# Advice on international Blackberry plan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-on-international-blackberry-plan/578414>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 14, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-on-international-blackberry-plan/578414 "2011-04-14T21:12:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-on-international-blackberry-plan/578414/1 "2011-04-14T21:12:55Z")

</div>

I have a friend who is traveling in Denmark, Ireland, and Italy over the next four months. He has a BlackBerry, and wants to stay in contact, and I volunteered to help him out.

I have an unlocked BlackBerry world phone, and I’m trying to figure out what options would be cheapest for him to stay connected through voice and data.

In the past I used a company called BrightRoam that sent me a UK-Based SIM card, but I found that to be pretty expensive.

I’ve heard the best option is to buy a SIM card in the country you’re staying in, but he won’t have time to do that.

I can advise him to use wi-fi as much as possible instead of the cell towers, but I’m not sure if he’ll have wi-fi coverage everywhere.

Anyone have any advice? I know I’ll pay a lot of money, but I want to minimize what I do pay.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-on-international-blackberry-plan/578414/2 "2011-04-15T01:04:11Z")

</div>

> [@aaelghat](#):
>
> I’ve heard the best option is to buy a SIM card in the country you’re staying in, but he won’t have time to do that.

That’s about one hour out of a four month trip. Is he really that pressed for time…?

I buy travel packs when I travel to the US. Since I’m presuming your friend won’t be cancelling any existing plan, he can add a data and voice travel pack on top of what he already uses, provided the US cell carriers have something like that, as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/advice-on-international-blackberry-plan/578414/3 "2011-04-15T19:50:10Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> That’s about one hour out of a four month trip. Is he really that pressed for time…?

He currently has Sprint, which doesn’t have a SIM card, and doesn’t work overseas. From some research, it seems like maybe the best route is to get him an unlimited AT&T voice and data plan which will cap his charges.

Thanks for your help.

- aaelghat  
[Unique 50th birthday gift](http://www.lifeonrecord.com/Unique/Birthday/Gift-Idea/50th/Unique-50th-Birthday-Gift-Idea.htm)