Robb Montgomery

I admit, I rarely use my iPhone to make calls. Not that there is anything wrong with calling or getting calls. It’s just this - do you really need to blah, blah, blah all the time with your voice when there are often more useful ways to connect using SMS, e-mail and Web sites (Like Twitter and Facebook) using the Web browser?

I look at my phone bill and all of those wasted minutes for “Voice” that slip past.
I don’t mind calls, I even occasionally make them but more often I initiate voice calls with my Skype account instead of my iPhone. Esp when I travel - it’s so easy and saves me thousands on roaming charges and all. I like the option to open a chat window and pass Web links while I talk with someone. That multi-channel style is just more natural to the types of conversations I have with clients and friends. We talk about a trend and I pass a link to the research. We talk about a video and I pass a link . . . etc.

How to save money with your iPhone
So here’s my setup for mojo with the iPhone. Get a Skype IN account (Not expensive and gives you a phone number in what area code you like.)

Put a few Euros, Pounds or dollars on the account and enjoy making long-distance, international calls to people’s landlines or mobiles for pennies. I use Skype all the time and I top up with $20 about once every six months. Skype just cannot be beat on price. All you need is wi-fi access and you are set. I usually have Wi-Fi in the offices I work in and rooms I stay in . . .

Back to to the iPhone - here’s the first step before I get on a plane - i go into settings and forward my calls to my Skype In phone number. So that way if get an unknown or blocked call to my iphone while I am in, say Paris, the call routes to my Skype voice mail and I can check it next time I log on to my laptop.
Then I can use Skype out to call back at very low cost. If my friend also is on Skype - it costs me nothing!

The other thing I do is to encourage close business contacts to SMS (Text message) me instead of calling.
That way I retain an instant contact mechanism and a thread I can use to organize my hectic schedule. Overseas use of SMS is ubiquitous and very practical - It really is a killer app.

Use a local SIM card while traveling
Now, sometimes I actually do need to either make many or receive many phone calls while I am on-site working. For example in Sweden last week - The WAN office issued me a staff mobile phone to use for the Video Journalism project I was producing for them.
I hate to carry two mobiles so, all I did was pop the sim card from the swedish phone into my iPhone for the week and worked away vis voice and SMS. I updated close contacts with my temporary number and tossed the SIM when the gig was done. To do this I used the Independence software to temporarily unlock my iPhone’s SIM card. I just re-locked the iPhone yesterday with my AT&T card since I have no plans to leave the country for a couple months. Plus I want to now play with all the new goodies today that Apple will unveil in the form of upgrades and new software services.

Turn off Data Roaming
One key thing to set in your user settings is to turn off DATA Roaming before switching your iPhone on in places like Egypt or Germany. Data roaming is a sweet pot of honey for the mobile telcos and there is no reason to activate it (It is ON by default, btw) if you know that you will find wi-fi connection hot spots. This is key - right after the iPhone debuted I took it to Cairo and did not know this was on and ATAT tried to bill me hundreds of dollars for just getting my e-mail. It automatically connected all the time and was a huge ripoff. I fought and won - they now AT&T warns you via SMS messages that your data roaming is on when entering a new country and I always check to see that mine is turned off.

Where will you go for the iPhone 2.0 news?

Funny, I will be following today the new iPhone 2.0 Steve Jobs keynote from the usual sources like Macrumors.com (Which has always had the best live streaming feed!) and some new sources like FriendFeed and Summize - services that aggregate and filter by keyword what my own social network is reporting on and linking to with regards to this event. A new paradigm and again, a load of new information reaching that never involved me making nor receiving a phone call.

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