Existing users, 
Taking Your iPhone Overseas
Posted 29 September 2008 @ 5am in Guides/How-Tos
Ted Landau
October 2008
Later this week, I’m off for a trip to Japan. I never go anywhere without my iPhone anymore. Japan will be no exception. But I will be taking the phone with some trepidation. Knowing that international charges can be exorbitant, I’ve spent a good deal of time determining what, if anything, I could do to keep costs to a minimum. To save you from having to do the same legwork, here’s what I learned:
Q. What’s the executive summary?
A. The cheapest thing you can do, by far, is leave your phone at home. Or treat it as if it were an iPod touch, never connecting to any network except a Wi-Fi one (Wi-Fi usage remains free except for any local charge). Otherwise, using an iPhone in most foreign countries will likely cost you somewhere between a hefty sum and your entire life savings. With some planning and prudence, however, you can make sure your costs stay down near the hefty sum end.
Q. First off, can I even use my iPhone as a phone in other countries?
A. For simplicity, I will assume you are a U.S. resident on a trip overseas. Given that, the answer still depends on the country you are visiting. Japan, for example, only supports 3G networks. So forget using an original iPhone there; at least as a phone. No cellular networked features will be available. AT&T has a Web page that can help you determine the network requirements for your destination; you may also find this other AT&T page helpful.
Q. Assuming I can use the phone, how much does it cost to make or receive a phone call?
A. You’ll be using the “roaming” rate. In most cases, the standard rate is $2.29 per minute (or $2.49 on a cruise ship). However, as an iPhone owner, AT&T gives you its discounted “World Traveler” rate of only $1.69 per minute.
Even with the discount, the dollars quickly add up. Get out your calculator. If you take a 10 day vacation, and use your phone only 5 minutes per day, it will set you back $84.50. Use it for an average of 15 minutes a day and you’ll be paying $253.50. And that’s on top of the normal monthly charges for the iPhone!
Don’t even think about having a conversation via text messages: they cost 50 cents per message.
Given all this, I’ve decided that I will only be making or taking calls in an emergency. If I want to make a reservation for dinner, for example, I’ll ask the hotel to do it for me.
Q. What about Internet data services? Is there an extra charge for that?
A. One guess.
You’re already paying $30 or more a month for a data plan. But that’s pocket change compared to what it will cost you to use Safari or Maps or send email while on an overseas trip. The standard rate is 2 cents per kilobyte. That may not sound like a lot. But get out your calculator again. Suppose you use just 5MB per day on your 10 day trip, or 50MB for your entire trip. That adds up to (you might want to sit down here) $1024. Your read correctly: more than 1000 greenbacks.
Thankfully, there is a cheaper alternative. Much cheaper. You can purchase (before you leave on your trip) one of AT&T’s International Data Packages (see this AT&T iPhone page for full details). For example, keeping with our 50MB example, you can get a 50MB Data Global Add-On for just $59.99 per month. It doesn’t matter that your trip is less than a month. There’s no pro-rated discount. It’s $59.99 or nothing. Not surprisingly, there’s similarly no refund for unused MBs, if any, at the end of your trip. You also have to remember to call AT&T when you get back, and cancel the plan, or you will be automatically charged for additional months. One more thing: If, after you cancel, you are late-billed for data used during your trip, you’ll be billed at the standard rate even though the discount plan was in effect at the time of the usage! I’m not kidding. That’s what they told me.
In spite of all of that, the savings are enormous. $1024 vs. $59.99. That’s a savings of $964 or 94%. The package rate works out to only 0.12 cents per KB. Even if you go beyond your allotted 50MB, the Data Package still offers a benefit. The overage rate is bumped up to only 0.5 cents per KB. That’s 25% of the standard rate. This means that if you used 100MB during your trip, and you had the 50MB package, it would cost you $256 for the 50MB in overage. That’s far from cheap, but much less than it would have cost you at the standard rate.
Of course, if you knew for sure that you would be using 100MB during your trip, you’d be better off get the 100MB package for $119.99. The problem is that deciding the best package in advance of your trip is a guessing game. Guess too low and you pay the overage rate for some of your data; guess too high and you waste money on MBs that you never used.
Regardless, if you plan on using data services during your trip, get one of the Data Packages. Getting no plan at all is simply stupid.
This leaves one last question here: If AT&T can charge as little as .12 cents per KB and still apparently make a profit, how can they possibly justify the outrageous standard fee of 2 cents per KB? How can charging over $1000 for transferring 50MB of data begin to make sense? Here’s how: It’s the same reason that phone companies can charge ridiculous amounts for sending text messages or downloading ringtones. Because they can. It’s legal robbery — taking advantage of those who are unaware of the lurking dangers. But that’s another story.
Q. How can I tell how much data I am using?
A. To help you decide which Data Package to purchase, check on your iPhone’s data usage while still at home. To do so, go to Setttings > General > Usage. At the bottom is the Cellular Network Data category, showing the amount of Sent and Received data (in MB) since the time of your last reset (as listed at the very bottom of the screen). To set everything back to zero, tap the Reset Statistics button. You can now track how much data per day you are using.
Bear in mind that you may be accessing Wi-Fi a greater percentage of the time at home than you will on your trip. If so, the estimate may not be as accurate as you would want. Remember, Wi-Fi usage does not affect the Cellular Data Network Data stats.
Tap Reset Statistics again when you arrive at your destination. You can now check the Usage stats to see if and when you start approaching the limits of your Data Package.
The iPhone’s Usage screen.
Q. What else can I do to keep costs down while on my trip?
A. There are several things you can do:
For starters, as already implied, use Wi-Fi as often as possible, rather than the 3G network. That may not be an option if you need Internet access and no Wi-Fi connection can be found. But if it’s possible to delay your task until you have Wi-Fi access, do so.
Go to Settings > General > Network. Make sure Data Roaming is OFF. This will prevent your iPhone from accessing any cellular network data services, even automatically when you might be unaware of it, if a roaming surcharge would be applied. From this same screen, you can additionally turn off “Enable 3G.” In countries such as Japan, this effectively prevents you from making or receiving any phone calls.
At the most extreme, but simpler to do, you can enable the iPhone’s Airplane Mode, essentially turning your iPhone into an iPod and game machine.
If you intend to leave all of the above options enabled, at least disable Push and set Fetch to Manually. Do this by going to Settings > Fetch New Data. Also turn off Location Services at Settings > General. These changes can reduce usage at least a bit. Remember, you are free to reverse any of these settings whenever you want the access back temporarily.
Q. What about charging my iPhone? Do I need to buy an adapter or something?
A. Possibly not. Here’s one place where you could save a bit of money.
The iPhone’s power adapter is designed for international use. It’s 100-240v and 50-60 Hz. These ranges include almost every possible combination you might confront in different countries. So there should be no need for any sort of converter.
However, you may still need to buy an adapter (such as Apple’s somewhat pricey World Travel Adapter Kit) to accommodate the varying plug designs in different countries. Japan is one exception. It uses the same type of 2-prong plug as here in the United States. So no adapter is needed. A minor financial victory for me, as I prepare for my trip. See you when I get back.
To get Ted’s latest book, Take Control of Your iPhone, click the link. To send comments regarding this column directly to Ted, click here. [Note the new email address. The old address, as listed in prior columns, is no longer active.]
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26 Comments
Posted by Eddy_K
29 September 2008 @ 6am
At least for local calls abroad, that’s the big advantage of the unlocked Belgian iPhone: you simply put a local SIM card in place of your own…
Posted by seink
29 September 2008 @ 7am
Hi,Ted
I’m Japanese,and I can give you some advises.
You should better to check free Wi-Fi spot.
e.g. http://www.freespot.com/users/map_e.html
Have a good stay in Japan!!
Posted by digiprod--2008
29 September 2008 @ 8am
You say:
You can purchase (before you leave on your trip) one of AT&T’s International Data Packages (see this AT&T iPhone page for full details). For example, keeping with our 50MB example, you can get a 50MB Data Global Add-On for just $59.99 per month. It doesn’t matter that your trip is less than a month. There’s no pro-rated discount. It’s $59.99 or nothing. Not surprisingly, there’s similarly no refund for unused MBs, if any, at the end of your trip. You also have to remember to call AT&T when you get back, and cancel the plan, or you will be automatically charged for additional months.
This does not really work. I spoke to AT&T. The overseas carriers bill whenever they want and it is not based on when you made the call or used the data. You are billed for the charges when you are billed. If you do not have the International plan activated “at the time of billing” you will be charged the full rate as if you never had the plan! I was told that it would be wise to keep the plan for at least three months, so there goes the savings if you are going on just one trip once in awhile. Some Blackberry data plans need to have the International Data Packages for an entire year as they do not sell in any other way.
Posted by dani7_dotmac
29 September 2008 @ 9am
By the way, traveling overseas has been to me a nightmare… I have to tell all of you planning to go to Europe, you’re not going to find any Wi-Fi for free and the price is high, only Euros that cost double to make it simple. Some times you’ve got to sign up with different networks within the hotels at a min usage for 3 hours to 24 hours ranging 7 Euros to 25 Euros. No cheap service for a poor reception. Starbuck charge you too while here in America is free. If I remember good the only place I had free Wi-Fi was in a Apple store. I was in Europe 2 months before the 3G iPhone Launch, so it was my 1st. generation iPhone I was using. Enyway I end up paying for a family plan with 2 iPhones and 1 Blackberry almost $900 plus any Wi-Fi cost. To tell the truth it wasn’t worth it. I learned from my experience last year back in SouthAmerica, I paid something like $1800 just 1 iPhone that Att’s deal was and still is a ripoff!
Posted by ted1--2008
29 September 2008 @ 10am
Yes. I believe I mentioned your point in the very next sentence of that paragraph: “One more thing: If, after you cancel, you are late-billed for data used during your trip, you’ll be billed at the standard rate even though the discount plan was in effect at the time of the usage! “
Posted by mishajames
29 September 2008 @ 10am
I’ve traveled overseas 5 times in the past 15 months with my original iPhone and my iPhone3G. I found several inaccurate (or unncessarily panic-inducing) tips above. Here are my 2¢:
- The Data Global Add-On used to require a one-year contract, no prorating. Now, if you want to cancel at any time, the cost DOES get pro-rated. So if you sign up for a $59.99 plan, take a 4-day trip, then wait 1-2 weeks for any “extra” data charges to catch up (late billing) before cancelling, you will be billed the prorated amount. So if you cancelled 11 days after your 4-day trip, you’d end up with a net cost of $30 for the data add-on. Since I try to minimize my EDGE/3G use while abroad and take advantage of wi-fi where available, I’m taking a bet that if any last kilobytes of data that get late billed come through after I cancel, they won’t be so substantial as to cost more than the $30 I’m saving by canceling the plan and getting the prorated charge. [Note: If you cancel past the end of a billing cycle, you’ll be billed the full amount in the subsequent billing cycle, but also have a credit on that bill or the following bill to net out at the prorated amount).
- One caveat to the Data Global Add-On plan is that it isn’t available in every country; so far I only had a problem with it not being available in Turkey, but it is available most places you want to go. In those cases, I might have been able to data locally, but I used it sparingly because it was at that $0.0195 rate per KB.
- The calling plan / roaming rates are blown out of proportion. They do run $1.29 or $2.29 per minute based on the country (and lower still in Canada), but if you sign up for the $5.99 World Traveler calling plan (also pro-rateable), it brings the per-minute cost down $0.30; so if you plan to make more than 20 minutes of calls while abroad, it pays itself off and your per-minute costs come down to $0.99 or $1.99.
- Text messaging isn’t as expensive as indicated. It is 50 cents, as stated, to send a message, but for inbound texts, they count towards your normal plan’s # of texts; so as long as you stay in your normal SMS monthly limits, you’re only paying for outbounds (so cram in every last one of those 156 characters!).
Posted by doshea
29 September 2008 @ 12pm
We just returned from the Veneto region of Italy and for the first time I did not take my MacBook Pro with me while traveling. For several years I have been taking pictures and offloading the images to the machine and, more recently, doing a first cut select with Aperture. This time I just had my camera, 100 GB of memory cards, and my wife and I had our iPhones.
On the whole it worked well, but just you are concerned with roaming costs, so was I. I bought a $60/50 MB package before leaving, zeroed out my data usage and kept close track of it as we toured.
So I was able to DL my e-mail (my wife refused on principle.) We were able to read the Times. I did a scan of the RSSs on NetNewsWire. I maintained a usage of about 7.5 MB/day, but it was a stretch. When we discovered our hotel had wireless in the bar, we were in heaven.
I think “digiprod” is incorrect. As it turned out I ended up using 48 MB during our week. After we returned I waited another week and then ended my data roaming contract. When I examined my bill I found the following two lines:
50MB_IPHONE_INT 08/23-09/15 47.99 47.99
50MB_IPHONE_INT 08/23-09/02 -22.00 -22.00
So, I was only charged $48 for the data roaming because I terminated it a week early AND they rebated the charge for the time between the start of the billing period and the start of the data roaming service. So for about two weeks (9/02-9/15) I paid $36 for my 48 MB.
One more thing, even though you have purchased an International Data Service, you may get warnings from AT&T about using too much data while you are on your trip and asking you to contact them to rectify the situation.
One thing that had not occurred to me until we got to Italy, was that I could take location maps of the places we visited by taking screen shots of our position in the Map app. These maps will be included in the Web site and as a page decoration for the photo book of our trip.
Don O’Shea
Posted by CynicalBug
29 September 2008 @ 12pm
Hmm, there aren’t any functioning links in the article, and I’d love to be able to click through and see the pages that are implied by this sentence:
“AT&T has a Web page that can help you determine the network requirements for your destination; you may also find this other AT&T page helpful.”
Posted by dylanc1
29 September 2008 @ 12pm
Im surprised you have not covered any VOIP options, both in this article or in general. Truphone has released their native application, available as a download in the app store. Their service lets you call the US and Canada for pennies a minute. Seems like a great alternative to any international roaming plans. My suggestion is turn off international roaming of all sorts, and focus on finding a place with wifi for all your data and voice needs.
Posted by godsfault
29 September 2008 @ 1pm
For the time being these cellular companies have us by the short and curlies. (Come to think of it, they’re not the only ones when you consider oil, banking, pharmaceuticals, and all the other under-regulated businesses feasting on us.)
So government regulation is bad and laissez-faire capitalism is good, huh? Well, when you’re a member of the top 2%, sure, it’s all good.
Or, maybe some of you think competition and the “free” market economy will right these usurious rates and outlandish prices. (Hey buddy, ya wanna buy this bunch of cut-rate mortgages I got here in the trunk of my car?)
I wonder how low this economy has to go before the capitalists among you will even begin to think you’re being eaten alive by the parasites we call CEO’s and upper management.
In my opinion, I think this present scavenger economy had its jumping off point in the “greed is good” decade of the eighties. Yes fellow Republicans, I’m talkin’ ’bout the Regan era. Remember when our hero told us: “government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.” To quote Hemingway: “isn’t it pretty to think so.”
Isn’t it pretty, or, isn’t it great to blame the government for everything that plagues us? So, no effective regulation, no safe-guards, no safety net for us po folks. No, instead we have golden parachutes and bail-outs for all those po rich folks.
At present, I can afford A,T, &T’s rates and my mortgage and, even, to fill up my gas tank. Of course, at present, we still have incomes in my family.
Time for the pendulum to swing the other way folks.
Posted by bac0
29 September 2008 @ 2pm
here’s another tip - if you’re not going to have 3G data access and/or don’t want to pay for data roaming charges or roaming plans, get yourself an Airport Express or other pocket wi-fi router for use with your iPhone while back in your hotel (that is, IF you don’t also travel with a laptop)
I travel a lot to Japan, and although these days most hotels have free high speed (wired) internet, hotel wi-fi seems rare in Japan. The Airport Express allows me to at least use my iPhone when in the hotel room. Although I take a laptop when on business so it’s not really an issue, I have also taken several vacations overseas without laptop and only used my iPhone or iPod Touch for internet access in this way. While around town in Tokyo it IS possible to find the occasional open wi-fi access point, but it’s actually fairly rare. Once you start using always-available 3G data at home, it sure becomes addictive and you really miss it when roaming!
Actually, I just came back from a short trip to Japan with my new 3G and had data roaming turned off since data roaming charges with my local carrier (Rogers) are very expensive, and their add-on data roaming “buckets” are even more insanely expensive.
Posted by fingold
29 September 2008 @ 5pm
“However, as an iPhone owner, AT&T gives you its discounted “World Traveler” rate of only $1.69 per minute.”
I have always been charged a monthly fee for this plan. Am I missing something?
Posted by gobberwart
29 September 2008 @ 8pm
This is what really kills me about the iphone! I’d love to swap my 2005 windows
mobile HTC wizard for an iphone, but whereas my wizard was unlocked 3 months
into my 2-year contract with t-mobile, an iphone would *never* be unlocked, even
after the full contract had expired!!! With my (painfully slow and painful to use)
wizard I can buy a local pay-as-you-go SIM card when I arrive and pay 1 or 2 cents
per minute for calls within the country I’m visiting: I flat-out refuse to pay nearly 100
times that amount per minute for “AT&T roaming”. I *only* require unlocking so that
I can use a phone abroad, but without it I can’t justify buying an iphone, because I
know I’ll still have to keep my old wizard around (and updated with contacts, etc.)
and take that with me when I travel. iphone for US and wizard for travel. Yuk!
It really staggers me that this is such a non-negotiable issue for apple/AT&T. I’d
buy 2 iphone like a shot if I knew they’d be unlocked after (say) the first 6 months
of the contract was up. :(
Posted by Simplidata
29 September 2008 @ 9pm
Look into Truphone as part of your solution. This UK-based company offers Wi-Fi VOIP phone service for the iPhone. I recently visited France and Israel and called North America from both places without problem. It cost .06 per minute to call a land line and .30 per minute to call cellphones (in some parts of the world cellphones cost less). My Canadian carrier (Rogers/Fido) charge $3.50 per minute roaming in Israel! The rates depend on where you are but more than 40 countries are covered at this rate. Their app is available at the App store and they give you a small credit so you can try it out ($4 when I first tried it but I believe its $1 now). I used Truphone to check my phone messages on my land line back home, then used it to return those calls at a reasonable hour. Sadly, it’s for outgoing calls only. As for data, I was on holiday and was satisfied with Wi-Fi.
Posted by zarkobiz
30 September 2008 @ 1am
I traveled to Europe recently and when I called AT&T just before my trip and wanted to sign up for international roaming and international data packages, they told me it takes several weeks to enable these, so since they didn’t want my money (or otherwise wanted to rip me off) and I heard some horror stories about international roaming (see further text) I decided to boycott AT&T and when I got to Europe I bought a local pre-paid mobile phone for less than $50.
I still used my iPhone occasionally, but only as iPod, with the international data roaming turned off and only in WiFi mode when and wherever free WiFi was available. I also set up an ad hoc wireless network connection between my laptop and iPhone and configured Internet Connection Sharing on the laptop so as a proof of concept, I was able access the laptop’s Internet connection by iPhone via the wireless network, but since the Internet connection speed for the laptop was a dial-up, it was no fun waiting for tens of seconds for every single web page. You might want to do this when you’re at a hotel with free high speed internet and no free WiFi, if you’re willing to leave your laptop on.
I did order a SIM unlock chip from a seller at ebay.com one week before the trip, but it got lost in mail and they had to send another, so it arrived after I left. I tested it after returning to US with the SIM from the T-Mobile phone I bought overseas, and it seems to be working (my iPhone shows the T-Mobile logo instead of AT&T). You have to turn off 3G and I didn’t want to try any calls or data on the European SIM here in the US because of the astronomical cost of international roaming that would have cost a lot on the prepaid SIM, so I only successfully sent one text message and I’ll see whether this will still work next time I go overseas.
I also heard horror stories from my friends who got a bill of over $1,500 even after they bought the international roaming packages - when they went to Mexico they let their little cousin use their iPhone to watch Youtube videos every day. The comfort given by the AT&T customer service after they returned was that they were lucky because they bought the international plans, while a person who recently traveled to Europe and used the iPhone without any international plan got a bill for over $3,000(!).
So, if you want to use your iPhone overseas without getting ripped off and if like me you’re not the faint of heart, either jailbreak and SIM unlock it if the unlock is available with the latest firmware, or go for the hardware solution, the SIM unlock chip on ebay at your own risk. My SIM unlock seems to be working fine, but if you are non-technical, or scared to do anything that even borders tweaking and hacking, buy a cheap pre-paid phone and it will cost you far less for local telephone calls. You might even be able to use that phone’s SIM next time you visit if an easier software unlock becomes available.
Don’t worship your iPhone - make it serve you
Posted by dani7_dotmac
30 September 2008 @ 9am
Why Do I suppose to leave a message and you don’t publish it?
Posted by simonnelli
30 September 2008 @ 10am
Here in europe if you go abroad you’re even charged if you answer a call. Watch out!
Posted by planetxanadu
30 September 2008 @ 11am
How about this? I take the phone overseas, buy a pre-paid plan from a local cell phone company that supports the iPhone and use their SIM card on my phone with a local number and data plan. I use the local number to call internationally and receive calls from my contacts - BTW, I will only hand out this number to those contacts that will absolutely have to reach me overseas.
Will this be a cheaper alternative to global roaming?
Posted by quantumd0tz
30 September 2008 @ 12pm
Awesome Ted, thank you. I am also traveling to Kyoto and Tokyo in October. I had reservations about bringing my iPhone 3G and some questions that hadn’t been answered quite as succinct as you have done. Appreciate it and enjoy your time in the Land of the Rising Sun. I know I will :)
Posted by gobberwart
30 September 2008 @ 3pm
Do you have any feelings about whether apple will allow iphones to be unlocked? I would buy
an iphone (actually two) like a shot if I knew that they would eventually be unlocked, since I
would then be able to use *local* SIM cards when abroad and make calls for a few cents, just
like I do on my existing phone (a rather underpowered htc wizard). I haven’t found much
discussion of this issue elsewhere, but I’ve never heard of any provider refusing to unlock a
phone, even within contract, once a few months have passed. I’d be interested to hear your
thoughts on why apple is adamantly against allowing at&t to unlock iphones (even after the full
2 years of contract have expired). It’s the only reason I haven’t bought an iphone: I can’t stand
the thought of having to keep my old htc wizard up to date and carry it with me when I go abroad,
while my iphone sits uselessly by my side.
PS. I posted an earlier comment yesterday along these lines, which is still under moderation;
I’m hoping this one might make it through more quickly: I think it’s germane to the article :)
Posted by mishajames
30 September 2008 @ 3pm
I’ve traveled overseas 5 times in the past 15 months with my original iPhone and my iPhone3G. I found several inaccurate (or unncessarily panic-inducing) tips above. Here are my 2¢:
- The Data Global Add-On used to require a one-year contract, no prorating. Now, if you want to cancel at any time, the cost DOES get pro-rated. So if you sign up for a $59.99 plan, take a 4-day trip, then wait 1-2 weeks for any “extra” data charges to catch up (late billing) before cancelling, you will be billed the prorated amount. So if you cancelled 11 days after your 4-day trip, you’d end up with a net cost of $30 for the data add-on. Since I try to minimize my EDGE/3G use while abroad and take advantage of wi-fi where available, I’m taking a bet that if any last kilobytes of data that get late billed come through after I cancel, they won’t be so substantial as to cost more than the $30 I’m saving by canceling the plan and getting the prorated charge. [Note: If you cancel past the end of a billing cycle, you’ll be billed the full amount in the subsequent billing cycle, but also have a credit on that bill or the following bill to net out at the prorated amount).
- One caveat to the Data Global Add-On plan is that it isn’t available in every country; so far I only had a problem with it not being available in Turkey, but it is available most places you want to go. In those cases, I might have been able to data locally, but I used it sparingly because it was at that $0.0195 rate per KB.
- The calling plan / roaming rates are blown out of proportion. They do run $1.29 or $2.29 per minute based on the country (and lower still in Canada), but if you sign up for the $5.99 World Traveler calling plan (also pro-rateable), it brings the per-minute cost down $0.30; so if you plan to make more than 20 minutes of calls while abroad, it pays itself off and your per-minute costs come down to $0.99 or $1.99.
- Text messaging isn’t as expensive as indicated. It is 50 cents, as stated, to send a message, but for inbound texts, they count towards your normal plan’s # of texts; so as long as you stay in your normal SMS monthly limits, you’re only paying for outbounds (so cram in every last one of those 156 characters!).
Posted by jsk173
30 September 2008 @ 4pm
Ted - Good article, but a couple items are a little off.
First, the $1.69 per minute roaming rate you quoted isn’t AT&T’s lowest (or standard) roaming rate. It might be the lowest rate for Japan, but roaming rates in the Americas are much lower (e.g., $0.59/min. in Canada and Mexico), and the current rate for places like Monaco and The Netherlands is $0.99/min. (On the other hand, more exotic locations, like the Middle East and Africa, see rates up to $4.99/min. even at AT&T’s “discounted” World Traveler rate.)
Second, in my experience, there really isn’t such a thing as “accepting calls only in an emergency.” Unless you meant you intend to keep your iPhone in Airplane Mode (or have 3G disabled) except for the exact times you make (or expect to receive) calls, in my experience, if a call comes in while you’re roaming, AT&T will bill you for a 1-minute call whether you answer it or not.
Aside #1 to the above point: People should keep in mind that missed calls while roaming tend to be handled in a highly inconsistent manner. Sometimes the caller gets a “circuits busy” or other type of error message, sometimes the call is forwarded to AT&T’s generic front-end voicemail system (”please enter the mailbox number of the person you’re trying to reach …”), and sometimes the call is forwarded, properly, to one’s personal voicemail. Unless AT&T has revamped this recently without my knowledge, the middle situation (”please enter the mailbox number …”) tends to be confusing for callers, who expect to receive the person’s voicemail but are, instead, asked for a “mailbox number.” At minimum, it seems like AT&T should change this message to “please enter the cellular number …” for clarity. (In my experience, calls are always forwarded properly to voicemail when the iPhone is in Airplane Mode, which I make heavy use of while roaming.)
Aside #2: While Airplane Mode is great, it’s currently an all-or-nothing deal when roaming. That is, when the iPhone is in Airplane Mode, calls *and* WiFi are disabled. I really wish Apple would add an “iPod touch” mode to iPhone wherein calls are disabled but WiFi is operational. As things stand now, unless an iPhone user pulls the SIM card, the user risks getting hit with (potentially big) charges for incoming calls while they’re browsing the ‘net using the iPhone’s WiFi. (As mentioned above, even unanswered incoming calls are typically billed as 1-minute calls when roaming, which leaves users at risk when using WiFi without the SIM card pulled — which is something I’m generally loathe to do since the SIM for a U.S. number can’t be replaced while abroad.)
Lastly, I’m not a lawyer, but AT&T’s alleged policy of charging late-billed roaming data at the standard rate if the roaming plan had been canceled in the meantime seems highly, highly dubious. These roaming data plans are still relatively new and perhaps this is just a misunderstanding in their customer service dept., but if AT&T really tries to pull this stunt on customers, this has “lawsuit” written all over it.
Posted by mishajames
30 September 2008 @ 10pm
@jsk173:
“Aside #2: While Airplane Mode is great, it’s currently an all-or-nothing deal when roaming. That is, when the iPhone is in Airplane Mode, calls *and* WiFi are disabled.”
You can still use Wi-Fi in airplane mode. When you turn on airplane mode, it shuts off all communications (3G/WiFi/Bluetooth); but you can go into the Wi-Fi menu just beneath and turn just Wi-Fi back on. This was part of the 2.0 software update, I believe (because some airline carriers are now allowing Wi-Fi use on board).
Posted by br8thw8
30 September 2008 @ 11pm
Here is my frustration with AT&T. I was on my way to Japan (waiting to board my plane at LAX) and I called AT&T to see if I could use my iPhone 3G there. After a long wait for an AT&T agent I was told that I could use it there but they had to send me to a different agent to get that turned on. So I get transferred then wait forever for this new agent, who repeated what the other agent said then had to transfer me. Oops, they disconnected me to I start all over again, after then 2nd transfer I get to the right agent but they said that they had to talk to my wife to turn on the international roaming! My wife original had the AT&T account. I had an account on T-Mobile. I was added to my wife’s AT&T account when I got my iPhone 3G and she had the account noted so that I could make changes and manage it. So they said to have her call and turn on the international roaming. I am now boarding the plane! I quickly call my wife and explain to her the idiocy and she said she would call. I land in Japan and try to use my iPhone and nothing. I finally get a hold of my wife using VOIP on my laptop (Skype) and she said she called AT&T and finally got to the right person and they said, the iPhone 3G does not work in Japan! What the freak! During my stay I ran into an American that was there on business and they were talking on their iPhone 3G! I ask him and he said yes, it works, but you have to get AT&T to turn on the international roaming. And he also said that he had the proof it works by the huge bill he had from AT&T. He had been in Japan awhile. So, good luck to those of you that have to actually speak to an AT&T rep.
PS The guy in Japan also told me that the data plan IS prorated, but the way they did it was that they charge the whole monthly charge but say you are only 1 week before the end of your billing cycle, then you don’t get the whole 50MB of data usage available, you only get 1/4 of that, since you only have 1/4 of your billing cycle left. As I said before, Good Luck!
Posted by ted1--2008
1 October 2008 @ 12pm
Yup. I have called AT&T again and got a slightly different story this time.
First: iPhone owners apparently are not automatically enrolled in the World Traveller program. You have to pay $5.99 per month for this privilege.
Second: The World Traveler rate is different for differnt countries. The amounts I cited in the article are for Japan. Rates in other countries may vary.
Third: It is true that you pay for a call as soon as the phone rings — even if you do not answer it.
- Ted
Posted by squirrelcop
2 October 2008 @ 9am
I just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Thailand for a week. In Hong Kong, wifi is literally everywhere and free in almost all places. In Thailand I was fortunate enough to have free wifi at my resort. After researching the AT&T international rate prices I decided to do the following:
I have the Truphone App on my iPhone and had purchased the $15 USA/Canada pack which gave me 1000 minutes worth of calling back into the USA. Worked absolutely flawlessly and the call quality was very impressive. Sounded like I was right next door and not 7500 miles from home.
To eliminate any charges what so ever to my AT&T account, I made sure Data Roaming was “off” and prior to leaving the USA, I switched my call forwarding “on” the iPhone and routed any incoming calls to my “MagicJack” VOIP phone number as well. This basically forwarded all my incoming iPhone cell calls to the MagicJack which in turn sent the voicemails left by the callers to my email in the form of .WAV files which i could easily listen to via my iPhone on the wifi. I returned calls via Truphone
Now this doesn’t give you cell capabilities all the time and only when in wifi range, but it sure beats paying AT&T’s out of control international calling and data rates.
Just another option that I found worked for me and only cost me $15, but relies on the availability of WiFi. For a week long trip, 1000 minutes is a lot of minutes and if you need more you can always re-load the Truphone from abroad too.