Page 1 of 4 How To Call Home From Outside The U.S.
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4. up thousand dollar cellphone bills for international roaming charges Some frequent travelers carry multiple phones to navigate incompatible cellular standards country to country In Pictures How To Call Home From Outside The U S The introduction of world phones which can toggle between the two most popular cellular technologies and the growing popularity of VolP services like Skype which route calls over the Internet have expanded options but also complicated the process The best way to phone home depends on several factors your current phone and carrier your destination your budget and the amount of effort you re willing to invest Business travelers that have generous corporate budgets and diverse destinations will probably want to rent a phone at the airport or perhaps buy a world phone and ask their IT departments to ensure seamless use abroad Budget minded travelers with more free time would be better off using a local phone card or VolP services In terms of cellular access technology U S carriers can be divided into two basic camps CDMA and GSM In general AT amp T nyse T news people and T Mobile phones use GSM while Verizon and Sprint Nextel nyse S news people phones as well as those from smaller carriers like Alltel nyse AT news people and United States Cellular amex USM news people use CDMA The distinction matters because GSM is a more widely used technology globally about 85
5. How To Call Home From Outside The U S CENTER WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY Forbes com YOUR DATA DeL SIMPLIFY YOUR IT AT Search Forbes com Quotes Video S08 EUROPE ASIA HOME BUSINESS TECH MARKETS ENTREPRENEURS CIO Network Enterprise Imaging Internet E Mail Print Request Reprints E Mail Newsletters ERSS Calling Out How To Call Home From Outside The U S Elizabeth Woyke 01 23 08 6 00 AM ET Neil Kozarsky thought he had found the perfect phone in the BlackBerry 8830 As head of a New Jersey packaging company he travels to Japan at least once a month So when a phone clerk said the World Edition BlackBerry could keep him connected even in Japan a notorious dead zone for Western phones and personal digital assistants Kozarsky was sold Too bad On his next trip to Tokyo in In Pictures How To Call Home From Outside The U S wouldn t get a signal He blamed the airport then the train then the overcast weather After a sleepless night spent rebooting the phone and talking to his support staff in the U S he contacted Verizon nyse VZ news people Wireless customer service which immediately pinpointed the problem The phone was functional in more than 160 countries but not Japan Related Quotes get quotes Calling home is one of the great frustrations of traveling abroad Horror stories abound of travelers stranded with malfunctioning phone cards or racking
6. greements Taking your cell phone abroad is convenient but pricy as dialing from another country activates international roaming rates If you have a GSM phone you can get cheaper service by swapping out a small card located in the back of your phone and replacing it with a local version This won t work on CDMA phones as they don t have these cards Called SIM cards they re sold in phone shops and can be purchased prepaid Snapping in a new card will make your phone act as if it s a local phone complete with a local phone number and local rates Switching cards is particularly popular in Europe where people walk in buy a SIM and keep on adding minutes to it notes Current Analysis analyst Bill Ho Calls to your existing phone number go to voice mail One caveat This kind of swap only works on unlocked phones Most phones purchased in the U S as part of a subscriber plan are locked to a particular network to try to build in loyalty in exchange for cheaper handsets Before you leave ask your carrier to unlock your phone a quick software based process Due to an exclusive agreement between Apple nasdaq AAPL news people and AT amp T the iPhone cannot be unlocked here in the U S Of course many people don t want to take their phones abroad They can rent a phone at the airport or online then arrange delivery to their hotels or buy a local phone Buying is a good choice for extended stays and in countries that have c
7. heap handsets Gadget geeks often pick up cool phones that haven t yet debuted in the U S and bring them back intending to switch the SIM cards and use them at home This will work as long as the frequencies match which is a good bet for quad band phones If you re traveling with a laptop and will have ready access to a broadband connection you can bypass these technical issues and simply make calls over the Internet Robin Kawakami a 31 year old New Yorker currently studying in Europe uses Skype to keep in touch Calls to other Skype users on computers are free those to U S cell phones or landlines cost about 25 cents per minute from her current base in Denmark Of course making calls online isn t limited to Skype or PCs New York City startup Raketu offers VoIP calls on certain BlackBerrys as well as the iPhone and iPod touch The service utilizes Wi Fi hot spots and is limited to designated zones in about 40 countries Later this month Sony nyse SNE news people will introduce a software update for its PlayStation Portable that will support Skype For those who prefer to travel light no phone no laptop no major purchases abroad there s always the tried and true phone card Major telcos including AT amp T and Verizon offer calling cards for calls both to and from the U S So of course do a number of independent and local companies Local phone cards offer cheaper rates but the potential for more headaches as wel
8. l including technical glitches and assistance or directions limited to the local language Japan and Korea are special cases The proprietary cellular technologies used in those countries means travelers need phones that operate on third generation technology at 2100 MHz Samsung s Blackjack Il and Palm s nasdaq PALM news people Treo 750 are two handsets that fit the bill These proliferating options means it s easier than ever to make regular phone calls But it s increasingly complicated to access mobile data networks abroad something more people are interested in as phones get more sophisticated Switching SIM cards won t guarantee text messaging or Web browsing will be functional Carriers are working toward a more universal standard for cell phones Verizon has said it will upgrade its network to a fourth generation mobile broadband technology called Long Term Evolution that is likely to be adopted by other operators around the world For now what it comes down to is caveat emptor says Jupiter s Gartenberg If you re buying a phone or a SIM card assume that the salespeople in the store aren t necessarily international travelers Do your homework http www forbes com technology 2008 01 22 mobile phone overseas technology wireles Forbes com Page 2 of 4 ADVERTISEMENTS ITT Technical Institute Over 85 Locations amp Online Programs Available Request A Free Brochure www itt tech edu T1 Low Monthly
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