Being able to stay in touch with clients, friends, family and others is important to the long term traveler. Most people are not able to live on the road without keeping in touch with people back home. Plus, don’t be selfish and assume just because you are cool with speaking only once a month that family and friends are the same.
Thanks to technology it is now possible to stay in touch for vey little cost. Even no cost if you are willing to make do with free wi-fi. This can be via email or voice using one of the many VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services such as Skype. Most of the cheap phone cards use this type of communication. In summary, there is no reason to use regular telephone services to make long distance calls and definitely not if you are using the hotel phone system!
Voice
The most well known way to make free or cheap calls is Skype. Calls are free if both parties use the Skype application on their computers or smartphones. Easy to do and all you have to do is download an application and then start making calls.
If you wish to call landlines or cell phones then the call rates are much lower than regular telephone company rates. We’re talking a few cents a minute to most places. Buy Skype credits online and then use them at your leisure. For the long term traveler it may be better to buy a Skype subscription. By paying a monthly or annual fee you can make unlimited calls to landlines in most countries and cell phones in a few countries such as the US, Canada and the UK. This is subject to fair use so don’t think you can speak for 24 hours a day each and every day. I remember sitting on a island in the Caribbean with a population of less than 5000 and speaking to a friend in Pittsburgh, USA for a couple of hours. I was using my iPhone and wireless internet connection and he was on his regular cell phone. This was covered in my subscription.
When discussing voice communications it is important to consider both incoming and outgoing conversations. If you are continuing to run a business and need a way for your clients to contact you then it is vital you provide a cost effective and easy method for them to telephone you. Basically you need to be able to provide a telephone number just like if you had a regular office. Skype also have a product called Skype-In that allows you to have a telephone number is a chosen location and people can call that using their normal telephone and normal call rates. The call is diverted to you via the Skype application so you can then answer it from your computer or smartphone. Usual features such as call-forwarding and voicemail are also available. You clients don’t even realise you are sitting in your tropical beach villa and not an office back home.
International roaming charges on cell phones are as big a rip off as hotel phone calls. Best to avoid them at all costs. There are a couple of ways to achieve this and neither involve leaving the cell phone at home. Many countries (not the US though) offer prepaid sim cards for a couple of dollars a piece and can then be loaded with credits for making and receiving calls. A quick search in your location will give you the details. Just ensure you have an unlocked cell phone otherwise it won’t work on another network.
The second way is to subscribe to a service like Telestial. They have a few different package designed for different uses that give you a global sim card that uses the local cell phone networks without the roaming charges. Costs are still a bit high, however, the convenience of having a single number often outweighs the need for a new number in each location. The service I use gives me a local UK number, a local US number, a toll-free call in number and call forwarding and voicemail. Recharging is done online or via the phone.
It can get a bit complicated to combine all of these, however, I’ll have a go at explaining how set it up most of the time. For emergencies I give out the UK and US numbers so people can get me straight away. Then I give out the Skype-In number which I can answer when at the computer or logged into a wi-fi network with my smartphone. If I don’t answer this it then diverts to the Telestial number and I can take the call if I’m not n the computer or within a wi-fi network. If it’s a long chat I will call the person back using Skype, when I have had a chance to get on the computer. This can all appear very seamless from the caller’s view.
If I am going to be in a location for a while and know I will be using the phone more than just a few minutes here and there and prepaid sim cards are available I will buy one, charge it up and then divert the Telestial number to the local number. That way, regardless of the number people call, it will still bet through to my current number. Just remember to cancel the diversion. You can also check you messages online if you want to avoid the costs for checking messages.
If you are in Australia a good example of this type of service is amaysim. They offer flat rate calls and have possibly the most straight forward set of terms of all the Australian telecoms companies. Yes Australia is like other parts of the world and many of these companies deliberately set out to confuse the customers in order to get the to sign up for higher services.
Internet
A steady internet connection is essential to my work and when negotiating places, where possible, I get places that have the internet available in the house, condo, apartment. Not a problem in the US, more of a problem in Mexico… As a backup you can use the internet cafes and coffee shops, however, if you are like me a coffee shop is not the ideal work environment. Some places also have prepaid wireless internet services as an alternative. Because you are most likely not able to commit to a 12 or 24 month place, then rates can be a tad high. Make sure you check out these types of things before you arrive. The only hardware you require for the wireless internet services is a USB modem. These work in the same way as cell phones and use the same type of sim card. Make a note to find out if it is locked to a certain network and if possible get an unlocked one.
If you just require email and not full on internet for browsing, you can probably make do with free wi-fi offered at coffee shops and cafes. You probably aren’t traveling with a computer so use a smartphone with email capability. Have an email address that can be accessed via a browser. Any service such as gmail will work. Probably a good idea to tell your friends to remove you from the joke email lists too. You don’t want to be sitting there downloading the 5MB video file and a very slow connection at the local coffee shop.
