[BTM] Traveling with a world phone

[Mark O'Brien]

On 2/19/04 5:32 PM, "Rob Parker" <Rob at ParkerDigital.net> wrote:

> T-Mobile's overseas calling plan - while a bit steep when roaming
> internationally - is always an emergency option, but I think I'd
> prefer local access on another SIM if possible, since I'd probably be
> calling local numbers for reservations and information rather than
> calling back home. I'm just wondering how that would work. Anyone
> else here tried that? I know that in most parts of the world they
> have different rate structures for phone and internet usage that we
> do. Could get confusing.

You have the same phone as me, from the same source, so I know it's
unlocked. Just buy a pre-pay SIM and pop it in. They come with a certain
amount of credit, or "load", and you can replenish that when it's drawn
down.

I've done this in Spain and in the Philippines. Exact procedures will depend
on where you're going and which carrier you choose. In Spain, I bought the
prepay SIM (which included about $30US of "load") at a department store for
around $50US, but any tobacco store or supermarket seemed to carry
scratch-off replenishment cards - just dial a number and enter the code
beneath the scratch off section. I know some of the UK carriers have a way
for you to dial a number and charge the replenishment to a credit card.

In the Philippines, you can get a "load" for as little as 30 pesos (around
50 cents US), which is good for 30 text messages or one 3 minute outbound
call. As you can imagine, texting is very popular there at those prices.
Inbound calls are free for the cell phone user everywhere but North America
(the caller pays a higher toll to call cell phones, which have unique area
codes or prefixes so the caller knows he'll be charged more).

I didn't try to use GPRS overseas, so I don't know how that works.

Mark