BlackBerry Forums Support Community

chris280 · 01-29-2010, 01:34 PM

I am travelling to several places this summer and want to take my " World Phone " Blackberry 9700 with me. The problem is that I dont want to keep it in my suitcase nor do I want to mortgage my house when I return to pay my cell phone bill. What is the best way to stay connected while on vacation? Is Wi-fi going to be " Free " can I get my texts through Wi-fi? any advice is helpful to keep AT&T from owning my home. Thanks

x14 · 01-29-2010, 01:39 PM

Get one of the global data plan.

AT&T International - Wireless from AT&T

davidA · 01-29-2010, 03:47 PM

I would advise to get your blackberry unlocked and to purchase a few SIM cards. (or an international SIM card) - the alternative is to purchase a cheap unlocked (older) Blackberry or cell phone. If you do this you will need to give out your new phone number.

UK SIM card from 0044

andrej770 · 02-01-2010, 02:26 AM

If you get a T-Mobile BB 8900 or 9700 it uses UMA which means if you are near a wifi connection and connect, you can call anyone in the states for free no matter where you are in the world. Which means if you want to call someone in the country you are in or going to, you will be calling from your cell as if you are in the US, so get a calling card and find all the wifi spots. Way cheaper than signing up for AT&T.

Many people say, What if you don't have wifi, well make sure you have an internet connection in your hotel or room, and bring a portable wireless router with you. True you may not get to make calls outside of your room (if you can't find reliable wifi) but at least you have a way to call and at a lower cost.

mi_canuck · 02-01-2010, 09:57 AM

@OP - call your carrier and say you want to travel abroad and use a local SIM - they will give you the unlock code (they have to, by law) - it might take a few days, but do it now, prior to your trip...

Mandel · 02-01-2010, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris280

I am travelling to several places this summer and want to take my " World Phone " Blackberry 9700 with me. The problem is that I dont want to keep it in my suitcase nor do I want to mortgage my house when I return to pay my cell phone bill. What is the best way to stay connected while on vacation? Is Wi-fi going to be " Free " can I get my texts through Wi-fi? any advice is helpful to keep AT&T from owning my home. Thanks

By taking separate sim cards in the countries you visit it will not allow you to still have your mail, or BBM, or any data. You'll get voice only (very rare exceptions allow pre-paid to get data service).

I travel at least half of the month internationally. My discipline is to switch off voice when in my hotel room where I usually have wi-fi and at work. As long as I have wi-fi (and the wi-fi icon is white), then I can do email, BBM, and surf the web all FOC.

When in non wi-fi areas, I switch back mobile service and try to remain "disciplined" and do not get on the web, or do too many data intensive work. -- simple emails and BBM usually are not data hungry.

If you still elect to buy local sim cards, you should try to use another terminal for this purpose so that your data continues to flow into your 9700.

mi_canuck · 02-02-2010, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mandel

By taking separate sim cards in the countries you visit it will not allow you to still have your mail, or BBM, or any data. You'll get voice only (very rare exceptions allow pre-paid to get data service).

I travel at least half of the month internationally. My discipline is to switch off voice when in my hotel room where I usually have wi-fi and at work. As long as I have wi-fi (and the wi-fi icon is white), then I can do email, BBM, and surf the web all FOC.

When in non wi-fi areas, I switch back mobile service and try to remain "disciplined" and do not get on the web, or do too many data intensive work. -- simple emails and BBM usually are not data hungry.

If you still elect to buy local sim cards, you should try to use another terminal for this purpose so that your data continues to flow into your 9700.

there has to be local SIM cards that provide BIS service, no ?

cychan · 02-02-2010, 10:35 AM

The cost of international Roaming can separated into two main section. Voice and data. I travel a lot and International Roaming is killing me all the time. I normally use an iphone while I am at my home network which I have unlimited data and voice plan. So no issues at all. Once I am traveling outside of my home network. It will kill you if you still try to use an iPhone service. Why.

Voice is expensive. I rather buy a local SIM and forward my home number to the local SIM. Data, whether it is GPRS or 3.5G, the roaming data charge in any country just kill you. This is the time I use the BB as a roaming devices. The reason, I can buy a local SIM card for the voice and save some money. However, if I use the local sim cards for data just to receive email only. An iphone or any pop base device will still kill you since any pop base or iphone devices use at least 64K overhead for one single mail. but if you use your BB as a mail receiver, BB only use 1K overhead. ( Turn off HTML and use Text only and don't download attachment) even it is on a roaming network. The data cost will not kill you since the overhead is low. in this way. You paid the same data charge but less overhead and still get your mail.

Of course, you will need to carry 2 phones, one for Voice using local SIM and one BB as roaming device

Quote:

Originally Posted by chris280

I am travelling to several places this summer and want to take my " World Phone " Blackberry 9700 with me. The problem is that I dont want to keep it in my suitcase nor do I want to mortgage my house when I return to pay my cell phone bill. What is the best way to stay connected while on vacation? Is Wi-fi going to be " Free " can I get my texts through Wi-fi? any advice is helpful to keep AT&T from owning my home. Thanks