Every time when I travel I’m thinking how to save money on roaming. Now when Russian MTS charges ridiculous $4 per minute for incoming calls I tend to think about cost savings. So before you go for your next trip do the following:

1) Check with your mobile operator if they provide some special packages or discounts. For example, MTS provides some special discount for traveling to certain countries in Eurasia during the summer period  (http://www.mts.ru/news/2009-04-27-1023958) Or Rogers/Canada has special voice roaming packages for travelers to the USA.

2) Check roaming prices for GPRS/3G data. Most likely your operator has crazy pricing like AT&T’s $20 per Megabyte or MTS 512 Rubles per Megabyte (about $16). I would recommend you to turn off your GPRS roaming before the trip. On iPhone you can do this easily via Settings->Network->Data Roaming->OFF. On Nokia smart phones you can just delete the settings (because otherwise some pre-installed apps like Nokia Maps may open GPRS without you even knowing it). Another approach is to switch off GPRS right through the self service system or call center of your mobile operator. Some people think that they can enjoy monthly GPRS/3G package when traveling. Sorry, you cannot, this is available only in your home country or even home region. Your operator has to charge you when you roam with another operator. Some operators provide special data roaming packages, e.g. AT&T (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp) for $60/month provides 50Mb in 90 countries. Check the details of the special offers from your operator before you go.

3) When you travel please note that SMSes are not as cheap as they are in your home country. For example, MTS charges about $0.05 per SMS in home network, and $0.40 when you traveling. More than this, when you are home you can enjoy SMS packages included into your tariff. BUT, when you travel your operator will charge you for any SMS sent. For US travelers: please note that US operators charge even for incoming SMS. This means that when you are home you can enjoy your SMS package, but when you travel the operator starts charging you for all incoming SMSes about $0.20 per 160 byte message. So for example, if you use twitter with mobile updates, you are not charged at home, but once you get abroad every SMS update will cost you $0.20! Don’t forget to turn off all your mobile updates on Twitter! Or maybe better just switch off your phone and leave your SIM card home;-)

4) Everybody knows that voice is expensive in roaming. The most simple thing you can do is to buy a local prepaid SIM card. For example when you arrive to Beijing, China, even before the customs and border control you can buy local China Mobile prepaid SIM. The China Mobile girls who sell SIMs are very attentive and even speak English a little;-) In Indonesia I use either Telkomsel or Indosat. Indosat provides very good quality and pricing for GPRS of around $0.10 per Mb.

5) For sure you also can use ArrivedOK to save on SMS notifications about your arrival. If you inform 5 people about your arrival you can save with ArriivedOK around $1.

6) When you are going to another country you still can enjoy posting to Twitter for free (http://c2s.me). This is available for registered ArrivedOK users. The trick works for GSM phones, and is based on the fact that the users are not charged by the operators when the call is dropped. So when you dial the ArrivedOK C2S access number +442033550595 the system drops your call and sends you an interactive text menu (USSD). Another trick used here is that operators do not charge users for USSD (basically they cannot do this). Not all networks allow USSD at all, but most of them do. So if after calling ArrivedOK C2S number you receive the menu, you can post to your twitter account which should be bound to your ArrivedOK account. To use ArrivedOK C2S you have to register on arrivedok.mobi web site from your computer before first use. It’s better to do this even before your trip begins. In this case you also can enjoy ArrivedOK trial for sending free SMS notifications to your friends.

7) To save on voice calls you also can consider using some Voice-Over-IP services like Skype or SIP. I usually use Skype for iPhone over free WiFi networks in the airports and Starbucks. Other options are pre-installed SIP clients in Nokia Symbian phones. The good SIP VoIP service is provided by SIPNET (www.sipnet.ru). It’s a bit tricky to configure it. But when you need to talk a lot it really matters to figure out how to use VoIP.

SMS

An interesting reading at TrendWatchList where SMS is predicted to top travel, and especially tracking services.

People say iPhone has changed the mobile ecosystem — its mobile Internet is so convenient that finally the Internet has been accepted on small devices.

What’s more, applications are cool as well. I have decided to review apps in iTunes store in terms of their applicability for travel.

Please add you favorites as comments!

BA Flights

Information about arrivals and departures of British Airways flights. Flight updates. Flight schedules, flight booking from ba.com

Size: 0.4 MB

Cost: FREE

Language: English

Average rating: ***

Truphone – low-cost VoIP calls

Read more…

There is a number of services that communicate with you via mobile phone, sending updates about the flight of your choice.

Airlines from StarAlliance use a OAG service to send SMS alerts to you and other specified parties if there is a significant change to the flight. Learn/start here.

There is also a OAG Flights2GO service which comes at about $120 price and offers a whole bunch of things like flights lookup and real-time info. It works through the Internet or WAP. Decide for yourself if you want to use it. As for me, I choose SMS delivery.

FlightAssist.com of CellTrust offers SMS notifications about your flight and also about plane landing/taking-off, delivered to the specified mobile phone numbers. Subscription to FlightAssist costs $0,99–2 per flight depending on the number of alerts/reminders. Parties to receive alerts have to pay for notifications too. It is better to check with http://flightassist.com/faq.aspx#3 about pricing – it’s complicated!

US residents can use Google which sends flight updates to your mobile (the service is provided via FlightStats.com). GOOGLE is accessible in the US by texting to the number 466453 (GOOGLE). The service is FREE (well, some US operators charge for outgoing and incoming SMS!). Send your fight info (like “UA 111″) or airline’s name (“United”) to get either flight or airline information.

http://4info.net/howto/flights.jsp offers the same (for the US) through the number 4info (44636).

And, as I have mentioned, flightstats.com supplies its info for Google and for m.yahoo.com so when you mobile search through Google or Yahoo you get flight stats flight info. FlightStats offers notification through some cell phone providers (service requires registration). Thus you can receive notifications on your cell phone if you have your provider in their list:

UK residents can use AirText at http://www.airtext.co.uk/ to get info for flights originated/terminated in the UK via SMS.

There is also a UK/worldwide service (requires registration and receiving ads) – http://www.streamthru.com. However, being in Russia (or in the US for that matter) I could not register for the service because of the postal code field which apparently wants the UK code!

Some airports/airlines also offer SMS notifications (I have heard that of the UK, Israel, Czech, and Russia).

Read the latest article on New York Times about iPhone apps for Travel.