Internet and Cell Phones

Your netbook will work fine anywhere there is a wifi signal, though you might have to pay for access in some places.

You should contact your carrier about your cell phone...I know that when we went to Italy we paid for small international package so we would have service...BUT..it didn't work!! It would only let us dial out for emergency and receive voicemail. No biggie..I didn't feel the need to stay plugged in on vacation..it was refreshing to say the least. (our carrier is AT&T...so you may have better luck)

The Curve will not work overseas. You will need to get a rental phone from Verizon for your trip. Call the Verizon tech support and they could hook you up with a Blackberry world edition - or even the new Tour. I did this this past March when I went to Paris and had no issues. Also, with the crackberry, get the unlimited internet plan, if you dont already have it for your Curve. Then you can use your blackberry for internet usage at a flat fee. 30 bucks??? Also -order the phone a week before you leave to make sure you get it in time and it WORKS. I think they rent it by the month - no rental fee since your'e a Verizon customer - but if you dont return the phone to them before your 30 days is up -you end up buying the phone. Again, I had no issues with the crackberry world edition in France.

Terri,

As mentioned previously, your Netbook will work anywhere you can access Wi-Fi. I've noticed that an increasing number of lodgings in the U.K. are providing free Wi-Fi for guests, however this may or may not be the case in the places you'll be staying.

A "standard" Verizon Cell Phone will NOT work at all in Europe, as these use CDMA technology which is not compatible with GSM used by the majority of world networks (about 85% of the world is GSM).

Verizon has a rental program to provide GSM phones for their customers, and judging from other posts here most people are quite pleased with it. However, I'd suggest that you review the rates so that you're very clear on what your costs will be. Have a look at This site for the details (click the "Country" link in the middle to find the rates for the countries you'll be visiting).

The good news is that this may not be a problem in future, as I believe Verizon is finally going to "get with the program" and adopt the new "4G" LTE technology which will be rolling out worldwide in a year or so.

Happy travels!

I've found wifi access hit and miss... sometimes places have it, sometimes unsecured networks, sometimes nothing. For a week only, I probably wouldn't bother with a netbook. For longer, for use with writing, pictures, watching movies, yes. Then even if no wifi, it's worth it (to me!).

It sounds like you want to tether your netbook to the Internet through a cell phone. Have you done that in the U.S. with your Verizon phone? If not, it can be a little tricky to get it to work with some phones, some computers, and some cell phone services. Many cell phone companies don't permit the phones to be tethered to a computer. They want you to buy a cell phone modem and a data plan.

Some CDMA phones (Verizon and Sprint) also have GPS frequencies that work elsewhere, but I don't think the Curve is one of those phones. So you will need to get a different phone.

You could just stick to wifi. Or you could buy a prepaid cell phone over there and try to tether with that. It would be a lot cheaper to use data from a local carrier than to pay for data with a U.S. company.

My cell is also didn't work outside of North America and I saw the cost for the rental as well as the deposit for a cell with my carrier; it was to pricey . What I did, on my friend's advice, was I went into a cell outlet when I hit London and bought a pay as you go cell, it cost £20 (about $40) but that included some air-time, also no credit card needed. I knew that if I lost it no biggie I wasn't on the hook for the whole phone, also the bonus was any calls made into me on my cell were free and didn't count against my airtime credit, this last one was a big cost saver for me as I went to France and Germany last year too so the savings were good. I still have the phone and plan on taking it this year when I go back to England and Ireland.
My advice is to try and get a pay as you go phone most train stations and I believe the airports too have kiosks BT, T Mobile, Orange Mobile and Vodafone are the ones that I know of over there.

I agree with Elaine. Purchase a pay-as-you-go phone and sim card when you get there. Depending on the quality of wifi where you are staying, you could also sign up for Skype and use that to 1) use your computer to talk to family at home for free over the internet if they also are signed up for Skype; and 2) you can also purchase credits to use Skype to call phones. The rates are very cheap (around 2-3 cents/minute), and provided you make a call or send a text at least every 6 months, your credits don't expire.