International Service Overseas

Has anyone here used Verizon's international plan while traveling outside of
the U.S.? I'm talking about the rent/buy option of a GSM phone that can be
used in another country.

I took a look at the rates for calls within other countries and I thought
they were ridiculous. I do like the idea of being able to forward your
domestic number to the international phone to be able to receive calls.
However, I wasn't clear on how Verizon charges for that. Does it simply go
against your minutes, or is there an international rate applied to your
calls? Also, I believe that in most of Europe, an incoming call on a cell
phone is typically free. I wonder if that's also the case when you use
Verizon's international option.

I'd like to hear comments from anyone that's had these experiences.

Thanks,
George

On 2007-10-17, GK <gkamins@comcast.net> wrote:
> Has anyone here used Verizon's international plan while traveling outside of
> the U.S.? I'm talking about the rent/buy option of a GSM phone that can be
> used in another country.
>
> I took a look at the rates for calls within other countries and I thought
> they were ridiculous. I do like the idea of being able to forward your
> domestic number to the international phone to be able to receive calls.
> However, I wasn't clear on how Verizon charges for that. Does it simply go
> against your minutes, or is there an international rate applied to your
> calls? Also, I believe that in most of Europe, an incoming call on a cell
> phone is typically free. I wonder if that's also the case when you use
> Verizon's international option.

I'm not experienced, but I think that service provides you with
a Vodafone SIM with a UK phone number. The service only gives you
free incoming calls in the UK, not in any other country, and I think
you pay Verizon the rate to call a UK mobile ($0.20/minute with a
long distance plan?) for the call forwarding.

Instead of this service take a look at GeoSIM, or one of the other
prepaid international SIM offers. This gets you free incoming
calls in many European countries, and you also get a UK phone number,
so forwarding your Verizon phone would cost the same. Or, if you
are going to one country and staying for a while, buy a local prepaid
SIM and use that.

Dennis Ferguson