Your Cellphone In Paris

Information from Cellular Aborad and Paris.Org

Paris Kiosque - November 2003 - Volume 10, Number 11

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If you have ever rented an international cell phone for use in Europe or elsewhere, you will know that while cell phone rentals are practical, it takes a full wallet and the stomach of a hyena in order to digest the bill when it's time to pay. Thus, the luxury of having an international cellular phone while traveling abroad has been restricted to a few well to do or business travelers - until now. In fact, you will be amazed at how inexpensive using a cellular phone while you travel internationally can actually be, yet, the vast majority of international travelers either continues to pay highly over inflated rental fees or simply and reluctantly makes do without the convenience and security of a cell phone. There is a way that you can keep in touch outside of the USA or Canada with an international cellular phone that not only offers affordable rates for outgoing calls but also gives you unlimited free incoming calls from anywhere in the world! You can finally stop using pay phones with those international phone cards that oftentimes don't work anyway. Sound too good to be true? Perhaps, but in short, this is the system that many international travelers overseas have been utilizing for a few years now and they wouldn't even think of spending the money we do for international, cell phone service - and mediocre cell phone service at that.

Before reading how to obtain affordable international cellular service, it is useful to understand what the more common, albeit expensive, methods are.

Ironically, the best know way to have a cell phone for international use is also the most expensive not to mention the least convenient. The reason it is best know is due to the fact that this type of service has been available to consumers the longest. When people think of international cell phone rentals, they usually think of the cellular phone rental kiosks that are prevalent in the vast majority of international airports. It works like this, either prior to your departure or upon arrival you will need to visit one of these phone rental kiosks and fill out and sign their rental agreement. In turn, they will supply you an international phone which you will return to the cell phone rental company once you are finished with your trip and arrive back at the airport. In general, and there are slight variations depending on the cell phone rental company you choose (or that is available), but you will be charged for the actual length of time that you rent the phone and in addition, a per minute charge for the airtime you use. Cell phone rental agencies make the majority of their money on the high fees they charge you for airtime use and encourage you to make calls by imposing minimum daily use requirements. Therefore, even if you do not make calls, you will end up paying for them as if you did. The only time you should resort to renting an international cell phone at the airport is if you need a phone at the spur of the moment and weren't able to make arrangements prior to your departure.

Another method of attaining cellular service while traveling internationally is to roam with your current provider. This is becoming increasingly popular as rates drop and domestic service providers are adopting the cellular system that most of the rest of the world uses. Still, calling rates are not for the feint of heart - especially when traveling to more exotic locations such as Asia, Africa, South America and the tropics with rates exceeding $5 per minute (basically, it's only moderately expensive in Europe and very expensive every where else.). Besides the fact that the rates are still not affordable to most travelers, there is a compatibility issue. While over 200 countries worldwide, all but a few in fact, utilize the predominant GSM cellular system, The United States has only recently decided to embrace this system over conventional systems such as CDMA and TDMA. T-Mobile and Cingular use almost exclusively GSM and AT&T is in the transition process, quickly upgrading their system to the world wide GSM standard. However, unlike Europe, Asia and Africa that use the 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies, North America has opted for using the 1900 MHz frequency. Therefore, most of the cell phones that these carriers offer are only compatible for use in North America. They do, however, offer some international, also referred to as tri-band cell phones, that have all three of the GSM frequencies and are therefore capable of being used internationally, or at least, where international roaming agreements are in place. A roaming agreement is when your domestic carrier leases out another providers network structure, allowing you use your phone, for a price, in areas where your carrier otherwise doesn't service. While calls are expensive, US cell phone users with GSM phones do have the capability of traveling internationally with one cell phone. This will allow you to be able to be outside of the country and to receive calls to your cell phone as if you were in the US. If you do not have a tri band GSM cell phone, your US carrier can either sell or rent you one to you for overseas use. In any event, roaming with your US carrier is too expensive for most travelers going overseas. Plus, since people have easy access to your phone number, it is very easy to run up astronomically expensive bills. Furthermore, keeping in mind that if you are, for example, in Paris and you make a call to someone else in Paris, that call will be routed first to the US and then back again to Paris, increasing the possibility of your getting an error while attempting to place a call. Hopefully in the future roaming rates will actually be more affordable and the small but mentionable glitches with US roaming services will be ironed out. Still, it will be virtually impossible to be able to compete with the third way of being able to communicate by cell phone while traveling internationally.

The least expensive way of being able to stay in touch overseas is by doing what the locals do. Think about it, someone living in Italy or France, for example, would not utilize a cell phone rental agency nor would they roam with a US carrier. Rather, they use their own local systems and pay local rates, and, when traveling, they use the local systems and pay the local rates of the country to where they are traveling. It works like this, GSM phones, as long as they are unlocked (very important!) allow you swap SIM chips from country to country. A SIM card or chip (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small chip that is easily inserted into the phone, giving you a unique phone number as well as cellular service. As they have pre paid call credit, you are not required to sign a contract and are ideal for long, as well as short trips. Once you run out of call credit, you simply add more credit by purchasing a recharge voucher, available in different denominations, and enter a pin code into the handset and in real time, you have additional call credit. As this is a very common way of attaining cellular service, there are plenty of stores and kiosks that sell the recharge vouchers. Please click on this link for more information and a visual guide of how this works http://www.cellularabroad.com/start.html.

While rates will differ from country to country, almost every country will give you unlimited free incoming calls to your cell phone and outgoing calls that are fractions of a dollar, whether international or within that country. Therefore, your call credit is deducted only when you initiate the call and if someone calls you, even from the United States, you can literally stay on the phone for hours and not spend a dime. Incredible but true. In order to take advantage of this inexpensive cell phone service, all you need is an unlocked GSM cell phone allowing you to use the overseas network frequencies, plus, a SIM card or cards for the country or countries to where you will be traveling. By the way, an unlocked phone is a phone that can accept any SIM card and not just one cellular provider's. US cell phone providers do not want you to take advantage of this inexpensive international service system and therefore they "lock" their phones into accepting only their own SIM cards, forcing you to use their phone service while overseas.

Another impediment is the fact that many countries do not easily allow non residents to purchase prepaid SIM cards. However, one way around this is to purchase international SIM cards from Cellular Abroad, a California based company. They will send you the SIM card prior to your departure so that you may have your phone number before your trip. Also, they take the guess work out of operational procedures as you will have an English user guide. Cellular Abroad also rents and sells international cell phones that go with the SIM cards. Check out their convenient cell phone/SIM card package deals that have everything you need to make and receive calls overseas, costing slightly more than if you were to rent one of their cell phone handsets but allowing you to actually own an international phone that works in over 200 countries. Or, for people who do not travel often and do not need to own an international phone, they can arrange for a cellular rental.

Ideally, especially for the frequent or even the occasional traveler, it is convenient to own a triband GSM cellular phone that you can use here in the US with a SIM chip provided by your GSM carrier, and when you go overseas, you just slip out your US SIM chip and pop in a foreign one. This way, not only will you never have to rent a cell phone again but you can use the phone you are accustomed to using domestically, and, most importantly, you will pay the lowest possible rates available with no hassles and no phone bills.

Cellular Abroad is offering a $10 discount to all Paris.org visitors. Be sure to mention Paris.org when you call (1-800.287.3020) or, if ordering online, enter promo code Paris.org. Go to www.cellularabroad.com.

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Editor's Note: The above information is provided as a service to our many readers who travel to Paris and who also wish to reduce the costs associated with cellular telephone use while travelling. We believe our partnership with www.cellularabroad.com will be useful to you, while also helping Paris.Org continue to provide online information about Paris.