techreport
TwinF Tech Report – Russia Scandinavia and Europe
As I’ve done a few times on our trip, I’d like to get a little geeky and provide our experiences with mobile networks, Internet access and mobile blogging across regions of the world. We try to buy a local SIM card and experiment with the local networks via prepaid mobile phone plans, when reasonable. I cannot vouch for the completeness or accuracy of this information – it changes quickly and my perspective is one of a traveler.
See Also:
We moved quickly on the Trans-Siberian Railway, so it didn’t make sense for us to get a SIM card that may only works for a few days.
Internet: Wifi access is growing quickly in the major cities we visited, with access being very common
Mobile: If there is anywhere a mobile device should work, it is
Internet Access: We found free wi-fi to be quite easy to find in cities like
Mobile: We entered
We bought a Vodafone prepaid SIM card in
Within a couple of days, we had both GSM and GPRS working on the phone. Then, we left
Then lesson here is to watch out for roaming charges within
Internet: In most of
A final note: A gadget that would be amazing to have while traveling is a wifi detector so that you could be walking through a
In general, across all 29 countries we visited (except
Tech Report: Thailand Mobile Networks
Part of our trip is focused on experimenting with technology and mobile networks as we travel around the world. A tech report is our way of relating the geeky side of what we're discovering.
In an SMS with our friend Newley Purnell in
Our Treo 650 GSM phone integrated perfectly with the Thai network. I asked our first taxi driver about the best mobile network and he said “AIS” and after spending nearly 2 months in
Mobile coverage in
Before we left for the trip, I questioned the need to have a laptop computer. In
Also, I discovered a new and better way to upload pictures, blog, etc. from Internet cafes. I used to put everything on a USB pen drive and take it to an Internet café. Now I take the whole computer with me and ask them to let me plug it into their Ethernet cable. So far this has worked every time and I can work from the comfort and relative cleanliness of my own computer.
If you’re traveling in Thailand for more than a week or two and need to use your phone a lot, I recommend buying a new SIM card (on the AIS, 1-2-Call Network) for your mobile needs.
Tech Report: Japan
Part of our trip is focused on experimenting with technology and mobile networks as we travel around the world. A tech report is our way of relating the geeky side of what we're discovering.
This quote from an informative Japan Zone article may help:
Very briefly, there are three mobile phone technologies supported by the major networks within Japan - PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CDMA (Code Divisional Multiple Access) and WCDMA. DoCoMo, Vodafone and TU-KA support the established PDC, and DoCoMo and Vodafone have also introduced the newer WCDMA, while AU supports CDMA. All three of these technologies are incompatible with each other.
It is possible to rent phones while in
Within
I had assumed that the Japanese are big users of SMS (short message system), but this is not the case. They do use their phones for text communication, but it all occurs via email, not SMS. The difference is the same as it is between instant messaging and email on your home computer.
More than any other Asian country, in-room Internet access in the norm, and often with blazing fiber-optic connection speeds. I made a habit of bit-torrenting all sorts of things while in
Wi-fi is available somewhat ubiquitously, though we did not seek it out often. In most urban settings, I would see networks available, but mostly secured. In the remote Alpine mountain
If I could do it over again, I would likely rent a Japanese phone and give it a test run. It is also important to remember that buying electronics abroad can sometimes be hazardous. Products like cameras, computers, etc. are meant for the Japanese public and not visitors so they have instruction manuals, cords and even keyboards/controls built to Japanese specifications.
Tech Report: Mobile Phone Networks in India and Sri Lanka
Dear normal readers, this is a post for folks interested in the geeky aspects of using mobile devices internationally. Please excuse the jargon and acronyms.
A big part of our trip is experimenting with mobile phones in each country. Specifically, we want to be able to post to the TwinF site using our Treo 650 Smartphone. When we arrive in a new country we get a new SIM card and a prepay account, which gives us a local phone number and a non-roaming connection to the local network.
It's likely no surprise that the world, what we've seen anyway, is mobile crazy. Surely one of the most pervasive products in any village is prepaid recharge cards. We've found that coverage is generally strong and there are multiple networks in nearly every location, including the high country of Sri Lanka. Below are our experiences in India and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka:
Sri Lanka has GSM and CDMA is apparently "coming soon". The major networks are Mobitel and Dialog GSM on the bands of 900/1800 & 850/1900. Both GPRS and MMS are available. To get started with a new SIM card and 400 rupees of prepaid service costs about $20US. We could not get the Treo 650 to connect to GPRS, though it is supposed to be possible. If you have problems, you must go to a phone store in either Colombo or Kandy. My advice is to make sure you get the GPRS settings when you get the SIM card. It was frustrating and time consuming to try to get GPRS settings to work in Sri Lanka.
India:
India is pretty advanced with mobile technology. They have both GSM and CDMA and the networks support both MMS and GPRS using the bands of 900/1800 & 850/1900. The major networks are Hutch and Airtel, with Airtel being the first and biggest. It costs about $15US to get started with a new SIM card and prepaid minutes. India has some of the cheapest phone rates in the world with calls costing less than $.02US per minute.
In India, note that if you travel across state lines, you may not recharge (top up) your prepay account with a voucher from a store- you must visit a phone store. This was the case with the Hutch Network. Also, I had to visit a Hutch store in order to get GPRS set up properly.
SMS is very popular in both India and Sri Lanka- and is the cheapest way to communciate. By providing our mobile number to the airline, we get flight status updates via SMS for free. One of the drawbacks of it is what I would call SMS spam from the networks who constantly send offers for new services and plans.
Anyone with an unlocked GSM phone should have no problem using a prepaid account in Sri Lanka or India.
Tech Battles in Intl Mobile Blogging
We often battle the technology gods in our quest for connectivity and blogability - it's part of our journey. Sometimes the gods are on our side, sometimes not so much.
Here a snapshot of a battle waged this morning - the outcome is undecided at this moment...
Start up laptop computer, load pictures from yesterday.
Review and save recent blog entry, written in Word.
Plug in USB pen drive, move pictures and post onto pen drive.
Shutdown computer, realize that blog post never made it onto pen drive. Crikey!
Notice that laptop battery is low and there's no time to charge.
Put pen drive in pocket for use in Internet Cafe, sans blog post.
Must make mobile phone (Treo 650) work in Australia - look up closest Vodafone store to buy pre paid SIM card.
Find store, get $10 SIM card, load with $30 of credit and register credit card for easy refills.
Call ahead to make tonights hotel res amid worries of effects of big rugby match.
Feel relief that phone works and hotel near stadium has room.
Test email via Treo. Bugger! Cannot connect - data plan (GPRS) costs extra and cust service is closed today.
Feel tinge of pain from not being able to blog/upload pics easily using Treo.
Note that SMS will work with pictures and test the network by writing an entry called "Tech Battles in Intl Mobile Blogging" to be posted to TwinF via Flickr using SMS.
Hope that messaging will do the trick.
Live to fight another day - and note to charge laptop at next stop.
Updated: Yay! The multimedia SMS or MMS (what Vodafone calls PXT) worked for blogging. I can post to TwinF from my mobile using MMS which posts to Flickr (photo and entry), which posts to this site. How cool. The only thing cooler right now is that our hotel has FREE WIFI. We were the hands-down victors in this battle.
TwinF Tech Report New Zealand
From time to time, I'll be posting about our gadgetry and how it's working for us (or not) on the trip. This is the inaugural TwinF tech report.
I cannot get over how pervasive the cell phone signal is in NZ. It is quite literally everywhere and MUCH better than the US, even to coverage within the Seattle city limits.
Having network access all the time means that our investment in a prepaid SIM card has paid off ($35NZ to get started). By getting a NZ SIM card, we basically use the network the same as the locals. We are using Vodafone.
Calls are .49 NZ
Text Messages .20 NZ
Web/Email by the kb
We have been very happy with how the Treo 650 has performed for mobile email and web access. A couple of tricks I've learned to save $ when browsing the web... disable images (a big help) and hit 'stop' before the page loads completely. I find that letting it get to about 25kb is enough.
Speaking of the Treo... The combination of a 2gb SD card and music player pTunes has made the Treo into a great little MP3 player. The external speaker does the job quite well for hanging out in the campervan.
Here is our blogging process...
We take a lot of pictures and load them onto the laptop. Then, we write a post and save it onto the laptop. We then plug a pen drive into the laptop and move the post and pictures onto the pen drive so all we have to take to a cafe is the pen drive. We sit down and immediately start uploading pictures to Flickr since it takes about 10 mins for 6 photos. Once uploaded, we copy in the entry add the pictures and we're done.
Of course most of the blogging can be done just like this post - by sending a picture and entry to Flickr via email using the Treo, which then posts it to the site. If we wanted, we could easily blog many times a day with the Treo. Sometimes though, we want to share more and better pics.