Whenever I travel, I use different tools than I would at home, and I think that many of you travel with your mobile devices, and thus, would be interested to know what tools I’m using. For the trip to Nokia World, in Barcelona, Spain, I knew I’d need some pre-paid connectivity, as well as a way to call Mrs. Guru back home in Texas.
To solve the prepaid data issue, I was turned onto Yoigo by several friends. You can read my account of actually trying to get setup here, but overall, Yoigo was an excellent choice, and if I’m ever back in Spain for another trip, a Yoigo SIM is one of the first things I’ll snag. Mine was 10EUR, and came with 10EUR credit (so basically the card was free). I got it on Monday, and by Thursday, when I left, I had 4EUR and some change remaining. I had 3G (UMTS, though, I don’t recall seeing HSDPA ever), and was able to send/receive SMS, as well. Data is priced per MB, but capped at 1.5EUR/day, so effectively, it’s 1.5EUR/day for unlimited 3G. You can check out more information about Yoigo here.
For calling home to Mrs. Guru, I opted to try out one of these global SIM cards that seem to be all the rage, and United-Mobile was kind enough to send me 2 SIMs, each with $30 of credit to try out. The way these United-Mobile SIMs work is a bit weird – you dial your number, press send, and are greeted with a message saying the call is not allowed. Moments later, you receive an incoming call that has dialed the number you originally tried to call. The first time this happened, it completely caught me off guard, but I quickly got the hang of it, and it worked great.
I was able to call Mrs. Guru from my cell phone, with great coverage throughout Barcelona, and we were also able to exchange SMS, which was an added benefit that I hadn’t planned on having. Unfortunately, right now, United Mobile does *not* have any U.S. numbers, but I’m told they’re working on that. The $60 credit, spread over 2 cards, was enough to last through several phone calls per day, from Sunday through Wednesday evening. They also apparently offer a data option, but it’s billed per MB, and I knew I’d blaze through that credit pretty quickly with my mobile data demands.
The United-Mobile SIM, in Spain, was $.45 to setup the call, and $.40 for each minute. Contrasted to using my AT&T SIM card, which would have cost me $1.29/minute, it’s obvious that I saved a BUNDLE with the United-Mobile SIM. I received the card before I left, too, so I could easily give Christina the number before I left.
For phones, I opted to go with the N82 and N85. Both offered me 3G there in Spain, as well as great battery life and a killer camera in my pocket.
I also decided to take my new Fujitsu P1610, instead of my more fully-powered Dell XPS M1330, and regretted it by the end of the 2nd night. However, traveling with a netbook is far better, specifically when going through airports and security and the like. For a personal trip where I wouldn’t have time-sensitive materials, the P1610 is going to be an awesome choice, for sure.
I also also given a Boingo account, for WiFi at the various airports, but did not need it either in Dallas or Atlanta, and I wasn’t in the Barcelona airport long enough to need it, either. I’ve written about Boingo before, though, and I’d definitely rather have an account than try to travel without one and chance the WiFi fees.
That’s the recap of the tools that I used at Nokia World 2008, a trip that required me to be constantly connected both locally and internationally. Both Yoigo and United-Mobile helped me do that with ease, while keeping my costs to a minimum (the United-Mobile SIMs were provided at no cost, but $60 to be able to directly call home for a week would have been well worth it).
