The best phone for international travel?

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) on Oct 15th 2008 at 12:30PM

I've written about the scam that is international roaming charges in the past, and I mentioned briefly how you can bypass paying an arm and a leg to talk to the folks you left behind. But in this article I'm going to tell you what I consider to be the best phone on the market for international travelers; The T-Mobile Blackberry Curve.

Why the curve, and not the sexy iPhone? Well, the Blackberry Curve has 2 very interesting features you won't find with any other carrier, or any other phone. One is unique to the phone itself, and one is unique to T-mobile.

The Blackberry Curve (as well as several other T-Mobile Blackberry smartphones) comes equipped with Wi-Fi. And while that may not be very special, the Wi-Fi in these phones supports a mobile calling system called "UMA". UMA is essentially a method of connecting to the mobile network using Wi-Fi and the Internet, instead of cellular towers.

What this means, is that as long as you can get the phone connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, you'll be able to use it just like you do when you are back home.

For example; lets say you are in Denmark. The cost of a call from your mobile phone in Denmark back home, is $1 per minute. But if you have free Wi-Fi at your hotel, you simply let the Blackberry connect to that, and you can make calls as long as you want, using the minutes in your plan. Better yet; you can even send and receive text messages, and get online, without any insane roaming charges. If you subscribe to the T-Mobile hotspot@home service, you'll be able to make unlimited domestic calls for just $10 a month.

The second reason why I recommend the Blackberry for international use, is the T-Mobile Blackberry international plan. For just $19.95 per month, you can send and receive as many emails as you want, on any mobile network in the world. To put that in perspective; AT&T will charge you $16 for just one Megabyte of data (about 20 or 30 emails). The T-mobile Blackberry International plan can even be added for a portion of the month, and you'll only be charged the pro-rated price.

I have used my Blackberry abroad many times, and never received a bill with more than $10 in roaming fees (you won't always be in range of Wi-Fi). Of course, there are alternatives to making Internet calls back home, but the Blackberry does it so effortlessly that it's almost a no-brainer.

My only tip is to disable the "mobile network" option on the Blackberry before making a call, as the Blackberry can switch between Wi-Fi and cellular seamlessly, and if the Wi-Fi connection drops, you might be back to $1/min calls without noticing it.

Finally; one other reason why I prefer T-Mobile over any other carrier, is that they have a very liberal phone unlocking policy. Anyone who has an account "in good standing" can get the unlock code for their phone after just 90 days. Once your phone is unlocked, you'll be able to swap out your own sim card for a prepaid card at your destination.

Filed under: Gadling Gear Review

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Craig Oct 15th 2008 1:17PM

There's one other interesting feature. If, like me, you do all of your planning electronically (keeping a spreadsheet of hotel names and addresses, a document with article snippets and itinerary info and emergency numbers, etc) you can have these in your pocket and view them on your phone any time. I brought an older model unlocked Blackberry on my last trip abroad and picked up prepaid SIM cards upon arrival, and it was handy having all of those restaurant suggestions gathered in one place when it came time to eat and I was nowhere near the hotel.

And of course those documents are all stored on Google Docs or elsewhere online so you can access them from any internet cafe should anything go wrong (lost/broken phone, etc).

wandermom Oct 15th 2008 5:30PM

This recommendation is pretty focused on data plans.
If you want to just make calls, I use an AT&T phone on which I add the option intl roaming service when I'm going out of town. For $5/month extra while I'm paying for this optional extra, I get low, low per-minute rates for calling my peeps back in the US and elsewhere. Then I remove the intl roaming service when I get back home.

Just a thought.

Liz Oct 15th 2008 5:40PM

Helpful review. Only use a simple txt and call phone here in NZ as costs for email extreme. Can't even consider getting a blackberry or iphone.

Am planning 2 month trip around the USA next year and am wondering whether it's possible to hire/rent a blackberry/iphone for that time once I land in Los Angeles.

Is this possible? Are there phone rental companies around?

cheers from the other side of the world,

Liz

Nancy D. Brown Oct 15th 2008 5:53PM

Thanks for the review and wandermom's comments, too. I was in Europe recently and considered purchasing a cheap mobile phone while I was over there.

The Blackberry curve sounds promising and relatively affordable. I must say, finding free Wi-Fi was a challenge. A McDonald's in Seville, Spain advertised free Wi-Fi. After bringing our laptops down from our 5 star hotel, we learned that, "we expect to get Wi-Fi in a couple of months. Come back later."

iomatic Oct 17th 2008 2:13AM

I have an iPhone 3G and keep my Curve just for that-- international travel. I'd get it locked with AT&T though for using local SIMs (call them after a month or more as a customer)-- it's a lot cheaper than international roaming fees.

The 8310 has GPS, not WiFi, and is quite handy.

Mark Oct 20th 2008 3:29PM

I was in Scotland, Gernamy and Denmark and came back to over a $600.00 roaming fee on top of my bill. I have an 8310 with GPS. Can I access WiFi and UMA. If so ... how? My service provider said it was only available as an option on the pearl.

iomatic Oct 21st 2008 4:45PM

Did you read my post?

Go to your GSM provider and call them to send you an unlock code for international travel. At your destination (find out beforehand at travel sites like Lonely Planet's forum) where to pick up a local SIM card, or buy a more expensive, preloaded-minutes card online and use that while roaming. It is a new plan and new phone number.

Scott Carmichael Oct 17th 2008 4:28PM

Mark, I'm afraid your Blackberry lacks Wi-Fi. The Blackberry 8320 is the one with Wi-Fi and UMA support.

guddi Oct 22nd 2008 12:17AM

I am planning a trip to india in November. I will be there till end of december. What kind of cell phone i need to call back to Canada & receive calls. Thanks.

Ashira Nov 19th 2008 6:10PM

Are there data charges (or anything else) when you use Wi-Fi calling when you're abroad? I will be living overseas permanently, so I really have no need for any of the data plans - and I don't want to pay the extra $$ per month for them either! =) Do they even work when you're not in America?

I'll be getting a local SIM card to use separately, so I would honestly only use this phone to call America from wherever I am. Also, the Pearl 8120 and the new Flip Pearl 8220 claim to have the same Wi-Fi/UMA feature that the Curve has - so they should work with free Wi-Fi calling, I'm assuming...?

Thanks!

Tmosmac Nov 20th 2008 10:11AM

There are no data charges when using wifi calling. Charges would be incurred if you have to pay for the wifi service that you are using. If it is free, then no chargeg. If you have a T-Mobile plan and want to have unlimited wifi calling, it is $9.99 per month. If you don't have that add-on, minutes will just be taken out of your plan like normal.
WORD OF WARNING!!!
If you are roaming internationally, you will be able to call the US using UMA according to your plan, but if you try to call your next-door neighbor in the foreign country, you will be charged international long distance charges! This service is great, but it treats your call as if you are calling from the US.

Another excellent idea for you if you want to stay in touch with family/friends in the US after moving abroad, is the T-Mobile@Home service. If you have broadband internet service at your new residence, you can add T-Mobile@Home to your current T-Mobile plan for $10 per month, and it will give you a "landline" that can make/recieve unlimited calls to the US using your broadband connection.

The T-Mobile@Home add-on is separate from the Hotspot@Home, or whatever they are calling it now, add-on for mobile phones.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

aprossack Nov 23rd 2008 11:52AM

Thank you so much! I am so glad I found this article - my family and I will be switching to T-Mobile now just to be able to talk for free without being tethered to our computers!