Help me buy a business phone

[reverend boltron]

Hi all,

I usually never venture in this area, but I need your help. I don't own a cell phone now, and I never have, except for a short stint while I was living in the Philippines.

But since I've moved back from the Philippines, I've started doing a lot of freelance web design, and I will be invariably starting my own business soon. So I need to get a cell phone soon.

I will be moving to India in February of 2009 for missionary work, and I will be there for about three years. While I'm there I will continue to develop websites for my clients, so to them, it will be just as though I was here.

So my question is, what do I do as far as phones go? Does that have an effect on the type of phone or plan I should get?

I have an MP3 player, and I'm not looking for anything fancy. I just want to be able to text and make calls. I don't need to be able to view movies. But being able to filter the ring tone based on the category the caller falls under would be great.

I would like to be able to tell if it is ministry, work, family, etc.

I have a Grand Central account, but I am not too familiar with it, so I don't know if using it would cause problems with the ministry team in India.

I don't know if I left out any important info, if I did, just let me know!

 

[reverend boltron]

Anyone? :::crickets:::

 

[Muadib]

I'm not sure what your question is, or what it is that you are trying to do? Are you trying to use the same number for the states, as well as India?

 

[reverend boltron]

Well, I don't really know what to do. I would like to be able to use the same number or at least have the calls be forwarded to the same phone.

I am very inexperienced in this type of thing, so I was looking for help on what the best thing to do would be. Any thoughts?

 

[Muadib]

Well, you could certainly have just the one number, but the cost will be pretty high once you are in India. Have you looked at any carriers to see what they charge?

 

[reverend boltron]

You know, I think it might be wise to just get a phone for while I'm here, and then maybe use Skype when I'm overseas for my US contacts.

I think that I might just get a decent phone that I can use both here and in India.

Any recommendations on a good phone for business?

 

[Muadib]

Before you start looking at phones, you need to find out which carriers cover the area of India you will be moving to, and find out what frequencies they use. It will be easier to give you phone suggestions with that info.

I've never been to India, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly gsm over there.

 

[bigrash]

I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think that you'll be charged roaming charges if you use the phone overseas. It might be cheaper to get a phone there.