international phone

spiderweb

spiderweb

Final Approach
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Ben
I was wondering if you had suggestions as to how to make calls when in a foreign country. I will be away later for a couple of weeks in Taiwan, and I want to be able to call using a cell phone. Are there disposable ones? Are there plans I can add temporarily to my existing cell phone? Also, does anyone know about internet coverage in Taiwan?

Thanks!
Ben
 
Ben.

I can't speak to the cell phone issue as I just turn mine off when traveling internationally, but I have been to Taiwan a few times. Internet access at the hotels I've stayed in was fine. No issues at all.

Hope the weather is better than the last time I was there (December 2006). The picture shows the "view" from the top of Taipei 101 (world's tallest building). :D
 

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Ben if you have a GSM phone there is GSM coverage in Taiwan. GSM is the technology that Cingular and T-Mobile use. There are two ways to make calls if you have GSM. First call your carrier and make sure that you have international roaming. This will allow you to make and receive calls overseas. The catch is the people calling you will pay for a call to you home location and you pay the rest of the way to Taiwan. The other way is to have a phone that will let you put in a pre-pay card. Both T-Mobile and Cingular SIM lock their phones and will not unlock them until you fulfill your contract. You can ask them for the unlock code if you have had your phone longer than the contract or just pay a guy $10 to unlock from one of those online places.

Now if you have a Verizon or Sprint phone you are SOL. You will have to find a GSM, sometime you can rent while overseas but those are pretty rare as most people these days have their own phone. You could just buy one when you are their and get a prepay card. There are some pretty cheap phones and in Taiwan you do not need to buy the phone with service. But even this option is a couple of hundred bucks.

As for Internet coverage you are in for a thrill Taiwan has it just about everywhere. They have 802.11, 3G UMTS, and WiMAX. When it comes to wireless broadband they are years ahead of us just like the rest of Asia.
 
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spiderweb said:
I was wondering if you had suggestions as to how to make calls when in a foreign country. I will be away later for a couple of weeks in Taiwan, and I want to be able to call using a cell phone. Are there disposable ones? Are there plans I can add temporarily to my existing cell phone? Also, does anyone know about internet coverage in Taiwan?

Thanks!
Ben
Click to expand...

It won't be cheap if you use a US phone.

Taiwan does have GSM coverage, which is used in the states by T-Mobile and AT&T. If you have a phone on either of those carriers, you can add international roaming with a phone call. TMo charges no monthly charge, but charges a per-minute rate of $1.49/min for Taiwan (it's $0.99/min in much of Europe).

You can get a rental phone. Worldcell has (or used to have) a phone rental service.

It will probably be cheaper to get a pre-paid SIM card for Taiwan and an unlocked global GSM phone. People calling you from the States can use Skype or one of the VoIP services that charge a small amount per minute. That's probably the cheapest solution.

Internet service should be readily available in hotels. Expect to pay (through the nose) for hotel service, but it still can make sense for the right circumstances. When I was in London last week, the charge was UKP 14.99/day for service (about $32/day), but I was able to Skype back to the US instead of paying the outrageous hotel long distance charges or the $0.99/min on my cellphone. 30 minutes of phone calls quickly paid for the internet connection.

If you don't mind using slow-speed dial-up (e.g. you just want to check email, but not send big files), you might want to check out mytravelaccess.com. They offer pre-paid dial-up connections in most countries. I maintain an account there for a variety of reasons (including the possibility that I'll end up at a hotel without high-speed). Beware on the dialups that hotels may charge per-minute for local phone calls.
 
spiderweb said:
thanks guys!
Click to expand...

There are prepaid phone systems set up in most of Europe too, so I assume it exists in Taiwan as well. I cannot remember which country it is, but something tells me it might be Taiwan which requires a phone that operates on a specific band (if you are a T-mobile customer, you can usually borrow one from T-Mobile in that country...I'll look tomorrow at work to see if I can find the country where this is. It might be Korea instead...)
 
SkyHog said:
There are prepaid phone systems set up in most of Europe too, so I assume it exists in Taiwan as well. I cannot remember which country it is, but something tells me it might be Taiwan which requires a phone that operates on a specific band (if you are a T-mobile customer, you can usually borrow one from T-Mobile in that country...I'll look tomorrow at work to see if I can find the country where this is. It might be Korea instead...)
Click to expand...

Quad band phone, like the Moto V600 (older model).
 
I have a quad band BlackBerry which works everywhere but @#$@#$@# Japan.

I'm paying about a buck a minute in Europe and $2 in Asia, plus local connection and roaming charges in some countries (India, for example).

I had a $3800 bill after 10 days in India where I was the only guy who had a world phone on him...

YMMV Ben. I'd suggest picking up a local rental phone (I'm a wee bit too lazy to google right now) if you need to have a way to be contacted and actually talk. Otherwise, if you have a quad band GSM phone, add international service before you depart and use the phone sparingly!

Enjoy Taiwan.

Cheers,

-Andrew
 
thanks for these posts. Could I just get a phone for the two weeks I am in taiwan--something like a throw-away deal? BTW, I have been there before, but I wasn't there so long so I didn't bring my phone.
 
OK - so it appears the countries I was talking about are South Korea and Japan, which require WCDMA or 3GSM phones. They can be rented, but Taiwan is normal.
 
SkyHog said:
OK - so it appears the countries I was talking about are South Korea and Japan, which require WCDMA or 3GSM phones. They can be rented, but Taiwan is normal.
Click to expand...
Taiwan has 3G as well, they just also have a GSM system. South Korea and Japan were both CDMA countries with unique bands that were not supported anywhere else. They started their system deployments beyond CDMA2000 with UMTS so there is no GSM support there.
 
AirBaker said:
Have a laptop? Skype?

Wait.. Bill already said that.
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Skype works very well, but it's really hard to have a conversation while walking the streets with your laptop folded over your head ... :D
 
gkainz said:
Skype works very well, but it's really hard to have a conversation while walking the streets with your laptop folded over your head ... :D
Click to expand...

How often do you go 'walking the streets' to have found this out??? :D:D:D

BTW not all WiFi devices are laptops. There are plenty of handheld WiFi devices. But WiFi, unless specifically designed , will not support handoffs. There are some enterprise deployments of WiFi that do support VoIP handoff but that is an exception .
 
Scott, got a new product idea for you. I've got a cousin who works at Microsoft who says his people are convinced that he is so technology challenged that he'd really like a rotary dial cell phone. Think you could gin one up for him? :D
 
smigaldi said:
How often do you go 'walking the streets' to have found this out??? :D:D:D

BTW not all WiFi devices are laptops. There are plenty of handheld WiFi devices. But WiFi, unless specifically designed , will not support handoffs. There are some enterprise deployments of WiFi that do support VoIP handoff but that is an exception .
Click to expand...

2 words: Blackberry Curve.
 
Ghery said:
Scott, got a new product idea for you. I've got a cousin who works at Microsoft who says his people are convinced that he is so technology challenged that he'd really like a rotary dial cell phone. Think you could gin one up for him? :D
Click to expand...

It was done years ago. Here is a pic, the handset is covering the rotory dial but you can see it is a rotory dial. This is the old IMTS system and was in use up into the 1980's in the states and well into the 1990's in Malaysia.

2007_3_10.jpg
 
Another VOIP solution that I've used since ditching the landline is WebPhone.
http://www.webphone.com/
(check out the FAQs)

No special hardware; just a speaker and a mic. (I use a bluetooth headset.)
$25 is the minimum account deposit.

I've only used it for outbound calls from my PC to a phone number.
Still, seems like it'd be nice way to supplement email communications when abroad.
 
smigaldi said:
It was done years ago. Here is a pic, the handset is covering the rotory dial but you can see it is a rotory dial. This is the old IMTS system and was in use up into the 1980's in the states and well into the 1990's in Malaysia.

2007_3_10.jpg
Click to expand...

Got any spares lying around? Don't even have to be functional. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he opens his package on Christmas morning. :D :D :D
 
Ghery said:
Got any spares lying around? Don't even have to be functional. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when he opens his package on Christmas morning. :D :D :D
Click to expand...

There was someone making a "hands free" (hah) in the shape of an old phone...
 
Thank you so much for all of the information! I'm also going to bring my Palm TX which can get wifi
 
ScottM said:
South Korea and Japan were both CDMA countries with unique bands that were not supported anywhere else. They started their system deployments beyond CDMA2000 with UMTS so there is no GSM support there.
Click to expand...
Is this still true? I am researching cellphone coverage in Japan with Verizon and/or AT&T. I called AT&T and the guy swore that with my plan (he looked up my phone number) my phone would work using international roaming at $2.29/min. I have an iPhone 3G. I'm also checking on whether or not the Verizon phone will work. It's not that much of an issue if I know my AT&T phone will work. It's only a matter of a few days, that is if we even go, so cost is not really an issue. I know about Skype although I'm only just starting to experiment with it, but you can't whip your computer out at all times and what if someone wants to call you?

Thread resurrection, BTW!
 
Everskyward said:
Is this still true? I am researching cellphone coverage in Japan with Verizon and/or AT&T. I called AT&T and the guy swore that with my plan (he looked up my phone number) my phone would work using international roaming at $2.29/min. I have an iPhone 3G. I'm also checking on whether or not the Verizon phone will work. It's not that much of an issue if I know my AT&T phone will work. It's only a matter of a few days, that is if we even go, so cost is not really an issue. I know about Skype although I'm only just starting to experiment with it, but you can't whip your computer out at all times and what if someone wants to call you?

Thread resurrection, BTW!
Click to expand...

At $2.29/min I'd have to want to talk to that person very, very badly!

Our daughter travels overseas quite a bit - Skype is now our preferred method of communication because of the cost (or lack thereof.) If we need to we pre-arrange call times via Skype chat. Heck, even my father uses Skype to call home from his fishing trips down in Mexico. Works just fine from his iPhone as long as he can find a WiFi hot spot.
 
Joe B said:
At $2.29/min I'd have to want to talk to that person very, very badly!
Click to expand...
Any calls I make would not be social calls, they would be logistical or emergency, that is why I am more concerned about the convenience than the price.
 
My BlackBerry has CDMA and GSM with Verizon. I've gotten signal everywhere in Europe, more places in the US than iPhones, and even in Chisasibi, Chibougamau, and Waskaganish (Canada places). When I got to Europe the first time the phone worked but the data didn't, and I had to call Verizon to get that fixed. Or maybe it was the reverse. Either way, half the functionality. No issues since that first trip, though. My dad uses his iPhone all over the world and it seems to work well.

I don't know about AT&T, but Verizon has an add-on to the plan where for $4/month you get put on an international value plan or something like that, which has reduced calling prices to/from a bunch of countries. They were good about adding it for the time I was there and deleting it when I left. Also look into international data plans or how to turn off data on your iPhone, otherwise it will be trying to check your eMail, etc., and you'll get charged for it.

On your iPhone, you can get a Skype application which will allow you to make phone calls through Skype to land line or cell phone numbers. I don't know if you need to have a wireless connection or if you could do it through a data plan, but having been on the receiving end of such calls, I've found it works well and is seamless (talking on my BlackBerry). I use Skype about daily on my MacBook for video and am loving it, even though I never used to use it. I believe you can also receive calls through the Skype application, but don't know the details.

Have fun in Japan!
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I don't know about AT&T, but Verizon has an add-on to the plan where for $4/month you get put on an international value plan or something like that, which has reduced calling prices to/from a bunch of countries. They were good about adding it for the time I was there and deleting it when I left. Also look into international data plans or how to turn off data on your iPhone, otherwise it will be trying to check your eMail, etc., and you'll get charged for it.
Click to expand...
AT&T has a reduced rate international calling plan for $5.99/month pro-rated and you can turn it on before you leave and off when you get back. That reduces the charge to $1.69/minute. I figured it wasn't worth the trouble. I can avoid using my iPhone for e-mail and data as I am accustomed to not using it in Canada either. I have push turned off.

Ted DuPuis said:
On your iPhone, you can get a Skype application which will allow you to make phone calls through Skype to land line or cell phone numbers. I don't know if you need to have a wireless connection or if you could do it through a data plan, but having been on the receiving end of such calls, I've found it works well and is seamless (talking on my BlackBerry). I use Skype about daily on my MacBook for video and am loving it, even though I never used to use it. I believe you can also receive calls through the Skype application, but don't know the details.
Click to expand...
I'll look into the Skype application for iPhone but I think you need a wireless connection for it to work.

Ted DuPuis said:
Have fun in Japan!
Click to expand...
This is definitely not a for sure thing but we need to at least pretend we are going so we are ready if it happens. Pretending is turning into a lot of work now though.
 
Some phones have UMTS, some don't. I don't know about the iPhone 3G specifically, but I *do* know that certain Blackberries do have UMTS. I have a BB that works on standard GSM/GPRS as well as UMTS. It worked great in Japan. I switch it out in the States with a BB that has GSM/GPRS/EDGE (the UMTS phone I have does not have Edge, though some BBs do have all 4).

The UMTS Blackberry worked great in Japan (Tokyo).

The VZ phone may or may not work. I turned it on a couple of times and it indicated a signal in a couple of locations around Tokyo, but I never tried to call out on it. Very spotty. I would never count on it.

One advantage T-Mobile has internationally is that (some of their phones) can use UMA (essentially voice over WiFi) to provide another solution to international calling. It's much more cost effective than regular international roaming rates.... if you are on a wifi network. Several of TMo's Blackberries will do this, and I understand they're working on a solution for the Android. I don't believe ATT can use UMA, but I may be wrong.

If you are only there for a short time and you are only looking at emergency use, renting a phone upon arrival may be an option.
 
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Everskyward said:
Is this still true? I am researching cellphone coverage in Japan with Verizon and/or AT&T. I called AT&T and the guy swore that with my plan (he looked up my phone number) my phone would work using international roaming at $2.29/min. I have an iPhone 3G. I'm also checking on whether or not the Verizon phone will work. It's not that much of an issue if I know my AT&T phone will work. It's only a matter of a few days, that is if we even go, so cost is not really an issue. I know about Skype although I'm only just starting to experiment with it, but you can't whip your computer out at all times and what if someone wants to call you?

Thread resurrection, BTW!
Click to expand...
No not true anymore. NTT DoCoMo has deployed a UMTS (3G) system that is compatible with some phones that have that band built in. IF your phone does not support their band you can always plastic roam. That is take out your sim card and place it in a Japanese rental. Roaming in Korea has even gotten easier.
 
Everskyward said:
This is definitely not a for sure thing but we need to at least pretend we are going so we are ready if it happens. Pretending is turning into a lot of work now though.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a lot of my trips. The Caribbean trip I was planning for January 2009 that never happened was a lot of prep work that never happened. But I was glad I did it, I learned a lot in the process.
 
ScottM said:
No not true anymore. NTT DoCoMo has deployed a UMTS (3G) system that is compatible with some phones that have that band built in. IF your phone does not support their band you can always plastic roam. That is take out your sim card and place it in a Japanese rental.
Click to expand...
Apparently my phone has that capability since the AT&T guy said it would work. The Verizon phone is an old (at least 4 years old) LG flip phone so I'm not sure if it would work but as long as one phone works it's probably OK. If we're going to rent a phone or a sim card we would need to do it here before we leave since it needs to work right away and without looking around for a cellphone store. If someone is going to point out that the cost would be cheaper there than here I'll say the the cellphone cost is nothing compared to the total cost of the trip and communication is important.
 
Everskyward said:
Apparently my phone has that capability since the AT&T guy said it would work. The Verizon phone is an old (at least 4 years old) LG flip phone so I'm not sure if it would work but as long as one phone works it's probably OK. If we're going to rent a phone or a sim card we would need to do it here before we leave since it needs to work right away and without looking around for a cellphone store. If someone is going to point out that the cost would be cheaper there than here I'll say the the cellphone cost is nothing compared to the total cost of the trip and communication is important.
Click to expand...

I'd talk to Verizon about using it. My BlackBerry is international and so is my mom's (also an LG flip phone), but when I bought the two of us new phones they had a pretty limited selection that were international capable.

Of course, you probably already know it's international, which makes this a moot point. :)
 
Sac Arrow said:
I travel extensively overseas (primarily in Southeast Asia) and I have had zero issues with coverage, using AT&T for both voice and data. Of course, that is using local carriers through the AT&T plan. But phone usage, data in particular, is prohibitively expensive to use overseas except in an emergency, even with international calling plans.
Click to expand...

As I found when I recently went to Canada and Europe (and had an unpleasant conversation with Verizon regarding their billing policies), this varies significantly from country to country. Not having any travel experience in Asia I'll defer to your judgement, but in Europe, Verizon offers an unlimited data plan. I used this and downloaded about 2.5 GB in a one-week time frame, pro rated at $15 ($60/month).

Canada doesn't have any plans available, but the data was cheap enough for it to not be an issue. Calls weren't very expensive, either. Calls in Europe, however, were very expensive.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
As I found when I recently went to Canada and Europe (and had an unpleasant conversation with Verizon regarding their billing policies), this varies significantly from country to country. Not having any travel experience in Asia I'll defer to your judgement, but in Europe, Verizon offers an unlimited data plan. I used this and downloaded about 2.5 GB in a one-week time frame, pro rated at $15 ($60/month).

Canada doesn't have any plans available, but the data was cheap enough for it to not be an issue. Calls weren't very expensive, either. Calls in Europe, however, were very expensive.
Click to expand...

Sac Arrow is correct: data is prohibitively expensive overseas. I travel extensively, too, and turn off all data features (except the flat-rate global BB email).

That's another point, Mari: even when not intentionally using data the iPhone can access data. Without knowing it, you can accumulate hundreds of dollars in data costs.

If you're OK with a simple phone for the trip, it might be cheaper just to buy one than to rent it. But you've got to work the numbers.

One resource that sells phones and prepaid SIMs (cheaper calling) is Telestial.com. There are others. You'd need to look for phones that say they work in Japan.
 
wsuffa said:
Sac Arrow is correct: data is prohibitively expensive overseas. I travel extensively, too, and turn off all data features (except the flat-rate global BB email).
Click to expand...

I don't consider $60/month for unlimited data to be "prohibitively expensive," and that's what I paid in Europe from Verizon. I ended up paying about $15 in data for my Canada time, and I felt like I used a good sum of data.

I'm guessing that you and Sac have different experiences based on different places you travel, which was my point. I know nothing about Japan, having never been there.
 
wsuffa said:
That's another point, Mari: even when not intentionally using data the iPhone can access data. Without knowing it, you can accumulate hundreds of dollars in data costs.
Click to expand...
I have that part figured out because I spend a lot of time in Canada and I have not ever "accidentally" used data.

wsuffa said:
If you're OK with a simple phone for the trip, it might be cheaper just to buy one than to rent it. But you've got to work the numbers.

One resource that sells phones and prepaid SIMs (cheaper calling) is Telestial.com. There are others. You'd need to look for phones that say they work in Japan.
Click to expand...
OK, thanks. I will keep this in mind. We would only need a simple phone as my company uses phones for voice only. We have not moved into the Blackberry or texting age.
 
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Everskyward said:
I have that part figured out because I spend a lot of time in Canada and I have not ever "accidentally" used data.

OK, thanks. I will keep this in mind. We would only need a simple phone as my company uses phones for voice only. We have not moved into the Blackberry or texting age.
Click to expand...

FWIW, I bought an unlocked BB 8707v for around $100 specifically because it worked in Japan (turned it on as I arrived at Narita and it worked great, including Blackberry email service). Cheap, easy solution. It doesn't have EDGE for use in the US market (but it works in the UUS very well on voice and GPRS, a slower data service), but it does work fine in Japan and Europe on UMTS. That phone is on TMo - were I doing it now, I might spring for a little more money to have a phone/blackberry that can do UMA over wifi and save some of the international voice roaming charges.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I don't consider $60/month for unlimited data to be "prohibitively expensive," and that's what I paid in Europe from Verizon. I ended up paying about $15 in data for my Canada time, and I felt like I used a good sum of data.

I'm guessing that you and Sac have different experiences based on different places you travel, which was my point. I know nothing about Japan, having never been there.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I've been unable to find that $60 data plan, as have a number of frequent traveler folks I know. I'd love to know how you got that.

AT&T DOES offer a $60 international data plan to certain corporate customers and it requires a 1 year commitment. But it's not available to the general public. Most folks that travel in certain countries get a local prepaid data SIM that allows use in that country at rates of $5 - $10/day. Japan is very restrictive on purchases of local SIMs, and that really isn't feasible there.
 
wsuffa said:
Hmmm... I've been unable to find that $60 data plan, as have a number of frequent traveler folks I know. I'd love to know how you got that.
Click to expand...

I called up Verizon before going to Europe, told them what I was doing, and that's what they told me was available. If you're talking AT&T, then that's a completely different matter, and from what it sounds, they don't offer as good packages.

Certainly there is high variability, both between carriers and countries. My point was I've managed to get some packages that price wise I think are quite attractive, and nowhere near prohibitively expensive. My experience is strictly limited to Europe and Canada at this point with Verizon. Although next week will be Mexico, and I'm sure I'll be making some calls and data use then.
 
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