[craigtbone]

My son will be traveling to Sydney, Australia for a semester of college, leaving mid July. We are on Verizon and his current phone is CDMA only. Though I have a Curve, I am not very savy on all the communications technology and could use a bit of help. We have many options available to us.

He could tough it out with no cell phone. Might be a good learning experience.

According to my local Verizon store there are only 3 phones available, BB Storm, 8830 and a Samsung flip. We are very interested in a Storm. I have been reading the Storm forum and find passionate positives and negatives. It seems with careful management it should perform at least the standard features reliably. Is this true outside the US as well? My son could make good use of the calendar, scheduling and to-do list features. Not anxious to add to my monthly bill but it might be worthwhile. I need to understand the costs, roaming charges, etc.

I suppose he could buy a phone when he gets to Australia or maybe buy one how from an Australian phone company? Just thought of that one. Will have to check into that. Any thoughts?

We could rent a phone through Vodafone at a total of more than $500. Not likely.

Prepaid cell phone was suggested for urgent / emergency use. Would this be purchased in Australia? Are they throw away phones or can you add more time to them? I am studying this how but any thoughts are appreciated.

He will have his laptop computer with Skype so we should be able to stay in touch but only at prearranged times. Not a help for urgent or emergency communication.

I guess my most urgent question is this, is it wise to get a Storm now? Will it be a reliable, viable device (software & hardware) for the two years he will need to keep it? If the Storm2 were available today I would hesitate to get it since he would only have 6 weeks or so to de-bug it.

I will continue to do my research but there are so many options I could use any positive input.
Craig T.

[david9962000]

He can buy a pre-paid phone with a sim and recharge it when he needs to in Australia. You can also get a BB with GSM like the 8830 or 9530 and get a Int roaming data plan and email, Pin and BBM instead of calling. It's what I do when I'm europe and I save money that way.