[seadug]

I am getting a Verizon Blackberry loaner phone for my daughter to take on a trip to New Zealand, Fiji and Australia. What is the least expensive way for her to keep in touch with family and friends in the US. She will be gone one month. Thanks Doug

[ritesh]

I am getting a Verizon Blackberry loaner phone for my daughter to take on a trip to New Zealand, Fiji and Australia. What is the least expensive way for her to keep in touch with family and friends in the US. She will be gone one month. Thanks Doug

Get a GSM phone rather than a Verizon BB which could be CDMA ( or get the World phone which have both CDMA + GSM capability). All 3 countries have a strong GSM presence.
Get your phone unlocked,so she can use local sim cards and save on money. Search for prepaid BB plans in each country, so that she is reachable over BBM and emails instantly.

* Unlocked Verizon 9930, have a problem latching on Vodafone's BB service here in India, though they work on other network. This could be a problem in NZ, Aus and Fiji too. GSM BB's normally have PIN's starting with 2xxxx and CDMA have it with 3xxxx. Vodafone India's BB setup doesn't allow any BB's with PIN 3xxxxxxx to latch on.

That's all from me.

[DannyAves]

Get a T-Mobile 9900 with wifi calling...free calls wherever there is a wifi connection....you can't beat free.

[jrohland]

I am getting a Verizon Blackberry loaner phone for my daughter to take on a trip to New Zealand, Fiji and Australia. What is the least expensive way for her to keep in touch with family and friends in the US. She will be gone one month. Thanks Doug

My lady was in NZ last year. Before she went we talked to Verizon to have international service added to her account. It was supposed to work without any change but it didn't. Alas, she is not technical and had no interest in working the problem so I never knew why it didn't work.

I did the same thing with Verizon when I went to England and my BB worked as soon as I landed at Heathrow. We did take a second unlocked BB to England and bought a SIM card in a phone shop. That worked perfectly.

Given all that. I suggest you contact Verizon, tell them you are going to use the phone with a local SIM card in another country. They will give you an unlock code to allow a non-Verizon SIM to work. Have your daughter go to a local phone store in each country and tell them she needs a BlackBerry active SIM. Should be no problem and the store people will be sure it all works.

[lnichols]

Verizon was adding new international plans for data. I think 100MB for 20$. Cheapest and most reliable way to keep in touch overseas is with BBM and e-mail on a Blackberry. Texting is expensive and unreliable, and voice is expensive. Blackberry uses very little data, and is reliable.