| Communications
One of the main obstacles when traveling abroad is being able to communicate with family and friends at home without racking up huge phone bills. There are several options, which include calling, emailing, and texting. Another obstacle is using electricity without ruining your appliances. Converters/adapters will be needed in South Africa.
There are five cellphone providers in South Africa. The only one most of us may have heard of would be Virgin Mobile. 3G is available in larger urban areas. According to www.southafrica.info/travel, “you will be able to use your phone in South Africa if as long as your phone is a triband or fourband phone, is unlocked, and takes a SIM card. Make necessary arrangements with your service provider before leaving your home country. You will need to activate international roaming.” It appears that most of the 3G and 4G phones are tri-band or quad-band. “Just because you buy the right type of phone for the network and country where you plan to use it, doesn’t mean it will work. Mobile phone networks in many countries have made it more complicated. They’ve decided they only want you to use the phone that you bought from them on THEIR network. So, they sell phones that are “locked” to their network and cannot be used on anyone else’s network, unless you can “unlock” it” www.calibryze.com. AT&T will not unlock your phone if your phone is not paid for or you are under contract with them. To use your phone overseas, you will need to either have it unlocked and purchase a prepaid SIM card in the country being visited or contact your wireless carrier to turn on international roaming. With an international package, you can call, text, or email from your phone. These packages can be pricey. AT&T has the following international plans:
 
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