Speaker - June 2008

one and pay local rates. The upside: Locals can call you cheaply, instead of dialing your u.S. number. You also don’t use any minutes on your American cell account, which is good if you have a limited number of minutes.

The downside is that you’ll pay interna- tional long-distance charges when calling the united States, and people calling you on your u.S. number won’t reach you—just your voice mail. Keep in mind, too, that if you visit dif- ferent countries, you’ll need to get a new SIM card for each country.

• If you’re a Sprint^® or Verizon^® customer, you must buy a new phone and a new SIM card. Why? Be- cause these service provid- ers operate on non-GSM frequencies.

Most cell phones in the world (except in Japan and a few other places), however, work on GSM networks that operate at either 900 MHz or 1800 MHz. The u.S. and Canada GSM networks operate at 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. If your phone can work on at least the 850, 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies, you should be set to roam abroad.

You can buy a SIM card from another ven- dor that has cheap international calling plans, such as Maxroam.com and telestial.com. Both have lower per-minute rates no matter where you are.

you to make a call directly from a computer, a special VoIP phone, or a traditional phone connected to a special adapter, using high- speed Internet. Although some VoIP servic- es allow you to call only other people using the same service, others allow you to call any telephone number—including local, long-dis- tance, wireless and international numbers—at a fraction of the cost or for free.

VoIP providers, such as Vonage ^TM and

Some VoIP services allow you to call any phone number—including local, long-dis-

tance, wireless and international numbers— at a fraction of the cost of a traditional phone.

There’s Always a Catch

Your cell phone is probably locked to your current carrier, so if you try to replace your SIM card with another card, your phone won’t work. You might be able to receive calls, but not make outgoing calls. You can get your phone unlocked by contacting your current cell carrier and asking for the unlock code. Or you can pay a $25 “unlock” service fee to get the code. Check the Internet for vendors.

Travel advisory: Plan on taking a few weeks to negotiate these options before you leave the country. And you might want to bring along your current SIM card, just in case.

AT&T’s CallVantage^®, offer hefty savings and many advantages over regular phone service, including:

• Streamlined records. Receive just one bill for unlimited calls to anywhere in North America.

• Convenience. When you’re out of the office or out of the county, your clients can reach you without dialing a lot of different numbers. (My Vonage line is set up to ring both my regular office and cell numbers.) You also can set the ring patterns to vary by time of day and block calls during the night.

• Portability. Take your Internet phone with you and make and receive calls by sign- ing into your VoIP account wherever there’s a broadband connection.

• Savings to clients. If you do regular busi- ness in particular cities, you can pay for a lo- cal number in those cities and save clients the cost of toll calls. For example, my office line has a California 310 area code, even though I live in St. Louis, Mo.

• Toll-free number: Vonage and Office De- pot offer plans for $10 per month.

If you’re a big talker, along with being a busy speaker, VoIP phone service might be the right solution for you to cut your long-dis- tance costs sharply.

Talk Over the Internet

With the marvels of high technology, your In- ternet connection can replace your phone. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) enables

David Strom speaks on technology topics around the world. He is the former editor-in-chief of Network Computing magazine and can be reached at david@strom.com.