cell phone question

[Renee Stillings | Alinga]

I have this issue constantly as I split my time between Boston and Moscow.

1. Using a US-based plan in Russia is extremely expensive - several dollars
a minute. You will spend most of your time informing everyone NOT to call
you or you will go broke.
2. I just use a GSM phone that works in both places (multi-band) and change
chips to a local Russian service the minute I land. I get a regular
subscription service so that I don't lose my Russian number and just have a
colleague occasionally put money on the account - especially just before I
arrive. The monthly base fee is minimal.
3. For issues related to getting  your calls that go to your home number, I
use this extremely handy service - actually I use it for business too. It is
called J2Connect (www.j2.com) whereby you pay for a US-based telephone
number (in your own area code it is $15/mo) that you set your other
number(s) to forward to. It acts as voicemail and fax and it emails you
either an audio or graphic file as a result. For those of us constantly on
email, this is far better than calling in for messages. Plus you can forward
the files to others easily if it concerns them. Main thing is that this
works best if you have your own computer and can install their program on it
for opening the files. Not sure about how well it would work in an internet
cafe.

Renee


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

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