It was a time before cellphones when I marched up to a pay phone in St. Mark's Square in Venice and inserted my prepaid card into the wrong slot. There was an unmistakable ripping sound, and the card was no more.
Ah, but that was then. While phone cards, bought overseas or from US providers before leaving, still provide good rates, many travelers have forsaken them for the convenience and the "cool" factor that cellphones provide. Here are some ways to phone home from far away:
Your own cellphone may work overseas, once your company enables international roaming. For example, T-Mobile charges nothing to set up qualifying phones for such use. A call from Spain to the United States would cost 99 cents a minute, a call from Russia $4.99 a minute.
However, not all phones can be used internationally. If yours falls into this category, your phone company may be able to rent you one, or there are alternatives:
Mobal Communications sells phones that work in more than 140 countries for $49 and ones that work in more than 160 nations (including the United States) for $99. The phone is yours for life and you pay only when you make a call, with no fees beyond the per-minute rate. Using the same examples as above, phoning the United States from Spain would be $1.95 a minute and Russia $8.95 . Members also get an entertaining monthly e-mail newsletter filled with travel tips such as "How to Get Cheap Flights" and "What to Do if You Flush Your Trousers Out of the Plane." Mobal also rents phones, but says that purchasing one is a better deal.
Visit mobalrental.com .
A Telestial GSM 900/1800 international cell phone starts at $99, while a smaller phone with more features begins at $179. SIM cards cost $17-$79, but Telestial says they pay for themselves within 30 minutes of use when comparing the costs with international roaming rates. With Telestial's $49 Passport SIM card, for instance, that call from Spain would cost 49 cents a minute. Using a $59 Explorer SIM card, a call from Russia would be 45 cents a minute. Both cards allow free incoming calls from the United States.
Visit telestial.com .
If you prefer a phone card, SpeedyPin.com has a comparison chart on its website (where, not surprisingly, phone cards are sold). A call from Spain to a land line in the contiguous United States would be 50 cents a minute with an AT&T Prepaid Calling Card and $1.23 a minute with an MCI World Traveler Card. Surprisingly, a call from Russia would be less: 22 cents a minute with MCI and 50 cents a minute with AT&T. Be aware, though, that the cards may not work with all phones, dialing can occasionally be complex, and hotels may hit you with a charge for using the card from your room phone. The same may be true for pay phones.