On 2007-01-10, VicTek <abc@xyz.com> wrote:
> My wife is going to Japan for a couple of weeks and wants to be able to use
> her cell phone there. I've heard it's possible to add on international
> service in a way where people just call your regular cell number instead of
> having to dial international codes - is that correct? Are there any other
> "gotchas" to be aware of to make sure this works properly, such as the modes
> her phone supports? TIA

You have two problems: she's going to Japan, and you have Verizon
as your cell phone carrier.

No US mobile phone roams in Japan. In Japan you need either a
(Japanese-only) PDC phone or a European-style 3G phone. Worse,
outside of the relatively small number of countries where there
is a CDMA carrier, Verizon's international rates are quite awful.

Verizon will rent you a PDC phone. I forget what the rental costs, it
is on their web site. The phone will, however, have a Japanese
phone number; if you want to keep the US number working you'll need
to forward it to the Japanese number at Verizon's quite terrible
overseas long distance rates. And while incoming calls to the
phone are likely free, outgoing calls from the phone are expensive
at something like $2.50 per minute.

Then again, if she really needs a phone this is an option. I seldom
go to Japan so I don't know what it is like to buy service once you
get there. The last time I went I had a borrowed Hong Kong 3G
phone which worked for the day.

Dennis Ferguson