International Calling and other nonsense…

I have been reading everywhere that because I have the Droid3 from Verizon and it is a GSM phone I should be able to get it unlocked to accept an Argentinian SIM card while I am abroad.  When I called yesterday the lady said that I would have to pay $4.99 per minute each way and .50 per text message to use my phone abroad.  When I asked her about unlocking my phone for another SIM card she literally started talking to me about how to set the little pattern lock on your phone. Worthless.

So today I went into the store and the guy there said he couldn’t help me and I need to call international services (where I already called).

So I called the international services desk and was super persistent.  (I know that’s a shocker)  Finally after 45 minutes of bartering with Verizon they figured out exactly what I wanted and I got the phone unlocked. 

That process freed me up to buy an Argentinian SIM card from Telestial and now it will only cost me .41 per minute to talk using the cell phone I already have and charge me local rates for Buenos Aires when I use the phone to call places in the city.  That only fixed half the problem though. 

Now I will have to go through the process of getting Jason on Skype with Verizon (which is a factory downloaded app on Verizon phones now).  Skype with Verizon, I read today, will allow him to utilize Skype when he calls internationally if he has credit on his account and will bill him the Skype rate and leave the Verizon bill untouched.  We should be able to get a monthly plan for him through Skype at $19.99 per month.  This way we’ll be able to call one another on the cell phones we already have for A LOT less than $4.99 per minute.

I will let everyone know how well this worked out, because it is so much cheaper than paying the regular cell phone company for their international calling plan.