards expire if there is no new credit added to that particular number, in that case any remaining credit expires and you have to buy a new SIM card, rarely more than $10 USD.

However, if you are traveling in Japan, the United States, or Argentina, a 4 band cell phone is essential. My cheap Nokia has just 3 bands and when I visited Buenos Aires I had to buy another Tri Band phone for $50. Eventually I will buy a Quad band but with the convenience of the Skype In service have not found the need yet.

Cell Phone Rental

In some countries where cell phone networks use bands that are incompatible with business travelers phones from home, cell phone rental is popular, and a barrage of touts will often try to sell you the service as soon as you exit from customs. Japan is a good example.

Forget renting a cell phone in a country – the service is geared towards business travelers with deep pockets, and when I am in Japan, I don’t use a local cell phone as its expensive (cell phone rentals are very overpriced) This service is really best for business travelers who need a local number for their contacts. I just use my Skype in numbers until I am in a more SIM card friendly country, like Singapore or China.

Roaming

Your cell phone provider back home may offer you a roaming plan. Roaming was a popular way to receive calls on your cell phone but costs can be exorbitant, both making and receiving calls can be charged for full minutes, even if only a fraction is used. Horror stories abound of cell phone users returning home to cell phone bills in the thousands. Beware!

While phone calls can be expensive, SMS messages may be the exception with roaming in terms of cost - though more expensive than those sent from a local SIM card phone number, it may mean peace of mind for parents back home who want to stay closely in touch through the phone number they have always reached you at.

While Skype has a paid service for SMS messages, the cheapest and best option is to buy a SIM card locally, and use it in either a Tri or Quad band cell phone purchased for your trip. See below for more info.

SIM Cards

For as little as $4 USD, a SIM card can be purchased from a mobile phone shop, slipped into your GSM cell phone and bam, you can be reached by friends and family almost immediately. The downside is that you have to notify your contacts of your new number (something you don’t have to do with Skype In) and you are often charged for incoming calls (Argentina, Thailand yes, India and Vietnam no.)

In Sri Lanka I was making calls within 10 minutes of exiting the customs area at Colombo airport, and in Cambodia was receiving calls within half an hour of blasting out the number to my contact list.

If you have unlocked your iPhone you can slip in the new countries SIM card and away you go. (This unlocking service goes for as little as $5 in places like Vietnam).

You may be required to show your passport to get a SIM card, which looks set to increase as countries in western countries clamp down on organized crime, but most mobile phone shops will sell you one without it.