International sim / ways to connect while travelling

writeme · Aug 3, 2012

Dear ILs,

How do you contact your parents/DH during your international travel (at airports, during flight transfers etc )? Travel time to India is more than 24 hrs; so what way of communication do you use? Any suggestions for international sim or any US mobile carrier with a reasonable rate?

Airports have free wifi, internet cafes, and phones but the easiest to use would be mobile phone. Especially when travelling with a toddler, I find this most convenient. Please share ideas if you've used international sim during the journey or if there are any mobile services with international roaming. I just need this for one way travel, so don't want to sign contracts for cell phones. Please let me know the best options. Or are there any calling cards that I can use at airport phones? From India to US, I've used airtel card at various airports, but not sure about cards from US, and where to buy them.

Please help!

Indu

gokusha · Aug 3, 2012

Last 2trips i have sent messages frm airport wifi...once frm brussels i called using their phone service, paid through U.S creditcard...but it was charged around $18 for 10mts-12mts..i made 2calls to India on my returns toU.S.

writeme · Aug 4, 2012

Thanks Usha for the details. I just ordered an international sim from telestial.com; let me see if it'll work during my trip.

DST · Aug 5, 2012

My friend used AT&T international calling service in her mobile and she used,its cheap too,but when I had that plan didn't work for me in frankfurt.

GSAnusha · Oct 24, 2012

Hi.. Am not sure if its too late to reply..
But just thought of sharing my experience.

I got my matrix international calling card at the chennai airport when I travelled to US
It costed me around 1000rs for a 2 day active sim
Signal was also pretty good in the transit airports.

whatisaguytodo · Oct 25, 2012

Why not just use skype on your smartphone? You can use it wherever there's a free wi-fi connection and if you add money to your account you can even use it to call regular phones.Their rates are pretty cheap.

writeme · Oct 31, 2012

@whatisaguytodo,

Thanks for the suggestion; but skpe usage is limited to areas with free wi-fi. I used telestial international sim during my travel from US to India and it served my purpose. I made calls from my mobile at all the stop over airports, or even after boarding the planes and never had to look out for wi-fi areas.