[schnable]

No one at VZW seems to know the answer to this one.

I know that while in the US, I cannot use Skype to dial US landlines or mobile numbers--the call is routed through VZW. Fine.

I am traveling to Israel and plan on enabling the VZW global data plan. Will I be able to dial US numbers using Skype while in Israel? The VZW people tell me that I should be able to, policy-wise, but no one can confirm that the app will be smart enough to allow me to do so.

Does anybody know? Skype's rates are a lot better than Verizon's .

[asggold]

I was actually doing a lot of research on this prior to traveling overseas a couple weeks ago but unfortunately, Skype for Blackberry did not get released until the day I returned.

Anyway, here is what I can help to provide as details:
1. If you look at the fine print on the Skype website around Skype for Blackberry it says it will ONLY WORK WHILE IN THE US. I am not sure if they are saying that becasue they can not guarantee it will work anywhere else or if it really will not.
2. Based on the research I did I would actually recommend Vonage World Mobile for what you are looking to do (If Skype really will not work). Vonage Mobile will work on your Tour (it was not available for my Storm2) through the Global Data Plan.

The only other option you might have is to unlock your phone and purchase a local SIM card while you are in Israel. However, when you purcahse those cards they normally will not work for data. So, it is a real pain if you need to switch back and forth every time you want to make a call back to the US or use your phones browser.

[schnable]

@asggold, thanks for the great info.

Has anyone actually used Vonage Mobile and can comment on the quality of the service?

Also it is very strange that the under their Pay Per Minute rates the United States is not even listed as a country... would I even be able to call the US with Vonage?

[asggold]

According to Vonage (when I called and spoke with them) they said "Yes". However, I could not find any useful information on their site nor did they respond to me when I sent an e-mail to their support asking for more details. They told me it would work over data and/or WiFi.