We worked remotely from Villa de Lena in Tobago

While we were in the island of Tobago (Trinidad & Tobago) in the Caribbean we wanted to check voicemails and emails and wrap up a couple of pending issues. The telephone at our rental villa, Villa de Lena, was only enabled for local calls. We were thrilled to discover mobile phone technology was readily available.

There were two cell phone companies on the island. At the airport in Trinidad, we purchased a prepaid card with a local number which we used to call home and for local calls. We recharged it once during our week long visit.

To access the Internet and emails, we used our rental villa’s dial-up connection. Although after high speed Internet access it felt excruciatingly slow, it allowed us to check and reply to important emails. At the same time, the slow connection and per minute cost kept us from spending excessive amounts of time online while on the beautiful island.  Click here to read about Villa de Lena, the rental villa where we stayed in Tobago.

JConnect offers a free phone number at an area code of their choice in the U.S. This service is called JConnect Free. For a monthly fee (about $15) you can sign up for a phone number in a specific area code and access their premium features. This service is called JConnect Premier. Although there may be other companies offering similar services, this is the only one I’ve tried. Once you have your JConnect phone number you can listen to voicemail messages by email.  JConnect emails you the voicemail message and you can play it on your computer. This is a practical feature if you’re traveling because it eliminates the need to call for your voicemail message.

Sometimes I have limited or infrequent access to my computer or to the Internet. When that happens it’s more convenient and faster to receive the voicemail messages on my mobile phone. JConnect makes that possible quickly and easily; and as a JConnect Premier member I pay no additional fees to forward my voicemail messages. My mobile phone company charges me for text messages when I’m roaming but the cost is usually very inexpensive.

If you travel a lot you may be able to take advantage of this service. First find out if your mobile phone is enabled for MMS (a multimedia message service that allows pictures and sound) and if the service is available where you are. If so you will likely be able to receive WAV files. If MMS service is unavaialble or your mobile phone is not enabled, forwarding voicemails to the mobile phone won’t work because your phone won’t be able to play the audio recording of the voicemail.

If your phone is enabled for MMS files and the mobile phone company offers MMS service you’re half way there. To receive your forwarded voicemails on your mobile phone, configure your JConnect account to submit your voicemails in WAV format.  Then forward the voicemails to your mobile phone text message email account. The email address should be the one that you use to forward text messages to your mobile phone. Once the voicemail messages arrive you can read your text message and it automatically plays the attached WAV file with your voicemail message. I just tried this in the U.S. and U.K. and it worked like a charm!

Connected to Intenet with mobile phone at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris

My new Motorola RZR (v3) mobile phone has many features I like. By far my favorite is the ability to connect to the Internet when traveling. It comes in particularly handy at airports that don’t offer free Internet access. I have successfully connected to the Internet using this feature at several U.S. airports including Atlanta, Dulles and West Palm Beach. West Palm Beach offers free Internet access but I wanted to see if I could connect with my mobile phone.

To take advantage of this nifty feature we signed up for the T-Mobile GPRS “World” program which allows unlimited access to the Internet with the cell phone for a flat monthly fee. I tried to connect in South Africa but was unsuccessful. Despite repeated calls for assistance to T-Mobile and more than 4 hours on the phone with them we were never able to figure out why I couldn’t connect.

In between flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris recently I connected to the Internet using my RZR. I followed the same steps to connect from my laptop computer that I follow in the U.S., using the software that came with the phone. It worked like a charm, easily and quickly. The only down side was that the “World” program only covers the U.S.  Additional fees apply outside the U.S. My short cyber excursion in Paris cost $127!

Hopefully they will come up with a more affordable plan for international access in the future. In the meantime, it’s still great to get online easily to deal with work issues with my mobile phone within the U.S.

We worked from our suite at Sanbona near Cape Town

During a business and pleasure trip to Southern Africa, we went to Sanbona, a luxury game reserve near Cape Town known for its beautiful landscapes and white lions. Although there was very little access to the Internet, we were able to work on our computer in the few hours between game viewing drives and meals. Click here to read about Sanbona and its white lions.