Telephone service for travel

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Telephones are a crucial part of modern living while at home, and they can be an excellent tool for keeping in touch and planning while traveling. This article covers some options for sending and receiving calls while on the road.

Making calls

In-room phones

Many hotels and motels charge set rates for all calls made from in-room telephones. The cost of these calls is generally much higher than an ordinary call made from a residential or business phone. There may also be other service fees for toll calls as many hotels have an automatic price required service where their telecommunications provider advises them of the cost of a toll call and the room number the call was made from. They may also have a telephone service charge for calls to toll-free numbers. Check the call rates before making a call; even reputable European hotels will end up charging upwards of $35 per minute for international service (no kidding!).

Pay phones

Take care when making calls from pay phones . Many pay phone services are provided by specialist providers who charge higher fees to cover the cost of equipment and payphone booth. There can be a substantial minimum fee which you do not notice if you pay by cr card. Check the rate card in the booth and, if you cannot find one, do not use the phone if you don't want to be ripped off.

In some countries you can make very cheap unlimited local calls.

You may find there are courtesy phones available at airports and similar places for making local calls for a taxi or similar traveller services. Look out for these as you may not need to use a pay phone.

Pre-paid phone cards

Many telephone service providers offer pre-paid phone cards that can be used from pay phones or ordinary telephones. Access to these services is often through a toll-free telephone number that can be called from most phones without charge. (Be aware that some pay phones and hotel phones charge for toll-free calls.) Rates can be surprisingly cheap - so cheap that you may even wonder how they can provide the calls at such a low rate, like http://www.TalkLoop.com. These providers may be exploiting regulatory loopholes in telephone rates, so read the fine print to see when and how you can get the lowest rates - there may be particular times or days that the rates apply. The current lowest-cost prepaid cards are available at US warehouse clubs Costco and Sam's Club (co-branded with AT&T and MCI, respectively) at under 3 cents per domestic minute. These cards also feature excellent international rates.

US FCC regulations require pay phone providers be reimbursed for toll-free calls by the toll-free number provider, so additional minutes or a small surcharge may be deducted when using your card from a pay phone.

Calling cards

Some telephone service providers offer a Calling Card option that can be used with an existing telephone account. In the past, telephone operator used to accept reverse or transferred charges calls, however, due to fraud and increasing costs, a calling card now replaces those services. These services sometimes also offer an international operator service in the caller's language. Charges appear on the caller's telephone account and may be a convenient way for business travellers to charge their telephone calls.

Receiving calls

In-room phones

Hotels and motels will often charge for calls you receive, even for messages taken by the reception desk. Ask what their telephone charges are before giving out a hotel or motel telephone number for people to call you.

Voice mail

If you are going to be out of range of a telephone, but still want to receive calls, Voice mail may be a good option for you. Most telephone service providers offer a voice mail option, either as an add-on to an existing landline or mobile telephone or as a stand alone service. You can usually check your voice mail remotely - make sure to obtain the access number and login details from your voice mail provider before leaving home.

Mobile Telephones

Cell phones

Using a cell phone while travelling can be a convenient way to be reached through one number worldwide. Having a phone at all times allows you to reach local hotels, restaurants and museums while on the run.

Using your phone in countries other than its "home area" is called roaming and the price varies depending on your provider and the country being roamed in. For most cases, the price can be rather high, but there are some alternatives (see below).

The most widely used cell phone standard in the world is GSM, or Global System for Mobile communications. For most countries (other than the United States, Japan and Korea) this is the main standard, and it can be used across countries. GSM phones are known for having a SIM chip (subscriber identity module) which provide the "identity" for the phone, including the phone number and cell phone carrier info.

GSM works on several different frequencies. Most of the world uses 900 MHz and 1800 MHz. The United States and Canada use 1900 MHz and 850 MHz (sometimes mistakenly called 800 MHz). Therefore, a dual-band phone will work in most places around the world with GSM, such as Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa and South America. A tri-band or quad-band phone (adding the 1900/850 Mhz bands) will cover the US as well. Japan and Korea are famous for not having any type of GSM at all, instead opting for PDC and CDMA, respectively.

United States and Canada

Some things to keep in mind when using cellular phones in the US and Canada:

For a GSM phone to work in the US or Canada, it has to work on the 1900 MHz and/or 850 MHz GSM frequencies.
The SIM card and sometimes the phone itself needs to be programmed for international roaming ("unlocked") and your carrier needs to arrange for your account to accept international billing. Most European accounts accept international billing.
Major American GSM carriers are T-Mobile and Cingular. Some smaller regional companies are converting to GSM and have roaming agreements with the larger carriers. Canadian carriers include Fido and Rogers.
Prepaid SIM cards seem to be hard to find for a reasonable price in the US as most SIM cards have to be bought bundled with a phone. T-MOBILE has them in its New York City stores at a high price - call ahead.
North American cell phone providers typically charge for incoming minutes. However, there is no difference in cost when calling an American land line or cell phone.

Some older phones need to select or allow a roaming change from a user menu. Bring your manual or make sure you know how to access the menus. An explanation and listing of who is on what system and frequency, including old systems is at Siemens (http://www.my-siemens.com/MySiemens/Files/Addon/an/us/se/worldphone.pdf).

Roaming service

Roaming is convenient, but may give you surprise on your next phone bill. Usually making local phone calls is pretty reasonable while roaming, but making and receiving international calls can be very expensive. (See section below on SIM cards for alternatives) If possible, check with your home carrier to find out what the rates are beforehand, or you may unsuspectingly be making a USD $5 per minute phone call. GSM phones allow you to choose a local carrier manually to attach to when roaming. Some carriers will advertise on billboards at airports, trumpeting the advantages of using them while roaming.

Consider using SMS (short messaging service) as a cheap alternative to making per-minute phone calls. These text messages can be sent between phones, with up to 160 characters per message. While SMS messages are more expensive when overseas (from USD $0.30 to $1 each), they are cheaper than international calls and can be very useful for keeping costs down.

Another advanced feature (depending on your carrier) is callback service which allows you to send a request to your home carrier to ring your phone and connect to someone in your home market, thereby keeping costs low. For example, Hong Kong carrier Orange allows its users to dial special code while internationally roaming which will connect to local Hong Kong numbers at a lower rate than direct dialing. This command typically looks like: "**130*<phonenum>#" and the caller waits for a call back, initiated from Hong Kong. Other services require a phone call to a special number before the system will call you back. Most non-American mobile providers do not charge for incoming calls, and callback services take advantage of that to help keep your costs low. KallBack (http://www.kallback.com) is a well-known callback service provider.

For details on US and international mobile roaming agreements, see GSM World (http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml).
For EU related informations (tariffs, hints) see official EU roaming information page (http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/roaming/).

SIM cards

For GSM phones, local prepaid SIM cards are a godsend. The SIM "chip" in GSM phones can be swapped out, effectively changing the carrier and phone number of the phone. Many countries sell prepaid SIM cards that you can buy for cash, quickly establishing a new phone number and cr for making calls. No account setup, cr card numbers, bank accounts, passports or IDs are necessary. To add cr to these SIM cards, you can buy "top up" or "add value" cards from newsstands, telephone stores or convenience stores.

Places that offer this include: Canada, China, India, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Romania, Switzerland and many others. See 1 (http://www.telestial.com/prepaid_sim_cards.htm) for examples.

Charges vary by country/carrier, but per-minute costs for voice calls are often the best option for folks needing local calling service. The SIM card and phone number are usually valid for a month or two, staying active as long as you "top up" the card with more cr.

For example, in Malaysia with a prepaid SIM card from Maxis/Hotlink, incoming calls are free, while outgoing calls are charged in 30-second blocks of time at around US $0.15/minute local, or US $0.70/minute across the country. In the end of 2005, it the cost of prepaid SIM packs had dropped significantly. What used to cost about 68 ringgit (US $18) for a prepaid SIM card with 50 ringgit (US $13) of call cr in 2004 now only costs 8 ringgit for 25 ringgit of call cr and. IDD rates are also low, thus getting a SIM pack makes sense while staying over moreover for folks who will be staying at least a week, or expect to do lots of calling locally for business, or want to be reached by locals at local rates.

Satellite Telephones

In remote locations, without cellphone coverage, a Satellite Telephone may be your only option. This service is expensive compared to other alternatives but is surprisingly affordable if one considers the technology involved. The service is frequently used by shipping, including pleasure craft, as well as expions who have remote data and voice needs. Your local telephone service provider should be able to give more information about connecting to this service.

Some carriers to investigate:

Iridium (worldwide)
Globalstar (worldwide)
ACeS (Asia Pacific)
Thuraya (Asia and Middle East)

Internet phones

Making phone calls over the internet is the cheapest option, it can even be free.

Internet phones are based on the open SIP protocol and various proprietary protocols. SIP phones are implemented as a program running on a computer, an adaptor that let you connect an ordinary PSTN phone to the internet or a phone that can make internet calls. Proprietary protocols are only implemented in software, i.e. you have to bring a computer or PDA when traveling.

If you travel with a laptop or PDA, you just need a network connection, a 5 dollar headset, some Voice over IP software, and an account with an IP->PSTN provider. Popular software SIP phones X-lite (http://www.xten.com/index.php?menu=products&smenu=download) for Mac and Windows and KPhone for Linux. Software for proprietary protocols are provided by internet phone companies.

You can bring a SIP adaptor that will let a normal phone work with a wired network. It will not work on wireless networks unless you also bring an access point. The Handytone 286 (http://www.grandstream.com/y-286.htm) is small and works with 110-240V.

Wireless phones such as the Zyxel P2000W AKA WSIP (http://www.zyxel.com/product/P2000W.php) can make and receive calls from wireless networks. But it does not work on networks that expect users to accept a policy in a browser.

Internet phone companies

Because calls are routed over the internet you do not need to use a phone company located where you live or where you travel. Often you have to separately buy a global number, that allow PSTN phones to call you. It does make a difference where that number belong for people calling you. Services such as IPKall (http://www.ipkall.com/) allows you to have numbers in different parts of the world for free.

SIP Phone companies

2 (http://www.gizmoproject.com) has 1 mintute free calls with SipPhone (http://www.sipphone.com). Prepaid minutes from $10. Global number from $40.
Free World Dialup (http://www.freeworlddialup.com/). Free but you can only call other SIP phones.
IConncectThere (http://www.iconnecthere.com). Prepaid from $10.
SipDiscount (http://www.sipdiscount.com/en/index.html) Free 1 minute trial calls to many countries.
AT&T CallVantage (http://www.usa.att.com/callvantage/index.jsp?)
Vonage (http://www.vonage.com/)
VoIP Buster (http://www.voipbuster.com/en/index.html) Free calls to European destinations

Non-SIP phone companies

Net2Phone (http://web.net2phone.com/consumer/voiceline/)
Dialpad (http://www.dialpad.com/products/broadbandphone.html)
Skype (http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/).

Other internet services

Some Internet phone companies (E.g. Musimi) will forward voicemail messages as email attachment so you can listen to them at internet cafes when traveling.

Lonely planets Ekit (http://www.lonelyplanet.ekit.com/) even allow people to leave messages on your voicemail for free using a toll-free number and you can then retrieve them from the Ekit home page or pay to listen to them from a phone.

Ooaj Travel Guide, tourism, hotel reservation, residence, plane, cheap pension for you holidays in telephone service for travel

Free Travel guide Ooaj.com A free travel guide for holidays. Hotels in telephone service for travel, Bed and Breakfast!