The following article was published in the World Street Journal on July 31st 2008. An extract from the article appears below, if you would like to see the full article, visit the Wall Street Journal.
Date: 07/31/08
Publication: Wall Street Journal
Title: Rent a BlackBerry for Abroad
Summary: If you need easy access to email and phone during occasional overseas trips, here are a few companies that offer the service of renting a BlackBerry.
Rent a BlackBerry for Abroad
Problem: You need easy access to email and phone during occasional overseas trips.
Solution: Rent a BlackBerry, a service tailored to those who travel abroad sporadically and don’t have international devices. Cellhire (cellhire.com) rents BlackBerrys for $7 a day, with unlimited access to emails and the Web in more than 70 countries.
The cost of phone calls and text messages varies by destination. Within most European countries, for example, outgoing calls are 79 cents a minute, and incoming calls are 59 cents a minute. If you choose the service’s “Follow Me” feature, which lets users keep their U.S. number, incoming calls cost an additional 69 cents a minute. The device is delivered to your home in two days or less; round-trip shipping rates start at $25.
Vodafone, through vodafonerental.com, offers a similar service for $7 a day, plus 77 cents a minute for outgoing calls within Europe, and 2.9 cents per kilobyte of data usage. Their international BlackBerry works in more than 100 countries.
With Verizon Wireless’s Global Travel program, customers who are traveling for three weeks or less can borrow an international device without paying daily fees — but they must be current Verizon BlackBerry users. International voice and data plans vary. For example, an unlimited data plan is $64.99 per month, plus voice charges. The company’s cellphone customers can rent the same device for $15 a day, and per-use rates that vary by destination.
For further information please visit Cellhire’s International BlackBerry rental product page.
