Thursday, February 17, 2011

Data plans in Israel: why getting a local plan makes sense

As the international cellular market develops, not all providers are lowering prices. In fact, major American mobile operator Verizon has recently updated their roaming plan for Israel as follows:

$1.99/minute for incoming and outgoing calls
$20.00/megabyte for data

It is no surprise that a Verizon customer roaming in Israel could easily incur hundreds or even thousands of dollars in charges.

Here's a great example from an article on roaming by David Snyder (viewable here):

Breaking down the cost
Let’s say the average webpage, including images, flash etc., is 300kb. At the rates I was charged, I could view 9 webpages before I met my average cost of monthly data service.
To put everything into perspective, a 15 minute Skype call would cost $875.
Watching one music video on Youtube would cost you about $200.

The solution: local service.

Talk'n'Save has been providing local Israel services for tourists and students from abroad since 1999.

Now for calls AND data, there's no comparison - local service will be cheaper, every time you travel to Israel.

Talk'n'Save offers unlimited smartphone (including iPhone, iPad, Android, etc) data plans for as little as $5/day, and even less if you need service for a month or longer. Blackberry packages are available as well, also for a tiny fraction of the price of roaming data. And unlike some other providers, our data packages come with telephony as well, so you can use your phone for data AND calls (did you know some providers will give you data on your smartphone, but you won't be able to make calls?).

If you're traveling to Israel, and need data coverage on your cell phone - choose Talk'n'Save.