If you are planning to take your mobile phone traveling, there are some considerations that should be taken into account before making that decision.

Mobile phone airtime rates continue to drop as competition increases. The same is not true when you're traveling internationally. The wireless companies high premiums when you take your phone and use it in a foreign country. In most cases it costs much more than you would pay using a landline or even better a calling card.

As an example you could pay less than 10 cents a minute using a calling card while your cell carrier would charge close to $1 per minute for the same call. If you are prepared to accept the costs involved, you then have another possible cost to consider. Will your current mobile phone even function overseas? There is a good possibility it won't.

This is because the American mobile phone system and the GSM system almost universally adopted elsewhere in the world are not compatible with each other.

Therefore you may have to consider also purchasing a new phone that is dual, tri or quad-band capable depending on how many places you plan to visit. If you're only visiting one destination, or at least staying within one region, there is every possibility you'll be fine with a less expensive dual mode mobile phone. However, prices are coming down on the quad-band phones, so if you can justify the added expense it will serve your needs farther and longer.

Your second best choice would obviously be a tri-band model but since some bands are more useful than others, make sure you have the most useful ones unlocked and ready to use on the phone. Note that in many cases the additional bands your new phone are capable of accessing will have to be 'unlocked' by your service provider ... don't assume your multi-band phone will work on all bands right out of the box.

All tri-band phones will support three different frequency bands, however they may differ as to which three of the four bands they capable of supporting. The common variations are:

• 900 / 1800 / 1900 - Excellent internationally and very good also in the North America, or

• 850 / 1800 / 1900 - Excellent in the North America but not very good internationally.

It would also be wise to familiarize yourself with the various calling codes you will be using at your destination and become familiar with any particular or unusual (to you) dialing sequences that you may be required to use. For more information on this and a database of international calling codes, visit our Communications Page.