Travel alert: Your cellular surfing habit could break the bank

"I had no idea that surfing for a few seconds would cost so much," wails N., who made the tactical error of using her cellphone to check her e-mail twice while abroad. That dubious pleasure cost her NIS 750. Well-aware of the risk of losing her pants, metaphorically speaking, N. had already canceled automated e-mail synchronization. But during each of the brief manual synchronizations she carried out, her inbox was flooded with dozens of messages.

For E., a businessman who went abroad with a cellular modem, the outcome was even more painful. "I didn't make much use of it, but the modem was on and the Internet continued to refresh itself all night. The result was a 20,000 shekel bill," he mourns.

Even businessmen who know the costs and purchase overseas surfing packages in advance still get burned, simply because of their surfing habits. "I thought the Israeli surfing package was roughly the same as the package I bought for overseas," says Y., who bought a 25-megabyte package and deviated from its limits, at a cost of NIS 5,000.

In recent years, as smart cellphones have become widespread, it's become easier and at times more convenient to surf the Internet using cellphones. People have become accustomed to constant e-mail availability and access to information, and may not fully realize that when traveling abroad the cost of cellular surfing soars.

For example, surfing using a Partner cellphone in European countries such as France, Britain and Germany costs NIS 5 per 100 kilobytes. With Cellcom, if you didn't buy a package in advance, it will cost up to NIS 11 per kilobyte, depending on the foreign service provider your phone accesses. With Pelephone, the price for opportunistic clients (who didn't buy a package in advance) are only slightly cheaper. In other words, downloading one simple e-mail without any attachments will cost you anywhere from NIS 4 to NIS 9. However, if the e-mail has an attachment of a megabyte, or if you accessed the home page of a popular Israeli portal (such as Walla), the cost can jump to NIS 90.

Even people aware of the dangers can still rack up gargantuan bills. Ronen Gilad, a vice president at media consultancy SenseCom, says that on average about 40% of an organization's cellular costs come for roaming - meaning use from abroad. And much of this is due to surfing.

"The biggest problem is uncertainty," Gilad says. "People don't have the means to know how many megabytes they are using up while surfing. If they buy a discount package, they don't know what their status is after two or three e-mails and a few basic searches on Google."

Even if they have a clue how much Internet pages weigh, pricing varies from country to country depending on the foreign service provider to which the phone connects. Also, each company has its own policies regarding rounding up usage time segments.

Many don't even realize their phone is merrily surfing the information superhighway. For instance, if your phone is set to automatically synchronize e-mail, it will connect to the Internet without you even pressing anything.

Or take Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). A lot of people mistakenly assume that it's the same as Short Message Service (SMS). It's not. If you want to send an image or video clip from abroad, you are surfing. The same goes for receiving an image or clip - you pay for the pleasure; except with Cellcom, which says clients do not pay for incoming MMSs. In any case, incoming or outgoing, an MMS may weigh from tens of kilobytes to 400 kilobytes, costing you anywhere from a few shekels to NIS 90.

Cellcom was the first to offer overseas surfing packages and today Pelephone does too; Partner Communications does not and therefore will cost more. Note that cellular surfing packages aren't only for phones, they also apply to laptops with cellular modems. The smallest package the companies offer is 5 megabytes. Cellcom and Pelephone charge NIS 99 for the service in the United States and NIS 149 in Europe. Elsewhere in the world, with Pelephone you'll pay NIS 249 and with Cellcom, NIS 284 or NIS 297, depending where you are.

The largest package at Pelephone is 80 megabytes, costing NIS 999 in the United States, NIS 1,999 in Europe and NIS 3,099 anywhere else in the world.

Cellcom offers a wider range of packages, up to 500 megabytes. A relatively weighty package with 300 megabytes will cost NIS 4,828 in the United States, NIS 6,229 in Europe, NIS 13,916 in Asia and NIS 13,330 anywhere else.

For Europe, Cellcom offers 12-month packages at a lower cost than cited herein. But you must commit to a year.

? Buy the smallest package possible, without making any commitments. If you use it up while abroad, you can buy another one. Surfing with Partner will cost the most because it doesn't offer any packages. Pelephone is a little cheaper than Cellcom, but remember that surfing packages are not cheap at all.

? The bigger the package, the less it should cost per megabyte. But the savings are not significant: a few shekels per megabyte, no more. Cellcom's 50-megabyte package can run you NIS 22,000 a month. Note that Cellcom will give discounts if you commit for a year, but the discount pales in comparison with the cost. You save NIS 8, for instance on an 8-megabyte package costing NIS 145 a month; now multiply that by 12 for your year-long commitment. If you stayed at home for one month, the package already doesn't pay.

? If you have a smart phone, cancel automatic e-mail synchronization. Only access your e-mail intentionally and try to download only the subject. Check if there are attachments before downloading anything. Don't download images or other heavy files.

? Cancel the ability to receive MMSs. With Partner (Orange) and Pelephone, receiving or sending an MMS means cellular surfing.

? Try to confine surfing to sites that offer bare-minimum formats, without megabyte-gobbling pictures. Ynet, Facebook and Gmail offer image-free cellular options.

? Some cellphones have browsers that indicate the weight of Internet pages you're accessing, for instance the Nokia with the Mini Map browser. It isn't an accurate indication, but will give you a ballpark idea.

? It's cheaper to surf abroad with a Blackberry because of its data contraction capacity.