Phone (Service) and Communicacion!

[ride_natty_ride]

Hey y'all ~

I thought it might be cool to start a thread about phone usage, accessibility, service, etc. when traveling to other countries. As for myself personally, I am wondering what would work best while in Central America (i could totally do without the phone myself, but need to reassure the parents that i'm still alive!) - would getting a 'local' phone be good when i'm calling the States, just a phone card to use at payphones or... ? email? who knows!

But yah! if you'd like to contribute to this post and say where you went and how you chose to stay in touch there, it might help out some newbies, myself included!

namaste, blessed b,
~ melissA

[expatben]

I find phone cards work but results vary. In Britain the phones cards are pretty good so if I am traveling I tend to get one of those or a special international ones. I don't do cell phones even when I am home so for me if I wanna call someone a phone card is the best way.

[Elizabeth]

Hey Melissa...I think I somehow got the impression that you're from the States? (correct me if I'm wrong) If so, you can use Skype to call home. Its only 2 cents a minute!

For making local calls you may want to take an unlocked GSM phone with you so you can get local SIM cards to be able to make local calls.

[ride_natty_ride]

Hi Elizabeth ~

Yup, currently in MI... i'll look into this Skype bizness, as i have noo idea what it is (but do know that it exists... hehe). no, i generally just stay as far out of the technological loop as possible; i have a $10 walmart tracphone that does me just fine. how does one access this skype? is it via the web, or... what? interesting, interesting times with interesting, interesting toys... hehe.

namaste, blessed b,
~ melissA

[marc873]

In Central America, you just buy a $20 phone upon arrival, change SIM cards as needed by country, and then just purchase minutes ($20) as you go.... Pretty easy and the service is decent and you can top off your minutes literally anywhere....

[Legitikick]

You don't know Skype?!! Yeah, its definitely the way to go for calling home. Make the most of Skype - free internet calls and great value calls You'll find it in many internet cafes all over the world now.

Cell phones for local calls, but not for calling home. One exception though, if you're in Germany, there's a pre-paid SIM called Fonic that lets you call the States and Canada for the same price as land-lines throughout Europe (9 euro cents/min). Still expensive, but good for the occasional 'I want my mommy, now' calls.

[maracle]

Skype is confusing as shit in terms of understanding all the different aspects of the service, but the long and short of it is:

1) You can call computer-to-computer for free. So if your parents install Skype on their computer and get a headset or microphone you can call em (and even video chat) using the software at no cost.

2) If you want to call landlines and cell phones from a computer with skype, no problem. You either pay by the minute (plus a per call connection fee) or you can get a subscription for 3 euros that includes unlimited calls to North America. Its super cheap either way but the subscription is a bit better if you call for more than a couple hours a week.

3) If you want a number for incoming calls, you can buy one for $60 a year or $30 if you've signed up for a subscription (and you can cancel the subscription after 1 month if you want to go minute-by-minute I think)

4) The subscriptions also include other useful stuff like voicemail.

A cell phone can be useful for local calls, but I wouldn't sweat it. Tracfones are difficult to unlock unfortunately... I've not traveled much in central america, but in every country I've been to in south america there are shops with phones available for local calls on just about every block.

[ride_natty_ride]

good posts, y'all, much thanks! this is a wonderful place for getting those random, middle-of-the-night-what-if questions answered!

how about other places (not for me, at least not for the moment!) but for other first-timers. phone service in europe? SE asia? i had never thought that i could be this devoted to a post re. phone usage, as i really do not enjoy them, for the most part... but if it helps someone else, then hooray!

namaste, blessed b,
~ melissA

[juliagulia]

I think that for long term travel (like, 5 months or something) in the UK, getting a three phone with a skype app is pretty awesome. My boyfriend got me the cheapest phone (60 GBP at the three store but he found it for 20 GBP) and it already had skype on it. I got the N. America subscription (something like $3 a month) and could call my parents for free essentially.

Though, in my situation it was a bit different because I also wanted a cheap option to call my boyfriend. He already had three/skype to contact me when I was in the US, so getting three made sense because we'd both have free three-to-three while I was in England. But I also got 300 free texts to anyone that was valid for three months so I could text my roommate and a free internet allowance on my phone. It was also nice because I topped up with 10 GBP and was able to use my phone in Portugal in case of emergencies/to text my boyfriend back in the UK/receive calls from my aunts, etc.

Anyway, it was cheap for me because I got the phone as a gift and it was used extensively to call the US and local over a period of 5+ months. Plus, I'll be using it again when I go back to the UK next winter. So, it might not be an option for most people, but if anyone is going to be abroad in the UK, I'd definitely recommend it.