If you are traveling overseas, it is important to stay in contact with your friends and family back home. Although email and other Internet services are available, you may want to bring along your cell phone. Cell phone company service is generally different in other countries, so before you leave you need to make sure your mobile device is capable of working correctly in the foreign country.
Determine what wireless service your current carrier. Verizon and Sprint use a wireless network known as CDMA, while AT&T and T-Mobile user a service known as GSM. GSM is widely used throughout the entire world, including most of Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. CDMA is only used in a few different countries, so most likely, if you are a Verizon or Sprint customer, you do need to purchase a travel phone. If you do not use one of those four major carriers, you need to contact your wireless provider and determine what your service is.
Once you know your wireless service, you need to determine what the wireless service is in the country you are visiting. You can find this information out online, or you can contact your travel agent. They are able to inform you of the wireless service. As long as your wireless network and the country use the same service, you are in luck.
Of course, you probably don’t want to pay the hefty international charges that occur when visiting a foreign country. It is possible to activate an international calling service through your wireless provider, but this still costs a good deal of money. If you have a GSM based device, you can actually purchase a new SIM card for the foreign country. This SIM card has a local number for the native country you are able to use in the phone, without any minutes being subtracted from your current provider. These travel SIM cards are available at many travel agencies, or you can purchase the SIM cards when you arrive. Once you have the SIM card, you just need to remove your current SIM card. It does not take very long to remove the SIM card, just make sure you hold onto it, as if you lose it, you need to obtain a new SIM card from your current wireless provider. With the new SIM card in place, you can now call throughout the country without international fees.