Communication Abroad
By Ashonté S. Lyles
Know Before You GEAUX: Communication Abroad
NOTE: Make sure your family and friends know how to communicate with you while abroad
Cell Phones
Research your cell carrier’s available phone plans before departure. Choose the best plan for your needs.
Consider purchasing a local SIM card, abroad SIM cards can often be purchased for under $20 per month.
Note: Cell phones must be unlocked to use a different SIM card. Some major providers do not allow the use of foreign SIM cards.
Pre-program all essential and emergency contacts
Apps
Download more than one messaging app in case the one you use most has a system outage.
Consider useful location-sharing apps to keep track of accompanying travelers or for folks back home to know where you are – such as Find My Friends. Click here for a list of pros and cons for some other popular location-sharing apps as ranked by Chipin.com.
Use group chat apps to communicate with your travel group, friends back home, and locals abroad. Many car services, tour guides, and travel agencies abroad use WhatsApp. Some others include GroupMe, and WeChat
Royal Caribbean allows you to create travel groups within their app so you can communicate on board the ship without Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi Calling/Texting
Consider purchasing or renting a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot
Avoid roaming charges by placing your cell phone in airplane mode and turning on Wi-Fi
Use Wi-Fi whenever available
Wi-Fi and or data plan to access email; use a VPN to access sensitive sites
Some email providers are blocked in certain countries.
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