My International Phone Setup
You’re making the big move, travelling around the world for a long stretch of time. Rent, utilities, car insurance, these bills no longer concern you. But there’s one recurring expense most travellers keep around: The mobile phone.
For months I’ve been combing the interwebs looking for the perfect setup. Everyone appears to have their own philosophy on what’s necessary, which services, carriers, phones are best, and what type of iPhone case best protects that sugar-glass screen. The following plan is what I believe to be best for me:
- a soon to be a relatively immobile expat from the states
- a freelancer for North America based companies
- a web developer, in or around the computer for the majority of my day
The Hardware
- A computer with Skype installed.
- An unlocked quad-band GSM phone (I bought a Samsung T629)
- A computer headset. This is optional, but nice for sound quality, and you’re probably going to have some kind of headphones anyway.
The Services
-
Skype Online Number and Calling Plan — The most important thing here is the online number. This allows you to pick a standard phone number to tie to your Skype account. If people call this number, you get a call on Skype. If you call people on Skype, it appears to come from this number. Why the calling plan?
Buying one year of the calling plan gives you a 50% discount on an online number. The online number alone is $60.00. The number plus the plan is $60.05. I’ll pay the extra nickel. Having unlimited US and Canada calls is also essential to interact with the next service…
-
Google Voice — You could just stick with Skype, that would work fine and well. You get Voicemail, unlimited US and Canada calling, 90% of what we want. But Skype doesn’t receive SMS. And let’s say in a year or two your trip is all over and you return to the states. You go back to a “normal” cell phone plan and get a new number. Do you want to have to hand out your number all over again?
With Google Voice we can send and receive SMS. We can keep one number and have it forward calls and messages to any number of US phone numbers (including your cool new Skype number.) Google Voice valiantly attempts to transcribe voicemails using speech recognition, and can send you an email and SMS with the results, at times with interesting results. Plus, when you return to the states you can just change or add forwarding numbers. If you’re bright and keep your contact information within Google Voice, you’ll never have to create a new-phone-number Facebook event again.
-
Local SIM card — For calls within the country you’re staying, pick up a local GSM SIM card when you land. Pop it in the unlocked phone and you’re set. Pay as you go, prepaid, or some calling plan? That shit’s up to you. Right now, while I’m in the states, I personally have a pay-as-you-go TMobile card in mine. Just thinking of AT&T’s service makes me spit vitriol, so I’ll refrain from ranting.
Recap
Somebody calls my US phone number. It rings Skype, and if I’m in the states, my cell phone as well. When I’m in China (or anywhere abroad) and not at the computer, they get my voicemail. Go ahead, call me (Enter your phone number and Google Voice will connect us):
I want to make a call to the US or Canada. If I’m at the computer I enter the number into Google Voice or select from my contacts and tell it to dial my Skype number. If I’m away from the computer I use my cell phone to dial my Google Voice number, which recognizes it’s me, and tell GV to dial the desired number. (This makes your call appear to be coming from your Google Voice number.)
I want to make an international call. If it’s within the same country, I use my cell phone equipped with the local SIM card. If I’m at the computer and it’s outside the US or Canada, I make calls using the great Skype rates or Google Voices rates for international calls.
If I want to make a call out of the country and I’m not at the computer, I don’t. Unless it’s an emergency. We don’t need to be connected to everywhere in the world every second of the day. If I’m out, I’m probably doing something (-shock!-) and could care less about making or receiving phone calls.
Extra Tidbits
- The Google Voice Chrome extension is fan-fucking-tastic. Phone, SMS, Voicemail all from a button in the browser, and it turns phone numbers on web pages into links to call using Google Voice.
- If you’re going to make a lot of international calls you should consider Skype Unlimited World. It’s cheap and you get a nice portfolio of countries you can dial.
- I’m ignoring data plans here. Sorry, iPhoners. But depending on the country and phone you’re using, you may be able to use Skype on your phone and forego a voice plan altogether. Do some research on your location. If you’re going to China like me, you’ll find that China allows the Skype app on the computer but doesn’t support it on their mobile data networks.
There’s so much to say about international mobile, this could go on forever. If anybody has any specific questions, shoot em my way in the comments and I’ll try to help.
Published on March 8, 2010
This is good info, but I think what I’m going to be looking for is a mobile phone that I can access the Internet from. I expect that to be expensive, but I really think the Internet will be more useful then the ability to call people. Local SIM cards will handle calls.
The only International data plan I’ve found worth looking into is from Verizon for $100/mo unlimited data/e-mail in 220 countries. Still researching because I might just go the get-an-unlocked-iphone-or-ipodtouch and then use free wifi when available.
ugh, phone companies annoy me.
Adam, I’m curious if you have any more insight as to what situations you think you’ll be in where Internet on your iPhone or any other phone is critical. So far I can think of:
Directions — But oh man, you miss out on asking the locals for directions!
Browsing/Passing Time — I doubt this is you, Adam, but if anybody else is in this boat: Look up! Start a conversation!
Blogging and Tweeting — You gotta be posting like a madman to not wait until you get to the computer. And I understand the deep connections people have with Twitter, but I’m ok stepping away from it.
unless you are in EU (or the advanced parts of EU like UK, Switzerland, France…) don’t expect much out of directions on your phone. Big cities in most any country will be mapped on google, but who cares. Taxi drivers are like a supercharged version of google maps with the added functionality of transporting you to your search destination.
my international experience with cell phones. minutes are cheap. international calling is only slightly more than local calls. example: local cell to cell call cost 300(units of measure)/min; international call cost 400/min.
Data should be avoided at all costs… thats just my opinion. unless you are a lifer, or an important professional (we aren’t) and FULLY AND COMPLETELY understand how the data billing works. then maybe. i would usually spend $10 per month recharging my cell but i tried data once and $20 worth of minutes would disappear in about 24 hours.
but that was just my personal experience.
for my business endeavors i used a similar setup with skype, it worked reasonably well. HOWEVER, at times it wont work and people WILL complain.
One last thought. FORGET ABOUT IPHONE. nothing could be stupider for international travel. It just draws attention and you could get robbed. i have traveled to (and spent considerable amounts of time)in far away places, and was mugged once. Only because i was (typical dumb american) walking down the street and texting at the same time.
keep it simple.
Very good point about the iPhone that I did not emphasize. My phone is a cheap unlocked phone. On the advice of friends, I’m planning on having my phone picked once a year. An unlocked iPhone multiplies that annual expense by 10.
ATT and T-mobile phones can be unlocked and used in other countries on a GSM network. sometimes there is a free code on the internet as was the case with one of my old phones. if not, you can simply call att or t-mobile and ask for an unlock code, this worked for me with another phone. If your phone is not brand new free via contract renewal, they usually do it. only downside is some features (aim, msn, etc) and old data are lost.