Tech blog Lifehacker has discovered that Kindles are not just good for reading, but are also a great way to get free Internet when traveling abroad.

A Lifehacker commenter shares his tip: “I was in Canada recently, where, as a user of AT&T, I would be charged extortionate rates to send/receive texts or use any data whatsoever ($15-20/MB and $.25 to send/receive a text (if I remember correctly)). Communication being opted out, I go to read on my Kindle. There I too receive a notification from Amazon about international data. I read through it, and find—to my shock—that using the kindle browser internationally is free (as in ‘free beer’, not as in ‘free speech.’ or maybe both).”

The tipster found that using Google Voice on his Kindle worked well, so he avoided using his phone for international texting which can add up as well. He recommends trying this in any Whispernet-available areas like Europe and Canada.