Comments on: 6 alternatives to predatory international cell phone bills

By: Tim L.

Tim L. — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:51:17 +0000

As a follow-up, I just traveled around Mexico for seven weeks using nothing but a local pre-paid phone on the move and Skype at home or in a hotspot. In the end I spent less than I do on my home service and didn’t have to pay any international charges to the shylock carriers in the U.S. For my home number, I just checked voicemail each day with Skype and called them back with that if needed. I also got a U.S. phone number with my area code through Skype, so family could call that and it was like dialing a U.S. number instead of an international one.

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:54:10 +0000

Just go to Magicjack.com, buy their adapter $20 plus $20 for year subcription and you can make and recieve calls to and from the USA & Canada for FREE for one YEAR.

It is a real no brainer. I also use SKYPE and it is good, but Magicjack is better and cheaper in the long run.

By: Tim L. - author

Tim L. - author — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:42:37 +0000

The SIM card switch is covered in the article:

2. Cell phone purchase or rental abroad
International business travelers paying their own bills have long relied on unlocked international tri-band or quad-band phones. When they arrive at a new destination, they switch out the SIM card for a local one, load up with a prepaid phone card, and pay local rates thereafter.

As one commenter noted though, most U.S. phones are sold locked—unlike what you buy in other countries.

By: Ed Kummel

Ed Kummel — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:54:12 +0000

It’s all fine and dandy to use a foreign SIM in your GSM phone…but here in the US, the majority of carriers SIM lock their phones! I found this out the hard way when in Hong Kong last month for 4 weeks…I purchased a Peoples Cellular SIM from the local 7-11 (yeah, they have those in Hong Kong) for $60 HKD (about $9.50 US) with 60 minutes of calling and data on it. I did this so I could at least get my email and use mapping software while in Hong Kong. Unfortunatly, my phone was SIM locked and since the phone was paid for by my company, I couldn’t unlock it. And going through my company resources would have taken over a week…what a pain!
So, the moral of this story is if you’re going overseas with your GSM phone and you want to use a foreign SIM in it, get the phone unlocked at least a week before you leave!
Ed
web/gadget guru

By: turtletrot1

turtletrot1 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:03:54 +0000

I made sure my phone here is a “Quad” phone so no matter where I travel a locally purchased SIM card will work just fine.
“ANY CARRIER WORLD-WIDE. QUAD-BAND WILL WORK WITH ANY GSM CARRIER.850/900/1800/1900 mhz gsm. just pop in your sim card.

And as another said, incoming calls are not charged against your minutes.

Adding minutes to your SIM is as easy as going into any gas station, snack-bar, etcl This can be done almost anywhere. Even with the dismal $/€ exchange rate, this is the way to go.

By: Joe S

Joe S — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:54:45 +0000

If you are taking your phone with you to a foreign country, remember not to even turn it on with a US SIM card in it, just to see if you have a new voicemail or text message. Turning on that phone will register it to the foreign cell site. If you shut off the phone after that, calls will be billed as foreign calls, since they have to forward BACK to the US voicemail number. So, you can get dinged for international calls, even if you didn’t make or receive any.

T-Mobile’s hotspot@home service was truly amazing. I was able to talk using my bucket of minutes – not a penny more. If I spent $9.99/month, you get unlimited wi-fi minutes.

By: Meg

Meg — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:20:58 +0000

I bought a GSM phone on ebay and buy sim cards locally. It is so much cheaper than a US carrier’s international plan and surprisingly cheap to call back to the US.

By: Joe Farrell

Joe Farrell — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:42:59 +0000

Your forgot the simplest method of solving the international cell problem –

PICK THE RIGHT CARRIER HERE IN THE US.

If you travel internationally, intend to travel internationally or just want to not have to play the multiple phone, $2 a min international rate plan game, here is the secret.

Buy a GSM network cell phone, The major companies here in the USA that use this network are AT&T [the old Cingular], T-Mobile, Suncom and AllTel.

In Europe and Asia, most INCOMING calls are free.

GSM cell phones use SIMCARDS. When you travel internationally, you simply take your phone with you from the USA [along with your chargers which universally are 110-240v] go buy a country specific simcard, take out your USA simcard [remembering not to lose it!] and put in the country specific simcard and viola, you have local country number and free incoming calls.

You need to refill the minutes, buy a refill card almost anywhere.

I travel to Europe about 3x a year on business and have a Britain simcard that gets used often enough to never lose the number. If I go to France or Italy or Germany, a country specific card is $25 bought there with a local number and $10 or so of airtime.

Simcards are portable – know a friend, co-worker or family member with a GSM phone, take it out and put it in the other phone. Same number, same amount of money left.

When you want to speak with the office or family, you call them, they call you back – free incoming cell call and 5 cents a minute out of the USA.

If you use a non-GSM cell carrier, i.e., Verizon, you need a new phone that is GSM capable.