How-to: stay connected while traveling internationally
By Darren Murph 
posted June 9th 2010 12:02PM
posted June 9th 2010 12:02PM
Obviously, staying connected primarily consists of two things: having access to voice communication (we'll bundle SMS into this) and having access to the internet at large (WiFi, mobile broadband, WWAN, you catch our drift). We'll start with a few basics on keeping a lock on voice communications while heading overseas, and while every situation has their own nuances, we're hoping to hit the high points here that'll at least aid everyone in some way or another.
First, a factoid: America and Canada are just two of an extremely small group of nations that support CDMA. For those unaware, Sprint (and it's MVNOs Boost Mobile, Assurance Wireless, Common Cents Mobile and Virgin Mobile), Verizon Wireless, US Cellular and pretty much every other regional carrier not named AT&T, T-Mobile USA or Suncom uses CDMA. Frankly, it works great, and VZW / Sprint have the subscribers to prove it. Unfortunately for those headed far, far away from North America, there's an overwhelming chance that your CDMA phone won't even get a signal in the nation you're landing in.
When it comes to global communications, GSM / W-CDMA is the surefire winner; there's not a semi-developed nation on the planet that doesn't support GSM (or iterations of it), so if you're looking to talk on your mobile while in a foreign land, we'd highly recommend toting an AT&T or T-Mobile handset with 3G support. We say "with 3G support" because a great many nations (Japan comes to mind) have moved well beyond EDGE, and their mobile towers won't support any technology that's older than what we know as 3G. To make a long story longer, if your device has a SIM card (which looks like this), and you can get a 3G signal in America, you're good to go.
Not an AT&T or T-Mobile subscriber? Not all hope is lost... yet. Select phones on Sprint and Verizon Wireless can be used internationally, even in GSM-only nations. If you've got a "worldphone" (enterprise BlackBerry customers would know best), there's a good chance that your CDMA handset has a SIM card in there as well specifically for times when you head somewhere that requires a jaunt through immigration. We'd suggest calling your carrier and having them double check to see if your handset is suited for international usage, and if so, you can continue right along reading. If not, we'll toss you a bone in just a few paragraphs.
Let's assume that your current mobile is equipped for voice communication overseas. Great. One hurdle crossed. If you think it's absolutely imperative that you be able to make and receive calls on your exact mobile number, you're going to be paying dearly for the privilege, no matter how you slice it. International voice minutes on a cellphone are absurdly expensive, even with prepaid global minute packs from your carrier. Here's a quick breakdown of what it'll cost you to make a minute-long call in France and Canda, just to give you a general idea of how bad an idea it is to use your existing mobile number to make / receive calls outside of the country. We also threw texting and pay-per-use data rates in as well. Mind you, all of these values can shrink (oftentimes dramatically so) if you purchase a monthly global calling plan or pre-pay for global data, but it's never "cheap" to roam.
AT&T |
Sprint |
T-Mobile |
Verizon |
| 1 min. call from France |
$1.29 | $1.29 | $1.29 | $1.29 |
| 1 min. call from Canada |
$0.79 | $0.59 | $0.49 to $0.69 | $0.69 |
| 1 SMS to French carrier |
$0.50 (sent); $0.50 (received) |
$0.50 (sent); $0.05 (received) |
$0.35 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
$0.25 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
| 1 MMS to French carrier |
$1.30 (sent); $1.30 (received) |
$0.50 (sent); $0.05 (received) |
$0.35 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
$0.25 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
| 1 SMS to Canadian carrier |
$0.50 (sent); $0.50 (received) |
Same as US plan rates | $0.20 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
$0.20 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
| 1 MMS to Canadian carrier |
$1.30 (sent); $1.30 (received) |
Same as US plan rates | $0.20 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
$0.20 (sent); $0.20 (received) |
| Data price in France |
$19.97 per MB | $16.38 per MB | $15 per MB | $20.48 per MB |
| Data price in Canada |
$15.36 per MB | $2.05 per MB | $10 per MB | $2.05 per MB |
So, you're essentially hosed if you need to make voice calls from your mobile while outside of the country, right? Hold up a second, vaquero -- don't go killing that Kayak.com window just yet. Thanks to a magnificent invention by the name of Skype, there's an infinitely more affordable way to make and receive calls when you're away from home soil. If you fully expect to be making and taking a slew of calls to your mobile, we'd buy up a pool of discounted global minutes before leaving the States (or your homeland, wherever that may be), and using those only as informational minutes. Allow us to explain.
Let's say you get a call while trekking through Kenya on your standard mobile number -- the one that all 1,842 of your clients has embedded in their contact list. There's a smart way and a dumb way to handle this situation. The latter would involve you yakking away for an hour, while the former would be for you to take the call, inform him / her of your whereabouts and then tell them when you'll be able to return their call. Unless it's a dire emergency, the other caller can afford to wait an hour or two to chat, during which time you'll be finding yourself a WiFi hotspot.
At this point, we're going to assume you've equipped yourself with a smartphone capable of running Skype; the app is currently available for Android, iPhone OS, BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile (this one's janky, though), so the vast majority of existing smartphone owners should be taken care of (webOS users notwithstanding). Before heading out on your journey, we'd suggest throwing a $10 or $20 (or more, if you're a heavy talker) credit onto your Skype account, which will allow you to make calls back to your homeland from $0.021 per minute (full rates are here). Notice how much cheaper that is than calling on a foreign cellular network? Oh, and just because some carriers will allow you to make a Skype call over 3G, doesn't mean you should. You don't want to pay Skype and data roaming charges for a single call, now do you?
Where this really gets useful is when you bring Google Voice into the equation. Skype users can already assign a dedicated number to their account so that their WiFi-connected smartphone will ring should someone dial in, but Google Voice enables calls to be accurately routed and voicemails left in a centralized location. Simply direct your Google Voice number to forward onto your Skype account, and your clients back home may never know you've stepped away from the office. We will say, however, that you'll want to think this over and get it sorted one way or another before leaving home.
If you've got yourself a CDMA phone that won't roam on a GSM network (hint: most won't), at least your options are narrowed to one. You'll be renting a phone once your reach your destination airport, but thankfully, most major airports in foreign lands make this surprisingly easy. Obviously, every airport is different, but most have a number of phone rental shops just before you head outside and hail a taxi. Aside from running into language barriers (though if you speak English, chances are there will be instructions there for you), the biggest pain here is communicating your temporary phone number to your loved ones back home, while simultaneously telling them that it'll cost them dearly if they need to dial up that international number. But hey, that's the price you pay for having the ability to make mobile calls on a whim while visiting somewhat far, far away from Kansas. One thing to be mindful of here, however, is that some nations do not allow for inter-carrier texting; for example, an NTT DoCoMo phone in Japan cannot text someone on SoftBank. If you and your buds are heading over someplace, it's smart to all rent mobiles / SIM cards from the same carrier. Here's an video explanation of how to rent a SIM card overseas from our good pal Nicole Scott at Netbook News.
Wrap-up
We know, that's a lot to digest, and most of it may seem like common sense to the technophile. If you're looking for the quick and dirty recommendation list for getting connected overseas, you've landed in the right section.
- Almost always, it's cheapest to simply rent a SIM card or entire cellphone from the country you're landing in. It's not hard. In most cases, you don't even have to leave the airport. It's uncommon to pay more than $200 per week for unlimited local calls, text and data.
- If you must use your own phone internationally, buy a global roaming plan before leaving, and attempt to use Skype whenever possible. Just ring your carrier and ask about global roaming packs -- they'll be happy to oblige.
- Do not ever, under any circumstance, roam with your American mobile broadband card. You'll never pay off the roaming bill. Just rent an unlimited MiFi, SIM card, or entire WWAN card for around $20 to $30 per day in most places. Proactive users can rent one ahead of time to avoid the hassle post-landing.
- Don't be shocked if your CDMA phone won't work overseas. Consider it a blessing in disguise and follow the steps above.
- Stay in a hotel, hostel, resort or tent with gratis internet access, preferably WiFi so your Skype-enabled mobile can connect easily.
- Believe it or not, an old school calling card is also a great way to phone home so long as your hotel doesn't ding you for calling out to a toll-free number.
AT&T international roaming details: click here
Sprint international roaming details: click here
T-Mobile USA international roaming details: click here
Verizon Wireless international roaming details: click here
Thanks, I'll be heading to Mexico later this summer and wanted to bring a long my new iPhone. Very informative, Skype it is for me. Now if I could just get the people at the resort to write a coherent sentence in English I'll be able to find out if I'll have free wifi or not.
@CCTV36 Alternatively, learn the language of the place you're going to, rather than expecting them to do the work for you.
Skype is also available for Symbian S60.
Romanian telecom providers have an approximate 1.2 $ per MB charge, or even lower.
what is that red and black case for the iphone shown called?
@dubt216 "Second Skin" by Case-Mate. It's an oldie but goodie. Very goodie.
Why rent a Sim to use Skype? I just buy a prepaid Sim in whatever country and use that to call back to the US. The rates are much cheaper. My Vodafone Sim for India is less than 10 cents a minute to call the US and I have a local number for clients to call. All of the Sims are linked via Google Voice.
@DNAbio
This is a great comment. Just out of curiosity, does that mean that you end up paying for calls that are forwarded to those international SIM numbers from your Google Voice number?
@DNAbio I do the same thing when I travel to the UK. Just buy a local SIM card (just need to have an unlocked GSM phone). I've used vodaphone and they even have a data option which makes it easier than slumming around for wifi
@bhoopes I haven't really looked at how Google Voice handles a call, I only use it for the voicemail feature.
I was recently in Senegal and South Africa and I tried to use Skype, but I got a popup message saying that I could only use it in the US. I was paying for the global data package at the time, through Verizon. Is there a way to get around that, without switching the SIM?
I'm on Verizon and have a Storm (no, I don't like the Storm - waiting for my new every 2).
you can also usually rent one from your carrier. call customer care to order a few days before you leave.
the EU just confirmed they are passing a new law to cap the price on International roaming.
''The EU rules capped rates for making mobile-phone calls abroad at 49 euro cents a minute and for receiving calls at 24 cents.''
http://www.independent.ie/business/european/mobile-roaming-charge-cap-legal-says-eu-2211742.html
@IMarius
More info about the EU Roaming Regulation
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/regulation/index_en.htm#new_rules
@IMarius
is not that old news?
Anyways that regulation is just for roaming within the EU
@marmaduke
Yea, that EU roaming thing is completely irrelevant, because only Americans read Engadget in English...
I think if you have an iphone just rent a mifi at the airport put it in your pocket hook up the iphone via wifi, turn off 3G. Now you can use skype for calls and surf the web to your hearts content and also use all your iphone apps. MIFI is almost always the way to go. And if you are traveling as a group or family of iphone users multiple phones can conect via wifi to the same MIFI
Wait, in Japan, if you're on one network you can't text people on another? That's really crappy D:
@Yandereboat That is correct. Sucks.
@DarrenMurph Have you lived there? How's that work out for people?
@Yandereboat
When I lived there in the late 90s you could already text each other. Although they were sent by email,( everyone had a carrier specific email address) it was possible to send texts to people on other networks.
@deepdigits I think that's probably the same way, because I know they refer to texts as meiru, or mail still. Although my Japanese teacher hasn't been to Japan for a while, either.
@Yandereboat Texting in Japan via traditional SMS is actually pretty rare in Japan. Being limited to texting only other people with the same carrier is one reason. Most people actually email each other with their phones (non-smartphones there have been able to do it for years), and that has no carrier limitation.
i´m coming to NY, from argentina, with an unlocked iPhone.
Is it possible to get a SIM from a US carrier and have it for a week only for some 3G?
just like that 250mb iPad plan...
@felipedavolta Muy facil. Cuando familia me visita de Buenos Aires vamos a una tienda de AT&T y compramos prepaid SIM. Son las unicas que trabajan con los celulares de Argentina. Ciao!
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/go-phones/index.jsp
@felipedavolta Yes. just swing by an AT&T store and you can get a card. If you go to other places like random mobile shops they will force you to buy a minutes card with the SIM but not at the AT&T store. Then you can maybe get a cheaper minutes card at the drugstore. A friend of mine from Poland does this all the time. Though she never buys data. so that might work a little different. If Data is important to you.
@felipedavolta
what I really care about in this case is data.. for voice I would use skype over wifi...
just checked this link at wireless.att.com and the only info about data i got is $ 0,01 per kb... about $10 per mb... that´s a lot !
is there any kind of pay as you go for data ?? as i said.. like for the ipad...
@felipedavolta If you are good with WIFI then you might just avoid ATT completely and get a Verizon MIFI device with a data plan from the link below. The device is about the size of a stack of 5 credit cards and has about 4 hrs of battery life when in use. Depending on on how long you are staying in NY and what you will be doing, it might not be worth the inconvenience of having to plugin regularly.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobilebroadband/?page=plans
@pietrospina
not the case here...
just coming to ny for a few weeks... on vacation.
just wanted something cheap to browse some apps, look for restaurants and places to go... and you know.. google maps, this kind of things.
I guess 100mb would be enough.
can i rely on wifi only ??
@felipedavolta I have no idea how much data skype uses or any of the apps. You will have to check your usage stats for a good estimate. I was just trying to think about your problem a little differently. Enjoy your visit and keep your wallet in your front pocket. Cheers.
@felipedavolta
I'm in the same sort of boat - in a few weeks I'm travelling from New Zealand to LA for three weeks and all I need is data for my iPhone, to send emails and I can use wi-fi at hotels etcv for Skype (not that I'll make many skype calls anyway) I usually use around 250mb of data a month, but I don't want to shell out USD$250 for a Mi-Fi thingy - that's almost NZD$400 (from what the Verizon website tells me) for a three week holiday, I think not.
Would be good to know if there's a pre-paid plan which gives me quite a bit of data and I'm not locked into a contract. Any ideas anyone?
@mijakai
You can buy an iPad data microsim in an AT&T store for $15. The easiest way to activate it on the $15 or $25/30 recurring plan is to visit an Apple store and use one of their demo models, but there are some instructions linked on this post (http://modmyi.com/forums/unlocking-activation/708528-ipad-3g-microsim-iphone-3gs-30-mo-iphone-5.html#post5275190 ) for activating the card from home by changing the browser user agent to mimic an iPad. Use a micro-sim adapter or just keep the cut-out that comes with the sim for your iPhone.
Skype for Windows Mobile was "dereleased" earlier this year. You can still track down the download, but it is chock full of issues. On the AT&T Fuze, all sound comes over the speakerphone
Do such a thing as prepaid data sim cards exist? How much would they cost in the UK? It would be perfect if an unlock came out for the iPhone 4 and all I had to do was trim down the sim card.
@runswithjedi In the UK you can get prepaid sims in almost every shop for 99 pence, they're nor specifically for data but on some carriers they'll charge you a one off fee and you can get unlimited data for that day
@aiden120000 I was just looking at o2's pay and go sim pricing and they're spectacular! There must be some catch since the prices are so low. Do you have any idea if I will be able to get one and put it in an American iPhone 4?
maybe part of the experience of traveling abroad is getting away from your usual crutches?
unless it's a business trip in which case your company should be paying you to roam XD
My wife is Hungarian and her family lives in Munich. Needless to say we have scoured how to do this. At home we both run Droid because Google Voice is very cheap (cheaper than Skype) for international calls. I am miffed at Skype at the moment as we paid for 2 international numbers, they took our $40 and we never got the numbers. There is not customer service number to call and we have been trying to get the money back for 3 months now. Buyer beware.
For overseas I bought a Nokia E72. We chose this for a few reasons.
1) You can download Nokia maps for free to the phone so it runs in offline mode (Google are you listening?).
2) Front facing camera is great for Wifi Skype
3) Sim card ready. We just buy a prepaid sim card from the local gas stations. We both speak German but this is fairly easy to do in English as well. Have someone help you set it up, because when you run out of minutes you will have to speak that country's langauge to understand the error messages and get the card reloaded.
4) Battery life is amazing
5) Has a built in FM radio so you can listen to local music channels or if you have wifi they have a listing of internet radio stations.
6) 5 MP camera, don't need to haul around the extra camera
7) Micro USB charger, we just get the european usb outlet and plug our micro USB to USB cables in and it works fine.
Been really impressed with Nokia's quality. Wish they would step up their touchscreen offerings.
This was a great article as it confirmed everything I had read. We leave for Munich tomorrow for a wedding and lots of World Cup action in Bier Gartens!
--TR
You cannot stream netflixs movies in Europe either.
This article is simply brilliant! I'm about to travel to Europe and was wondering how to do it without breaking my budget.
*Bookmarked*
"Most of all, we'd encourage you to get off the grid and have a little fun."
This should be in bold. Granted, I still use a dumbphone day-to-day so I guess I'm a bit old-fashioned, but maybe instead of tweeting updates on your trip, try sitting in that little cafe and write in your (paper) journal while people watching. Or instead of using that place's equivalent of yelp, ask someone what places they like.
@agahnim
Funny. I saw LCD Soundsystem (music group) perform a few nights ago, and the singer, between songs, basically told the audience something along the lines of "feel free to shoot video and put it on YouTube; be our guest. But we feel that if all you're doing is shooting video with you phone, then you're not really here in the moment."
I think that sentiment applies to traveling as well. Put your Twitter and Facebook away for a few hours/days
If it's in-country communications you're after, then across much of Europe, pay-as-you-go phones are cheap as chips, you can walk into pretty much any mobile phone shop in the UK and pick up a handset and PAYG SIM (which you can top up by credit card, cash in supermarkets, etc) for about £10 ($15).
If your own mobile is unlocked, then many of these outlets will give you a SIM free, in exchange for your first top-up.
Similarly, if you don't want to get raped on data costs, some of these providers might offer you a PAYG Dongle for £20-£30 ($30-$45) running you $15 for 1gig of data. Similarly, if you have an unlocked dongle or MiFi device, bring it along and swap in a data SIM.
Many providers will also offer special offers to pay-as-you-go users, e.g. my current "deal" is, for £15 top up, I get free "unlimited" data and SMS messages for the next 30 days.
The only downside is your home country mobile number is inaccessible.
I, currently, have SIM cards for probably half of Europe plus a few Middle Eastern countries, for exactly this reason.
@gicarey
yeah in belgium we have mobile vikings!
it's prepaid (15€) and gets you 1gb of free internet, a 1000 sms'es and 1hour of calling.
With T-Mobile USA, if you have a UMA-capable phone, you will be able to make and receive calls while connected to Wi-Fi as if you weren't roaming internationally. No Skype or Google needed!
@CeluGeek Yes, T-mobile's UMA service is great for international travel. I am surprised it was not mentioned in the article. If you have a T-mobile phone with WiFi calling and you can find a hotspot while traveling it will save you a pant load of money on international roaming.
Verizon stupidly had Skype lock down such that not only will it not work over WiFi, it won't work on any network other than Verizon. Making it 100% useless outside the US.
The easiest I think is to just get your phone unlocked. If you're on tmobile you just have to call them and they'll send you an unlock code. Once that's done just get a prepaid sim card overseas. In Asia, they sell sim cards in vending machines. Calling internationally with those sim cards are dirt cheap too especially of you are calling to the US. I never had to spend more then $20 US in HK total in cell phone expenditures.
Your Skype support info is wrong.
First of all, Skype is now supported on Nokia smartphones. I'm not sure exactly which models are supported, but the N900 has by far the best Skype integration of any phone so it really shouldn't be left out of your list.
Also, I believe that Skype is no longer supported for Windows Mobile.
Finally, I believe that Skype is only available for Android on certain carriers (e.g. Verizon). For the rest of the Android pack, I believe the status is 'coming soon'.
Isn't the iPhone locked to AT&T? That means I won't be able to use other SIM cards overseas.
Is it me or the colors in the price chart make no sense? It would seem that green would be the best, yellow mediocre, and red bad.
But for SMS to a French carrier, AT&T gets a green while being the most expensive.
And for some reason, T-Mobile goes from grey to yellow going from SMS to MMS in France when the rate remains the same! The only thing that changed between the categories was AT&T's rate.
You'd also think Sprint would get a green on SMS/MMS rates in Canada for being the same as US plan rates since anyone who's using it would already have a plan, i.e. no extra charges.