If your traveling abroad and your current wireless phone will not work, you’re not alone. A hefty 50% of USA cellular telephones will not work overseas due to varying wireless standards used here in the USA. Many phones here in the USA, working with carriers such as Verizon, Sprint/Nextel and a few others have adopted wireless technologies such as TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) that are unique to this country and do not have the required technology or necessary frequency to be used with overseas wireless operators. Now, if your US wireless carrier is T-Mobile or Cingular which works on the G.S.M. (Global Standard for Mobiles) technology and you have a tri-band or quad-band phone then it should work in many overseas locations. Usually, you must be a customer for more than 6 months and have an additional credit check done before the international roaming provision can be activated on your account. The reason for this policy is that call costs while overseas usually range between $1.29-$4.99/minute and most cellular customers talk 30% more while traveling on business. Also, with a GSM Blackberry or another handheld data unit you can surf the web and send and receive emails for between $20.00-$30.00 per megabyte. Do the math, these carriers can get stung for thousands if the average person chats and surfs away as if they were burning from their pool of minutes or unlimited domestic data plans which is why personal credit becomes more important to your carrier. (more…)