Cell Phones
Cell Phones
So in thinking about moving abroad, there are things that I think about from time-to-time that deal more with living abroad. What do you do about a cell phone? I am about to be able to get a new phone, but don't want to sign a new 2 year contract if I am leaving in less than a year. Any suggestions? What have you done with this?
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antitravolta
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:35 am
- Location: United States
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overseasvet2
- Posts: 191
- Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:50 pm
phones
Most of the world works on phone chips. If you're buying a phone in the US, be sure it can be "unlocked". Bought a Samsung at T-Mobile and used overseas phone chips and pay as you go chip in the United States with no issues. Talk to your local phone companies.
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Most of the world uses GSM phones, in the USA the big carriers are AT&T and T-Mobile, though an number of newer smart phones offered by the CDMA carriers (Verizon, Sprint, etc) have both CDMA and GSM antennas in them (such as the iPhone 5). The GSM phones have a small chip about the size of a micro or mini SD card called a SIM (subscriber identity module), this chip contains your phone number and other SIM number and identifies you to the mobile tower and the phone company. When you travel to another country, you simply buy a new SIM card with a local number and swap the SIM chips in your phone.
The biggest issue in the USA, is that most people buy subsidized phones (you get a discount on the price of the phone for signing a 2 year agreement). As a result your phone is usually "locked" so that it can only accept and be used with SIM cards from the carrier you purchased from, so you cant insert another companies SIM card (this includes overseas carriers). You need to have your carrier or another third . unlock your phone. Typically AT&T will unlock your phone if your out of contract, so if your contract on your iPhone 4 is about to expire, AT&T will unlock it for you when it does. T-mobile will unlock a phone after about 90 days. There are other companies on the web that charge various fees to unlock phones otherwise. Interestingly the library of Congress (why them I don't know) is the authority that decided unlocking a phone was not illegal.
You can of course also choose to buy a new phone when you get to the country your going too. The carriers in many countries do not offer subsidized phones, so they can be pricy. Depending on the country you go to service plans range from prepaid plans using value loaded cards (very common) to monthly billing plans. Typically to begin with you won't be eligible for home billing, so monthly billing would have to be to a credit card. Understand that if you get billed at home, the bill will most likely be in the local language and that most people pay their bills in person either at the post office, 7-11, or at a company Kiosk. If your savvy enough and have the right bank you can use your banks bill pay or remittance service to pay your bill directly.
Most ITs use prepay options. You go to a kiosk, select the carrier and plan features, and buy the new SIM card. They usually come with a few dollars of airtime. You then buy refill cards in various cash amounts (such as 50€, 1000¥,). You scratch off a spot on the back of the card to reveal a number, and then call the reload number on the card (they have an English instruction option) you then punch in the number on your phone, and the value of the card is added to your account.
Different carriers offer different billing (as well as call features). Typically, you pay for what you use. So voice mail costs a certain amount every time you use it, so does call forwarding etc. The "unlimited" concept just hasn't caught on outside the USA. The big difference between carriers is there billing features. Some will give you incoming calls free, some give you the first minute free, some have a wider calling area that you aren't charged long distance, some have access to IP phone, some have lower prices if you call other subscribers to the same carrier, some have cheaper rates for longer calls, some have cheaper long distance, some have cheaper international calls, some offer IDD. Some offer cheaper SMS (texting). It's these billing features that really determine how much your phone service costs.
Depending where you go you will see vast differences in reception, speed and quality. Usually voice and text isn't the problem. For data a lot of places still only have 2.5G speeds, 3G is pretty common in major cities, 4G is either non existent or its spotty. You either get it, or you move a meter and you don't. In a number of places mobile Internet really is the best option. In Italy my building wasn't wired for ADSL, and it couldn't be added because of the historical nature of the building (if that meant it had historical significance, or it was so old it would collapse I don't know), using a mobile Internet stick and neighboring wifi was my Internet option.
The biggest issue in the USA, is that most people buy subsidized phones (you get a discount on the price of the phone for signing a 2 year agreement). As a result your phone is usually "locked" so that it can only accept and be used with SIM cards from the carrier you purchased from, so you cant insert another companies SIM card (this includes overseas carriers). You need to have your carrier or another third . unlock your phone. Typically AT&T will unlock your phone if your out of contract, so if your contract on your iPhone 4 is about to expire, AT&T will unlock it for you when it does. T-mobile will unlock a phone after about 90 days. There are other companies on the web that charge various fees to unlock phones otherwise. Interestingly the library of Congress (why them I don't know) is the authority that decided unlocking a phone was not illegal.
You can of course also choose to buy a new phone when you get to the country your going too. The carriers in many countries do not offer subsidized phones, so they can be pricy. Depending on the country you go to service plans range from prepaid plans using value loaded cards (very common) to monthly billing plans. Typically to begin with you won't be eligible for home billing, so monthly billing would have to be to a credit card. Understand that if you get billed at home, the bill will most likely be in the local language and that most people pay their bills in person either at the post office, 7-11, or at a company Kiosk. If your savvy enough and have the right bank you can use your banks bill pay or remittance service to pay your bill directly.
Most ITs use prepay options. You go to a kiosk, select the carrier and plan features, and buy the new SIM card. They usually come with a few dollars of airtime. You then buy refill cards in various cash amounts (such as 50€, 1000¥,). You scratch off a spot on the back of the card to reveal a number, and then call the reload number on the card (they have an English instruction option) you then punch in the number on your phone, and the value of the card is added to your account.
Different carriers offer different billing (as well as call features). Typically, you pay for what you use. So voice mail costs a certain amount every time you use it, so does call forwarding etc. The "unlimited" concept just hasn't caught on outside the USA. The big difference between carriers is there billing features. Some will give you incoming calls free, some give you the first minute free, some have a wider calling area that you aren't charged long distance, some have access to IP phone, some have lower prices if you call other subscribers to the same carrier, some have cheaper rates for longer calls, some have cheaper long distance, some have cheaper international calls, some offer IDD. Some offer cheaper SMS (texting). It's these billing features that really determine how much your phone service costs.
Depending where you go you will see vast differences in reception, speed and quality. Usually voice and text isn't the problem. For data a lot of places still only have 2.5G speeds, 3G is pretty common in major cities, 4G is either non existent or its spotty. You either get it, or you move a meter and you don't. In a number of places mobile Internet really is the best option. In Italy my building wasn't wired for ADSL, and it couldn't be added because of the historical nature of the building (if that meant it had historical significance, or it was so old it would collapse I don't know), using a mobile Internet stick and neighboring wifi was my Internet option.