cordelli

Get an unlocked phone, I just picked one up on e-bay for $20 delivered to my door (a backup for the one I have, actually I wanted another charger and battery, it was cheaper to get the phone and all the accessories).

Get an international sim from one of the many companies up there in the sticky on this thread.

Get a toll free number at kall8.com or any of those, and forward that to your international number.

You can call back home from 140 or so countries for a third or less than you would pay with any us company to roam.

People can reach you for next to nothing.

When I leave the country, my t-mobile sim comes out of the phone, and the international sim goes in, and everybody knows to reach me on my vanity toll free number.

Do whichever plan works best for you in this country, but don't roam with a US carrier, it's just too expensive.

SydTgFlyer

Phew thanks for the detail! I am trying to get my head around the entire cell phone proposition before we arrive in the states as I think it will be the first thing we'll need to organise. We get a relocation consultant to help us with all of these things but it is always to speak to people who are tech savy first ^ ^ I have always been happy with t-mobile in Europe when traveling so I was thinking of going with them but looks like they might be a step or 2 behind cingular.

No doubt we'll run into some form of block on getting a cell straight away due to our non existent credit rating.

Thanks for your help! Hope I didn't hijack this thread to badly

driftings

T-Mobile roams just fine in Japan and Korea, provided your phone has the right flavor of 3G to access their networks.

Personally, I prefer to give out my VoIP/Skype number to friends and family while I'm outside the US (or forward my US mobile to that number myself), then just forward my calls from that US number to whatever international number I'm using. I often pay only a few cents per minutes when I would otherwise pay dollars and it's quite simple to do. Plus, I'm amassing a respectable collection of foreign SIM cards...

Landing Gear

You may find that Verizon Wireless is toughest on foreigners. Large deposits are not unheard of. One way around that is to get a phone through your employer.

May I suggest you visit http://howardforums.com which is a website just like FT except devoted to cell phones?

SydTgFlyer

You may, and thank you!

Ciao

fduvall

Yes - Charged in both directions. Most US plans give a pretty big "bucket" of minutes, so I actually find it a lot cheaper than the rates I am currently paying in Europe. I never hesitated to make or receive calls with Sprint (paid US$50/month for 1200 total minutes, unlimited nights/weekends, no long disctance charges in US, etc).

In Switzerland, where rates are high, I routinely spend US$500/month. Most of that is int'l roaming, but when you live in a small country, you don't have to travel far to start roaming

fduvall

pueywei

Be careful about asking for the unlock code. I called in and asked for it but they sent me a wrong code! Turns out that they used an IMEI number they had in their database that was 2 phones back. Sheesh.

I can't understand the ridiculously overpriced and overstuff with minutes contracted plans. $40 for 1000 minutes is ridiculous - I'd be hard pressed to used a small fraction of that. 15¢ for a sending AND recieving a text message is frankly a ripoff. You'd expect that a $40 plan would let you do it for free.

I've had good results getting cingular to send me a pre paid sim card without a phone. Now I understand why the operator took so long to figure it out.

Tmobile won't let me order online due to fraud. Another downer.

pueywei

You can get a prepaid card. The number is portable; ie. you can transfer it to any line you want later on, should you decide to switch.

oldpenny16

In the US as well, you can 'port' your telephone number with you when you change carriers or even change from a land line to a cell phone service. My cell phone number is one that used to function in my office but was reassigned to a cell phone for my use.

A person telephoning my cell phone number has no idea if I am at my desk or my car or even in another country.

When I telephone someone, the Caller ID shows up as the company name.

I guess that means I am seldom off duty!

In the US it is no longer possible to accurately determine a caller's location by looking at the area code on the Caller ID.

dtsm

TMO fan here

Don't worry about non-existent credit - if you have a credit card, they reserve $250 against it and use it to guarantee your payments, etc. I helped two relatives from overseas go through this with TMO and not a problem. After one year service, the credit card guarantee is removed

And dont' forget to check out the family plans, etc. when talking with each carrier.

cordelli

You could also do a t-mobile prepaid if they give you a credit issues (though if you are breathing you will probably pass) and later switch to a regular plan keeping the same number once you sort that out.