Typing my way to Toronto

The 21st century has definitely arrived. How do I know that? Well, other than the obvious, it’s because I’m sitting here in seat 26C on an Air Canada Airbus typing on my laptop. No big deal you say? Well, yes, you’ve been able to do that for years. But wait, I’m not only typing on my laptop at 30,000 feet, but I’m also charging the battery at the same time. And, in addition to that amazing feat, I’m simultaneously charging my world phone battery. All this while watching a business piece about Walmart on my seat-back TV. Is this any way to travel? Is George Bush an awful public speaker? Of course, they don’t let you do any sending or receiving of signals from the ether so connecting to my Facebook account or blog is still not possible. But hey, at this point I’m willing to wait.

Okay, I’m tired of the business news about Walmart, I’m switching to Jazz. In the mean time a word about the world phone. On our first trip to Italy in 2006 we learned right away that having no way to communicate with anyone in the U.S. or in Italy was a big mistake. We couldn’t call ahead to the hotels where we had reservations, nor could be field calls from home should an emergency arise. And trying to figure out the Italy’s weird and not so wonderful phone system was just too mind boggling. In Italy, some phone systems won’t talk directly to other phone systems. Granted, each of these systems has their own phone cards that you can prepay for and then insert in the proper public pay phone, but we found figuring all that out a big pain. So, when we went to the U.K. in 2008, we signed up with a company named “Brightroam.” With Brightroam you purchase an unlocked world phone, any number of prepaid minutes for your intended length of stay, and the necessary computer chip to make it communicate in the given area where you’re headed. And that’s it. The only other charge is a tiny fee that they charge you every year to keep you as a client. But that’s it. No monthly charges and nothing more to buy unless you travel to a country where your computer chip doesn’t work. In that case, you just go online and order the proper chip, it comes by courier, and you’re off and traveling again. For the trip this year I found that our U.K. chip did not work in Greece and Italy. So, I just ordered the proper chip, put some more money on the prepaid account, and when the chip arrived I just switched out the U.K. one and inserted the Greece/Italy one. Then, to tie up all the loose ends, I forwarded our U.S. cell phones to the world phone U.S. connection number and I was all set. Brightroam provides you with both an international phone number and a 866 number in the U.S., which makes it easy for you to leave your phone number with family for emergencies. On the horizon, Brightroam tells me, is a plug-in for your laptop that will allow it to connect to the internet using your Brightroam phone. I’m absolutely going to be interested in that 21st century bit of wizardry.