[aspenedelen]

Taking wife to Cancun Mexico over the Christmas holiday for our annual vacation I have a few questions to ask about taking my BB Tour. First, I have my office line forwarded to my BB Tour and while I am in Cancun and my clients call me will I be charged through the roof for accepting the calls? Is email on the Tour a bad thing since our all inclusive hotel does not off wireless w/out paying through the roof for it? If my associates send metexts is there a horribly awful charge for receiving and sending txts back to America on the Verizon network or its affiliates in Mexico? I want to know if it will be worth it for me to hire a secretary to take my calls for the week or just take my mobile to the beach and take calls when I can? Anyone have any great ideas for me? Thanks and I hope everyone had a great after Turkey Day!!

[BlkBryAddict]

Don't drink the water.

[aspenedelen]

I was going to say that was quick but alas and to my lacking I read what I already know. Staying at the Riu Cancun which happens to be a all inclusive w/out wireless for 5 days for $1200 w/air fare for two on NWA from Minneapolis over Christmasl. We got a screaming deal so we literally could not afford not to go on this sunny vacation. Anyway, the whole point of this post is to figure out if it is worthwhile for me to hire someone to take my calls back home or continue to use my BB Tour as my office phone while in Cancun. Need real life advice from the road traveler.

[dave3825us]

Call Verizon global @ 800 711 8300 and have your tour unlocked. After its unlocked you can get a prepaid sim card and bypass Verizon and their international rates.. The only thing that sucks is vzw still controls the data. I turned mine off in aruba.. Could someone more familiar with this please chime in.

description of locked cell phone

Some cell phones are designed to use a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card, or microchip that stores subscriber data. The SIM card is issued by a carrier and provides cell service by activating any phone into which it is inserted. A locked phone, however, will only recognize a SIM card from a particular carrier. If the cell phone is unlocked, it will recognize a SIM card from any carrier. The "lock" is a software setting that keeps the cell phone "loyal" to one carrier.

In areas like the United States where carriers offer free or deeply discounted phones with cell plans, the phones are commonly locked so that they will not work with other carriers. Carriers claim this is necessary to subsidize the cost of the phones. After a period of time, a carrier might agree to unlock the phone upon request, perhaps charging a fee. However, due to proprietary settings sometimes installed in locked handsets, the phones don't always function correctly with other carriers, even once unlocked.

From the viewpoint of the consumer, the practice of carriers locking phones and using proprietary settings defeats many of the benefits of SIM handsets. Complaints led to a class action suit filed in California in June 2004 by American watchdog group Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR). Ideally phones should be left unlocked, or at least unlocked after the initial contract expires.

One way to get an unlocked phone without proprietary settings is to buy it new from a third party vendor in its original, unlocked state. The downside is that the price is commonly close to full retail. Some consumers might find it tough to dish out big bucks for a phone that they can get for free with a plan. The advantage is that the third party unlocked phone should work equally well with any carrier that uses SIM cards.

Unlocked cell phones are in such demand that third party services will unlock your cell phone for a fee. This doesn't guarantee the phone will always work correctly, as proprietary settings might remain. There are also hacking instructions online to unlock many models of phones, but a phone that is unlocked improperly can be rendered inoperable.

[MedStudent4Now]

don't feed tequila to your tour

[lastraid]

I would also call VZW. They can change you over to temp to the nationawide + Mexico plan. This way any minutes used will come out of your regular allotment oif minutes,rather than the .99 per minute rate. This plan is like $20 more per month, but also gets prorated for the time you have this account and can be changed when you get back.

for SMS, I believe with plan SMS would be at standard rates, rather than the .50 to send and .05 to recv.

Yes you can unlock the SIM, and get a local one, but local SIMS generally do not have have data. Data plan addition is 64.99 per month and again is prorated upon return. this also replaces your domestic plan. so the difference for unlim data in Mexico is not that much.

More info can be found at www.vzw.com/international or call the 800 that was mentioned above.