Options for International Travel (other than the obvious)

[thebubbatex]

I was on ATT for a year with a 3GS, then I decided that using my phone for business calls was important and I switched my line to Sprint for the EVO last year. Service for me, with 2 towers within 4 miles of me, has not been good. As I traveled, it still was not as good as Sprint or Verizon - for me (obviously, ATT works for others but I was not happy). My family is still on ATT (wife says "thanks" for leaving her behind on ATT almost everyday) but the contracts will expire this summer. Moving to Verizon would be the obvious choice but I will possibly be taking a job later this year that requires int'l travel (corporate office is in Germany). All the US guys for this company have iPhones and they all pretty much curse ATT everyday.

What, if any, would be viable options to use a Sprint or Verizon phone here in the US but still have that number when traveling internationally? Anything? Maybe having a local carrier SIM card and an old iPhone to carry with me and forward my number to that one when traveling? Or just carry one line on ATT as a backup (might actually have a company phone for this purpose)?

Not sure if I have options but I know there are a lot of enterprising people on this site who have looked at this problem before. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[roar08]

I live in Southern California and just got back from the UK last week. I carry a jailbroken, unlocked iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 and just used Orange and O2 pay-as-you-go micro SIMs while I was there. If your primary phone isn't GSM, you can certainly buy a cheap one and just use pay as you go SIMs that require no contract. They're cheap and give you the most flexibility. Heck, you can also just buy PAYG phones in the UK or wherever and use them when you're there. These days, there's just no rocket science to any of it.

 

[mojohanna]

I carry an ATT iphone to China, HK, Taiwan and Germany on a regular basis and I find that I actually have better coverage and service when I am overseas. Others who I work with that have verizon have nothing but troubles due to the type of network and the extra steps they need to go through in order to get service overseas.

 

[thebubbatex]

I live in Southern California and just got back from the UK last week. I carry a jailbroken, unlocked iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 and just used Orange and O2 pay-as-you-go micro SIMs while I was there. If your primary phone isn't GSM, you can certainly buy a cheap one and just use pay as you go SIMs that require no contract. They're cheap and give you the most flexibility. Heck, you can also just buy PAYG phones in the UK or wherever and use them when you're there. These days, there's just no rocket science to any of it.

What about your US number - calls coming in? Do you forward to the Orange or O2? Or just pick up voicemail and call back as needed?

 

[pesos]

I carry an ATT iphone to China, HK, Taiwan and Germany on a regular basis and I find that I actually have better coverage and service when I am overseas. Others who I work with that have verizon have nothing but troubles due to the type of network and the extra steps they need to go through in order to get service overseas.

I am curious about this as I may be headed to Taiwan next month. Is there some kind of option for prepaid voice/data? Data is critical, but voice would be nice too.