Yackie 101: Ecotourism

For all of you who are wondering what the heck is ecotourism, here’s a brief tutorial on the whole travel movement:

Defining The Experience:

There are almost as many terms to describe types of travel as there are travel companies. A couple of buzzwords that you often hear these days are “Eco-Tourism” and “Adventure Travel” . To further confuse the issue there is also “Sustainable Tourism”, “Responsible Tourism”, “Nature Based Travel”, “Green Travel”, “Multi-Sport Adventures” and “Cultural Tourism”. The following are some definitions based on common usage.

Eco-tourism: Perhaps the most over-used and mis-used word in the travel industry. But what does it mean? The Ecotourism Society defines it as “responsible travel to natural areas which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of the local people”. A walk through the rain forest is not eco-tourism unless that particular walk somehow benefits that environment and the people who live there. A rafting trip is only eco-tourism if it raises awareness and funds to help protect the watershed. A loose interpretation of this definition allows many companies to promote themselves as something that they are not. If true eco-tourism is important to you, ask plenty of questions to determine if your trip will help “conserve and improve” the places you visit.

Adventure Travel: Another term which is heavily used by marketing departments. While travel to another country is often adventurous it is not necessarily “Adventure Travel”. (more…)

Global Trekkers know that international roaming rates are expensive! U.S. carriers charge a minimum of $0.99 per minute to make or receive a call while you’re abroad, and you’re quite lucky if that’s the rate you’re charge, the average going rate is $2-3 a minute. Outrageous right?

There was a time where roaming within the United States was a problem itself. You remember back in the early days of cell phones, the roaming charges you were hit with if you went out of your local calling area–and the calling areas were relatively small in those days.

But that all changed in the late 1990s, AT&T Wireless drastically changed the game with their Digital One Rate plans. 450 nationwide anytime minutes for $60–anywhere in the United States. Sweeet! Pretty soon, all the carriers went with national rate plans. Roaming charges–within the borders of the United States, anyway, were a thing of the past.

The European Union has been making moves to curtail roaming charges within the EU. While this is great, it only applies to people who have service with a carrier within the EU. Everyone else–including us poor Americans–will continue to be charged exorbitant rates.

So what’s a world traveler to do? Assuming you already have a compatible GSM phone, there are essentially three choices for dealing with this:

1. Paying the exorbitant roaming rates, which if you’re only going to be in a country for a day or so, might be the easiest option.

Hmmm…. Not for me!

2. Get a local SIM card in the country you’re in. This may be difficult to set up beforehand, but it might be something you could do once you land at your destination. Either that or have a local in that country send you the appropriate SIM card.

Yeah sounds good but….Of course, the problem this is that you have to give your contacts a different phone number or simply forward your cell phone to the new number.

3. Get a Yackie Mobile prepaid SIM card.

Your best bet is getting the Yackie Mobile prepaid SIM card. The Yackie Mobile SIM card allows you to roam in 200 countries, with unlimited free incoming calls in 150 of these countries. Users have the option of choosing a free personal phone from a list of 24 countries to attach to their SIM card upon registration. With Yackie Mobile incoming calls are only ¢29/minute and outgoing calls in most countries are ¢39/minute. Yackie Mobile does not require a contract and is simply pay as you go.

In short, roaming internationally sucks. There are ways to lessen the pain, but it’s still more expensive than it needs to be. Visit YackieMobile.com to find out how you can save money while making calls abroad.

When you’re traveling it helps to cover yourself with some worldwide travel insurance. Prices are budget-friendly, and it’s better to have insurance and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Types of Travel Insurance:

Travel Medical Insurance reimburses you for emergency medical expenses incurred when you are traveling or living in a foreign country.
Trip Protection plans typically reimburse your non-refundable travel expenses if an unexpected crises (e.g., death, sickness, airline strike, travel company bankruptcy, among other crises) occurs before or during your trip causing it to be canceled, interrupted or delayed.

Travel Insurance General Rules
Travel Insurance is designed to cover you for unexpected emergencies that occur in the course of an adventurous holiday. Travel Insurance generally doesn’t cover you for certain things:

1. Medical conditions that exist before you travel
Cost incurred due to the condition are not covered, you can still take out travel insurance for other purposes (robbery, sports, injury, etc)
2. Deliberately putting your life in danger
Travel Insurance will not cover you if you put yourself in extreme situations where survival is unlikely or injury is highly likely. Chasing polar bears while drunk will not be covered.
3. Claims involving alcohol or drugs
Insurance companies use this as often as possible in order to not pay a claim, from their point of view - when drunk you take extra risks, you’re not in control - keep to sensible levels and look after your valuables before a night out.
4. HIV or other STD’s
Not covered - so safe sex as always is important.
5. Illegal Activities
If you’re involved in an activity that is illegal, the insurance company will not cover you.

Where to buy insurance

When you’ve had a crisis while traveling internationally, do you remember the feeling? Suddenly your heart rate skyrockets and panic quickly starts to take over. What do you do? Back home the chances are that you’ll call someone who’ll help solve your problem. But that’s not easy to do when you’re in a strange country.

So how do the most experienced travelers handle the unexpected? They always take a reliable, quality international cell phone service with them. And it makes sense for you to copy them.

Here Are the 5 Most Popular Ways to Use Your Cell Phones While Traveling Internationally:

1. Use Your Own Cell Phone Abroad — Tricky!

This sounds like the perfect option doesn’t it? You don’t have to change your number and you already know how to use your cell phone. But there’s a problem — approximately 80% of US cell phones cannot work internationally due to pesky mobile technological incompatibilities.

First, check with your carrier, but be ready for extra charges. You’ll have to pay more for your calls. Plus, you might get people who don’t know you’re traveling abroad calling you just to check in on their business account. And because you’ll have to pay for incoming calls this will be expensive unless you don’t care about their business and don’t answer!

2. Rent A Cell Phone — Old News!

Don’t do this. Sorry to be so blunt, but renting a cell phone is outdated. You wouldn’t think about renting a suitcase every time you traveled, would you? This is no different. For the cost to rent a cell phone for about 2 weeks, you could easily have bought a SIM card and a international cell phone.

3. Buy Local SIM Cards — Hidden Expenses!

Buying your own cell phone is a better value for your money. However, you’ll need a different local SIM card for each country you visit.With local SIM cards you pay in advance for talk time, and then you keep buying extra talk time to keep your service active.

The problem with local SIM cards is they can be expensive to buy (e.g. the local SIM for Germany will cost you $60, and that’s without a cell phone, and before you’ve made calls). You run the risk of getting cut off during an important call with a client or your boss if you run out of talk time. And you won’t be able to find anywhere to buy more time immediately. Plus, your cell phone can only use one carrier’s network in each country, so you may not have great reception everywhere.

4. Buy A Prepaid SIM Card — Best Quality!

Travel experts love this method! You get global coverage on 1 cell phone number. The best prepaid SIM card is the Yackie Mobile SIM card. (more…)

If you’re heading overseas, be prepared to defend being an American. International travelers face a growing global anti-American attitude. A Forbes.com article discusses the unfavorable image of Americans abroad.

“European and world views of the United States and President George Bush have dramatically worsened since 2000; the trend has intensified since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. There has been a decline in perceptions of the United States throughout the European Union, including in such traditional U.S. allies as the United Kingdom and Poland, and in Muslim and Latin American countries, according to annual polls undertaken by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Pew Research Center and the BBC World Service.”

For the rest of the article visit: Anti-American Sentiment Grows Worldwide.

Concerned about being a magnet for anti-Americanism during your next trip abroad? Bruce McIndoe, CEO of iJet Travel Intelligence, offers his tips for staying under the radar:

Avoid American fast-food restaurants and chains.

Keep discussions of politics to private places, not rowdy bars.

Take a rain check on wearing clothes featuring American flags or sports team logos.

Keep your passport out of sight.

Keep cameras, video equipment and maps tucked away.

Soften your speech; Americans typically overshadow their hosts in the volume department.

Yackie 101: GSM V.S. CDMA

In cellular service there are two main competing network technologies: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Understanding the difference between GSM and CDMA will allow you to choose a carrier that uses the preferable network technology for your needs.

The GSM Association is an international organization founded in 1987, dedicated to providing, developing, and overseeing the worldwide wireless standard of GSM. CDMA, a proprietary standard designed by Qualcomm in the United States, has been the dominant network standard for North America and parts of Asia. However, GSM networks continue to make inroads in the United States, as CDMA networks make progress in other parts of the world.

Data Transfer Speed:

With the advent of cellular phones doing double and triple duty as streaming video devices, podcast receivers and email devices, speed is important to those who use the phone for more than making calls. CDMA has been traditionally faster than GSM, though both technologies continue to rapidly leapfrog along this path. Both boast “3G” standards, or 3rd generation technologies.

EVDO, also known as CDMA2000, is CDMA’s answer to the need for speed with a downstream rate of about 2 megabits per second, though some reports suggest real world speeds are closer to 300-700 kilobits per second (kbps). This is comparable to basic DSL.

GSM’s answer is EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), which boasts data rates of up to 384 kbps with real world speeds reported closer to 70-140 kbps. With added technologies still in the works that include UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone Standard) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), speeds reportedly increase to about 275—380 kbps. This technology is also known as W-CDMA, but is incompatible with CDMA networks. An EDGE-ready phone is required.

In the case of EVDO, theoretical high traffic can degrade speed and performance, while the EDGE network is more susceptible to interference. Both require being within close range of a cell to get the best speeds, while performance decreases with distance.

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards:

In the United States only GSM phones use SIM cards. The removable SIM card allows phones to be instantly activated, interchanged, swapped out and upgraded, all without carrier intervention. The SIM itself is tied to the network, rather than the actual phone. Phones that are card-enabled can be used with any GSM carrier.

The CDMA equivalent, a R-UIM card, is only available in parts of Asia but remains on the horizon for the U.S. market. CDMA carriers in the U.S. require proprietary handsets that are linked to one carrier only and are not card-enabled. To upgrade a CDMA phone, the carrier must deactivate the old phone then activate the new one. The old phone becomes useless.

(more…)

Cell Phone Recycling

Donate Your Cell Phones or Start a Donation Program

One in three Americans will replace their cell phones this year, adding to the 500 million unused phones currently waiting to be discarded or recycled. Cell phone recycling and wireless recycling programs keep valuable materials out of landfills, including an estimated $630,000 of precious metals from circuit boards, and enough copper from phone chargers to recover the Statue of Liberty, twice.

Apparently, throwing away your cellphone isn’t just environmentally hazardous, it’s downright wasteful. ReCellular, an electronics stability firm, is working on a going green campaign in anticipation of Earth Day. Hundreds of millions of used cell phones are taken out of service each year around the world as new innovations reach the marketplace. Worldwide, humans discard 40,000 cellphone a day, meaning 150 million per year. These cellphones are said to contain $94 million in precious metals. One in three Americans will replace their cell phones this year, adding to the 500 million unused phones currently waiting to be discarded or recycled.

Cell phone recycling and wireless recycling programs keep valuable materials out of landfills, including an estimated $630,000 of precious metals from circuit boards, and enough copper from phone chargers to recover the Statue of Liberty, twice.

They’re also offering five reasons to recycle your phone.

1. They likely still work. More than half of the phones ReCellular receives are still functional, and can be refurbished and reused - often in developing countries. The United Nations ranks access to communications as the second-most important contributor to quality of life, after health-care.

2. They contain valuable materials. Recycling cell phone circuit boards yields more gold per ton than the average ton of ore from gold mine operations, as well as other precious metals such as silver, platinum and palladium.

3. They can be environmentally damaging. Like all rechargeable batteries, cell phones contain heavy metals and chemicals that can be toxic in landfills, and should always be recycled.

4. They are of value. ReCellular offers businesses up to $150 per phone, and their charitable donate-a-phone programs raised more than $8 million per year for non-profit organizations.

5. They’re serving no purpose in the drawer. Really, what are you keeping those cell phones for? Send them in.

If after this you’re compelled to recycle your old phone, hit these guys up at ReCellular.com. Or feel free to check out www.CellPhonesForCash.com, they offer and provide responsible recycling and redistribution programs that not only keep cell phones from entering our landfills, but puts cash back into the pockets of those who have purchased or collected them.

This post was taken from Prepaidreviews.com - a top source of information on prepaid cell phones.

Whether you’re traveling halfway around the world or just across state lines, travel expenses can add up quickly, especially with rising airline and gas prices. That darn recession! Don’t let the economy stop you from roaming globally.

You don’t need to break the bank to see the world. There are many ways to get even the priciest of international travel necessities at a great discount or even for free. Check out this article from travel hacker The Broke Vacationer: 100 Ways to Get Free Stuff When Traveling.

MSNBC also recently did an article on “The high cost of a low dollar”. The article discusses the problems travelers face overseas with the U.S dollar. Since Bush has taken office the dollar has had less international buying power than at any time in decades. The article also gives advice to how a traveler can save money oveseas as well.

And if these articles don’t help, you can always save money just by using the Yackie Mobile SIM card. That’s the only foolproof way I know to save money while abroad!

GREEN MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Great news for the international traveler who’s eco-conscious. German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute (the largest labs for applied sciences in Germany) have created a prototype for the world’s first-ever solar powered cell phone. While full-fledged solar panels are still quite large and expensive, the researchers have integrated smaller, high-efficiency cells into the phones which, they claim, offers a module efficiency rate of 20%. In other words, the phone will stay steadily charged as long as it gets roughly 2 hours of sunlight per day. Failing that, the phone can still be charged via conventional methods.

Excerpt from the press release:

“Under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, scientists from various institutes are working on technologies that will make it possible to achieve greater power densities and, when combined with batteries in hybrid energy systems, extend operating times.”

With all the excitement surrounding the worldwide push to “Go Green”, there have been some fascinating innovations that make it easy and even fun to save energy. Thanks to their creativity, we are entering an age where saving energy is almost as convenient as wasting it.

Hmm… I wonder will it work with the Yackie Mobile SIM card?

Yackie Mobile 101: Telecom Talk

The world of Telecom Jargon can sometimes be difficult to decipher. To aid the inexperienced world traveler in understanding my post content I put together a Telecom glossary. Here are some of the most commonly used and misunderstood acronyms:

1. MVNO=Mobile Virtual Network Operator
2. VOIP=Voice Over Internet Protocol
3. IP=Internet Protocol Address
4. SIM=Subscriber Identity Module
5. GSM=Global System for Mobile Communications
6. SIP=Single Internet Protocol
7. IVR=Interactive Voice Response

Yackie Mobile 101: Travel Safety

If you’re an international traveler like me, then I know that one of your main concerns is your personal safety while roaming abroad. When you journey far away from home, the odds are that you will have a safe and incident-free trip. However, sometimes travelers are experience unexpected difficulties. I asked some of my fellow traveling buddies, along with my past experiences to come up with a list of safety tips for the inexperienced international traveler. Hint: don’t forget to pack your communication essentials; Prepaid SIM Card/ Prepaid Debit Cards.

Lesson 1. How To Be a Tourist Without Looking Like One

• Avoid attention-grabbing attire, dress conservatively! You don’t want to stand out. Never wear expensive-looking jewelry, avoid displays of affluence. A flashy wardrobe, or one that is too casual, can mark you as a tourist. Walk confidently to your destination, even if you have no idea where you are going.

Lesson 2. Be a Safe Packer

• Simply put, travel light! You can move more quickly and will be more likely to have a free hand. You will also be less likely to set your luggage down, leaving it unattended, which is a big NO NO! never, ever leave your luggage unattended! That’s like hanging a huge neon advertisement that says, “Please Rob Me.”
• Make sure to pack a mobile Phone with the Yackie Mobile SIM card that way if you’re ever in trouble during your travels you have a way to call for help. The Yackie Mobile International SIM card makes it easy and affordable for anyone traveling overseas to enjoy the safety and convenience of cellular service! Whether you are a frequent business traveler or a tourist seeking a reliable, yet affordable cell phone solution, the Yackie Mobile International SIM card has you covered in over 200 countries!

Lesson 3. How to Deter a Pickpocket

• When you have to carry passports, cash, credit cards etc., conceal them in several places rather than putting them all in one place. Avoid handbags, fanny packs and outside pockets that are easy targets for thieves. Only carry enough money for the day on you. The rest should be hidden under your clothes. Use a money belt or sewn-in pocket. Otherwise leave all other valuables where they belong: at home or in a safety deposit box.
• Beware of groups who create a distraction while picking your pocket. Be careful in crowded places: subways, train stations, elevators, tourist sites, etc. It’s best to always be fully aware of your surroundings. I once caught someone following me.

Lesson 4. For the Things Money Can’t Buy

• Bring prepaid debit cards along with one or two major credit cards instead of cash. You never know when your housing arrangements will change, Hotels prefer credit cards then cash.
  
• Note on Credit Cards: Never let your credit cards out of your sight, even for a split second. Watch the store vendor or travel agent carefully. The scam works like this: someone in the establishment will cause a diversion while the other person sneaks two transactions in. One for your legitimate purchases, and another credit card imprint for future forgeries. This happened to me twice in Athens, Greece, and on the island of Crete, but I’ve heard the same horror stories in other countries as well. I cannot stress the importance of retaining all your receipts until you receive your next monthly credit card statement.

Lesson 5. Beware of Dark Alleys!

• Avoid sightseeing at night! You may stumble into an undesirable neighborhood not knowing any better. Tourist are most vulnerable at night.
  

Lesson 6. Do Your Homework

• Learn a few phrases in the local language so you can navigate around more easily and can signal your need for help.
• Research ahead of time: The Department of State’s Consular Information Sheets are available for every country of the world. They describe entry requirements, currency regulations, unusual health conditions, the crime and security situation, political disturbances, areas of instability, and special information about driving and road conditions. They also provide addresses and emergency telephone numbers for U.S. embassies and consulates.

Most importantly, just use plain common sense and intuition. Traveling abroad should not be overwhelming or dangerous. In fact, it should be one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences in your lifetime–especially if you bring your Yackie Mobile SIM card!