We got a question on our contact form that we found to be very interesting. David, one of our readers, asked about what would be a good phone for an 11 year old on a trip to Europe.
My 11 year old son is traveling to Europe for 2 weeks this summer. 1 week in England and 1 week in France. I have multiple phones with ATT, including the iPhone. My son has a LG Xenon GR500. Thanks! My question is: What would be a good device to purchase, ATT or other, to allow my son to make and accept international calls on the cheap, take decent pics, allow for robust text messaging, e-mail, upload pics to Flickr, Photobucket, etc. Tall order I’m sure. Any thoughts. BTW, you gents ROCK! Peace!
There is no one correct answer to this question, so I figured we would suggest a variety of solutions. I would like to approach solving this problem several cost and usability options
- Reducing costs of phone calls – phones the support VoIP are critical to keep the international phone bill down. Additionally, carriers that offer ways to reduce the per minute cost for an upfront fee are also cricital.
- Reducing cost of internet data – phones that support WiFi are a great way to reduce the use of mobile 3G networks. Because WiFi may not be available some days there needs to be a less expensive 3G way to share and upload photo’s from the trip.
- Phones the support GSM 900MhZ & 1800MhZ – in Europe only GSM phones work and the devices need to work on the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands.
- Who should you do a calling plan with
- Using Verizon
- Using AT&T
- Using an international carrier
Basic Requirements
Here is the ground work that must be done before you can expect to use your mobile service in Europe. I always do these things before a trip outside of the US (not including Canada).
Regardless of who your mobile carrier is contact them just before your trip to ensure your account is provisioned for international use. I always inform them of the countries I will be traveling to, and the duration of my stays in each location. This is also a good time to check what the calling rates will be from the various countries back to the US. Additionally, if you have purchased an international plan this is the time to verify your plan is covered in the countries you are traveling to.
Configure a contact in the phone that can call the voicemail that can bypass voicemail greeting to check messages. If you have a traditional voicemail devices this is important to setup now and ensure it works properly. Also when people leave you messages when your overseas each of these cost you per minute international rates, this is not a well understood fact. When a call comes to your phone and you do not answer your phone forwards the call to voicemail. In the US your phone forwarding to voicemail is not an issue but internationally, you eat the cost of a loving call from mom that rambles on for 3 minutes. I should mention this charge only applies if the handset is on and the call goes to voicemail.
To avoid dialing issues update all of his contacts to contain country code when dialing. This is the most common mistake people make when they travel internationally, Numbers entered in your phone should read as follows:
+1 (Area Code) xxx-xxxx for example +1 301 555-1212
To break this down + is the international access code or a short way to dial 011. In the US we are use to dialing 1 for long distance calls this is the US country code, the remaining numbers should already be familiar to anyone that has made a phone call. To enter the plus on a phone press and hold 0.
There is no negative impact to have all your contacts configured for international calling. Personally, I have been doing this for almost 10 years now, but I learned the hard way on an international trip.
In order for your phone to work in Europe you need a GSM phone that works on the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands. Believe it or not the LG Xenon GR500 supports all the required GSM features for a trip to Europe. The LG Xeon GR500 does not support WiFi which if available could greatly save on 3G data usage while overseas.
Give your traveler a world clock or an app that shows multiple time zones. The UK and France are on two different time zones. There is no reason to miss a scheduled call because he is having issues determining what time it is back home. A world clock with the three time zones (home, England, and France) added will make his life easier. Also consider setting an alarm that can remind him of the call home time. This could be over kill but he is 11 and several thousand miles away, so let’s make this idiot proof
Finally, since we want to transfer pictures to online sites and make and receive low cost calls, lets assume we want a phone that supports apps. My point here is we could use an app like Skype or low cost voice calls or various photo sharing apps to make image transfer and annotation easy.
Phones that support VoIP Apps
I assume he will have set times he can call home to talk to his parents over the two week period. Since any phone we select will have SMS capabilities they can use SMS to ping each other should someone need to do a call outside of a normally established calling time. For years I have used Skype to call home when I travel internationally. Skype will allow for both Skype-to-Skype or Skype out (option to call traditional phones). Buy $10 of Skype credits and you will have more than enough for you trip.
Create as many Skype accounts as you need, for example one for your son, one for your wife, and one for you. We avoid even the SMS charges if use Skype to send SMS or Skype-to-Skype messages. Show him now how to use Skype to make calls. It sounds trite, but this is a part you need to practice before you travel. Thousands of miles away is not the time to be unsure how it works.
The platforms that support Skype Clients are
- iPhone
- Android
- Blackberry
- Windows Mobile (assuming you can find a download link)
- Symbian
- Palm WebOS
Dealing with Photo Sharing Sites
When it comes to photo sharing David wanted a way for his son to post images the entire family could see and comment on, to share in his son’s experience. The site selected is not as important as allowing his son to easily share images.
There are two ways I would want the ability to share photos. Either give me a way to share photos via an application or via Email. Most apps will support things like selecting which photo collection to add images to; support for multiple image uploading; support to keep or remove geo-tagging; and annotation for images. If you have privacy concerns turn off geo-tagging on phone’s camera.
The options to Email images are limited to how the email client works on the mobile phone we select. For example emailing photo’s on the iPhone will result in sending lower resolution images then what the camera actually took. Additionally, there will be limitations on the size of email messages that can be sent, thus uploading 20 images from the day could require multiple emails.
Mobile Service Options
On the surface it would appear there are three real options: Verizon, AT&T, or purchasing pre-paid SIM’s upon arrival. Based on several emails with David I was able to determine that his son is traveling on a group trip so grabbing a SIM upon arrival won’t be an option. While you can buy an Orange or Vodaphone SIM before the trip the last thing we want is to have an 11 year old troubleshooting should a problem occur.
I personally would go with a Verizon service plan for one major reason,their GlobalEmail package. If he has a family member that will let his son piggy back their plan for 1 month the $64.99 GlobalEmail package allows unlimited data when abroad this includes email and internet. If they really will be doing image uploads and Skype calls this plan could save a boat load of money. Additionally, Verizon has a GlobalEmail with Voice that reduces the per minute cost for international calls. No matter how you look at it at $1 per minute you’re going to have a large mobile bill. Traditionally, after a week of international travel my bill ranges from $400 – $800, but with GlobalEmail my bill is significantly lower.
Hardware Options
Suggestion from RIMarkable Robb Dunewood
This is an 11-year old kid, so, whatever you decided to send him on his trip with needs to work flawlessly, no matter where he is on his trip. Because he is a child I would not want him to have to do anything like swap SIM cards in and out depending on what country he is in. I would want the piece of mind of knowing, no matter where he is, so long as his battery is charged, he could call, text, email, IM, or whatever without having to do something to his mobile to get it to work.
That being said, I would look at a world phone BlackBerry like the BlackBerry Storm2, the BlackBerry Tour 9630, or the upcoming BlackBerry Bold 9650 from Verizon. The nice thing about these devices when it comes to international travel is that you don’t have to do anything to make the phone work in the location that you are going to. Once you land just turn your phone on and start using it. Make calls, send and receive email, use BlackBerry Messenger, take photos and upload them to Flickr, and send and receive text messages before you get off the plane.
The really nice thing about world phone BlackBerry devices from Verizon is that email and BlackBerry Messenger, as well as other BIS clients like Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, and Flickr work without charging you per message sent and received or data.
Conclusion
There are so many options for phones when you travel abroad. While we considered using his LG phone on Verizon, repeated calls to Verizon resulted in one answer the Verizon SIM would not work in non Verizon World Phones. While I want to test this theory I do not want to test it on your son’s trip. As for AT&T service unless you can closely monitor your data they have no plan that matches the Verizon GlobalEmail.
If you can control his data usage when in Europe then going with AT&T is an option, but I know how fast $.01/KB or $.0195/kb can add up if you exceed your package.
The iPhone is a great option as I have used it on many international trips, but you cannot trust the data usage displayed on the iPhone as it is not remotely accurate on how AT&T will bill you. I personally know this from a $1200 mobile phone bill.
Something that seemed to be filled with dozens of options has filtered down to a single carrier and a hand full of devices. This is the best option given the desire to keep the cost low for this trip. Hope it helps as you plan for this trip.