Droid 2 Global

Question

Has anyone ever used the global feature when they have the nation wide plan for the states. I had someone at verzion give me a short explanation of what I needed to do in order to be able to use it in the Caribbean for the week and half I am going to be there but didn't quite understand it all.

silver6055 · Accepted Answer

rdnkengineer wrote:Has anyone ever used the global feature when they have the nation wide plan for the states. I had someone at verzion give me a short explanation of what I needed to do in order to be able to use it in the Caribbean for the week and half I am going to be there but didn't quite understand it all.

With the D2G, you generally have a choice of what to use:

1) Use Verizon's services.   This is convenient, and allows you to be called on the same number as usual.  On the negative side, it is usually much more expensive

2) Use a foreign SIM (if going to a destination with GSM).  This is usually much cheaper, both for calls and data, but requires more work, and you cannot use your US number directly.

I will assume you are using option 1 for now!

If you want to make calls, you will need to contact Verizon Wireless and have International Calling added to your plan  (This will just allow you to make calls to and from other countries).  Depending on the location, calls cost around $1.99 per min and these are not covered by your US plan.  You can consider using something like Skype over Wifi to make longer calls.

Dial *228 before you leave the US.

Next question, do you plan to use data on your phone while in the Caribbean, while not on Wifi?  If you do, then you need to call Verizon Wireless to add the Caribbean & Europe﻿ Data plan to your phone for the time you are away.   Do it for a complete billing cycle, back-dating it if necessary.   There are two plans, see http://b2b.vzw.com/international/GlobalData/rates_coverage.html﻿

25 MB for $30, or 70MB for $100, with overage MB charged at $5+.    Both of these amounts are very small, so stick to Wifi if possible, and turn off data roaming and background data while away from Wifi.   You are not always in control of what data might be pushed to your phone, e.g. a Gingerbread update will be potentially several hundred MB, and at $5 per MB......