Tag: SIM

Preparing Your Phone for Global Use

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dead SIM
Image by Yaisog Bonegnasher via Flickr

Back in October, we discussed some of the thoughts we were having regarding smartphone use abroad. Now we’re back to talk about how it played out.

We’re Verizon customers, and Verizon Wireless is a CDMA carrier. The majority of the world uses GSM. One of the things about GSM versus CDMA is that GSM uses a SIM card. SIM, or Subscriber Identity Module. The SIM card is tied to the network, as opposed to the phone itself. You can thus move the card in between phones, and thus the number. There is a CDMA equivalent, but it is not currently used in the United States. SIM cards are also used on the LTE network that Verizon used

This was surprisingly easy, but you can’t do it at a store. We tried. You have to call Verizon Global Support(1-800-711-8300), as opposed to regular tech support. They will allow one unlocking per line every ten months, as long as you have been a customer in good standing for at least sixty days. We unlocked multiple global phones, even ones not being brought along, as long as we were on the phone with them. To ensure this works, have a SIM card ready to test before you leave. We used a $5 Telestrial Passport Lite to do this.

AT&T is apparently not as cooperative. You can always buy a fully unlocked phone, but that will be at an increased price.

There are other options to be aware of. If you frequently switch between countries and providers, there is such a thing as a dual SIM adapter, which would allow installation of two SIMs at once. We have yet to try one of these, but it is said you can switch them in software, with an Android phone. There are also card adapters that will, if put inline with a SIM card will allow it to work on a locked phone.

Now that your phone can be used anywhere, you need to start researching options in the country you wish to travel to. If you go there frequently, it makes sense to have a contract. But if this is an infrequent trip, such as a few times a year, or a one-off, you can visit PrePaidGSM.net for some advice. Their forums and pages provide a chance for you to get firsthand advice and experience.

From all the research we did, it seems that the best move is to try and secure a SIM card locally after arrival. There are companies that will provide international cards, or will provide international cards, but they often offer less favorable deals, or at an increased cost. Most international airports nowadays have shops that sell prepaid SIMs and will set it up for you.

If data is more important to you than voice, then you can always turn off the radio in your phone and use wifi only. Although finding wifi hotspots may also be an issue, depending on where you are.

What have you done in the past to maintain your need for cell?

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Adventures in Global Smartphone Travel – Call for Feedback

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For use on the English Wikipedia page LG Ally
Image via Wikipedia

Recently, we started making plans to travel out of the country for the first time since most of us here at the Weneca Media Group got a smartphone.

Since that time, the advice given about smartphones(once you get one, it is hard to go back), has rung true. The idea of being without one and its instant data access wherever we go seems a strange one.

However, most of us have selected a CDMA carrier. Mostly Verizon, but Jere over at Android Buffet has a Sprint phone. The majority of the world uses GSM as its standard, rendering these phones useless. However, Verizon offers a limited series of global phones, including the Droid 2 Global and the Droid 3, both available in the Gadget Wisdom collection.

So, our conversation started with Verizon. Despite the fact Vodafone owns nearly half of Verizon, they do not offer a good deal on data. Signing up for a 50MB plan is $30.

Looking around at prepaidgsm.net, which summarizes rates around the world for prepaid gsm, there are better deals to be had. The downside is that you can’t keep your U.S. number, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

As a Verizon customer, we would need to unlock our Global phones. Verizon Global Tech Support advised they would unlock one phone every ten months for a customer in good standing. The phone would have had to have been on the account at some point. So, time to decide which phone is going overseas. Perhaps the one not being used in daily life…

If we wanted to chuck all data concerns out the window, Telestial offers inexpensive prepaid world SIM and prepaid phones, and can be purchased through Amazon. They offer both a U.S. and a U.K. phone number, with cards starting at $5. We may get one of these as a backup.

Our plan is to go for something decoupled from the phone for the U.S. issue, Skype. Skype offers a service called Skype-To-Go numbers. They will assign a number that will forward to an overseas number at your expense, which is significantly less than the cost of having same done by a phone company. You can even forward your normal or Google Voice number to this number, making it seamless for friends and business associates. It would also, if we set it up after arriving and purchasing a prepaid SIM card, allow us to use the cheap local plans, instead of other options.

What do you think? We haven’t done any of this yet, but what do you suggest?