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Telephone service for travel Travel Guide

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This article is a travel topic.

Telephones are a crucial part of modern living while at home, and they can be an excellent tool for keeping in touch and planning while traveling. This article covers some options for sending and receiving calls while on the road.

Contents

Call

In-room phones

Many hotels and motels charge set rates for all calls made from in-room telephones. The cost of these calls is generally much higher than an ordinary call made from a residential or business phone. There may also be other service fees for toll calls as many hotels have an automatic price required service where their telecommunications provider advises them of the cost of a toll call and the room number the call was made from. They may also have a telephone service charge for calls to toll-free numbers. Check the call rates before making a call; even reputable European hotels will end up charging upwards of $35 per minute for international service (no kidding!).

Pay phones

Take care when making calls from pay phones . Many pay phone services are provided by specialist providers who charge higher fees to cover the cost of equipment and payphone booth. There can be a substantial minimum fee which you do not notice if you pay by credit card. Check the rate card in the booth and, if you cannot find one, do not use the phone if you don't want to be ripped off.

In some countries you can make very cheap unlimited local calls.

You may find there are courtesy phones available at airports and similar places for making local calls for a taxi or similar traveller services. Look out for these as you may not need to use a pay phone.

Pre-paid phone cards

Many telephone service providers offer pre-paid phone cards that can be used from pay phones or ordinary telephones. Access to these services is often through a toll-free telephone number that can be called from most phones without charge. (Be aware that some pay phones and hotel phones charge for toll-free calls.) Rates can be surprisingly cheap - so cheap that you may even wonder how they can provide the calls at such a low rate, like http://www.TalkLoop.com. These providers may be exploiting regulatory loopholes in telephone rates, so read the fine print to see when and how you can get the lowest rates - there may be particular times or days that the rates apply. The current lowest-cost prepaid cards are available at US warehouse clubs Costco and Sam's Club (co-branded with AT&T and MCI, respectively) at under 3 cents per domestic minute. These cards also feature excellent international rates.

US FCC regulations require pay phone providers be reimbursed for toll-free calls by the toll-free number provider, so additional minutes or a small surcharge may be deducted when using your card from a pay phone.

Calling cards

Some telephone service providers offer a Calling Card option that can be used with an existing telephone account. In the past, telephone operator used to accept reverse or transferred charges calls, however, due to fraud and increasing costs, a calling card now replaces those services. These services sometimes also offer an international operator service in the caller's language. Charges appear on the caller's telephone account and may be a convenient way for business travellers to charge their telephone calls.

Receive

In-room phones

Hotels and motels will often charge for calls you receive, even for messages taken by the reception desk. Ask what their telephone charges are before giving out a hotel or motel telephone number for people to call you.

Voice mail

If you are going to be out of range of a telephone, but still want to receive calls, Voice mail may be a good option for you. Most telephone service providers offer a voice mail option, either as an add-on to an existing landline or mobile telephone or as a stand alone service. You can usually check your voice mail remotely - make sure to obtain the access number and login details from your voice mail provider before leaving home.

Cell phones

A cell phone is a convenient way of reaching local hotels, restaurants and museums--as well as new friends or separated traveling buddies--while you're on the go. With the right phone, you can call or be called at the same phone number from almost anywhere in the world (see "Roaming Service" section below), or exchange your original number for a local number, which may be cheaper and certainly easier to dial (see "Pre-paid SIM Cards" section).

Before you can even think about using your cell phone abroad, you should make sure that the phone will work in the countries you're planning to visit. Some research will be required, so you should check with your provider or consult your phone's manual. There are several things you should find out about your phone to see if it will work globally:

  • Is your phone on the GSM standard? The most widely used cell phone standard in the world is GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications. If your phone is a GSM phone, it will be compatible with carriers in almost every country, with the following major exceptions:
    • Japan and South Korea have no GSM coverage at all. These countries use a newer standard called 3G, which is beginning to take hold around the world, but coverage outside of Japan or South Korea is few and far between. GSM phones and other non-3G phones will not work within their borders. (Likewise, a 3G phone will work in very few places in the world!)
    • Some providers in the United States and Canada use the GSM standard, but there are many phones and providers that operate on the CDMA standard. You can use a GSM phone in the U.S. or Canada easily enough, but you cannot use a CDMA phone outside of those countries.
  • Can your phone operate on the correct frequencies? GSM phones operate on several different frequencies. Most of the world uses 900 MHz and 1800 MHz. The United States and Canada, and a few countries in Central and South America, use 1900 MHz and 850 MHz (sometimes mistakenly called 800 MHz). Many lower-end phones are "dual-band," in that they work only on the two frequency bands most commonly used in the country of their origin, and will not work at all in countries that use the other two bands. Some phones are tri-band, which will cover quite a bit more of the world by adding one of the two foreign bands; the best phones for global usage are quad-band phones which will work on all GSM frequencies. The most widely used frequency is 900 MHz. A 900MHz phone (all early GSM phones were 900MHz only) will work in most countries (apart from U.S. or Canada) that have the GSM system.
    • The Travel Insider - more on cell phone frequencies, and a table of frequencies by country
  • Is your phone unlocked? GSM phones have a SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module) inside of them which provide the "identity" for the phone, including its phone number and cell phone carrier. If you plan on switching out the phone's SIM card (for instance, to have a local phone number at your destination) then you will have to make sure your phone is "unlocked." This is because many providers will "lock" the phone to their service if you purchased the phone from them, which prevents you from switching to another carrier by replacing the SIM card (this is simply good business sense from the provider's perspective). It's not illegal to unlock a phone, but how to do this is outside the scope of this article for technical reasons. There are plenty of resources around the Internet that will help you unlock phones for free or for a small fee (about USD $5), or you may be able to find local phone-whizzes in your own hometown or at your destination that can do it for you on-the-spot for a price. Keep in mind, also, that some brands of phones are easier to unlock than others. For instance, Nokia phones can be unlocked with a simple code and you can do it yourself, while Motorola or Sony Ericcson phones require additional equipment and may require you to bring your phone to someone. Shop around: Unlocking services are generally cheaper and more easily available in Europe and Asia than it is in North America.
    • The Travel Insider - GSM Cell Phone Unlocking FAQ
    • An alternative is to just buy an unlocked phone in the first place. In some countries — for example China — phones are never locked. Various web sites and some shops in Western countries also sell unlocked phones, albeit usually at somewhat higher prices than the "deals" you can get by signing a contract for a service and taking a locked phone.

In summary, if you want a single phone that can be used in most places in the world with the greatest amount of flexibility, then what you want is an unlocked quad-band GSM phone.

Roaming Service

Using your phone in places other than its "home area" is called roaming and the price varies depending on your provider and the what part of the world you're in. While convenient, roaming is likely to give you a surprise on your next phone bill.

Usually making local phone calls is pretty reasonable while roaming, but making and receiving international calls can be very expensive. If possible, check with your home carrier to find out what the rates are beforehand, or you may unsuspectingly be making a USD $5 per minute phone call. GSM phones allow you to choose a local carrier manually to attach to when roaming. Some carriers will advertise on billboards at airports, trumpeting the advantages of using them while roaming.

Consider using SMS (short messaging service) as a cheap alternative to making per-minute phone calls. These text messages can be sent between phones, with up to 160 characters per message. While SMS messages are more expensive when overseas (from USD $0.30 to $1 each), they are cheaper than international calls and can be very useful for keeping costs down.

Another advanced feature (depending on your carrier) is callback service which allows you to send a request to your home carrier to ring your phone and connect to someone in your home market, thereby keeping costs low. For example, Hong Kong carrier Orange allows its users to dial special code while internationally roaming which will connect to local Hong Kong numbers at a lower rate than direct dialing. This command typically looks like: "**130*<phonenum>#" and the caller waits for a call back, initiated from Hong Kong. Other services require a phone call to a special number before the system will call you back. Most non-American mobile providers do not charge for incoming calls, and callback services take advantage of that to help keep your costs low. KallBack is a well-known callback service provider.

Pre-paid SIM Cards

As an alternative to roaming, local pre-paid SIM cards are a godsend. The SIM "chip" in GSM phones can be swapped out, effectively changing the carrier and phone number of the phone. Most countries sell prepaid SIM cards that you can buy for cash, quickly establishing a new phone number and credit for making calls. No account setup, credit card numbers or bank accounts. Passports or IDs are often necessary (to reduce use of phones by criminals). To add credit to these SIM cards, you can buy "top up" or "add value" cards from newsstands, telephone stores or convenience stores. See [1] for examples of some operators.

Charges vary by country/carrier, but per-minute costs for voice calls are often the best option for folks needing local calling service. The SIM card and phone number are usually valid for a month or two (sometimes up to 12 month), staying active as long as you "top up" the card with more credit.

For example: In Malaysia, with a prepaid SIM card from Maxis/Hotlink, incoming calls are free, while outgoing calls are charged in 30-second blocks of time at around US $0.15/minute for local calls, or US $0.70/minute for longer-distance calls across the country. By the end of 2005, the cost of prepaid SIM packs had dropped significantly. What used to cost about 68 ringgit (US $18) for a prepaid SIM card with 50 ringgit (US $13) of call credit in 2004 now only costs 8 ringgit for 25 ringgit of call credit. IDD rates are also low, thus getting a SIM pack makes sense for folks who will be staying at least a week, or expect to do lots of calling locally for business, or want to be reached by locals at local rates.

Because of the trend for regularly upgrading mobile phones, many people will have an old phone that is perfectly functional. It is worth taking this as well as your current phone. This will allow you to keep your existing number active whilst travelling but you can take advantage of the reduced costs with a local SIM card. If someone calls on your normal home number call them back from the local SIM, it will be cheaper! You could pay as much as US $3.00/minute to receive a call on your home number whilst roaming, whereas, to call back using a local SIM may cost US $0.50/minute. Make sure the old phone has the required frequency band(s) as mentioned above.

Information by Country

United States and Canada

Some things to keep in mind when using cellular phones in the US and Canada:

  • For a GSM phone to work in the US or Canada, it has to work on the 1900 MHz and/or 850 MHz GSM frequencies. Some locations provide service on both frequencies, others use one or the other.
  • The SIM card and sometimes the phone itself needs to be programmed for international roaming ("unlocked") and your carrier needs to arrange for your account to accept international billing. Most European accounts accept international billing.
  • Major American GSM carriers are T-Mobile and Cingular. Some smaller regional companies are converting to GSM and have roaming agreements with the larger carriers. Canadian carriers include Fido and Rogers.
  • Prepaid SIM cards seem to be hard to find for a reasonable price in the US as most SIM cards have to be bought bundled with a phone. T-MOBILE has them in its New York City stores at a high price - call ahead. Often, stores and internet websites not run by the providers themselves may sell them unbundled, sometimes at a very good discount. Ebay can often be a good place to check, especially as some people notice they have a large number of minutes that are about to expire and sell them dirt-cheap, perfect for travellers. This is especially true with the Fido service in Canada.
  • Refills for prepaid cards are generally available at any convenience shops/stores, gas stations and Canadian post offices.
  • North American cell phone providers typically charge for both incoming and outgoing minutes. However, there is no difference in cost when calling an American land line or cell phone.
  • Long Distance from a cell phone can often be very expensive, especially international calls. It is often prudent to buy a calling card with a local access number for making international calls from a cellular phone.

Some older phones need to select or allow a roaming change from a user menu. Bring your manual or make sure you know how to access the menus. An explanation and listing of who is on what system and frequency, including old systems is at Siemens.

Satellite Telephones

In remote locations, without cell phone coverage, a Satellite Telephone may be your only option. This service can be expensive compared to other alternatives but is surprisingly affordable if one considers the technology involved. The service is frequently used by shipping, including pleasure craft, as well as expeditions who have remote data and voice needs. Your local telephone service provider should be able to give more information about connecting to this service. Roaming is possible with a GSM SIM card on the Thuraya network, using a Thuraya handset. Check the Thuraya web site [2] to see if they have an agreement with your home network. Some networks (for example Vodafone UK) charge a very high rate for incoming calls (£6/minute). If a lot of calls are to be made, buy a SIM card from the satellite phone provider. Calls on the Thuraya system cost from US $0.50 - $1.30/minute.

Some carriers to investigate:

  • Iridium [3] (worldwide)
  • Globalstar [4](worldwide)
  • ACeS [5] (Asia Pacific)
  • Thuraya [6](Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East)

Remember, though, that satellite phones may be illegal in Saudi Arabia.

Get online

Making phone calls over the internet is the cheapest option, it can even be free.

Internet phones are based on the open SIP protocol and various proprietary protocols. SIP phones are implemented as a program running on a computer, an adaptor that let you connect an ordinary PSTN phone to the internet or a phone that can make internet calls. Proprietary protocols are only implemented in software, i.e. you have to bring a computer or PDA when traveling.

If you travel with a laptop or PDA, you just need a network connection, a 5 dollar headset, some Voice over IP software, and an account with an IP->PSTN provider. Popular software SIP phones X-lite for Mac and Windows and KPhone for Linux. Software for proprietary protocols are provided by internet phone companies.

You can bring a SIP adaptor that will let a normal phone work with a wired network. It will not work on wireless networks unless you also bring an access point. The Handytone 286 is small and works with 110-240V.

Wireless phones such as the Zyxel P2000W AKA WSIP can make and receive calls from wireless networks. But it does not work on networks that expect users to accept a policy in a browser.

In some coutries, internet telephony can be blocked. This is usually done to protect the revenues of national phone companies. For example, in the United Arab Emirates it is possible to use Skype but access to the Skype web site is blocked, so it can be hard to add credit to your account.

Internet phone companies

Because calls are routed over the internet you do not need to use a phone company located where you live or where you travel. Often you have to separately buy a global number, that allow PSTN phones to call you. It does make a difference where that number belong for people calling you. Services such as IPKall allows you to have numbers in different parts of the world for free.

SIP Phone companies

Non-SIP phone companies

  • Net2Phone
  • Dialpad
  • Skype. Free computer-to-computer calls, pay a fee for Skype-Out service to call anyone else

Other internet services

Some Internet phone companies (E.g. Musimi) will forward voicemail messages as email attachment so you can listen to them at internet cafes when traveling.

Lonely planets Ekit even allow people to leave messages on your voicemail for free using a toll-free number and you can then retrieve them from the Ekit home page or pay to listen to them from a phone.

Some websites, such as SMS.ac, allow you to send SMS text messages for free.


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