Travel Technology - Trying to Get Communication set up exactly right for 13 day trip to Spain

I am going on a trip for work at the end of this month. I am the webmaster for a National Governing Body of a sport here in the US. I am going to provide up to the minutes results from the World Championships. We had tried relying on the team staff to provide the results, but it never worked out over the last 5 years. So, this time, I am going to get the results myself.

I have T-mobile and have a couple of unlocked phones. A Windows Mobile 2003 Phone, A Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone and a couple of regular GSM phones. All are Quad Band and unlocked. After studying the rates and conditions of international roaming in Europe and Spain I have come up with the following. I post it here as reference for some of you who would like to have the same while in Europe and to get suggestions on how to do it better if possible.

First, I need internet access. According to T-mobile here in the US, Edge is not available in Spain through any of the roaming partners. So, I can only get GPRS throughput :( . I will code straight html to shorten the transfer times and not use the online editor - FTP only) GPRS through the roaming partners is .015 per kb or $15 per MB. I can move a pretty large html file (100kb is a very, very, very large article in straight HTML) on the cheap. If I used the editor, I would have to pay for the data transfer for the editor to load each time.

Now, I have choices, I can tether any one of three phones to my laptop and post directly from the venue. I am planning for no wireless or nearby internet access and hoping it is available when I get there.

Since I can't use EDGE, a brand new wireless data card is a waste, it will only operate at the GPRS bandwidth. So, I purchased a GPRS data card, Sony Ericsson GC79, not the new GC89 Edge for $149 from Tmobile. I got it on Ebay for $30 plus shipping.

So, I call T-mobile and ask how much to set the card up. $10 per month additional since it needs it's own number and another $29 per month for total internet and I would still have to pay the international roaming data rate. Yuk! :(

I get a thought, I put my normal SIM in the GC79, I have total internet on this card for the $29 additional per month. Low and behold! It Works! :D

Ok, now what to do about the international voice roaming rate.... Any call that goes to voicemail while I am in Spain will cost me the $1.99 per minute. I could not accept or place a single call while in Spain and get home and have a whopper of a phone bill. I call T-mobile, "can I cancel voicemail forwarding while I am in Spain and still use the international data roaming?" Hmmm, "can I put you on hold?" He goes away for 10 minutes. "Sir, yes we can do this for you." Please call when you want the voicemail forward to be cancelled and when you want it reactivated." Sweet! :D Cancell voicemail forwarding when I am at ORD before departure and insert SIM into GC79 Data Card.

Now, how do make and receive phone calls? I will buy a prepaid SIM once I arrive in Spain and put it into one of the unlocked devices/phones. I checked into the data rates for these pre-paid SIMs and they were no better and sometimes worse than the international roaming data rate from T-mobile.

Ok, how do work and my other clients get in touch with me? Well, I guard my cell phone number carefully. Only my family, friends and best clients have it. Maybe 20 people. (caller ID blocked as well) Easy to dispatch email to them to direct them to a different number.

All of my other clients, friends and advertising have either my toll-free number which is forwarded to any number I choose and my Skype number, which is also forwarded to any number I choose at will.

So, all incoming calls are free to the pre-paid Spanish Sim. So, I forward the toll-free to the Skype number and Skype to the SIM once I purchase it and have the number. Inbound solved.

Outbound, make all calls from my hotel using Skype at my leisure. Emergencies/Urgent Situations use the Pre-Paid Sim to call out and get the client to call back (or make them aware that my rate will quadruple (gotta markup the extra exspenses ;) ) for phone consults if I call them to pay for my additional expenses).

Can anyone see anything I have missed or could do better?

ohhhh this sounds fun!
I just got back from 2 weeks in Spain and had to do some similar stuff myself.

I cannot speak to cellular based data, as I've always assumed it be too expensive to even try. However, I found wifi hotspots EVERWHERE. We'd be in some quaint rural old town with like 10 houses and a ham store and I'd get 3 hotspots with great transfer rates...needless to say, ever hotel we stayed in had wifi.

I can speak to the phone stuff though as I've had a lot of expirence with that.
I'm a fan of running my own VoIP server, Trixbox, and using a 'callback' feature to get basically free incoming and outbound calls with an unlocked GSM phone. If your interested let me know and I'll post all the details.

If your interested let me know and I'll post all the details.Post away!

From what I see on Vodafone Spain's website, they have a prepaid 3G option. That is absolutely the way to go if you would like to do more than just the basics you're talking about. €139 gets you the PCMCIA 3G card and and 25MB data transfer. Alternatively, get a prepaid card from Amena or Vodafone there, use it in your GPRS device and data will run you €2/MB. If you're gonna transfer over 3MB of data, the prepaid SIM will come out cheaper as it comes with €12 credit (6MB).

Post away!

Rather than clog the airwaves, so to speak...I ended up posting the same info on this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6693029#post6693029)

The part that is most relevent to this discussion is actually the last few lines. The baisc idea, setup your own Trixbox VoIP server then load a free 'softphone' (just like Skype) and kind of 'roll your own' solution. Like I said, its probably not worth it for most, but if you are inclined to tinkering and nerd projects then you can save a little and have some fun.

In thinking about Kane's option...you might be able to get away with data alone if you use only VoIP :D

Thanks for the suggestions!

In light of them, I have unlocked my GC79 Data Card and will purchase one of the suggested pre-paid sims on arrival.

Cheers!
M.