"Having a phone is only really necessary if you have people to call - if you are traveling or your other friends have arranged to have phones. If your friends do have phones, then having one yourself is quite useful.
[In case of emergency, it makes a huge difference to have a phone. Not that anything ever goes wrong in samsara, of course ; )
Other possible people to call might include family members coming to Portugal who aren't attending the teachings, so that you can coordinate your activities. However, note that for calling from Portugal to the U.S., it's far cheaper and easier to get a phone card. I can't be responsible for your mobile bill if you're calling to the U.S. on your usual phone or if you're using your smartphone to check the Internet while you're there: I just read of a traveler who ran up a $4,000 bill! I'm bringing an IDT/Costco phone card, which only charges 4 cents a minute for calls from Portugal to the U.S. Jody has used that card for many years to call home from Summer Festival and highly recommends it. After you buy it, before you leave the U.S. you need to call the toll-free customer service on the back of the card. I already had the card, but called their excellent service to get the number in Portugal (800 813 000 but double-check) to "top up" (add minutes) and confirm the rate. If you're not a Costco member, there are lots of places you can get a cheap phone card before your trip. After all, immigrants use them all the time for calling their home country.
Speaking of friends, I've started thinking about how I'm going to find Sangha friends who I only get to see at Festival - and there are going to be 8,000+ people there! Can't really imagine what that's going to be like. In that case, too, it helps to have a working phone. There are other low-tech ways we can find our friends at Festival, of course. I'm expecting there will be some kind of message board, as usual. It helps to know where they're staying. Or for people you really want to see, you can contact them before you leave and arrange to meet: "After the empowerment in the bookstore," for example. Or ask the Buddhas to have your friend appear before you. It works, as many longtime Festival-goers will testify! Who needs technology?
If you're leaning toward buying a cheap mobile that works in Portugal (and pretty much the rest of the world except the U.S.), there are a few more advantages I can think of:
- It's so much easier to call a taxi or even a local restaurant or museum, etc.
- If you're not a big traveler - or you want to help finance future trips - you can resell it when you get back, and probably make some money on it, judging by what I've seen when I investigated getting an international phone here. Check out eBay, for instance.
- If are a traveler or you're planning to go to Summer Festival and/or other international Festivals, it will come in handy. We bought a very basic international mobile when we were abroad, and now we can simply buy a SIM card for whatever country we're traveling in.
OK. Long digression Back to Tom ...]
The simplest option is to have your traveling companion get a phone, then stick close to them.
The simplest solution may be to get an international plan from your current provider. These are expensive. ATT's was about $70 for the minimum use of voice and text. But it is not that much more expensive than unlocking your phone or buying another phone and it is much simpler. If you want simplicity and don't anticipate that much use, this may be the best option.
[I don't think this is an option for most of us, but check with your carrier/phone company. One reason I consulted Tom is that his experience has been so different from mine, partly because as a computer programmer he's much better at technology than I am, but also because it's very different if you're with ATT vs. others. I haven't been able to find a reasonable way to use my Verizon smartphone abroad, and I have looked into it.] The next option is to use your own phone. There are two requirements for this: it must be unlocked and it must be compatible with the cell network in Portugal. If you bought your phone with a contract, it is probably locked to that carrier. Different carriers have different policies about unlocking phones. I think Verizon is fairly liberal and your phone may already be unlocked or can be unlocked with a call to customer support. [There are U.S. laws that prevent unlocking phones, but there are efforts to overturn them. For more information, you can start with this CNet article.]
ATT does not unlock phones until they are out of contract. However, with some effort I was able to discover that I could end my contract by paying an early termination fee and that the termination fee would apply to my next payments. I didn't know about it being applied to your next payments. In my case, 1 year into contract, the fee was $215. This will apply to my next 2.5 monthly payments. In effect, you are just making an early payment. As long as I stay with ATT until that payment has been fully applied to monthly bills it costs me no extra money. My service with ATT continues at the same rate but my phone is now "out of contract" and they unlocked it for me.
I don't know about policies of other carriers but give them a call.
As for compatibility, that it a little more complex. I believe that most of Europe uses "GSM." [Don't even ask why doesn't the U.S. doesn't simply adopt the otherwise universal standard of the rest of the world? Hmm ... think metric?] ATT uses "GSM." My iPhone has worked in England. I expect it to work in Portugal. Verizon's network uses a different technology and Verizon phone's may or may not be compatible. You can find out by researching what frequencies your phone supports and what frequencies are used in Portugal. [A few years ago when I was shopping for a new phone, you needed buy an expensive "dual-band" or even "tri-band"phone to get those frequencies.]
I don't plan to do the research. I'm just going to hope it works and move to alternate plans as needed: "B" (buy a phone there), "C" (stick close to a friend with a phone), or "D" (hang out with whoever happens to appear). It will be what it is.
Buying a phone there is potentially very simple or very complicated. If you search on the net you will find companies who will sell you European SIM cards and phones. If you buy and use one of those, it is pretty simple. If you think: "but are they giving me a good price? Maybe I can find a better price. Maybe I want an unlocked smart phone" and then look on eBay for options, that quickly gets very complicated. [That was definitely my experience.] You may then think: "I'll just wait until I land in Lisbon. Surely there will be phones for sale there and they should all work in Portugal. Guaranteed." There probably will be and probably for a good price. This could be very simple. Unless it is complicated or impossible. It will certainly be one of those: simple, complicated, or impossible. If you then think: "I don't like leaving that up to chance, urm, my karma." Then you could buy a phone off the internet and be content with the price you paid, which is probably pretty good. [Not that I could find, and I did a pretty thorough search.] But you should compare that to just adding international service to your own plan…" [When I contacted Verizon a few years ago, it was prohibitively expensive.]"
OK we're done talking now. You can hang up. : )
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