Communication for Travelers

Verbal communication with family and friends along with personal business calls is a very important aspect of your journey that you need to think about and plan for. In this article, I’ll explore the best and cheapest ways to communicate both within the country you are in and internationally.

Calling Cards

While we were in the United States, we found the cheapest way to make a telephone call was to use a calling card. There are many calling cards available in a wide range of rates. Check them all out and find the one with the best rate – frequently available through Costco. Although we got a great rate with our calling card, they tacked on an extra dollar if we called from a pay phone. Since we didn’t make many calls and we tried to use a private phone whenever possible to avoid the extra one-dollar charge, this was our cheapest and most convenient option.

Cell Phones

Another option you have is to carry a cell phone. If you are planning to remain in one country for an extended period of time – and will be making quite a few calls within the country - it might be worth it to buy a cell phone. Rather than getting a long-term service plan, simply get the prepaid kind and buy more airtime as needed. You can use the phone as much or as little as you want. Be aware that text messages are much, much cheaper than talking, so take advantage of that feature whenever possible.

When you change countries, however, chances are that your phone will not work. Many cell phones are “locked” to prevent them from being used throughout the world. In some countries, you can find someone to “unlock” the phone, then you simply need to buy a new SIM card (which is cheap) and the phone is good to go. Depending on where you are, it may be quite easy to get your phone unlocked, or it might prove to be way more hassle than it is worth. In that case, you will have to decide if you’ll use the phone enough to warrant buying a new one.

Using the Internet

Most of the calls you’ll make, however, will most likely be to family and friends or to businesses back in your home country. The least inexpensive and most convenient way to make these calls is over the internet. Worldwide phone calls can be made at a fraction of the cost of using a traditional phone or better yet - you can even make these calls FREE! These calls can be made from your laptop (with an internet connection) or, if the software is installed on the computers, in an internet cafe. Additionally you can recieve phone calls and check your voice mail.

Disadvantages of communicating over the Internet:

• You have to be connected to the internet before any communication can take place.
• If you are talking in a public place there may be too much noise for you to carry on a conversation. Bringing along a headset and/or microphone will help.
• Libraries or anywhere else where it is quiet could create a problem since either the librarian will hush you up or everyone will hear your business. Again, if you have your own headset/microphone it will help.
• Calls sometimes get dropped in the middle of a conversation if the internet connection isn’t a good one

Described below are two internet telephone services that would be of most benefit the traveler:

• Skype

  Skype is by far the most popular program to use to make international calls. Simply download a free program, configure the program, and you are good to go.

• Magic Jack The Magic Jack works similar to Skype except instead of downloading the program from the internet, it is installed using a USB device they send you. After you configure this program you are good to go. Use the USB device to attach a regualar telephone to your computer or just use your computer's microphone and speakers to make a call.