Hot answers tagged communication
29
My personal experience has been that it's best to get a SIM card for each country I travel in. Local providers almost always have the best deals, and buying SIM cards is relatively inexpensive.
Especially in Asian countries (where I have more travel experience) you can easily pick up SIM cards at shopping kiosks almost anywhere, and the rates are really ...
13
It depends on what countries you are travelling to. If the country uses GSM, in most cases the best plan is to make sure you have an unlocked GSM phone, and purchase a pay-as-you-go SIM card in the country you are going to.
If you Google for "International SIM" you will see that there are tons of websites selling pay-as-you-go SIMs, and in many countries, ...
12
To tackle the second part of your question first, we have previously covered this ground on WiFi / 3G coverage in Europe in the following questions:
Are there companies that offer worldwide WiFi roaming for a fixed fee? (I might also point out specifically here to look at FON, linked to by Andra in the question itself, in addition to the answers.)
Is there ...
11
First off, I would use Skype, Google Voice (through GMail outside the US) or any other VOIP-like provider. They offer a tariff of ~2c/min and ~30c/min (mobile) for calling to Italian numbers. Obviously if the other person has Skype, you only pay for the internet connection. Your only problem then would be to get an affordable prepaid mobile data plan unless ...
11
Generally
The simple answer is: you can't...from a normal phone. Toll-free numbers are specific to the phone exchange system of a particular country and thus when calling from a VOIP phone provider like Skype or calling from a different country's network the call won't get routed through correctly. Your alternative to insist on asking for the version of the ...
11
If you have a GSM phone (with a SIM-card), 112 is likely to work in many places (see the list in the link). Note that it will work whether you're roaming, or don't have a SIM in the phone at all and the phone is locked. That's basically the only number you're guaranteed by the GSM standard to always be able to dial, and the mobile operators are required to ...
10
If you want to get up to watch the northern lights, rather than staying out all night I would suggest staying outside of town, otherwise you will have a lot of light pollution. on the topic of light pollution Check the phase of the moon and its location. I used Stellarium for the location and just google 'moon phases' to make sure It's isn't going to be a ...
10
I'm just adding this in on the off chance that the US is the same as Australia, hopefully this is helpful.
If you have a place in your city like a China Town that has plenty of Chinese shops you can get very cheap calls by purchasing Chinese calling cards.
Many Chinese grocery stores have posters stuck up with call rates. This is very common in my local ...
9
A possible option is a global sim card, like those from GoSim. They work in nearly every country.
Another sneakier method, depending on what you need the data for and how fast it needs to be, is a 3G Kindle. It has free data to download books on Amazon's Whispernet in almost every country in the world, and has a basic experimental web browser on it. With ...
9
Google Voice -- $0.02/min. The way it works is you can call online or call a local US number that will call the Chinese number for you (which would use your minutes or your normal per minute cost on top of the $0.02).
Your girlfriend could call you online using it as well, if you set up an account for her in the US (it can't be set up outside). That would ...
9
My own best way to avoid data roaming fees when travelling is simply NOT to bring a cell phone abroad.
Making a phone call is easy from anywhere without a cell phone and internet connections are provided in many places in cybercafés.
Moreover, this is one object that you won't get stolen if it stays at home.
9
I think there are two views here.
Firstly, the backpacker as we know it is changing, or splitting. There are still the 'true', 'hardcore' backpackers, who want to hitchhike everywhere with two pairs of socks and three shirts and a sleeping roll on their back. That's great, but it's not for everyone.
As hostels become more ubiquitous, wifi appears ...
8
To keep connection with home I don't use fancy gadgets that could get stolen. I prefer instead:
8
While fairly slow to use, the Kindle 3G web browser works well enough for email and some browsing, and the 3G SIM is contract free and works throughout most of the World. Bar the cost of purchase it makes it free to use the internet for a lot of travelling.
8
I guess you might be in the UK based on the networks you listed?
For within Europe, Vodafone are currently pretty good. Vodafone Passport means it's a single charge to answer/make a call, the rest is at the UK rate. If you're on a £40+/month plan, they'll give you 25mb/day/country of data for free, and 10 free texts a day
When I go outside of Europe, I ...
8
You can tweet to your account via SMS (https://support.twitter.com/groups/34-apps-sms-and-mobile/topics/153-twitter-via-sms/articles/14014-twitter-via-sms-faq), and then link your Twitter account to Facebook, so your tweets get published on your timeline (https://support.twitter.com/articles/31113).
7
It turns out I didn't put 2 and 2 together because the answer is not spelled out obviously enough for somebody in a mild panic to spot.
You can call the US "Global Card Assistance Service" from anywhere in the world using Skype even though it's a toll-free number:
+1 800 847 2911
If there's no Visa Card office in the country you are in it doesn't ...
7
Verizon locks their phones, so you can not buy a foreign sim card and use it with your device. Actually Verizon with this "Global Ready" feature they mean you can activate the international plan (must be expensive) and then you can use the phone while abroad. This means VERY expensive calls and data usage. I strongly recommend that you buy a cheap phone or ...
6
I recently traveled around Europe with the Samsung Galaxy S2 as my sole means of communication. This proved perfectly sufficient, and incredibly useful. As it is significantly smaller than a computer or tablet, it is easily transportable in a pocket. As a result, you can carry it with you at all times, even when walking 6+ hours a day as I did, without extra ...
6
I think you have to ask yourself two questions? How connected do you want to be and how much are you willing to carry.
Unless you are doing heavy work, a laptop should not be an option, it
is way too heavy.
Do you write a lot? A travelog, long emails? - take a Netbook
Do you always need to be connected? Do you plan to use Google maps to
find your hotel ...
6
As @Jonik said, you can skip verification, make some friends locally in Dominican Republic, get some references, and everything will be ok.
But if you want to verify yourself, I think, you should contact the CS team, especially Help Desk.
CS said:
Due to the number of postcards we mail out, we cannot vary our processes, and we almost have it fully ...
6
I've used callback services years ago. When I was in South Africa a $5 card from http://www.thephonecardstore.ca/ would give me as many hours (12, I think) of talk time to Canada as I would get minutes by just calling the regular way. You can still buy these and they seem to work fine. You can also often get cards at convenience stores but I can't read all ...
5
If it's a true international toll-free number then it will have Country code +800 - Universal International Freephone Numbers (UIFN). These numbers are toll-free from any country that participates in the UIFN scheme and from which the number's owner elects to receive calls. UIFN number must be provisioned by the owner for each individual country they intend ...
5
I'd propose the "null hypothesis" that 2FABE has no special meaning, but that postal services may just handle postcards that don't have postage, either because they don't really check, or as a "tourist-friendly" policy.
One could test this by sending a bunch of postcards, some marked 2FABE, some marked with other random sequences of characters, and some ...
5
The service "home country direct" connects you to an operator in the home country:
In Georgia:
British Telecom 8 0200,
MCI 8 024 995,
AT&T 8 0288,
Sprint 8 0100,
Whether any Australian telcos are partnered I don't know; but at least those numbers should get you an English-speaking operator.
5
In Belgium the number is suppose to be 112. Recently there was actually a message in the newspaper that you better not call this number yet. The Belgian emergency services can't come to an agreement how to manage such a number. As the newspaper quotes an official, the Belgian government instated 112 to communicatie to foreigners, but locals are advised to ...
5
I would recommend using Prey for security. It's open-source and covers any sort of device you would possibly be using.
I use a mac and android tablet for my technology needs and don't worry too much about antivirus programs. It really depends on what OS you end up with. For windows I can recommend AVG Free.
I'm a big fan of wordpress for blogging. It is a ...
4
Another fine resource is SpaceWeather - with Aurora forecast maps for all over the world (it happens down under too), as well as recent photos of Auroras that people have spotted, images of the sun, info about the newest sunspots and predictions of the chance of a flare or an aurora.
4
I second the calling card suggestion, but it will be easier for your girlfriend (and for you) if you just google search and buy them off of the internet. You don't need the physical card for calls -- just the codes.
Just pick any of the top google hits and you should be ok- you'll be able to use it within 2 minutes of purchase, and the rates are comparable ...
4
This solution may be a basic one, but I've done a fair amount of international travelling and I just bring my unlocked Android Smartphone with me. Whenever I find an internet wifi hotspot at my hotel or at a cafe, I just Skype my friends and family. It's free Skype to Skype or you can pay for a subscription (dirt cheap. I think it's maybe ~$3/month for ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
