Portuguese Republic, as Portugal is officially known as, is a country situated in the western most point of the mainland Europe and located in the southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The country is bordered at the north and east by Spain, and the Atlantic Ocean to its west and south. The group of islands of the Azores and Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean are also part of Portugal. Since the past 3,100 years, from the time of earlier pre-Roman inhabitants, to the Roman, Germanic, and Moorish people, the country has experienced constant flow of civilisations. These people have left an imprint on the country's culture, its history, the language and its ethnic composition. Portugal, with its vast transcontinental empire, formed during the 15th and 16th centuries, was one of the world's largest economic, political, and cultural powers. As a developed country, Portugal is a member of the European Union since 1986 and became a member of the United Nations in the year 1955. It is also a founder member of economic, political, and cultural power.

Due to the destruction of Lisbon in 1735 by an earthquake, its occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of Brazil, being one of its colony, Portugal lost much of its world power which it gained during the 15th to the 16th century. The monarchy in Portugal was deposed during a revolution in the year 1910, when, repressive government ruled the country for the next six decades. A military coup, in the year 1974, brought in broad democratic reforms. Portugal granted independence to all its African colonies in the year 1975.

The Iberian Peninsula shares its history with Portugal. The region has been visited by Phoenicians and Carthaginians. The Celts settled in the region and was incorporated in the Roman Empire. The Visigoths settled again and consequently the region was conquered by the Muslims. In 1139, the Muslims were defeated and this time is traditionally taken as the time when Portugal was transformed from a country to a Kingdom.

Portugal became an independent nation when Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his ruling mother and her lover and established himself as the sole leader of the country. He declared himself the King of Portugal on July 25, 1139. Portugal formed an alliance with England in the year 1373, which is reckoned to be the longest standing alliance ever made.

The Portuguese took to exploration when the country's soldiers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading centers as they looked for a route to India and its spices. Ultimately, Vasco da Gama finally reached India in the year 1498 and brought economic prosperity to Portugal when the country's population was one million. Brazil was claimed by Portugal in 1500, when Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil. Ten years later, Goa in India was conquered by Afonso de Albuquerque, along with Ormuz in the Persian Strait, and Malacca in what is now Malaysia. This way Portugal held the commercial trading in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic.

The dominance of Portugal in this worldwide presence can be felt even today, with its language becoming one of the most widely spoken in the world. The Portuguese people had the privilege of being exposed to many different civilisations. Portugal is one of the oldest nations in Europe and as an independent Kingdom since the year 1143, Portugal established its continental frontiers in 1297.

Portugal has been the attraction of many tourists owing to its natural advantages of a sunny country with such diverse geographic features. It is one of the best places to enjoy water sports and playing golf, with the country offering modern tourism facilities, and a pleasing personalised means of accommodation with privately owned homes ranging from wonderful farmhouses to manor houses.

Lisbon is called the "the town of the seven hills", and when you visit Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, be prepared for up and downhill walks. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in Europe and the quarters of Castelo and Alfama, the Belém zone and the Baixa, are few of the old memories of Lisbon's ancient history. The castle of Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon dates back to the 5th Century, providing a glimpse of Lisbon's ancient past.

An earthquake destroyed Lisbon in 1755 and the grid-like downtown, or Baixa, can still be seen. You can find the black-clad widows pottering in tiny squares in the Alfama district east of Baixa, which remains as the memory of the Moorish times. As you go to the west of Baixa, you find the Chiado district bursting with shops, cafes and theatres, with the bars and restaurants lined along the district streets, next to Chiado. You will visit the site, west to Belem, where the 15th century explorers set sail to different parts of the world.

Fado singing and guitar dancing come alive at night at Lisbon's old quarters, an expression of the soul of the city's inhabitants. As you go downhill, calm waters of the River Tagus reflect the lights from the open-air cafes, bars and discotheques. While the night is still young, take the advantage of Lisbon's long white sand beaches, just a stone's throw away. Nearby, there are golf courses, a casino and the romantic town of Sintra. Sintra has been classified as the world heritage. It is a paradise set amongst the most beautiful landscape.

Before cell phones came into the market, you only had access to landlines, and on your visits abroad, you had no other option but to use the telephone in your hotel room to make your calls. Knowing that such calls from a hotel phone are expensive, you did not have any other choice.

When you had a cell phone of your own, you had taken it with you on your visits abroad. You had your cell phone on roaming. While you are using your phone on roaming, every call that you make and receive is charged higher than normal. When you move from your home station to another geographical area, you are visiting another network operator's domain. If you move away to different area in the same country as your home operator, you are on National Roaming. If you happen to visit a foreign network, as the case would be when you visit Portugal, you would be on International Roaming. If you are visiting a network which happens to be of different standard vis-à-vis your home network, then you are on Inter Standard Roaming. Roaming provides you with the facility to use your cell phone to make and receive calls, along with other mobile usages, when you are travelling to a different network area.

In providing roaming facility to you, your home network has entered into a commercial contract with the network you are visiting. Each time you use your cell phone, you are utilising the services of the network that you are visiting. Considering the commercial agreement that home network has with the network that you are visiting, any usage of your cell phone is charged on the principle that your cell phone is on roaming and this is quite expensive. You are not only charged higher on your outgoing calls, but your incoming calls are charged at the roaming rate.

www.planetomni.com brings you a better solution. A pre-paid SIM card for Portugal would save you up to 80% of your expenses in cell phone usage. When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Norway, you get a local number and all your outgoing calls are charged at local rates. All your incoming calls are free of charge and you do not pay for roaming. You do not enter into any contract with any service provider and you do not receive any bill at the end of the month.

When you buy a pre-paid SIM card for Portugal, you get a small talk time credit along with. This enables you to use your cell phone straight away when you reach your destination in Portugal. To top up your talk time credit, you can purchase recharge coupons or vouchers from practically any shop in the cities of that country. These coupons are available in different values and you can buy the right denomination depending upon the talk time credit that you want. Since you pre-pay for your calls, you are aware of the expense that you are incurring for your calls and in this way you are in control of the budget that you have set for the purpose. For more information on pre-paid SIM card for Portugal, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_sim.shtml

A SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is roughly of the size of a postage stamp, located in a slot behind the battery at the back of your cell phone. It is a printed circuit board module that renders your cell phone intelligent and enables you to make and receive calls, send SMS and avail many other services. If you take out your SIM card, your cell phone stops working and it is not at that time associated with your phone number. A SIM card holds your unique information, such as, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), your mobile SIM card identification, your calling plan, etc., and as you switch on your handset, the information is transmitted to the network, which checks for security and its validity before logging you in the network. Now you are ready to make your first call and activate the pre-paid SIM card for Brazil. The SIM card also holds your address book, which records the phone numbers and addresses of the persons who you call frequently. The SIM also logs your outgoing and incoming call phone numbers, along with their date and time of call. It also provides feature to lock your mobile phone as prevention against misuse. You can punch in your Personal Identification Number (PIN) on the handset keyboard for the SIM to register your password. You would be required to use this password to open your mobile phone for calling someone.

You would need a GSM cell phone in Portugal. If you should have a GSM phone with you, it is very unlikely that it would work in that country, unless your cell phone supports multi-frequency bandwidths. The network in Portugal operates on 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM frequency band, where-as, North America, Canada and a few neighbouring countries work on 850MHz and 1900MHz GSM bandwidths. This difference would not allow your phone to be used in Portugal, unless you have a multi-frequency phone, supporting the network frequency of that country.

Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is the second generation (2G) and the first open architecture digital mobile technology, replacing the old analog first generation (1G) system. It is being used in over 214 countries with 80% subscribers out of the total mobile users in the world. GSM has four sets of frequency bands, which are 850 MHz, 900 MHz, and 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz and are distributed to the different regions. Some of these frequencies are commonly used by different countries, with the exception that 850MHz and 1900MHz GSM bandwidths are exclusively being used in North America, Canada and a few other neighbouring countries The major advantage in using GSM technology is that you have the facility to get in touch with people from about anywhere in this planet, when you are roaming with your phone.

There are multi-frequency mobile handsets available in the market. The Quad-band phone operates on all GSM frequency bands and can work in all the countries operating on GSM technology. The Tri-band phone works on 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands and is compatible with most of the GSM regions. The Dual-band operates on 800MHz and 1900 MHz GSM frequency bands, being compatible with some specific countries in the world. Therefore, whether you are taking your phone, buying or renting one, you need to make sure that it is compatible with the frequency bands in the country that you are visiting.

For more information on buying or renting a compatible GSM cell phone, visit www.planetomni.com/FAQ_gsm.shtml

Further, the GSM phone that you are taking along with you must be SIM unlocked as otherwise your pre-paid SIM card for Portugal would not work. A SIM locked phone is meant for a particular SIM card and would not work with any others. To site an example of why mobile phones are SIM locked, consider the following:

The contract that you have signed with your service provider has a clause, stipulating that you will be required to use the service for a definite period of time, which is usually one year. After you have signed the contract, you receive a mobile phone, free of cost to you, and a SIM card, from your service provider. The mobile handset becomes yours at the end of the contract period. Now, the phone that you received free of charge is SIM locked by the service provider. This is done to prevent you from using the phone with any other SIM card. After the contract period is over, the service provider provides the codes for unlocking the mobile phone. It is absolutely necessary that you should ensure that the phone that you are taking with you to Estonia is SIM unlocked as otherwise the pre-paid SIM card for Portugal will not work.

There are two things that you must take care of when you take your cell phone on your visit to Portugal. The first being that your cell phone must comply with the network frequency bands in Portugal, and second, that it must be SIM unlocked for you to use your pre-paid SIM card for Portugal.

A pre-paid SIM card for Norway is affordable and it saves you substantially on your phone call expenses. The most important matter of all is that you do not pay for your incoming calls and there are no roaming charges. The pay for your calls as the locals do and you get a local number. Since you pre-pay for your calls, you are in control of your expenses. There is no contract for you to sign and you do not receive any bill at the end of the month.