[drake3]

Hi All,

Going on vacation to New Zealand and Australia. I have a Verizon Tour through work, but not going to let VZW screw us by the $2/min and $20/mb fees for international roaming. I don't have an international plan since I don't travel outside the US much.

We are not going to be talking a lot and I don't need any data. My last two blackberries, an 8830 and 8700G are just sitting around unlocked and I planned to get either GoSim or Telestial SIMs for them so my wife and I can both have a phone during the trip. Again, just for voice and SMS use.

These international SIMs use foreign numbers, Estonia for GoSim and Isle of Man for Telestial, for their phone numbers. To make it easier I thought about forwarding my US Google Voice number to the phone numbers to make it easier for our family and friends to call if they needed us. It seems to be cheaper to do this than to pay the extra charge the companies tack on if you use their US access numbers.

Is this a good way do this and does anyone have feedback on either of these companies or recommend another one I should look at?

I am not keen on purchasing a local sim since I would like to set it up before we leave and be done with the phone stuff before vacation starts. Also bypassing any hassle of purchasing a local prepaid SIM.

Thanks in advance!