Dear Wi-Fi (part 2)
Monday, March 11th, 2013 Tom Truong, Product ManagerFor those curious about my prepaid SIM snafu earlier this week (see Part 1), it turned out the plan I was sold was not the one that I was on.
The takeaway for me was that not even the local phone dealer would know all the different mobile plans and feature permutations. Add on top of this all the technology and alphabet soup standards like GSM, CDMA, LTE, MP4, SIM, Mmicrosim, and I now have a better appreciation the next time I hear our CEO at iPass remind us that “Wi-Fi is the new lingua franca” for connectivity.
Yes, I’ve been back on Wi-Fi and I’ve been able to stay connected with colleagues and family without running up a lot of roaming fees. So how did I do it?
Here’s my setup:
- Google Voice account with US phone # used to route voice calls to wherever I am
- Free VOIP phone # set up through a service called SipGate (can receive calls free)
- Laptop, smartphone, or tablet running a VOIP client configured for SipGate
That’s it. There’s a great LifeHacker writeup of how to get all this working. With this setup, I’m able to point my Google Voice number to my free VOIP # and continue answering calls with the number I’d been using. Calling out is free too since Google Voice can be set up to call the VOIP # before connecting you to your dialed number. At the moment, Google Voice is mostly limited to North America, but there are some pretty cost-effective solutions such as Skype where it’s more straightforward, albeit not free.
During the all the activity of Mobile World Congress, I was able to use LogMeIn to finish some tasks on the corporate intranet, interview a candidate back in the U.S., and continue using GroupMe (a group text messaging service that I’ve found great for teams to stay connected while traveling).
One last note on leveraging Wi-Fi while traveling—I was able to use Apple’s FaceTime video chat with my family back home. No matter how wonderful the places I visit, it’s always gratifying to be able to connect with loved ones.
