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[spork]

I've got a Verizon cell phone.  I'm traveling to Mexico and would like to have a cell that works in case of emergencies while I'm there.  I'm betting that even if my phone works, it will be outrageously expensive to use.  Anyone know what I should be looking for?  Buy a prepaid cell phone here?  A rental cell phone at the airport there?  Some kind of calling card that will allow me to avoid international roaming charges on my phone?

[aandsdean]

I use a RangeRoamer SIM card in an unlocked quad-band GSM Motorola Slvr I got on Ebay (new) for about $100 three or four years ago.  Their website is http://www.rangeroamer.com/.  Search quad band unlocked phone on Ebay for the handset.  You should be able to get something for less than $50, no problem.

I've taken the phone all over the world.  The RangeRoamer service varies in cost (from Turkey, for instance, I think it was $.79/minute), but it works fine and saves vast amounts of time searching for phone cards and trying to figure out how a new phone system works.  It has an 800 number for people to call you in emergencies.  You can set it to auto-top-up on a credit card, and the money on the card never expires.  I don't know if they do Mexico, but I suspect they do.

In certain other countries I'll buy a SIM card for the local service--this works very well in Singapore, for example, where you can buy a card for $20Sing and it has $20Sing in minutes on it.  Last time I was there, about 18 months ago, calling the U.S. direct cost $.10S/minute, or about 7 cents.  A HUGE bargain.

Anyhow, the quad-band phone was one of the better investments I've made.

OK, I looked at the RangeRoamer site.  It's $2.99/minute in Mexico, which is ridiculous.

So--check with Verizon about costs.  Second choice--buy the GSM phone and buy a SIM card in Mexico.  It HAS to be cheaper.

[shrek]

In case of an emergency I don't care what it costs. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with an emergency while out of the country (or out of town within country actually). Otherwise-- skype is free between computers and you can call phones pretty cheaply as well.

[canadatourismguy]

Vonage has a good deal.

[thundering_m]

In case of an emergency I don't care what it costs. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with an emergency while out of the country (or out of town within country actually). Otherwise-- skype is free between computers and you can call phones pretty cheaply as well.

Don't you have to buy Skype minutes?

[shrek]

In case of an emergency I don't care what it costs. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with an emergency while out of the country (or out of town within country actually). Otherwise-- skype is free between computers and you can call phones pretty cheaply as well.

Don't you have to buy Skype minutes?

Yes, but the rates are fabulous, all the numbers I call I have programmed in so it's easy. I do have my cell when I travel, but I've never had to use it in an emergency-- which is my point actually, why go through the hassle of getting a new phone, different service, trading sim card, etc. to have phone access in case of an emergency since said emergency is unlikely.

[aandsdean]

In case of an emergency I don't care what it costs. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with an emergency while out of the country (or out of town within country actually). Otherwise-- skype is free between computers and you can call phones pretty cheaply as well.

Don't you have to buy Skype minutes?

Yes, but the rates are fabulous, all the numbers I call I have programmed in so it's easy. I do have my cell when I travel, but I've never had to use it in an emergency-- which is my point actually, why go through the hassle of getting a new phone, different service, trading sim card, etc. to have phone access in case of an emergency since said emergency is unlikely.

Well, I actually need to do bidness when I'm traveling--the ready emergency thing is a side benefit.

[mystictechgal]

Your cell phone most likely will not work.  I had to do a site visit/evaluation for a newly acquired plant in Central Mexico and had Verizon.  It stopped working as soon as I'd crossed the border.  I wasn't planning on a return trip so I didn't research why but, out of curiosity, I asked the plant manager there what his experience had been.  (We got the plant in a merger with another company that was also headquartered in the U.S., so he'd been dealing with cross-border travel and cell phone use for awhile.)  He said it was an annoying fact of life; he kept two cell phones under contract--both with Verizon.  One (purchased in Mexico) he used when he was in his home country and one (purchased in the U.S.) he used whenever he crossed the border to come to the U.S. 

[aandsdean]

Your cell phone most likely will not work.  I had to do a site visit/evaluation for a newly acquired plant in Central Mexico and had Verizon.  It stopped working as soon as I'd crossed the border.  I wasn't planning on a return trip so I didn't research why but, out of curiosity, I asked the plant manager there what his experience had been.  (We got the plant in a merger with another company that was also headquartered in the U.S., so he'd been dealing with cross-border travel and cell phone use for awhile.)  He said it was an annoying fact of life; he kept two cell phones under contract--both with Verizon.  One (purchased in Mexico) he used when he was in his home country and one (purchased in the U.S.) he used whenever he crossed the border to come to the U.S. 

Verizon uses CDMA, as does Sprint.  Most of the civilized world--including Mexico--uses GSM, as do T-Mobile at AT&T formerly Cingular formerly AT&T.  Japan is a rare and surprising exception--they use some third system that I believe no other country does.

If you're on T-Mobile or AT&T, if you have a tri-band or quad-band phone (it depends), you can have it unlocked for a few bucks and don't need to buy a new phone to use a different SIM card.  If you're like MTG, spork, and me, you have the misfortune of having a CDMA phone (though I've always been happy with Verizon when I've had them), and unless you have a "world phone" that has a slot for a GSM SIM card, you're SOL.
 

[wegie]

Verizon uses CDMA, as does Sprint.  Most of the civilized world--including Mexico--uses GSM, as do T-Mobile at AT&T formerly Cingular formerly AT&T.  Japan is a rare and surprising exception--they use some third system that I believe no other country does.

Yup. Japan is quite literally the only place I've never been able to get hold of WH when on business. Stamford, Sofia, Sydney and Singapore, no problem. Japan was like falling into a communications black hole for two days. Most disconcerting.

If you plan on any extensive travel outside the US, buy a quad band GSM phone.

[verbena]

If you plan on any extensive travel outside the US, buy a quad band GSM phone.

Or live without a mobile phone for a little while. Chances are you've done it before in foreign countries and chances are you won't need one this time, either.

I've no idea if this is true in this case, but people too often rationalize a desire for constant communication by mentioning the possibility of "emergencies."

[aandsdean]

If you plan on any extensive travel outside the US, buy a quad band GSM phone.

Or live without a mobile phone for a little while. Chances are you've done it before in foreign countries and chances are you won't need one this time, either.

I've no idea if this is true in this case, but people too often rationalize a desire for constant communication by mentioning the possibility of "emergencies."

Oh, now, don't go all judgmental on us.

Here's an example for you.  At my last job I had to travel to Singapore quite a lot (5 times in less than 3 years).  When there, we had an array of meetings and various other activities with our partner institution.  Some of these I needed to attend, some not--there were things like graduation planning, where all I was doing was delivering the invocation or something, while the person in charge of our program had the central role.

So, with the cell I could go and do things and be, literally, "on call" for these meetings and other events.  If something came up, I could go to the campus; but meanwhile, I didn't have to sit around there twiddling my thumbs while the team was working on things I didn't need to supervise. 

Similarly, when we were there for graduations, I could entertain members of our board of trustees and not worry about missing arrangements, etc.

As a result of having the (really quite cheap) phone, on which I spent less than $200 U.S. including the phone and airtime for those visits, instead of sitting around being bored, I was able to go to museums, play golf with a board member and his wife, make plans without going back to the hotel and paying $1Sing/minute for local calls, etc.

In addition, while I did occasionally need to find a 7-11 to buy a top-up card. I didn't need to schedule my days around the very limited times when the 13-hour time difference made calling the office back at home, or my wife, possible to do.  If I was out, I could send a text.  If someone at school needed something (and this was a real possibility), they could reach me by voice or text.

My mom (now gone) was in a nursing home dying of COPD.  I could call her, and I could leave the nurses my Singapore number.

I hate the ubiquity of cell phones and the weird obsession with constant contact they appear to have spawned.  I don't actually use mine here all that much, even though I do need to be pretty much always available to my office.  Nevertheless, w/r/t the international phone, I've spent $200 on a lot worse stuff than this.

[tee_bee]

In case of an emergency I don't care what it costs. Thankfully, I haven't dealt with an emergency while out of the country (or out of town within country actually). Otherwise-- skype is free between computers and you can call phones pretty cheaply as well.

Don't you have to buy Skype minutes?

Yes, but the rates are fabulous, all the numbers I call I have programmed in so it's easy. I do have my cell when I travel, but I've never had to use it in an emergency-- which is my point actually, why go through the hassle of getting a new phone, different service, trading sim card, etc. to have phone access in case of an emergency since said emergency is unlikely.

Just to chime in, rates from the US to Sweden, for example, are about 2.1 cents/minute. I have my netbook with me almost all the time, so all I need is WiFi and I'm good to go. Rates may be higher from Mexico on skype, but not much. And there are handsets you can buy that will use a hotel or coffee shop WiFi connection to get into skype. I've not tried them, and I would be a bit concerned about reliability, but in all my travels I've always been able to use skype...or to borrow a friend's local cell, and pay them for time, which seems to be cheaper over there than it is here.

[verbena]

If you plan on any extensive travel outside the US, buy a quad band GSM phone.

Or live without a mobile phone for a little while. Chances are you've done it before in foreign countries and chances are you won't need one this time, either.

I've no idea if this is true in this case, but people too often rationalize a desire for constant communication by mentioning the possibility of "emergencies."

Oh, now, don't go all judgmental on us.

Here's an example for you.  At my last job I had to travel to Singapore quite a lot (5 times in less than 3 years).  When there, we had an array of meetings and various other activities with our partner institution.  Some of these I needed to attend, some not--there were things like graduation planning, where all I was doing was delivering the invocation or something, while the person in charge of our program had the central role.

So, with the cell I could go and do things and be, literally, "on call" for these meetings and other events.  If something came up, I could go to the campus; but meanwhile, I didn't have to sit around there twiddling my thumbs while the team was working on things I didn't need to supervise. 

Similarly, when we were there for graduations, I could entertain members of our board of trustees and not worry about missing arrangements, etc.

As a result of having the (really quite cheap) phone, on which I spent less than $200 U.S. including the phone and airtime for those visits, instead of sitting around being bored, I was able to go to museums, play golf with a board member and his wife, make plans without going back to the hotel and paying $1Sing/minute for local calls, etc.

In addition, while I did occasionally need to find a 7-11 to buy a top-up card. I didn't need to schedule my days around the very limited times when the 13-hour time difference made calling the office back at home, or my wife, possible to do.  If I was out, I could send a text.  If someone at school needed something (and this was a real possibility), they could reach me by voice or text.

My mom (now gone) was in a nursing home dying of COPD.  I could call her, and I could leave the nurses my Singapore number.

I hate the ubiquity of cell phones and the weird obsession with constant contact they appear to have spawned.  I don't actually use mine here all that much, even though I do need to be pretty much always available to my office.  Nevertheless, w/r/t the international phone, I've spent $200 on a lot worse stuff than this.

I'm sorry to hear about your mother. With regard to mobile phones, I really did only mean to suggest that abstinence is the only surefire way of not getting pregnant remains an option that most people are no longer willing to acknowledge.

   

[daniel_von_flanagan]

AT&T GoPhones (prepaid) roam in Mexico at 25cents/minute (https://www.paygonline.com/websc/rateplans/rateplan_en.jsp).  You can use an AT&T GoPhone Sim in any unlocked or AT&T GSM phone, or buy a cheap phone + SIM at Target or Walmart; you should be able to get one with $15 airtime included for under $30. - DvF