Traveling Internationally with The Cell Phone Junkie

Traveling Internationally with The Cell Phone Junkie

When my wife and I set out to plan our summer vacation this year, we found that we kept coming back to the notion of traveling to Ireland.  To make the trip a bit more diverse, we chose to visit multiple cities and locations over the course of 9 days.  The trip had us visiting London, Cork, Kinsale, Killarney and Dublin. When we returned to the states, we found a flight that gave us a 7 hour layover in New York City. and spent a few hours in Manhattan before finally returning home.

Through all of this travel (7 flights total),  I wanted to make sure that I was as efficient and lightweight as possible.  To do so, I took a hard look at each item that I was bringing, and made sure that it would make sense to haul it across 2 different countries for 9 days.  The resulting items that made the cut turned out to be these:

• Dell Mini 9
• iPhone 3GS
• Nokia E75
• Blackberry Pearl
• Sprint Blackberry 8830
• Richard Solo Batteries

Rather than splitting my thoughts on each into multiple reviews, I’ve chosen to combine them all here in one post that details the use of each as many of them are related.  Here is a recap of what I brought, and how each device was used.  Also, check out this video that was recorded by Edward from msmobiles.com about all the gadgets i brought.

Dell Mini 9

I had recently purchased a Dell Mini 9 which I hackintoshed with Mac OS Leopard.  This turned out to be the main computer for the trip, weighing in at just over 2 pounds.  With 3 USB ports, the computer allowed me to plug it in (with a UK plug adaptor of course) and then subsequently plug in different devices to it to charge off the ports.  This proved extremely efficient for charging on almost all the following mobile devices that accompanied us.  Also, we found that each of the places we stayed offered some sort of free wi-fi connection for us to use for longer emails, or sending of photos.  The Dell Mini assisted by being a repository each night for all the photos we took during the day.  If there is something I’ve known about photos though, you always want to have backups.  So, after downloading them onto the Dell, i would then copy them all over to a USB flash drive that I kept in my money belt with all our important docs, money and cards.  That way, I knew that simply copying the photos onto the computer left me open to loss if the computer was damaged or stolen, so this provided a nice peace of mind.  Finally, I was able to keep backups of all our important travel information on the Mini, so if our paper copies were lost, I would be able to easily pull up any of the information needed for our trip.

AT&T iPhones
When we recorded one of our recent TCPJ Unlocked shows a few weeks back related to summer travel, we talked about using your current device from your phone provider, by simply adding on an international plan.  While both my wife and I have iPhones through AT&T, we decided that adding international calling plans or data packages onto the account for the week we would be gone was not worth it.  However, we opted to bring them along, and the iPhones were used extensively for music, video, podcasts, and other media as well as connecting to the internet via Wi-Fi where available.  Also, through the use of Wi-Fi on the new iPhone 3GS, I was able to use the phone many times to help us find our way when wandering the streets of London, or navigating the windy roads of Ireland with the new Compass feature.  It turns out that when you find yourself in a foreign city, knowing your North from South is much more difficult than you would think, and being able to press one button the maps application saved us many times to know which way to go after we’d done a search using the Maps application.

Richard Solo Batteries

Because I made the decision to charge most of my devices via USB on the Dell Mini, I needed to figure out a way to charge the iPhones, since connecting them to the Dell would launch iTunes, and attempt to create a new partnership each time.  After reading about them on many blogs, and seeing their advertising, I reached out to Richard Solo for some review units to test out.  I received 2 different batteries for use with iPhones, one that plugs directly into the bottom of the phone (Richard Solo 1800 for iPhone), and the other that connects via a short cable (Richard Solo 1800 with Cable).  Each charges the iPhone in about the same time as the wall charger.  Also, they can be daisy chained together for charging via USB, wall, or car charger.  Since we weren’t using the iPhones as phones, we only phone the need to charge them ever 3 days or so on the trip, and we were able to simply plug in either of the Richard Solo batteries and toss the whole setup in a backpack to charge while we walked around.  Also, the length of flights to and from Europe were just long enough to drain the iPhones battery when watching video, and so keeping the Richard Solo battery handy was great to make sure the movies we were watching could be finished without the battery running out.

While not the sleekest option for additional battery power on your iPhone, the Richard Solo batteries have 1800 mAh batteries in them that can be used for multiple charges of the iPhone when you find yourself away from a traditional wall or car charger.  Each battery comes with an AC wall cahrger, 2-port USB car charger, and retractable USB charging cable.  Also, the Richard Solo batteries now have an extended warranty for one full year.

Quite honestly, these batteries were critical for us while on the trip.  We would not have been able to use our iPhones in the way we did without having these around.  Since the iPhone doesn’t allow for replacement on the go of the internal battery, having an external option is many times necessary, and Richard Solo creates a great solution for this need.

Sprint Blackberry 8830

If you have your service through a GSM provider, then activating an international plan works with almost any phone, but what if you with Verizon or Sprint, who use CDMA?  Well, both carriers have worked with the manufacturers to create dual-mode devices that can function on CDMA networks here in the US, and GSM networks abroad.  While Joey has some experience supporting these devices, I had never used one.  So, I reached out to the great folks at Sprint, and they graciously provided me a review RIM Blackberry 8830 device to use with the International service they offer.  Since my primary voice number is a Google Voice number, once this device arrived, i simply added the 8830’s phone number as a device, and calls and SMS messages started to arrive immediately on the handset.  I also wanted to be able to keep in touch with friends and family,  so I hooked in my personal email account, and also installed Uber Twitter, Facebook and a couple other apps for fun.

Once we touched down in Dublin, I simply switched on the phone, and after a minute or so of searching, the phone was able to find the O2 Ireland network.  Emails started coming in just like I was used to, Blackberry Messenger messages worked perfectly and browsing was a breeze. When you think about how you communicate with your friends and family while at home, you can pretty much do everything while abroad with this service.

A couple points of note, SMS messages unfortunately are not forwarded to the phone while roaming just yet, so keep this in mind if you plan on using SMS to communicate.  I got around this by using the Google Voice online SMS feature, and did my texting over the browser.  Also, the speed of the device is limited to GPRS when Roaming, so you’ll be waiting more than you’re used to.

One of the nice things that happens when you arrive in an international country, is that a SMS message is received telling you how to make calls back to the US (+1-area code-number) and the rate you will be charged, determined by the country you are visiting.  For the UK and Ireland, Voice is charged at $1.29 per minute, and Data is $0.016 per kb.  Both rates seemed competitive when I compared it to what the other providers were charging when roaming.

Other than the slower data rate, and lack of SMS, the phone functions exactly as you’re in the US.  Selecting a contact in your address book works as it should, and there are no extra numbers or codes to dial.  Quite simply, it just works.

MaxRoam

The second option that I wanted to try out was the use of a Global SIM card.  These cards offer rates half or less than what you’d typically get with your home provider.  I reached out to MaxRoam back at CTIA in April, and they provided a SIM for me to use in any unlocked GSM phone.  When you receive your MaxRoam SIM, you are assigned a phone number to the SIM that is the primary number for voice and SMS.  However, they do allow for an additional 10 numbers from countries around the world to be added for voice call routing.  When you put the SIM in a phone, it appears to always be roaming, but tells you which carrier the phone is using.  If you want to change carriers, the phone will allow you to choose the provider you want to use with the service, which can be helpful if you know one carrier has superior service in an area than the others.

I had a US phone number assigned to the card as well, giving me yet another phone number to tie into my Google Voice account.  One caveat to using the service however, is that SMS messages must be sent to and from the primary number on the SIM, which in my case was based in Belgium.  The issue with this was that I was not able to have my Google Voice SMS messages sent to this phone, as Google does not allow forwarding of messages to numbers outside the US.  At any rate, I found this SIM to be one of the fastest ways to send a receive SMS messages with Edward from MSmobiles, and we used it as our primary communication method.

One of the other great things about the MaxRoam option is the ability to still use data, and at 3G speeds.  The nice thing about this is the obvious benefit to being able to search the internet, check email, and even use GPS and Maps applications to search for and find things on the go.  The downside, is that while the 3G speeds are nice, the data that is consumed can quickly add up, and rates are not cheap, about 4.50 Euro per MB.

When considering MaxRoam as an option, you’ll simply need to know that by either forwarding your calls to the number assigned to the SIM, or using a service like Google Voice.  So long as you can do without forwarding of SMS messages, this is all that is required to get you up and running.

TruPhone
I’ve talked about TruPhone on the show before, and did a review as well on how you can save a bundle of money when calling internationally over Wi-Fi.  While planning this trip, I used TruPhone extensively to make our reservations and contact various places for information.  I found myself using it multiple times on the trip as well as Wi-Fi was prevalent in many places.  The cost of each call was less than $.05 per minute in most cases, so calls back home could be done for very cheap.

While not a recommendation as a sole option while traveling due to the lack of keeping the application open all the time for incoming calls, it is a great alternative to the relatively higher prices of any other service I used for making phone calls.

Local SIM

Finally, as has been the recommended option for the past decade, one of our listeners (James from the UK) offered to have a prepaid Orange SIM delivered to my hotel in London so i would have a local SIM to use while in the city.  This SIM offered unlimited data for the days we were there (GPRS speeds only) and cheap phone calls in town, as well as to other countries.  I made multiple calls while in London, and by the end of our time there had barely made a dent in the credit on the card.  However, I continued to use the SIM once we left the UK., and the balance was quickly depleted while roaming in Ireland.

Once of the great things about having this SIM with me, was that it resided in the Nokia E75 most of the time.  Because of this, I used a program called Joiku Spot to share the internet connection of the phone over Wi-Fi and connect our other other Wi-Fi enabled devices to it.  As I mentioned above with the iPhone, simply launching this program and connecting my iPhone via Wi-Fi was a great way to save time and provide direction while trying to navigate unknown areas.

Unlocked Blackberry Pearl/Nokia E75

When i started thinking about the number of services that I would by trying on this trip, I determined that I would be needing 2 unlocked phones.  I had an old AT&T Blackberry Pearl at home, and a quick call to AT&T a couple weeks before we left gave them plenty of time to get me the code needed to unlock the phone.  I did find that while the unlocking of the device seemed to work to the extent that I could make and receive phone calls and SMS messages, something wasn’t quite right.  I would pull the phone out my my pocket every once in a while to find the screen displaying that the SIM had been rejected.  A restart of the phone would fix the issue, but it was annoying to find this a few times that I ultimately opted to only use this phone for making calls.

The E75 on the other hand was a perfectly rock solid device, with features that i truly enjoyed using while traveling.  The aforementioned Joiku Spot allowed for Wi-Fi access for multiple devices when not at the hotel, the GPS pinpointed our location using maps to help us find routing when needed, the push Gmail gave immediate access to email, and the browser worked well, even over the slower connection.  When using a Nokia device, you’ll often be prompted on which connection you’d like to use to connect to the internet.  Stateside, I often found this an annoying occurrence, but after seeing the possible high charges for data roaming in certain instances, I understand where this feature can be useful.

The GPS on the E75 also proved to be a fun thing to have.  On a trip to the Greenwich observatory, I wanted to see how the phone worked in relation to the Greenwich Meridian.  I set out to the observatory level and planted myself squarely on the line denoting the Meridian.  To my surprise, the phone showed a longitude of 0,00,05.34!

After doing some walking around, I found that this sign, explaining why I was seeing such a reading.

Of course, now wanting to see where this other point was, I headed East.  Finally, i found what I was looking for, 0′00′00.00!

I also felt the need to have my wife take a shot of me at this memorable location.

Overall

When preparing to head on an International trip, there are many things to think about, and communication should be one of them.  While Wi-Fi may be available in many areas, the need to have some sort of mobile phone, with or without data is something many people desire to have.  Looking at each of the different options available, take some time to figure out the best way for you to keep in touch while traveling, and what items are needed to best keep you powered up.  Also, you may never know when you’ll need 3 different networks at the same time!