i subscribed, on the web, to verizon's supposedly optional international calling plan as part of voice service. what was not clearly stated is the fact that only calls to land-line phones were qualified under the plan. the weekend following, i called my mother and talked with her for over an hour, and on tuesday, i got a mail from verizon stating that my international plan did not include calls to cell-phones, and any such calls would incur premium charges. they provided no information as to what those charges would be, or how to get access to it. i had to call their customer service to get the shocking news about my plan rate for cell phone calls. i have just moved from a cablevision-serving area where i enjoyed 250 minutes of internation calls to ANYWHERE, terminating on ANY user equipment, for $19.99!! unfortunately, cablevision does not serve my new area.

so buyer beware! if you plan to subscribe to the verizon international calling plan, understand that you will incur hefty charges for calls to cell phones. make sure you find out the rates to the countries you make call to before you make any decision.

i really should not have complained about cablevision.