BudgetTravel

Ken Grunski: You can pick up an international cell phone for as little as $99 but that's only half the solution. For the service you will need to purchase a SIM card which is a thumbnail sized chip that snaps into the back of your cell phone. These SIM cards provide prepaid service so there are no contracts or monthly fees. SIM cards can be 'local' or 'roaming'. 
 
A local SIM will give you a local number and service for a specific country. As an example, if you always find yourself traveling with your job to Mexico or South Africa or China, you might want to have a local SIM. You will usually get free incoming calls and very inexpensive ($.30/min) local outgoing calls. International call costs (expect $.70/min) will vary but typically you will call home and have folks call you back.
A better option for you is probably a 'roaming' SIM. A roaming SIM will typically offer coverage in about 100 countries, free incoming calls can be expected (just like with local service) in about 50 countries throughout most of Europe and a handful of other destinations in Africa as well as Australia/NZ. Incoming calls at other destinations can be a nominal $.20/min for China up to a whopping $1.95/min for India or Peru. Expect to pay $.60/min for domestic and international outgoing calls from most countries. 
 
In your case I would suggest you start with a roaming SIM like the Explorer or Passport for roaming service in multiple countries and then pick up local SIM cards as you think you need them.

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Pittsburgh, PA: Ken, Can i use my Verizon cell phone in the Bahamas and what is the cost? How about on a cruise ship?

Ken Grunski: Your Verizon cell phone will NOT work in the Bahamas however they have a cell phone rental service (It's tricky to find on their site but it's there) and they can forward your US Verizon cell phone calls to your rental phone as well. Rates are $2.49/min for all (incoming and outgoing) calls and $3.99/day for the phone rental. 
 
I did not see any service for Verizon on a cruise ship but consider yourself lucky. Cingular subscribers get to pay up to $3.99/min for the privilege. Yet even this obscenely high rate is cheap compared to ship to shore calls from the ship phone which can run you a whopping $7/min. 
 
A satellite phone rental is an option as well. It will work from the deck of the ship (you need line of site with the sky) and will cost you $1.69/minute and $7/day for the phone itself.

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Atlanta, GA: I have international calling on my cell phone. How do I call from outside the U.S. to a U.S. phone number, and how does a person in the U.S. call my cell phone when I am out of the country? Thanks

Ken Grunski: To call overseas from the US on your cell phone you should dial +, country code and phone number. The '+' key is the universal sign for international access. From the US the '+' key signifies or replaces 011, however when you are in Europe you will dial the same sequence: +, country code and phone number. The difference is that the '+' key in this case signifies 00. To make things more confusing, in Australia they use 0011. 
 
When calling from a cell phone you never need to know what the international access code is from that country because you can always dial '+', which you can get typically by holding down the zero (0) key, for 2-seconds, of your cell phone. 
 
When you are roaming with a cell phone you always need to dial the + and the country code. The country code for the US is '1' so to call the US from overseas simply dial +1, area code and number (eg. +18582742686). If you are roaming in Mexico and want to call a friend in Mexico (or your hotel) then you would dial +52..... followed by the remainder of the phone number. 
 
Many countries use a leading zero in front of their cell phone numbers. As an example, cell phone numbers in France begin '06...'. However to call the number you would not begin with +3306 but rather dial +336...omitting the leading 0 which is typical when dialing a number with the country code. 
 
For callers to reach you on your US cell phone service while you roam with it overseas they would simply dial as though you were in the US...1,area code and your phone number. No '+' is needed for US calers to call you because they are simply dialing a US number which finds you no matter where you hide in the world).

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Ken Grunski: Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your questions. Many of the prepaid products/solutions including calling cards that were discussed in this forum are available at telestial.com

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