Verizon offers international cellular service that, although available to their US wireless cell phone customers, is one of the more expensive international cellular services currently on the market. Using Verizon's international cellular service, you will always be roaming and you will therefore pay a premium to do so. The advantages however are that you are able to retain your conventional US cell phone number. This advantage yields a double edged sword for a couple of reasons. If you are on vacation, you might not want to always be accessible for everyone who has your phone number. Equally important (and adding insult to injury), you will be paying dearly for taking calls that are not important to you. This is one of the great advantages of Cellular Abroad's service that offers unlimited free incoming calls for most countries. If someone wants to call you, at least you will not have to pay for the call.

On the whole, cell phone users tend to underestimate the time that they have spent on the phone or will spend on the phone. If you have been surprised at the over usage bills that you might have paid for domestic cell phone service, imagine what your bill can potentially amount to paying at least $1.49 per minute - even for local and incoming calls.

If you are a Verizon cell phone user here in the United States and you want to know how to get service while traveling overseas, here is some useful information.

First, your current phone will most likely not work. There are a few, very few, cell phone models that Verizon offers that allow international coverage. More likely than not, you will need to either rent or buy a cell phone. Currently, it costs $2.99 per day to rent an internationally enabled cell phone through Verizon. You will be billed either $1.49 or $2.49 per minute depending on where you use the service. Most of Western Europe is the lower rate while the more exotic locations will cost you the higher rate.

If you are a frequent traveler you can purchase an inexpensive GSM cell phone for $149 plus pay $10 per month for the service plus sign a one year contract. The per minute call rates are the same.

Please note that since you are roaming on another carrier's network, there is a great risk of call failure and/or lack of service. This is because Verizon does not have its own international cell phone towers but rather rents the local carrier's network system at a premium (passing on the expense to the customer plus making a nice profit). This is not atypical at all by the way as all international carriers do the same thing. The least expensive yet most reliable system is to rely on the same exact cellular network that the locals use. For example, cell phone users in France or Italy certainly do not use Verizon's system - they use the local carrier's solutions. The advantages are more reliable service as well as much lower prices. In fact, the majority of all cell phone user's worldwide do not pay for their incoming calls.

Cellular Abroad offers the same exact system and rates that the locals use, including the free incoming calls and inexpensive local and international calls. Another benefit is that the system is prepaid meaning that, not only are there no contracts to sign or commitments but if you lose the cell phone or if it is stolen, the person using the phone cannot possibly run up a phone bill. For more information on international cellular service visit www.cellularabroad.com.