Staying connected while visiting overseas – a novice geek’s guide

I had a few new telecom and email connectivity options to choose from while I’m visiting Australia, and after considering them all I decided on a 2-phone approach.  I’m keeping my Blackberry on the Cingular network, but got the Cingular international roaming for data and voice. I also bought a simple, cheap little Motorola F3 here in Australia for 69 AUD on the Yes Optus network, including 30 prepaid minutes.  More on that phone later. 

My Blackberry is unlocked (thanks to Cingular for that!), but I find this the better approach.  This way I have a local Aussie number and can still get calls and emails on my US number. 

Most people know to call my Aussie number, but I still get a few calls on the USA number, and it's available for emergencies.  The only problem is carrying around the 2 phones, but it hasn't been that big a deal, as the Blackberry is small and the F3 is incredibly tiny and extremely light.  Both fit comfortably in a shirt pocket at the same time.

A couple of things I learned that helped me decide to lug 2 phones around: 
-Swapping your SIM card means your home-based cell phone number is dead until you swap it back.  Does anyone know of phones that can function with 2 SIM cards/numbers?  That would be great!
-You also won’t get Blackberry messages with a new SIM, unless you buy a local data plan too and set up your blackberry with it, just like you did at home. In Australia is more expensive than an international roaming plan from the USA.
-Many phones store address book info on the SIM card, keep that in mind if you use the address book a lot.  Buy a little SIM card back-up and copy device before you try to swap out a SIM card for another carrier (I didn’t).  They’re usually $20 or so from electronics stores.
-If you want to unlock your American phone, plan ahead.  Contrary to popular belief,  USA carriers unlock your phone for free or a small fee if you have had the phone for a while, but they take their time sending you the unlocking codes.  Start the process at least a month before you go. 
-As an alternative, you can use an online unlocking service, or many third-party phone agents can do the job, but that can be risky.
-Most of the time, unlocking your phone voids the manufacturer warranty for some reason.
-Contrary to what many people told me, overseas phones are not unlocked.  On forums I got the impression that this was just an American thing, but no.  Just like in the USA, you have to exhibit a minimum amount of commitment (time/prepaid minutes/months used) to unlock your phone, or pay a fee.
-In most countries outside the USA, incoming calls to cell (they call them mobile) phones are free (meaning your minutes are not used, and there is no roaming or other charges), but callers to your number are billed at a premium.  For example, Vonage charges 1 cent to Sydney, 4 cents to Canberra, and 20 cents for a minute to an Australian Cell phone.  Regular CLECS charge much more………

Comments

[Martin]

And how are you connected to internet?

[Brian Benz]

Plenty of options in Australia. Good ol' local broadband, wifi and wired, plus I can get email and Web on my Blackberry, plus (the slowest and most expensive option), I can tether my blackberry to my laptop.

[Freddie]

If Cingular will not do it for you, you can always use a third party company like - http://www.globalunlock.com/Cingular-Blackberry-Pearl-Unlock-Software.htm