how to save on mobile phone calls cost when traveling abroad. how to take advantage of  voip to pay less for traveling expenses. well i will give you example from Italy but it is good for calling in other countries as well. first of all i recommend using mobile phones that use sim card and have a mobile phone for every one in your group. you can still use the telephone without paying anything as long as you don’t answer the mobile phone they don’t charge you  but you hear the phone and you know who is calling you. before you leave your country make the cellular phone sim free that mean you can replace the sim with another communication provider and it still work.

there is a way to make your phone sim free following the instruction on the internet. but you can also ask your mobile phone company they charge about 10 euro and you can use that mobile phone on your next trip abroad. now when you lending in the destination airport some places in the world for example morocco there are mobile phone representative in the airport terminal. if you have no preference to any specific company you can take the first one. if you do have someone in your group using particular cellular provider you better use the same mobile provider as calls on the same network cost cheaper then from one network to other for example in Italy my son already had a Vodafone mobile so i looked for Vodafone. there are also TIM  but i did not found in the airport so i waited to find in the city of  Rome. in Casablanca airport morocco i found a shop of Maroc Telecom and it cost me about 5 Euro (50 Dirhams) including 25 dirhams call credit. when i was in Rome i found a Vodafone shop and they helped me to put a new SIM card into my mobile phone. for 10 Euro this include 5 Euro call credit.(i can tell you it is going fast)  they photocopy your passport and ask you to sign agreement. if you need to add credit they charge minimum of 10 Euro. the cost of calls in April 2008  0.09 Euro on the same network and 0.19 from Vodafone to other networks including landlines. SMS cost 0.15 Euro. i am not sure if it’s including tax. i think it is much less then if you call with your mobile phone when you are abroad, but the best is to check the rates before you leave your country because it is different between countries and different mobile companies. in my country call with mobile phone or to mobile phone abroad is about 2 euro for the outgoing and 0.4 euro for the incoming call both sides paying so it is 2.4 euro per minute. now let me give you a service that charge you about 10% for the same call. the name of the main service provider is BETAMAX but it has a lot of versions that has different deals and rates so you have to study a little bit before you can decide what is best for you depend from where to where you call most i am using for example Lowratevoip and Voipstunt but as i said there are others like VoipBuster,FreeCall ,VoipBuster ,VoipCheap ,VoipDiscount ,VoipStunt, VoipCheap, VoipDiscount, WebCallDirect and more. i will give you example with Lowratevoip but it is about the same with some of the others. if you want to read more on how to Use your lowratevoip credit for Mobile Calls! and also they give access number for the country you are now. after arranging a user in the service you can learn how to use Voipstunt  more detail on how to use voice over ip services  for call without a computer or internet only from your phone more info  in my words first you have to verify the number you want to call from it is different method for mobile or landline number you can do it only when you are having the software installed in your PC but you do it only once you can do it at home before living abroad. in the software panel menu select Tools, Options, Caller ID or press the nut icon, write the numbers and press verify for the number. if it is landline number you get on the screen 4 digit number then when the service call you asking for the code you have to put the number. for mobile number they send you SMS with code that you have to type on the pc when you ask for verifying the number. now how to make the call? from the verified phone you call the access number for the service and the country you are answered in local language but you don’t really need to understand she is telling you to dial the number you want to call – it is full number including 00 + the country number + city number + phone number. you are paying for calling the access number regular Local price and for the number you are dialing after voip Rate look for the rates list of the voip service you are using. to sum if you need to call inside the country use mobile with local SIM if you want to call home from abroad use voip. if you have cheap internet access like in morocco you can use like skype or voip i can’t tell you how much money you can save. i told you to use the mobile phone even if you do not replace the SIM if you get lost when you call the manager and hang-up if he have a low rate phone he can call you back. finally i recommend testing it before you go to the field it is better to check that everything working fine before you go out and something will not work because you forgot something. so have a good trip and enjoy using mobile phone i can’t understand how we could manage years ago without cellular phones.