CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW…?
September 15th, 2008
You’re going away for several months and you want to keep in touch. In this day and age, it’s easy-peasy. You don’t even need a laptop (although it is handy). K7 is the answer.
This free service is very, very useful. Basically K7 assigns you a telephone number in the Seattle area code. When people call it, they can hear your outgoing message and can leave you a voice mail or send you a fax. K7 will forward the voice mail message as a sound file to your email inbox. If it’s a fax, they’ll forward it as a TIFF file.
For zero cost you can have a U.S. based phone number and pick up your messages at any Internet café around the planet.
Goin’ Mobile
In my experience, international cell phone roaming charges from your home provider are more expensive than filling an Escalade with premium. But there is a simple solution: go local. Depending on where you’re headed, you can take your phone with you and drop in a local carrier’s SIM card. And then you have a local number at very little cost. If you’re taking a phone with you, you need to know what mobile system and frequencies are used at your destination. You also need to get it unlocked – meaning it can operate with foreign carriers.
A better alternative is to buy a cheap mobile once you arrive. When I traveled to the West African nation of Ghana last year, I bought an old skool Nokia for about $10. A SIM card on a local network was about $2. And then I bought time credits as needed. It was cheaper for me to call North America than it was for my family to call Ghana! Plus I was able to call in country for very little. A great resource is: GSM World
Skype is another great tool. It’s free software that turns your computer into a virtual phone. You can talk with other Skype users around the world for free and use your computer to call standard phones around the world at discount rates.
Skype-In allows you to set up a number in your home country that people can call. That call is then routed to your computer or any number you specify anywhere in the world. Callers pay little or no long distance charges, although you pay for the long distance fees from the country of your Skype-in number to your local number. But, these charges are usually much less than those you would get anywhere else. It’s an easy way to get Grandma to call you in Turkmenistan, but by dialing a regular North American number.
I Touch Myself
If you’re in the market for a new iPod and you travel a lot, take a serious look at the iPod Touch. Sure, it can play your favorite tunes and movies, but it can also connect to the Internet via WiFi. That means you can check and respond to email anywhere you can access WiFi – and these days that’s practically everywhere. The Touch is a great example of one item doing many things. Which helps you pack less.
[DCM]
Have you experienced any ‘mobile’ travel horror stories or know someone who has? Tell us about it. Comments below.
