cell phone question

[Lynne deBenedette]

Calling on the experience of any of you with cell phones who use them
internationally to ask about US/Russia phone use...

 I will be needing a mobile phone over the next year, during which I¹ll be
going back and forth a few times between Russia and the US but may be in
other countries in Europe as well.  Even when in the US, I¹ll be away from
my home phone a good part of the time, so it will be important to me to have
mobile service pretty much everywhere I am.  I¹ve never had a cell phone at
all, so I¹m considering all possible ways of doing this.  As I understand
the options, they boil down to:

-buy or rent two phones, a US one and a Russian one, use one here and one
there, and none everywhere else.
-buy or rent a GSM phone with the appropriate choice of frequencies
(900/1800/1900) and a plan that would allow me to get one number to be used
everywhere (but probably with pricey calling rates for local calls made
abroad)
-same as above, but having different numbers for different countries and
switching the SIM card for each country (cheaper)

I¹d appreciate feedback about whether I¹ve understood the options correctly
and what your experience is.  And whether you know anything about a cell
services company called Telestial or have used TMobile service abroad.

Thanks!
Lynne
-- 
Lynne deBenedette
Senior Lecturer in Russian
Brown University / Slavic Languages
20 Manning Walk, Box E
Providence, RI 02912
tel 401-863-7572 or 401-863-2689
fax 401-863-7330
lynne_debenedette at brown.edu
SPRING 2004 Office Hours TBA


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