subject: International Cell Phones - Your Available options [print this page] International Cell Phones - Your Available options
Your choices are overpowering when it comes to international mobile phones.The lively traveler who spends his sunrise in Europe and sunset in Africa, most likely carries his own high tech phone. A college student who is studying in Paris could have a local French phone that only works in the local country.The recreation tourist, who would fancy a handset in the event of of an emergency, may hire a smartphone and drop it into a delivery depot on the return journey.
Taking into account the expansive range of International mobile phone usage across the United States, its hardly surprising that a lot of travelers feel at a loss when traveling without a mobile phone on their person.If you think you might be the kind of character who would text your friends whilst at the top of the Eiffel tower, or phone home when on the deck of a cruise ship, then please continue.We investigate the pro's & cons of each cell-phone option available, so that you can work out which one suits you (and your budget) the most.
Using Your Own Handset With An International Roaming Plan
Most US telecommunications companies will allow you to decide on a roaming plan for your phone, granting you the ability to make international calls.These kind of plans may be offered as a constant setup, or just for a short period of time, e.g, a month long trip.Each telecommunications company will offer slighlty differing plans for variable costs. These will work across particular phone frequencies and certain designated countries.For the most part your cell phone company will be able to give you a coverage map, to illustrate the areas of good & bad phone network coverage.The by the minute call costs will vary noticeably across countries.
Some network companies will have call tariffs for particular regions, for example Chile, or Asia.Other cell phone providers will allow you to pre-pick the countries that you will be going to, and tailor a plan for you. Generally speaking, the greater the number of countries, the higher the monthly cost. Although you should be able to find a fairly broad roaming phone plan from your current cell phone company, you won't be able to make phone calls from all countries in the world. Make sure that you confirm your plan will work in the countries that you are planning on going to.
To initiate a call from another country using your mobile phone, your mobile phone must function on the network that the country uses.If you're planning on going to Europe, its no problem to find a roaming plan to accomodate yout journey.If you are going to Africa, The West Indies, The Caribbean or South America then costs will change a lot more. Moreover, your smartphone must support the actual frequencies for the local telecoms network. Many low cost handsets will only accommodate a single frequency, and will commonly only function back at home.
Favorably, a lot of cell phone companies will offer a detailed coverage map and analysis of call rates, so you can generally figure it all out before your journey.If you want someone to deal with it for you, there are specialist international cellphone providers, who only deal in overseas cell phones.
