A reader pointed me to a site which may be useful for international travelers. The purpose of the site is mainly focused on unlocking phones for use across different phone carriers, but they also provide free tools and guides (http://www.uniquephones.com/Phone-Travel-Guides.html).
One tool, checks phone compatibility for a specific country given a make and model. For many of the cases, it is just checking if GSM is supported in the country since a GSM phone will work in any country as long as you have a SIM card (pre-paid or belonging to a supported carrier) installed in the phone. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of every combination, but it’s worth a check if you’re planning to make a trip into another country and want to make sure your phone will work. You can also go to many of the GSM-related sites and just look up the country you plan to visit. If you have a GSM-compatible phone, you’re good to go.
I’d stay away from another tool which allows you to estimate expected roaming charges when using your phone in another country based on your current carrier. I punched in a few values and it doesn’t appear to calculate the dollar amount very accurately. In fact, I tested 0 for all the input values but it still gave a high cost due to roaming. Looks like a ploy to get to you to signup with one of the SIM card providers.
Looks like mixed reviews for the unlocking services so user beware.
Thanks, Vikki.
Unbelievable! If you are traveling internationally, your laptop can be scrutinized and even confiscated for a period of time without giving a reason!
A informal survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives discovered that 90 percent of its members were not aware that custom officials had the authority to scrutinize the contents of travelers’ laptops.
“One member who responded to our survey said she has been waiting for a year to get her laptop and its contents back,” said Susan Gurley, the group’s executive director. “She said it was randomly seized. And since she hasn’t been arrested, I assume she was just a regular business traveler, not a criminal.”
“We need to be able to better inform our business travelers what the processes are if their laptops and data are seized — what happens to it, how do you get it back,” Ms. Gurley said.
She added: “The issue is what happens to the proprietary business information that might be on a laptop. Is information copied? Is it returned? We understand that the U.S. government needs to protect its borders. But we want to have transparent information so business travelers know what to do. Should they leave business proprietary information at home?”
That’s pretty scary, especially if you carry proprietary information on your laptop. Never mind the fact that you could be without your laptop for a long while.
Even more reason to back-up your laptop if you’re a frequent international traveler.
Original article located at www.nytimes.com.
It’s old news the U.S. Department of State began rolling out passports with RFIDs embedded within passports. The RFID is described as follows:
A contactless chip in the rear cover of the passport will contain the same data as that found on the biographic data page of the passport (name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, dates of passport issuance and expiration, passport number), and will also include a digital image of the bearer’s photograph.
So what’s the big fuss with RFIDs and security since the U.S. Department of State clearly states:
The Department of State has employed a multi-layered approach to protect the privacy of the information and to mitigate the chances of the electronic data being skimmed (unauthorized reading) or eavesdropped (intercepting communication of the transmission of data between the chip and the reader by unintended recipients). Metallic anti-skimming material incorporated into the front cover and spine of the e-passport book prevents the chip from being skimmed, or read, when the book is fully closed; Basic Access Control (BAC) technology, which requires that the data page be read electronically to generate a key that unlocks the chip, will prevent skimming and eavesdropping; and a randomized unique identification (RUID) feature will mitigate the risk that an e-passport holder could be tracked. To prevent alteration or modification of the data on the chip, and to allow authorities to validate and authenticate the data, the information on the chip will include an electronic signature (PKI).
Sounds impressive, right? Well it is, considering the original security measures proposed. Unfortunately, I’d put my money on hackers over government–researched security measures, any day of the week. Bruce Schneier (a security writer for The Washington Post) wrote an interesting blog entry that highlights some important implications of RFIDs and your passport such as:
The other security mechanisms are also vulnerable, and several security researchers have already discovered flaws. One found that he could identify individual chips via unique characteristics of the radio transmissions. Another successfully cloned a chip. The State Department called this a “meaningless stunt,” pointing out that the researcher could not read or change the data. But the researcher spent only two weeks trying; the security of your passport has to be strong enough to last 10 years.
If you travel internationally, it may be worth your while to renew now before your state embeds RFIDs in passports. Either way, you should be more cognizant of security vunerabilities with RFIDs and how it can impact you.
Be safe.
I only quote “International” because I just returned from a trip to Canada just across the border, but I think the experience will apply leaving to/from the United States to anywhere in the world.
I had traveled to Montreal last year and there was a very noticeable difference in my travel experience. It was definitely much more time-consuming.
Here’s a few of the lines I had to deal with:
- Check-in line, not for baggage, just actually printing out my ticket (20 minutes)
- Baggage line for getting my baggage tagged (50 minutes)
- Customs line for declaring items (15 minutes)
- Security line for carry-on luggage (10 minutes)
- Boarding line waiting for the plane to being boarding (40 minutes due to delay)
This doesn’t include the time involved in driving to the airport and returning a car rental. Wow - that is a LOT of time spent working through the process of just trying to fly between Canada and the States. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
If you want to make your life easier when traveling internationally then make sure of the following:
- You have your passport (you’ll need your passport number for customs as well)
- You’ve filled out your customs declaration form in advance (save your ticket stub so you can fill in the flight information)
- Be prepared to explain why you are entering a particular country (I was receiving training for a particular industry-specific application)
- Know in advance which terminal you need to go to before you goto the airport – some countries like Canada have a special terminal for all international travel to the United States; If you have a layover in another city within the same country, you’ll need to goto a domestic terminal
- Print out your boarding pass in advance
- If you can travel without check-in baggage, then do so – check-in baggage is a huge headache these days
- And most importantly, if you aren’t sure about something, then ask about it before you go waiting in a line
It’s all about getting home safely and on time.