Second Opinions

Surviving Exotic Islands and New Hampshire

By Daniel Coolidge

I CAN ONLY speak from experience, most of it gained the expensive way. The first rule: Never, never, never call overseas from your hotel -- not even from a remote country inn in the Cotswolds of England -- without first checking what the hotel surcharge may be. These can be truly astronomical!

War story: I was in a small hotel in the beautiful English countryside, and needed to make a short call home to New Hampshire. I didn't check the surcharge, thinking even if it were 100 percent this was going to be a short call. Next morning I go to check out, get my bill and there is a charge for telephone access: Eighty pounds! This on top of the £18 pounds charged for the call. (That was about $170 at the time.) I was not shy about complaining, and did manage to get the charge reduced to £10 plus the £18 pound tariff.

Lesson 1: Ask what the charges are first. Get it in writing -- the desk clerk in the morning will not even have heard of the desk clerk on duty last evening.

Lesson 2: If you are gouged, complain. Argue. Do not accept the first answer. Bargain. Wheedle. Threaten. Frequently you can get charges substantially reduced. But don't try it twice at the same hotel, and don't be unreasonable.

Prepaid Calling Cards?

What about prepaid calling cards? Aside from my general reluctance to take money from my pocket and put it into the phone company's before I've gotten any service, how do you know how much to buy? Hotels frequently will not accept some cards, and often will still assess an access charge. The same is true with credit cards. I never use prepaid cards.

Another problem is if you are moving around areas where countries are the size of counties back home, you can find that your phone card doesn't work when you move from one country to the next. You can end up with a wallet full of phone cards and spend precious minutes juggling them to find which might fit the phone that has a helpful sign on it that says "Quipso? Fronta buondo furple snack. Imeesi!"

And don't bother bringing your cell phone from home -- most of the rest of the world uses a different system (GSM) which is incompatible with our system. There are a few phones available which are capable of using either system, but they are expensive, and unless you are doing a lot of overseas travel, not worth the extra cost.

All of which is not to say that one must travel without a cell phone. In many countries the least expensive answer to voice calls is simply to rent a cell phone when you rent your car. I've had three-hour conference calls while driving through the southwest of England on a rented cell phone that cost less than the equivalent call back home while roaming outside my local calling area.

But again, beware. Check out the prices in advance! There are different options, different companies, and you have to be careful about charges that are put on your credit card even after you return the phone -- frequently the rental agency has to wait until the charges come in from the phone company before they can bill you.

Make certain you understand in writing what may be billed. Any surcharges? How are they calculated? You may need documentation to back up your argument with the credit card company when you later dispute the 67,0000 zirquat charge from your trip to Outer Undercoat.

Of course, if you really are doing a lot of traveling, you have grown accustomed to e-mail and electronic document transfer. I personally would suffer withdrawal symptoms if I didn't have access to the Internet.

But my ISP is (really!) a solo guy in central New Hampshire. No global coverage here. When traveling in the US, the call back to get my email used to be pretty inexpensive. But as I traveled more, I needed local numbers, so I got a national carrier. Then trying to find access numbers overseas became a trick.

There's a bellhop in central London who must still be spending the large tip I gave him for suggesting what has become my favorite way to gain Internet access: Go down to the corner magazine store, get any one of the dozens of computer magazines, and search for the "Free Internet Access!" advertisement.

In exchange for the ability to put adverts (as the Brits still call them) on your screen, you can get Internet access for no charge, and frequently with a local -- right down the street kind of local -- access number.

All that you need to do in most cases is use the CD that's enclosed in the magazine, or dial an access number they publish and get their software in a relatively quick download. I don't even bother to save the account information from trip to trip, it's so easy to set up a new account.

So now I have Internet access in England, Ireland, France, Singapore ... the list goes on. Of course, once I'm on the Internet, I have direct access to my office, my files, my e-mail, my clients, my junk mail.

And with my rented cell phone in one ear, my e-mail streaming at me on my laptop computer, and my work spread out on the tiny little table in my hotel room, I can feel quite at home, thank you.

Daniel Coolidge practices intellectual property and patent law in Boston. Web: www.dancoolidge.com.