How can you get away with being in the US for a trade show, yet manage to only spend $4.16 on calls? Alec Saunders chronicled his experience in doing so when he attended the VON conference in Boston.

He ended using a variety of methods in order to save on his calling: Truphone to make (and receive) calls over WiFi, a prepaid SIM from AT&T, and MobiVox to make calls outside the US.

Now I question whether it ended up exactly $4.16 or not because I know that in order to get the $0.10 a minute rate on a prepaid AT&T SIM, you have to pay $1 a day access fee. You also have to pay something to acquire the SIM itself, though they can be had for about $10 on eBay, including $10 in airtime.

Regardless of the exact numbers, it's still a heck of a lot cheaper than if he paid the usurious roaming rates Rogers and AT&T would likely charge for the experience. That being said, it seems like a bit of work to combine all those services.

I'm looking forward to when MAXroam manages to get their roaming rates lowered in the US and Canada. Then you get the benefits of all three of these service integrated into one. Even if it's a little more expensive, the convenience would be worth the extra money. What do you think?