In Reply to: Maintaining Business Ops whilst in Bali posted by luvthe NT on Wednesday, 8. July 2009 at 06:42 Bali Time:
I will be there again in August doing the same thing!
It is sometimes not as easy as it should be, and you possibly want the short answer, but here is the long answer.
EMAIL:
I carry a laptop and a Nokia E71 which can be connected by the usb cable that comes with the E71. I use a Simpati 3G sim card in the E71 (this is very cheap for network time) and use the phone as a modem. The sim card needs to be "flashed" by sms so that it will connect to the internet system. The E71 has wi-fi built into it so I can check emails on the go either via 3G network or via wi-fi at bars, restaurants etc. The E71 is very capable as an email device for sending, receiving and viewing PDFs etc. as email attachments. The laptop of course is easier and you will need to configure a mailbox to work via telkomsel (simpati) which is not difficult but necessary to send from the laptop via simpati sim. The laptop can ofcourse be carried about and also use wi-fi but I find the phone easier.
PHONE CALLS: Phone is fairly easy but more costly. Making calls out via the Simpati sim to Oz is about $1 per minute which is not exorbitant. You can also use the 01017 prefix for calls which then brings the cost down to about 1,000rp per minute but I find this unreliable for business calls as there is sometimes a bad echo and/or delay on the line making it hard to converse. sometimes it doesn't work at all. It may be more difficult coaxing your business contacts in Oz to ring an international mobile phone though, so I carry a second basic phone with my Oz sim in it. It costs me about $2 per minute to answer it but you can always offer to call back on the other phone.
OZ VOICEMAIL:
Accessing voicemail from the Oz sim is very expensive so I give someone in Oz access via landline to my Oz sim and ask them to check it and send me email or sms (to the Simpati phone) with any details that are left on voicemail should I miss any calls (mainly because after a few hours in Bali I relax back a bit and turn the Oz one off.
SMS:
There is always sms from the Oz or Simpati phone that you can also use.
It is also a good idea to let your regular contacts know that you are away as they will be more understanding.
I know this is a long winded answer and I apologise for that.