Sometimes you travel and you want to completely disconnect from the world, but in those instances in which you want to remain connected with your loved ones, planning your telecom needs in advance can save you plenty of money and headaches.

Staying connected when traveling outside of your regular cellphone coverage area comes with a price. Planning ahead can not only save you money, because you are able to compare plans, but it saves you from unexpected surprises when you are aware in advance of what your charges might be. Just as you plan your flights and hotels, take some time to plan the telecom portion of the trip if possible 30 days in advance.

What should I consider?

Do you need a data plan? You need a data plan if:

• You need to have constant access to your email, something more likely to happen during a business trip
• You want to use VoIP to make free and cheap voice and video calls, locally and internationally, with applications such as WhatApp, Skype, or UniSimCard's own voice app. This can be a great way to save money and rely on data only, rather than on voice and data
• You need to have access to your social network accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) while on the move
• You need to be able to share text and multimedia files wherever you are, using apps such as Dropbox or Google Drive
• You are into cloud computing and have your content ‘up there’, which you need to access from anywhere;
• Traveling with maps like Waze and Google maps, or need to call rides using services like UBER;
• You just want to ‘feel connected’