3. Other Hard Learned Lessons

Don't leave your US phone on at night when traveling in Europe. Otherwise people call you to chitchat. They think you are still in their time zone. I put my US phone on silent during the night when in Europe and do the opposite with my British number when in the US. Occasionally, I leave the ring on from the other continent when it is important for a customer to feel comfortable reaching me "locally" in emergencies.

When I first got the two phones, I thought about only carrying one phone and forwarding all my calls to the other number. This proved to be a very bad idea, because it required full roaming charges for every call. Also, you cannot forward text messages, only voice calls.

Speaking of text messaging (SMS or Short Messaging Service), if you are not using it, you should be. It is a very economical way for colleagues and even close customers to reach you and vice-versa without any voice roaming charges. For quick exchanges, answers to a question, or to find out if you can call them back from one of your cheaper phone numbers. Despite what you may think of trying to hunt and peck out words from the tiny keypad with multiple taps for different letters, it works. Hint: Turn on the dictionary mode (sometimes called T9). As long as you don't look at the words forming while you are typing, it really does work with mostly just a single tap per letter. If you don't use this mode, you are stuck with tediously tapping a key as much 3 times for a letter, for example tapping the ABC key 3 times for 'C.'

Cell phones are also great for communicating with customers and family.

That's my tale of mobility using dual cell presence. My solution for balancing convenience, price and customer comfort is a phone in each pocket.