Staying Connected Worldwide

Cell Phones

The first and only thing you should get to stay connected worldwide is an unlocked quad band (850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900) GSM cell phone.

A cell phone is a must if you want to enjoy a Free as a Bird Lifestyle. You will need one to rent apartments, to communicate with your new local friends, to call your embassy, a taxi, to book tours and hotels or even to order a pizza. It is indispensable.

Abroad, you should never use the roaming service of your home wireless service provider. You will loose your shirt with their $1 to $2 per minute call charges. Local providers are always a lot cheaper.

Why a GSM phone: The GSM service is the gold standard worldwide. This service is offered in more than 200 countries and territories.

GSM phones work with a SIM smart card (Subscriber Identity Module). That card is in fact a chip that contains your phone number and the coordinates of the phone service provider.

SIM cards are very easy to buy in foreign countries and they are usually cheap, around $5. For convenience, you can also order them online before leaving home. Telestial sell local SIM cards for almost every country in the world. Please click here for more information.

When you arrive at your destination, you can go to any grocery store, phone center, drugstore or supermarket and buy a prepaid phone card. The name of your service provider appears on the SIM card. Just buy a prepaid card from the same service provider. You are then in business.

Why a Quad Band phone: Wireless service providers use four frequencies around the planet (850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900). A quad band phone means that you can access any one of these four frequencies. Beware: Many three band and two band phones that are advertised as 'worldwide' are in fact limited to only one or two continents.

Why an unlocked phone: In many countries, including Canada and the USA, cell phones are usually sold electronically locked. That means that you cannot buy another SIM card and switch easily between networks. Changing a SIM card is as easy as replacing the battery but to ensure that the SIM will work you will need an unlocked phone.

If you want to know if your phone is locked or not, borrow a SIM card from someone who has an account with a different wireless service provider and see if it works in your phone. If you can make calls, and your phone thinks it has this new phone number, then your phone is unlocked. But if you see an error message and the phone doesn't work, then, sorry, your phone is locked.

Where to buy an unlocked phone: It is difficult to find unlocked GSM cell phones in stores in the US and Canada. To be kind to the retailers, many don't really understand what locking is and so incorrectly say their phones are unlocked. A roaming service does not mean that your phone is unlocked. If in doubt, order it online at Telestial. They sell only unlocked phones. Please click here for more information.

GSM + Unlocked + Quad Band = A True Free as a Bird Phone

Internet Phones

Skype is popular software that allows users to call landlines and mobile phones directly from their computer using the Internet. Long distance calls to Europe and North America can be made at a very low cost, usually a few cents per minute. If you have a WiFi enabled laptop you can also use Skype to make long distance calls from any WiFi hot point in airports, restaurants, parks, hotels, or directly on the street by piggy-backing on an open (not password protected) WiFi network.

Gizmo5 is another Internet option for very cheap international calls. Gizmo5, a competitor to Skype, has developed a version of this proprietary software specifically for the Nokia Internet Tablet. I must say, we are aficionados of the Nokia Internet Tablet. We use it everyday to surf the web, read ebooks as pdfs, check email, play Sudoku, play MP3s and make WiFi phone calls. The new version is even easier to use: you can access Gizmo5 directly from any web browser. No software to install. As with Skype, Gizmo5 works throughout the world.

The Best of Both Worlds For International Call Out

Skype and Gizmo5 are the cheapest ways to initiate calls abroad, with a cost per minute that is usually ten times lower than cell phone rates. PC to PC calls are free.

On the other hand, many Latin America countries allow free Call In on cell phones. That means that you can talk for hours on your cell phone for free if someone calls you from elsewhere in the world.

To find out if a country allows free Call In, check its SIM on Telestial. Colombia and Panama for example are free Call In countries.