International Cell-Phone
 

I am travelling to Australia & would like to carry a cell phone without roaming charges.
Anyone know my best bet for an unlocked phone & SIM cards that will work between the South Pacific/Southeast Asia & Canada.
We will be there for 10 weeks & would like to carry a basic phone for emergencies & to possibly call home once a week for peace of mind.

if you currently have an iPhone, you can probably just jailbreak and unlock.

I'm guessing the Nokia C3 that's available through Petro-Canada Mobility or 7-11 Speak out is also a good choice, and should come unlocked.

I am now using a Telus pay-as-you-go phone that cannot be used outside Canada.
I am looking to buy an unlocked phone & suggestions on where & how to do this.

Best thing is probably to wait until you get there, unless you absolutely need to be operational on day 1. Canada is probably the most expensive place on earth to buy and use a cellphone. You can get a basic cell phone & tel. number for 25 euros in Paris, France. About the same in Argentina and Mexico, the other place I bought either a cell phone or a sim card.

Thanks. Any experience with Australia/New Zealand/South Pacific/Southeast Asia? If I buy a phone in Australia, will this be good for the other countries also like Fiji, China, Cambodia etc?

One word: eBay. For buying a cheap "throw-away" unlocked phone, should be a godsend. :)

What should I look for in particular on e-bay if I have to go that route?
How would I know for sure that it will work from there to here?
Should I look for a particular phone & would the type/carrier even matter if it is unlocked?
Do different phones come with different rates/plans or are they all the same for that & I just by a card in the country I am in?

Do you have a smartphone? I used my AT&T iphone in the UK by subscribing to GoogleVoice and Talkatone. I was able to make outbound calls to the US over a wi-fi network by combining these two services (not sure if GV works for Canada). I also signed up for an international roaming plan just in case I wanted to make or receive that "emergency" call when away from the wifi network (which I never had to). I would also suggest buying a chunk of data so you can send an occasional e-mail while away from wi-fi.

Apple store Canada sells unlocked iPhones but they are expensive. Pacific Mall would be my second choice.

Otherwise you could possibly get one there unlocked?

How is this relevant to Aeroplan/Air Canada? Can we move this to the Australia forum?

There are many small dealers in downtown Montreal who will sell you unlocked phones that they source out of Asia. Can google them or just walk in randomly in the downtown area. Just don't go to a branded store.

International Cell Phone
 

I have an US AT&T Sony Ericsson model that worked in Korea & Japan, and AT&T only charged me a local call. I was phoning a Korea cell phone. I still have the original sim card in the phone. I was surprised it worked

All you need to ensure that your phone will work pretty much anywhere in the world is a quad band GSM phone. These are available for $100 or less in most countries outside of North America. You can often find them in the duty free stores in airports as well. Once you have one you need to buy a SIM card for the country that you are in. These are available as pay as you go in most countries around the world - even Rogers in Canada offers SIM card only plans. Most times it is $2-$5 for the card and then you load it up with minutes.

You can buy a quad band unlocked refurbed phone at Factory direct. They are online in Canada or have stores depending where you are. I bought an unlocked htc phone. As previously stated, make sure it's a gsm, quad-band, unlocked phone. I've used mine in a few countries in SEA. Very easy & cheap there to buy a sim card and just pop it in. I called Can/Us for 1 baht per minute from Thailand on my cell. That's about .03c.

I would not jailbreak/unlock my iphone and use it like this. Too easy to loose a phone or have it stolen while traveling so why bring it?

Just look on your local CL for a cheapie quad-band GSM phone. It's good anywhere other than S Korea and Japan.

Should be in the range of $20-30. If it's not unlocked, add on another $10 to your tally.

If you want new, the LG A133 from Rogers chat-r is usually discounted for about $60 in stores. Use that, and sell it back on CL when you're done. :D