Imagine (or recall) a time when your cell phone unexpectedly stopped working.
What was your reaction?

I believe that we've all found that instant, on-the-spot communication
significantly increases our productivity and the ease with which we live our lives.

Yet - when we leave the country, we somehow accept a drastic reduction (or complete elimination) of our ability to instantly communicate with our loved ones, our partners, nearby shops and services -- mostly due the high cost and/or inconvenience of obtaining cost-effective cellular service.

It's with great pleasure then, that I can inform you that such need no longer be the case. You need no longer forgo the utility of your cell phone when out of the country,  because now you can call others and get calls from others at the same cost as people that live there.

Let's take a quick look and compare the ways we've tried to fill the communications gap while on vacation...

Hotel Room Phone

Let's start with the wired phone that you find in your hotel room.
It has all the disadvantages of all wired telephone - you must be present and near the phone to make or respond to any calls. These inevitably cost an extraordinary (many times unknown or undecipherable) amount to use, so we use them sparingly, which greatly limits our flexibility during the most time we find most precious. This may be good for people with extra money they want to give to the hotel or those who want to spend their vacation inside of the hotel room, but I don't believe it applies to most vacation travelers reading this review.

Summary: Hotel Phone

Making calls             Good
Receiving calls          Good
Cost                         VERY HIGH and somewhat unpredictable
Availability                Good
Portability                 NOT
Environment              Good
Health & Hygiene      Depends on Hotel (so really - unknown)
Reliability                  Good
Local calls                 Good

Public Payphone + Calling Card

Public Payphones - combined with calling cards - provide some relief from the high cost of using the hotel phone, but they add greatly to one's hygienic risks and they eliminate one's ability to receive calls from others.

My experience with pay telephones is that they're located in busy, noisy, generally dirty areas where it's hard to hear, take notes, or even pay attention - and many times they don't even work.
The calling cards themselves have drawbacks which include high surcharges when used at a public phone (from 50 cents to $1 for each call made), the practice of rounding charges to the next largest 3-minute interval (not uncommon), and an inability to be accessed during peak calling periods.

They also only solve part of the problem because calling cards are generally not well suited to make local calls.

Summary: Phone Cards

Making calls           Good
Receiving calls        Impossible or impractical
Cost                       Payphone surcharge & min round-up
Availability              Access # unavail at peak times
Portability               NO
Environment            Dirty, Noisy - possibly dangerous, particularly at night
Health & Hygiene    Un-monitored and DEFINITELY DANGEROUS
Reliability                Payphone functionality always an iffy & inconsistant proposition
Local calls               Not well suited for local calls

Buy and put a 'local' SIM into your own phone

Putting a SIM from the country you're visiting into your own phone can mitigate the potential health and hygeiene dangers of public phones and avoid the high per-call cost of hotel phones - but they have their own problems.

First, to use a  SIM in your own phone this way requires that:

• Your phone operates using GSM technology (CDMA and TDMA phones from Sprint and Verizon don't use SIMs)
• Your phone needs to operate on the same frequencies as the carriers in the country you're visiting, and
• Your phone needs to be "unlocked", which it won't be if you got it from the phone company.

You can pay as much for a country-specific SIM as you'd pay for a whole phone and will generally only use it for a week or two out of the year. That leads to the next big problem, which is that once a SIM is allowed to become inactive, the cell carrier that issued the phone number to that SIM will re-possesses and recycle the phone number, making the SIM inactive and basically a worthless little piece of plastic and metal.

Another concern is that SIMs are fragile - they are electronic components, not designed to be put into and taken out of phones repeatedly. It doesn't take much to accidentally damage a SIM and you won't know that you've done it until you find out that your phone won't work with it inside. And country-specific SIMs, you can't even test them without actually being in the country since they won't work anywhere else.

One final concern is that it's neither easy nor cheap to get an authentic local SIM from many locales. The vast majority of 'international' SIMSs being sold online are from private 3rd party firms are designed to force you into buying your air time minutes from them (rather than directly from the cellular carrier) to make the SIM work. Generally, these vendors markup the per-minute air-time charge for using your phone between 500% to 2000%, leading to exhorbitant costs per minute in addition to the exhorbitant price for the SIM itself.

Summary: SIM Purchase

Making calls           Good if from the county's predominant cell carrier
Receiving calls        Good if from the country's predominant cell carrier
Cost                       High - $60-$90 + very high operating costs for long-distance if you don't purchase directly from the cell company itself
Availability              Poor - SIMs directly from the predominant cell carrier are generally not available outside of that country - and - The majority of cell phones in use are not capable of using foreign SIMS to communicate
Portability               Extremely good
Environment            Very Good
Health & Hygiene    Outstanding
Reliability                 Poor - Country-specific SIMs are easily damaged and can't easily be tested outside of the country where they are used
Local calls               Outstanding if from the country's predominant cell carrier - once again, very costly if not (local calls from 3rd party SIM issuers can cost the same as long-distance)

Signing up your own phone for international service (International Roaming)

Signing up your own cell phone for international roaming is another way to eliminate the concern about hygeine and safety - and provides excellent portability and convenience. These things come at a price, however, and there are 3 charges you need to know about international roaming: one is a sign-up fee, the second is a per-minute international service charge from your carrier, and last there is the roaming charge from the Mexican carrier.

The average sign-up for international roaming varies, but can be expected to cost the equivalent of 1 week of normal cell service.

The per-minute charge for the US carrier's international service is always at least $1/minute and can be much more once the roaming charges from the local carrier are added - no matter where you're calling! You might imagine how paying $2 per minute for local calls alone might greatly decrease the utility (and use!) of your phone.

It should be noted that roaming charges from foreign carriers cannot be contested and are frequently reported by travelers to be significantly higher than they should have been.

Another (well hidden) gotcha about international roaming is that you will be charged international rates for the people use to leave voicemail on your home system while you are away. I cannot tell you how many people have been shocked into financial difficulty by international roaming cell phone bills amounting many hundred dollars greeting them shortly after they arrive home even though they used their phone sparingly while away. Many times voicemail is the culprit.

Sadly, even though you may be willing to pay, there is no guarantee that your phone service will transfer properly to another country. A great proportion of travelers attest that the international service they signed up for simply did not work when they arrived. That is evidence that there's still a lot that can get still lost in the translation between here and there.

Summary: International Roaming

Making calls           Good
Receiving calls        Varies from Acceptable to Marginal
Cost                       High - Unpredictable/unexpected and uncontestable charges are common
Availability              Good (when it works)
Portability               Very Good
Environment            Very Good
Health & Hygiene    Excellent
Reliability                No - Doesn't always work once you get there
Local calls               Prohibitively high cost for local calls (same price as international)

As you can see, the methods and means we currently use to communicate while on vacation continue to greatly limit our ability (or our willingness, given the cost) to use instant communication to enhance our experiences and raise our effectiveness to the level we're used to.
 
We go though great lengths and consume a lot of valuable vacation time to try and pre-schedule everything instead - just to find that these complicated schedules don't work anyway and we end up doing many things we'd prefer not to do and/or waste large blocks of time getting our schedules and plans re-synchronized with the schedules and plans of others.

I'm sure that everyone at home reading this has asked themselves at one time or another - "How did we live before we had cell phones?!"

Well, there is no longer a need to 'live without cell phones' in when visiting other countries. There are now cell phones available for rent using country-specific SIMs built right into them being distributed online and on eBay. And you can buy airtime for these phones online, eliminating the need to wait until you arrive at your destination to buy time - allowing you to be in-touch and in control immediately as you touch down at the airport. The latest news about these phones is that they can be used with cellular VOIP, reducing the cost of international calling to the US, Canada, and most European nations to 2 cents per minute (plus the cost of local air time).

Having your own locally-based cell phone while in Mexico means that: 
 
· You can get in touch, be in touch, and stay in touch with anyone/everyone you need to from the moment you hit the ground in Cancun (or anywhere else in Mexico)

· You can leave a number at your home and/or office where you can always be reached while on business or vacation in Mexico

· Now - with cellular VOIP, you can call the US or Canada (other countries too) from Mexico for only an additional 2 cents/minute (in addition to local air time) using your cell phone

· (With two or more units) you can instantly reach your travel partner(s) who are at the beach or the museum while you are out travelling, dining, or shopping. (or vice versa!)

· You will have reliable and easily-accessed voice-mail while in Cancun using your Cancun phone's voicemail

AND YOU CAN DO IT ALL FOR THE PRICE OF A LOCAL PHONE CALL

 The cost of cell phone rental for Mexico has become so competitive and adds so much utility to a trip, it no longer makes sense to sign up for 'roaming' or buy calling cards ever again. If you ever travel this way - you will never want to go back to the other way again.

Summary: Personal cell phone rental for use in Mexico*

Making calls            Outstanding
Receiving calls         Also Outstanding
Cost*                      Low cost per minute - Competitive with calling cards
Availability              Good
Portability               Outstanding
Environment            Outstanding
Health & Hygiene    Excellent
Reliability                Outstanding
Local calls               Outstanding service - same price as the locals pay

* Shopping for cell phone rental for Cancun is like shopping for anything else,
   You can get an outstanding value, but you'll need to shop carefully to get it.

Things to look for - Questions to ask:

Is the cell phone powered by an SIM from the major cell carrier of the country?

Many cell phone rentals and almost all 'international' SIMs being sold today contain agreements with 3rd parties which charge per-minute rates which are 200% to 500% over the local rates. For the most reliable serice at the lowest cost, you'll want your cell phone to be powered by a SIM from the predominant cell carrier in that country. In Mexico for example, you would want to make sure that your rental phone uses a  SIM chip to get the lowest rates and best coverage.

Is the telephone number to my phone local to the area that I'll be visiting?

Long-distance (non-local) calls in Mexico cost twice as much per minute for air-time as local calls, and since that will be the highest component of your communications cost, it's best to have a phone number which is local to the area you'll be calling to and from. The 'area code' for Cancun is (998), so if you're headed there, you'll get a lot more air-time for your money if you phone has a 998 area code.

Can I recharge my airtime credit in small increments and at my convenience?

Many cell phone rental agencies allow purchases of air-time online using a credit card - which is definitely a feature you'll want, but not one you'll want to be restricted to. As a visitor to another country and without knowing exactly how much time you'll need to be speaking on the phone, you'll want to rent a telephone for which air-time is easily purchased at your convenience and not require that you find an open 'internet cafe' somewhere in order to recharge your phone.

In addition, being able to recharge your rental cell phone in small increments is a great advantage so that you don't have to leave a lot of money in unused minutes behind when you leave the country.

In Mexico,  is the only cell carrier in the country for which air-time is available on-line as well as commonly in stores and shops throughout the country. As is common among the most major players in the pre-paid cell communications market, additional air-time can be purchased in increments as small $10, keeping your investment low and availability high.

What does it cost for me to 'call home' and for others to call me using my cell phone?

If getting and making calls to and from 'home' is important to you, then  it is imperative that you find a cell-rental that provides a convenienet means to access VOIP services without the need to use a computer or necessarily be in a Wi-Fi hotspot. VOIP-based telephony has reduced the cost of telephone service for home and office to 10% or it's previous cost through carriers such as Vonage and Sunrocket - and the same technology is rapidly moving to cell phones. Before renting your cell phone for Cancun or any other location, you should ask whether provisions have been made for making calls with your cell phone over the VOIP network. If so, you will be able to call home (and have home call you) for truly minimal costs (in addition to local air time).

With all of the choices available - do you have any recomendations on who I should trust to provide me all of these services at a cost comparable to calling cards?

I do (of course), but I don't believe it would be appropriate to mention it here. You can contact me at any time through eBay to ask questions about international telecommunications, about visiting Cancun, or anything else that comes to mind as you make your plans. It has been my pleasure to share what I've learned with you - and I hope that this guide has been source of helpful guidance and information, no matter what vehicle you select to serve your communcations needs.