Tips about telephone calls, wireless access, Internet access and other modes of communications while traveling.

Telephones

ÏThresholdÓ fees for calls from hotel rooms jump. Surf the web in your hotel room, or spend a lot of time retrieving and replying to e-mail on-line? Even if you use a local or toll-free dial-up number, you may end up paying more than you expect. Several hotel companies have begun charging up to 10 cents a minute for calls longer than 20 or 30 minutes. One way to avoid or minimize these fees is to retrieve messages, log off, reply off line and reconnect. Some hotels offer a daily access fee for high-speed lines. At Hilton, for instance, guests can opt for an unlimited access for $9.95/day. The service will be available at 130 properties worldwide by 2Q 2000, a Hilton spokesperson said.

For worry free plugging in abroad. Road Warrior (www.warrior.com) has everything the globe-trotting business traveler could possibly need for telecommunications--acoustic couplers, hard drive upgrade kits, external hard drives, plugs, connectors, adapters, batteries, even a modem saver. You can also sign up for the free Road Warrior newsletter, which offers advice on everything from extending battery life to laptop packing tips, or reap the wisdom from several newsgroups on the vagaries of portable computing around the world.

Wireless

Auto Europe and CWT Team Up to Bring Clients Free Cell Phones. Carlson Wagonlit Travel clients can now receive a free cell phone in conjunction with their Auto Europe car rental. Wherever a client travels, callers will always be able to reach them. Clients are sent their pre-assigned number prior to receiving their phones, which are also equipped with voice mail. Both rental and activation fees are waived, but clients are responsible for the cost of any calls. Here's how it works:

• The traveler is faxed a pre-assigned phone number 48 hours prior to receiving their phone.
• The phone package is shipped to the client: a Nokia GSM pocket-size cellular phone, two rechargeable batteries, battery charger, car charger and full instructions (weighs under two pounds).
• Upon returning from trip, the client simply calls 1-800 GO FEDEX and ships the phone back in the provided FedEx addressed envelope (an additional business day is provided on the rental to return the phones). Return delivery is free for rentals of two weeks or more. Should the rental be of less time, the traveler is responsible for the return delivery charges.
• Airtime rates vary by country, so specific country rates should be requested at the time of the reservation.
• Passengers allowed to use their cell phones while the plane is parked at the gate.
• A few international airlines--Delta and Northwest among them--are now allowing on board cell phone usage prior to departure. Besides making passengers happier, the new policy is also expediting boarding, since fewer people are lingering at pay phones until the very last minute. In Singapore, free cell phone rentals. Singapore Airlines is offering economy-class passengers holding a round-trip ticket free cell phones while in Singapore. Customers only pay normal airtime charges.

Internet

Conference Webcast from Sprint merges the power and convenience of videoconferencing with the unlimited access of the Internet. With Conference Webcast, you can broadcast video to a large, geographically diverse audience over the Internet using your videoconferencing equipment and service. Sprint's expert video meeting managers will help you plan, execute and evaluate your Conference Webcast event from start to finish. Conference Webcast provides "one to many" communication via live and replay video streaming, with slides, Web tours, and interactive capabilities such as question-and-answer sessions and audience polling. Conference Webcast is ideal for a myriad of applications. For further details, call FITA toll-free at (800) 969-3482.

Connect to the Internet through ISP's All Over the World. CAIS Internet, a leading broadband solutions provider, has an interesting service for international travelers: CAIS Worldwide Access. With it, CAIS Internet subscribers can connect to the Internet through ISPs all over the world without having to ferret out local dial-up numbers or having to pay long-distance charges to reach their home-base ISP. Instead, they simply log in with their domain names (e.g. yourname@cais.com, and the software immediately connects them onto the Internet via their own service provider. Coverage includes more than 500 cities in 160 countries. For information, click on http://www.cais.com.

Surf the web at 35,000 feet. Inflightonline.com, the world's first provider of in-flight Internet and intranet services, has announced a strategic alliance with Lycos, the Internet search engine, to provide intranet and Internet services to airline passengers. Inflightonline will use airborne data servers linked to existing seat-back telephone handsets to deliver this service. The connection from server to seat will offer free intranet shopping and browsing, as well as speedy access to the Internet. Inflightonline is currently in negotiations with three major airlines and plans to begin service as soon as April 2000.

Easy access to e-mail. Want to check up on your e-mail from your ISP account when you're overseas but don't have your laptop with you? Go to www.mailstart.com, enter your e-mail address and password, and the program will instantly retrieve your messages on whatever computer you happen to be using. Keep in mind, however, that if you intend to send or retrieve confidential information to/from an unknown server, you may be better off waiting until you have a more secure line.

Send a Voicemail by Email Evoke Talking Email adds new meaning to "broadcast" email. It's simple-first, enter your email address and the email addresses of up to 10 recipients. Then call a toll-free number to record your voice message. Speak for up to 30 seconds, then hang up the phone. Evoke will do the rest-send an email to you and your chosen recipients containing a link to the voice message, a link to download RealNetworks RealPlayer and instructions for replying. Evoke, a "webconferencing" company, specializes in recording and storing presentations on the Web. Reach them at http://www.evoke.com.

Contacting You on the Road

The "holy grail of unified messaging." Winner of the Best Accessory for the Mobile Office Award from Mobile Office Computing Magazine, JFAX provides a unified service for fax, voice and e-mail transmission. The service provides you with a private local number in 60 cities worldwide; the JFAX software then converts your phone messages and fax transmissions into data files, which are then redirected to your e-mailbox, waiting for when it's convenient to retrieve them from the Web. (Fax messages are submitted as text; voice messages are transmitted over your computer's speakers). For information: www.jfax.com.

Have FAX, Will Travel. You don't need to track down fax numbers at a hotel or remote office to retrieve faxes anymore. Now you can keep up with your office paperwork thanks to several free web-based services that let you retrieve faxes as e-mail attachments. There are several different services from which to choose: FaxWave, eFax.com, ifax, and jfax.com. To use them, you first register online, and receive a private fax number. Faxes sent to this number will be automatically routed to your e-mail address, complete with the original formatting (text, graphics, even handwritten notes).

Finding You is a Cinch! Just because you carry one or more mobile communications devices doesn't mean it's any easier to be reached on the road-it just means there are more numbers to try. But with the Webley Personal Communications Assistant, clients, colleagues, family and friends can reach you by calling a single number instead of having to first try your office, cell phone, pager or home number. Webley features include voice mailbox, fax mailbox, message notification and calling card, and a free personal website. The software can also convert your e-mail messages to voice messages, and download faxes to your computer. For information, click on http://www.webley.com.

Connect with your desktop PC while on the road. Business travelers who rely on daily access to their desktop and/or corporate intranet are often flummoxed by remote connections, which are typically slow or unavailable. One way around that is with Traveling Software's LapLink, which connects users to their desktop via modem, allowing them to transfer the files they need whenever they need them. It can be used to access E-mail, customer databases and other applications or data, and to transfer files between two remote sites. Once back in the office, you can keep your laptop and desktop in synch through infrared and parallel cable connectivity. For information: www.travsoft.com.

Office Resources Outside your Office

Need access to a T1 line, fax, or printer during a layover, or between your arrival and a meeting? Here are three sources for an office outside your office.

• Laptop Lane, now available at 23 U.S. airport and convention center locations, offers comfortable private mini-offices for a per-minute or per-hour fee. Each office's workstation has a desktop Pentium computer, laser printer, a plain-paper fax machine, connections to the printer and modem for laptop PCs and a multi-line phone for conference calling. Laptop Lane also provides high-speed Internet access, online and e-mail service providers. A concierge can make copies (color and B&W) and scan documents, and there is a selection of computer peripherals and business supplies available for purchase. For info: www.laptoplane.com
• CAIS 24/7 Business Anywhere Centers - located at hotels, airports and convention centers - offer copying, faxing, computer, Internet access and printing services, using the latest name brand equipment pre-loaded with the latest versions of popular business software. You only pay for the services you use; there=s no by-minute or by-hour charges. The Centers are backed by 24-hour live tech support from multi-lingual customer service agents. For a list of CAIS locations, click on www.cais.com.
• Kinko's now lets you design and print business cards, presentations, and other documents using the Web in a matter of minutes. For information on instant printing, click on www.kinkos.com.