Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
USING A CELLPHONE
ABROAD
The three letters that define much of the
world's
wireless capabilities
are GSM
(Global System for Mobiles)—a big, seam-
less networ k that makes for easy cr oss-
border cellphone use thr oughout E urope
and dozens of other countries worldwide.
In the U.S., T-Mobile, A T&T Wireless,
and Cingular use this quasi-univ ersal sys-
tem; in Canada, Microcell and some Rog-
ers customers are GSM; and all Europeans
and most Australians use GSM.
If y our cellphone is on a GSM system
45
don't need to be staying at the F our Sea-
sons to use the hotel 's networ k; just set
yourself up on a nice couch in the lobb y.
The companies ' pricing policies can be
Byzantine, with a v ariety of monthly, per-
connection, and per-minute plans, but in
general you pay ar ound $30 a month for
limited access—and as mor e and mor e
companies jump on the wir eless band-
wagon, prices ar e likely to get ev en more
competitive.
There are also places that pr ovide
free
wireless networ ks
in cities ar ound the
world. To locate these fr ee hotspots, go to
www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/
WirelessCommunities
.
If Wi-Fi is not available at your destina-
tion, most business-class hotels thr ough-
out the world offer datapor ts for laptop
modems, and a few thousand hotels in the
U.S. and Europe now offer free high-speed
Internet access using an E thernet network
cable. You can bring your own cables, but
most hotels r ent them for ar ound $10.
Call y our hotel in adv ance
to see what
your options are.
In addition, major ISP s hav e
local
access numbers
around the world, allo w-
ing you to go online b y simply placing a
local call. Check your ISP's website or call
its toll-free number and ask ho w you can
use your current account away from home,
and how much it will cost.
If y ou're trav eling outside the r each of
your ISP , the
iPass
networ k has dial-up
numbers in most of the world 's countries.
You'll have to sign up with an iPass provider,
who will then tell y ou ho w to set up y our
computer for your destination(s). For a list of
iPass pr oviders, go to www .ipass.com and
click on “I ndividuals Buy Now.” One solid
provider is
i2roam
(
&
866/811-6209
or
920/235-0475; www.i2roam.com).
Wherever y ou go, bring a
connection
kit
of the right power and phone adapters,
a spare phone cor d, and a spar e Ethernet
network cable—or find out whether y our
hotel supplies them to guests.
and y ou hav e a world-capable multiband
phone, such as many S ony E ricsson,
Motorola, or S amsung models, y ou can
make and receive calls across civilized areas
on much of the globe, fr om Andorra to
Uganda. Just call your wireless operator and
ask for “international r oaming” to be acti-
vated on your account. Unfortunately, per-
minute charges can be high—usually $1 to
$1.50 in w estern Europe, and up to $5 in
places such as Russia and Indonesia.
That's why it 's impor tant to buy an
“unlocked” world phone fr om the get-go .
Many cellphone operators sell “locked
3
”
phones that r estrict y ou fr om using any
other removable computer memory phone
chip (called a
SIM car d
) other than the
ones they supply . H aving an unlocked
phone allows y ou to install a cheap , pre-
paid SIM card (found at a local retailer) in
your destination countr y. (S how y our
phone to the salesperson; not all phones
work on all networ ks.) You'll get a local
phone number—and much, much lo wer
calling rates. G etting an alr eady locked
phone unlocked can be a complicated
process, but it can be done; just call y our
cellular operator and say y ou'll be going
abroad for several months and want to use
the phone with a local pr ovider.
For many,
renting
a phone is a good
idea. (Even world-phone owners will have
to rent new phones if they 're traveling to
