Expert: DebiN - 10/12/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

Hoping you can help us out here.  My fiancee' travels a TON for work both domestically in the US and internationally, mostly but not exclusively in China (both mainland and Hong Kong).  She LOVES her Blackberry and has unlimited international data as well as unlimited voice in the US with a 200 SMS text limit in the US from AT&T.  However, things get expensive very quick because her unlimited voice and 200 SMS are only good for domestic calls and SMS messages made/sent from the US to the US.  If she's in the US and calls or texts out of the country it costs a lot per minute.  If she's outside the US and calls or texts pretty much anywhere it costs a lot of money.  No joking her last phone bill was over $1300 for the month.  That was partly her fault because she had a false sense of security that her voice calls were actually not counting as voice because she was using the Gizmo5 application, which she THOUGHT was actually using her data plan, as opposed to her voice plan to make to the calls.  That obviously was not the case.  So I have a few questions.  Can you explain what Gizmo does and why it does not solve her problem... Their website seems to indicate that her provider should treat her calls as data.  Why is this not the case.  My other question is... since Gizmo is apparently not the solution, then WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?  Is there anything out there that would allow her to make LOTS of international calls and send LOTS of international text messages both from the US and from other countries, particularly China?  Is there a solution that allows her to do this all or mostly from her beloved Blackberry?

We are ok with a very expensive monthly plan (i.e. $250/month), but if we do that, then we want that to be IT with no additional/major usage charges.  A couple cents per minute is ok, but when you start talking about .40 per minute or worse 1.99 per minute that becomes exorbitant too quickly.  She simply uses too many minutes for it to be affordable.

ANSWER: Though Gizmo calls are shown as working on the data network, the wireless carriers do not permit voice to go across their data networks and therefore, the calls that were initiated via Gizmo were converted to voice calls. Someday the wireless carriers may allow voice over the data network, but as of today, that is not possible.

There are a couple of options that your fiancee has that will lessen the cost:

1. She should make sure that she has discounted international dialing on her account with AT&T, if she doesn't already have this feature. It is $5.99 a month and calls made and received in China will be less expensive, but they are still not cheap. She may already have this, but if for some reason, she doesn't, she should.

2. International text packages are available for 100 for $9.99 a month. There is no unlimited international text, but it is less expensive than paying per text.

3. If you don't have to talk frequently and just want to communicate, I would recommend BlackBerry Messenger. If you have a BlackBerry and she has one, you can use BlackBerry Messenger for no extra charge and chat in real time. It's better than texting and you can see when the other is available. This is a free service to all BlackBerry users and it might be more economical for the two of you.

4. In all honesty, there is no unlimited international calling plan today (at least not between the US and China) and no unlimited text internationally. You can use Skype via a computer to talk, but when it comes to cell phones, there just isn't an inexpensive way to do this.

I would recommend that she use the internet on her laptop with Skype to call you and get a package for international text messaging for a lower text cost and consider BlackBerry Messenger with you instead of texting if possible.

I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: DebiN, Thanks so much for the info.  Do you know if there are any carriers that do treat Gizmo as data instead of voice?  How is the conversion from data to voice done?  It would seem like AT&T would have to be able to be able to see into Gizmo's data and understand their protocol in order to be able to convert back to voice or charge as voice.

Answer
I am not aware of any carrier who allows voice over the data network. AT&T can definitely see voice trying to go across the data network. They aren't converting, it just isn't working because they don't allow voice over the internet. I read something on Gizmo's site where they don't guarantee this and there was a bit of a disclaimer in regards to carriers that don't support this. It is really designed for internet calls via your computer, not via a cell phone, I'm afraid. I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN