As I understand it, if you take your phone with you and use it without
changing the sim card, you will alweays be charged international mobile
phone rates (And I think both people unfortunate enough to call you and
for incomming calls. This is a recipy for a very expensive phone bill
unless you just use it in emergeny cases. If you do want just an
emergency phone, then if you are using a gsm phone, the international
coverage ought to be pretty good. I think the international coverage
for the various standards used in ther US is less complete. (thus bi
and tri phones are useful (though expensive)

If you are staying fro a couple of months in a place and are somneone
who would use the phone alot, then it may be worth taking your phone
(again gsm would i think be the best bert) and buying a local sim card
for places where you plan to be around for a while. I would have
thought for 80% of travllers however its not worth the hassle, better
to rely ion public phones, phone cards and internet cafes.

Altrhough recharging is no more of anissue than say a digiatl camera,
its, one more piece of expensive kit to worry about loosing etc.

Wade

--- Justin Weeks <cexizgood@yahoo.com> wrote: > A good phone to get is
the Ericsson T28 world phone. It is a tri
> band
> GSM phone and with the extended battery is said to work for 25+ days
> on
> standby without a charge(I had a T38 with the standard battery and
> it
> lasted for 12 days no charge and minor talking). The phone is also
> very
> small.
>
> Justin
> Collonville Nicolas-rb941c wrote:
>
> > I had the same question...
> >
> >
> >
> > I work in mobile phones, and I know that reception is covered in
> most
> > of cities all around the world. I was even surprised to get
> coverage
> > in small cities as Rurrenabaque in Bolivia. So the reception should
> be
> > fine except in distant areas. Of course, in case you bring you
> mobile
> > phone for emergencies, this is above all this places where you are
> far
> > from everything that you will need the phone the most. In cities,
> you
> > can ask help more easily without mobile phone.
> >
> >
> >
> > About charging, the question is the same than for numeric camera. I
>
> > think this should not be difficult to find a power supply to charge
>
> > the phone.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I am thinking to bring my mobile phone for my RTW trip not for
> > emergencies but to keep contact more easily with my family who is
> > getting more and more worried. Just sending an sms to tell them
> that
> > we are still alive :-) .
> >
> >
> >
> > Anyway, in case you decide to bring your phone with you, you have
> to
> > check the band it supports. In deed, the NW in different countries
> may
> > not be the same band. For instance, the band in US is 1900 (850)
> > although the band is 900/1800 in Europe. That why most of the phone
>
> > works only in either Europe or US but not in both. Some Mobile
> > constructors now develop quad band phones. These phones work in
> both
> > US and Europe.
> >
> > On request I can give you the list of countries in the world that
> > supports the European band (900/1800), and also the coverage map of
>
> > the 900/1800 band in asia S.E . (it is 175Ko zip file)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hope this helps
> >
> > Nicolas
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: jolegutko [mailto:joanna_legutko@jltgroup.com]
> > Sent: mercredi 7 janvier 2004 10:00
> > To: RTWers@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [RTWers] phones
> >
> >
> >
> > questions keep popping into my head...
> >
> > is there any point at all lugging a cellphone with you around the
> > world?
> >
> > i had this vague concept that it could be useful in emergencies. or
> > some other strange situations. but how likely is reception/charging
> > anyway? is it worth the bother?
> >
> > any opinions?
> >
> > thanks!
> >
> > jo
> >
> >