NEED HELP Going to Colombia from US
 

I have a motorloa V3 with cingular. I am traveling to colombia for a period of one month. I need to stay in communication with my contacts and would like my Ph.# to still be reachable, Cingulars rate is 2.29 a min. for the use of the phone in colombia, it's way to much. what is the best solution? I dont have any knowledge in this at all, can someone help me. :chair:

If you will be in Colombia for a month it would be best to get prepaid service there and forward your Cingular number to the prepaid. This has advantages of better cost but the disadvantage of being less reliable. You might also want to have a 2nd prepaid phone while roaming on your Cingular phone and just ask if you could return the call in a few minutes. There are many threads on this forum about international forwarding and some of the problems you may encounter.

In Colombia I bought a TIGO SIM card for 10,000 pesos (US$ 5.00) which gave me free incoming calls, messaging for about 50 cents to foreign numbers and reasonable rates to other TIGO subscribers. Calling out is very expensive and I cleaned out my account after less than a minute. Vouchers are available everywhere.

There is a also Movistar. Best to go to their websites to check them out www.tigo.com.co and www.movistar.com.co

I have a Motorola V3 and all the SIM cards should work

Wolf

I just came back from Colombia and Peru 2 weeks ago.

The Mobile 09 did not work in both countries; the phone found up to 3 networks, registered with each but then was for emergency only or it did not let me make a call. I could not be reached either.

In Peru I was using my Motorola V3 with a German T-Mobile which is rather expensive.

In Colombia I bought a Tigo Sim card for 10,000 pesos (US$ 5.00) which is expensive for making calls abroad, but reasonable for messages and local calls. Incoming calls are free.

I would suggest to buy a local SIM card. Visit www.tigo.com.co or www.movistar.com.co - they have packages including the phone for $ 30. If you have a quad phone you can buy the SIM only.

For Peru I recommend the Claro chip for 30 soles ($ 10) which is also free for incoming calls. Neither of these cards will work in the neighbouring countries. I tried T-Mobile in Ecuador last year which did not work.

Wolf

Colombia also has Comcel (www.comcel.com.co) which is GSM 850. Keep in mind that in any major city any of the three companies should be ok. Please note that the last time I was there Comcel wouldnt hook up a prepaid account without a cedula. Tigo would accept my passport and movistar was still Bellsouth last time I was there. If i had to guess I would probably say you were better off with Tigo or movistar.