Saving money by signing up for your cell phone company's international roaming plan is only the first step to keeping your international roaming charges down.
Frequent (or business) travelers may want to consider a few other options, including purchasing a discount travel phone or travel phone kit.
One way is to buy a cheap travel phone. Companies such as Telestial and planetomni both offer international travel phones and/or SIM cards that make it easy and potentially cheaper to call home from international locations. The phones cost as little at $50. For example planetomni offers a solution that includes a dual-band GSM phone, SIM card with both a U.S. and global phone number, and $5 in airtime. That also includes free incoming calls in France, Italy, Spain, and the UK, as well as free voicemail in 60 countries.
Telestial's Passport package provides free incoming calls in Europe, as well as $.49 per minute calls back to the U.S. Telestial sells their Passport phone kits for $99, or international SIM cards that can be used with your phone for $29. Other companies offering similar services are planetomni and ekit.com
Mobal (www.mobal.com") also provide a range of products for international travelers, including world phones, world SIMs, satellite phones, and international phone rentals. For $99 the Mobal World Classic phone works in 190 countries, provides $40 in airtime, has no monthly fees, provides an international number for life, and users only pay for the time they use. While the per minute rates are higher than some of the alternatives (for example, calls to the U.S. are $2.39 per minute from France), since the phone number and service never expire, it makes an easy and consistent solution for the occasional traveler.
Buying a separate cell phone for international travel isn't the only way to save money on cell phone roaming charges. Another good way to reduce your cell phone bill is by replacing your mobile phone's SIM card with a SIM card for the country you're visiting.
