When abroad, here's how to stay in touch

Ubiquitous connectivity has its downside, especially when itcomes to the price of using your cell phone abroad. Theproliferation of smart phones and the increased use of data havemade it easier than ever to pile up big communications bills whiletraveling overseas, even on a short trip.

"Many leisure travelers with iPhones are going to Europe, notturning off their data and allowing their apps to continuedownloading data," said Ken Grunski, chief executive of Telestial,a company that provides wireless services for travelers. "U.S.travelers were already getting hammered with expensive voice callsthat start at $1 per minute. I know of people that have returnedhome to $1,000 or more roaming bills."

Many countries outside the United States rely on a wirelessnetwork technology called GSM. But two major American carriers -Verizon and Sprint - use different technologies in most of theirstandard phones. Owners of those devices will need a special cellphone when traveling to many countries.

Fairly convenient way to deal with thisproblem

Verizon users have a fairly convenient way to deal with thisproblem. If you've been a subscriber for six months or longer,Verizon will lend you a global phone free of charge for trips of 21days or less; the customer pays only the two-day FedEx fee of$9.99.

Once you receive the phone, call Verizon to activate it andselect an international rate plan (with the $4.99 a month plan, acall from, say, France, will cost 99 cents a minute compared with$1.29 without the plan; texts, which cost 50 cents per message sentand 5 cents per message received, are not included). After thetrip, ship the phone back.

AT&T and T-Mobile have GSM networks, so many of theirstandard phones will work overseas, although you'll still need tosign up for an international roaming plan to keep rates down. Withthe $5.99 a month AT&T plan, calls from many Western Europeancountries to the United States are only 99 cents a minute. Apackage of 50 roaming texts costs $10.

Another option is to buy an inexpensive travel phone from acompany such as Telestial (telestial.com) or Planet Omni(planetomni.com). They typically cost less than $50. For example,Planet Omni's Kit V520 ($49) offers a dual-band GSM phone, SIM cardwith both a U.S. phone number and a global phone number, and $5 inairtime. The service allows you to receive free incoming calls inFrance, Italy, Spain and Britain on the global number, and freevoice mail in 60 countries. Costs for outgoing calls depend on thecountry. An outgoing call from France to a U.S. landline is 99cents per minute, while a call to a mobile phone is $1.49 perminute. Telestial's Passport package (starting at $99) providesfree incoming calls in Europe and calls back to the United Statesfor 49 cents per minute.

With everything from Internet radio to online maps to multitudesof apps, iPhones and smart phones can consume huge amounts of data.It might not be a big deal at home, but using all those apps on theroad can add up quickly. If you plan on using a lot of dataservices while traveling, make sure you check with the carrier tosee if it offers international data roaming plans.

For example, AT&T offers data roaming plans for the iPhoneand smart phones that provide 20 megabytes of data usage within 90countries for $24.99 per month, and up to 200 megabytes for $199.99per month.

In addition, AT&T recommends that iPhone users go to theirsettings and turn off data roaming and options to fetch new data.They should also reset their usage tracker to zero so they can keepan eye on new charges, and make sure to use Wi-Fi instead of theirphones' 3G services to check e-mail or use the Web.

Frequent travelers may want to consider another money-savingtechnique: replacing a phone's American SIM card (the littleelectronic memory card that identifies and configures your phone)with a local (or country-specific) SIM card. In general, when youdo that, all incoming calls will be free, and outgoing calls (localor international) can be significantly cheaper.

Be aware that replacing the SIM card means that your phone has adifferent number, so you may want to let your contacts know, or setyour phone to forward all calls to the new number before you go.Your phone also has to be unlocked so it can work with othercarriers' networks - your cell phone company can provideinformation on how to do this - and it needs to be compatible withthe wireless services in the country you're visiting.

International roaming package on AT&T

"Even with an international roaming package on AT&T, it cancost 99 cents a minute or more for voice calls," said PhilipGuarino, an international business consultant and founder ofElementi Consulting in Boston. "The moral of the story is, dumpyour American SIM card and buy a local one instead."

"In a pinch, even if I call directly from my phone using aforeign SIM card, the average direct-dial rates are about 60 centsU.S. per minute, which is cheaper than using my original U.S. SIM,"he said.

Internet-based voice services (VoIP) such as Skype (skype.com)or Truphone (truphone.com), which charge as little as 2 cents forcalls to regular phones, are among the cheapest ways forinternational travelers to communicate. This spring, Skypeannounced support for the iPhone, allowing iPhone users to make orreceive Skype calls over either Wi-Fi or 3G connections.

One good option for travelers wanting to use Skype or Wi-Fiwhile traveling is Boingo Wireless. For $7.95 per month, travelerscan sign up with Boingo (boingo.com) for unlimited Wi-Fi access inhotels, restaurants, cafes, airports and more in over 70 countries.Coupled with Skype or a similar VoIP product on an iPhone, smartphone or computer, it's hard to beat the value.