When I traveled internationally for the first time after buying my iPhone, I was concerned about the potential for racking up huge phone bills. I’d heard horror stories about people who used their ATT iPhone for international travel, only to discover they had mounted up thousands of dollars in cell phone charges upon returning home. As an underpaid writer, I needed to make very sure this didn’t happen to me.
I started by calling AT&T and was told that I needed to add an International Calling Plan for $24.99 per month. Initially that seemed like a reasonable solution, until I read the small print. The plan provides 20MB of usage within 65 countries, and the list of countries did not include my destination. Additionally, usage over 20MB would have been charged at $.005 per KB. If that all sounds like a lot of gibberish, let me put it in perspective: opening an email with a five megapixel picture in it or downloading a three-minute video on YouTube each require about 2MB of data, so it wouldn’t take long to eat up 20MB of data. Additionally, there are 1,000 KB in each MB, so if I was over my limit, opening a 2MB email would cost me $10! Obviously, this plan was not acceptable.
Since I intended to access my email and the Internet solely through the hotel’s WiFi network, I asked AT&T for instructions to block the cellular network completely. Although it was a struggle to get the rep to agree to send me the appropriate information, she finally offered to send an email with instructions. The instructions were somewhat incomplete, but with research I was able to fill in the missing details and the steps I took successfully shut off the 3G network (I have since traveled internationally for months without incurring any roaming charges). The following are the specific instructions for using ATT iPhone for international travel without incurring high international roaming charges (3Gs, 4 and 4s):
Settings for iPhone 3GS:
- Make sure that standard International Roaming and International Long Distance feature, if it is included in your cellular plan, is removed (call AT&T and make sure the rep adds a note to your account confirming that you requested this)
- If you are going to forward your number, do so before you change any other settings (Settings->Phone->Call Forwarding->Turn ON->Enter number to which you want calls forwarded)
- Disable 3G (Settings->General->Network-Enable 3G->OFF)
- Turn off data roaming (Settings->General-Network->Data Roaming->OFF)
- Make sure WiFi is enabled (Settings->WiFi->WiFi->ON)
- Turn of automatic pushing of email (Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Fetch New Data-Push->OFF and set Fetch to Manually)
- Put the phone in airplane mode (Settings->Airplane Mode->ON)
- Although not absolutely necessary, I wanted to be very sure I was not mounting up the MB’s, so I reset the usage counter to zero in order to monitor it throughout the trip, ensuring my usage remained at zero. To do so, go to Settings->General->Usage->Reset Statistics (scroll to the very bottom).
Settings for iPhone 4 and 4s:
- If you are going to forward your number, do so before you change any other settings (Settings->Phone->Call Forwarding->Turn ON->Enter number to which you want calls forwarded)
- Disable 3G (Settings->General->Network->Cellular Data->OFF). Also check your Data Roaming; it should be off by default, but for some reason if it is on, turn it off here as well
- Make sure WiFi is enabled (Settings->WiFi->WiFi->ON)
- Turn of automatic pushing of email (Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Fetch New Data-Push->OFF and set Fetch to Manually)
- Put the phone in airplane mode (Settings->Airplane Mode->ON)
- If you wish to reset the usage counter to zero in order to monitor it throughout the trip and ensure usage remains at zero, go to Settings->General->Usage->Cellular Usage->Reset Statistics
- NOTE: In my 4s I do not turn off Location Services and Notifications, as they both work over wifi as well as a cellular network. Disabling 3G and putting the phone in Airplane Mode ensures that they will use only the wifi network and not rack up expensive roaming charges.
When I arrive in an international destination, I simply log into an available WiFi network and Voila! I have access to the Internet, email, Twitter, and can even make international phone calls with the iPhone Skype app without incurring cellular charges. When you return to the U.S., simply reverse the process, although you may choose not to reinstate the International Roaming and International Long Distance feature.
Planning international travel in the near future? Check out prices for your preferred destination at Booking.com, Hotels.com, or HotelsCombined.com. Read what travelers have to say about properties in your destination at TripAdvisor.com.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to hotel booking sites. If you click on any of the links and make a booking, I may earn a small commission, which keeps this blog free to read.
thank you barbra.i m gone to attend my brother marriage in pakistan.so i wana to take my iphone with me to keep intouch wih my family and friends.i m glad i come and read ur post are very good very good explain
100 time better if i talk with att repersentitive.they dont no nothing u ask.i wana add one more thing if you have family unlimtied message plan u can recive free text messages from ur family and att users.and send back text message is 50 cent.but barbra thank you again.u finish my all confiusion.GOD bless you
Seems like this should just be one step.
1. Turn on airplane mode.
If that disables everything and you connect to a wifi network for usage, why does one need to worry about turning off 3G, calling AT&T, etc.?
Hi Mcwinfree: You are absolutely correct, however in the settings panel, the
wi-fi and airplane mode are right on top of one another. I don’t leave my
wifi on all the time because it drains the battery, so I only turn it on
when I am am looking for a connection. On occasion, I have hit the airplane
mode by accident and turned it off – once it was two days before I
discovered it. Had I not turned off my 3G and my “push” applications, I
could have had huge, unexpected charges. I’m a proponent of playing it
doubly safe.
Barbara – Thank you for posting this information, I leave for Europe tomorrow and plan to follow your advise. I admire what you are doing, hopefully one day I too can fill my donut hole. Safe travels to you!
Thanks kninglopsop. As long as you’re true to yourself you’ll eventually
find your true path. Just don’t cave in to the expectations of others, like
I did for so many years. Have a wonderful trip and you be safe, too!
There have been several comments about leaving the iPhone on “Airplane Mode” and just using wifi while traveling out of the USA. Unfortunately, I have an iPhone 4 and when I shut off the airplane mode, it also turns off my wifi. Is there a way around this? Thanks in advance…I leave for Mexico in a few hours….
Rich: When you set the phone on Airplane mode it will automatically shut off
the wifi, because that’s the whole purpose of being in Airplane mode – no
signal. However, after enabling Airplane mode you can manually go back into
settings, select Wi-Fi (just below Airplane mode), and on the next screen,
manually turn wifi back on.
Hello! Any advice for iPhone in Saudi Arabia?
Hi Jazyat2: As far as I’ve been able to determine, the instructions should
work anywhere in the world. Of course, connection being dependent upon wifi,
it will also depend upon the availability of wifi in Saudi Arabia.
Wow… talk about doing things the hard way!
1. Unlock your current iPhone/buy unlocked iPhone (many countries sell factory unlocked models required by law, so no SIM unlocking nonsense). Bought mine in Hong Kong. You’ll pay the full, unsubsidized price, but you’ll save money in the long run. (More on that after).
2. When you arrive at your destination, buy a cheap SIM card with some prepaid minutes.
3. Pop the SIM card into your iPhone.
4. Use your iPhone anywhere in the world, pay local rates. When your minutes run out, add credit.
5. To receive international calls, set up Skype forwarding to your local number. To make outgoing international calls, use Skype when you have wifi available. You’re taking a long holiday right? Do you need international calling 24/7?
6. Kick AT&T to the curb and don’t look back. When you get back to the U.S., use prepaid with data plan (T-Mobile, Virgin, etc.)
7. Never get locked into a mobile “plan” again.
This is how most of the world uses their mobile phones… this is really the easiest and most versatile way for the long-term traveler. Not too mention the most economical. I;d like to add NEVER trust your service provider to NOT stick you with all sorts of outrageous charges whilst traveling overseas. Verizon screwed me badly when I lived in Ghana for 10 months. It’s what compelled me to never sign up for a mobile plan, ever again.
PerfectScores: Everything you say is absolutely correct. However, I rely on
my iPhone to sync with iTunes so that my calendar, address book, etc.
migrate into it each time I connect to my laptop. If you unlock and
jailbreak your iPhone, it invalidates the warranty, first of all. But more
importantly, if you unlock/jailbreak and then accidentally upgrade the
operating system, there is a high probability that the phone will then be
rendered inoperable. I tried to get around this by turning off the automatic
installation feature for OS upgrades in iTunes but then struggled for months
because iTunes stopped recognizing the phone when it was plugged in and so
could no longer sync. I finally was able to upgrade to the latest OS, which
then allowed the phone to be “seen” by iTunes again. Since I rely heavily on
my calendar, address book, and multiple apps when I travel, I don’t want to
risk turning my iPhone into a “brick.” Appreciate hearing any further
thoughts you have on this.
Hi Barbara,
I just stumbled upon your blog, and hasten to point out that a ‘legally’ unlocked iPhone (such as mine in Paris thanks to French consumer protection laws) is not at all the same thing as a jail-broken one. None of the issues you mentioned apply to a ‘legally’ unlocked iPhone, because the unlocking is authorized by Apple and actually carried out by Apple. I, too, rely heavily my calendar, address book, and multiple apps for international (and local) travel, and actually have a prepaid T-mobile SIM card for use in the US which allows me to do everything on my iPhone while stateside as I do here at home. In addition, I have a German SIM card, a couple of Asian ones… all for use in one single iPhone with all my contacts, e-mails, etc., etc.
In fact, I gave my (legally unlocked) original iPhone to my mother who lives in the US, which she used for a couple of years with a T-mobile SIM card (for Blackberry!) until I switched her over to AT&T, and this without a contract as she didn’t get her iPhone from AT&T. And if some year another US wireless carrier also offers iPhone GSM service at yet a better rate (more about GSM below), she can easily switch from AT&T, too. All this perfectly ‘kosher’ with no risk of turning her iPhone into a ‘brick’, etc., etc.
(The reason for my mentioning GSM is that even though Verizon has just begun offering the iPhone in the US, their iPhones are only CDMA and not GSM-compatible. Which severely limits international coverage – unless, of course, you have guaranteed wifi access 24/7 when travelling, hardly a given!)
I hope this helps clarify a few things and maybe calm a few fears…
Hi Eccparis: How right you are! And how lucky that you can legally unlock
your iPhone. Up till now it has invalidated the warranty and in the event
that you accidentally upgrade the operating system after jailbreaking and
unlocking, there is a high risk of turning it into a brick because you are
in violation of AT&T’s terms of servce.
However, that hasn’t stopped me from jailbreaking and unlocking mine, so I
can pop in a SIM card whenever I’m staying in an overseas destination long
term. I was forced to go with AT&T because most of the rest of the world is
on GSM, but I’ve been hearing rumblings that Verizon in the US is developing
phones that have dual technology (CDMA and GSM), although I haven’t
confirmed that yet. It will be very interesting to watch what happens when
the iPhone is available thru Verizon in a few days.
Oh, and one point I’d like to make for anyone reading this who doesn’t
understand the difference between jailbreaking and unlocking. Jailbreaking
allows you to download and install apps that are not approved by Apple. The
Cydia App store is full of other great apps, including MyWi, which allows
you to use your iPhone as a tethered modem, by turning it into a wireless
broadcast spot, or through USB cable. Also against the AT&T TOS, though.
Unlocking is only necessary if you want to use SIM cards from other
providers, either overseas or in the U.S. An iPhone must be jailbroken
before it can be unlocked, but it can ONLY be jailbroken if you prefer. Just
remember if you do this to turn off the automatic operating system update
option in iTunes.
I recently went to Paris, France with my iPhone set as described — airplane mode and using wifi only and skype. I had no extra charge issues. The only problem I had is that although Paris is littered with wifi, everywhere, it was often very slow sending and receiving email. Skype worked fairly well and I used it often to call USA and around Paris. The best thing was using the Maps app when I was trying to find a street or to figure out where I was when walking… Amazing! The Maps app always seemed to pick up and pinpoint my location easily and gave me great walking directions, which is great to have in Paris.
I had my laptop with me to surf at night on a larger screen and figure out where I wanted to go the next day, but having my iPhone in my pocket all day while walking thru Paris was great for the Maps app and googling things, skype… email, as I said was often painfully slow…like an hour or two to send and receive…
Hi Minette: Thanks so much for taking the time to confirm that the settings
worked well. I have a question for you about the Maps app. Is it an online
app – in other words do you need to be connected to the Internet to use it?
If so, I’m assuming you were using it whenever you had a wifi connection,
correct? If it worked without acess to a wifi, I am curious about how you
avoided incurring data charges.
Hi Barbara: The MAPs app works with wifi. It’s one of my favorite iPhone apps as it gives you both walking and driving directions — which ever you need. It’s a great app to have in a city — especially Paris, which has wifi every where. So yes, when wifi was available, which was often, Maps would pinpoint my location, show it to me on the map and guide me to any street. I can’t say enough about MAPs and how valuable it is when traveling. And you can easily bookmark addresses and have Maps guide you to a bookmarked address from where ever you are standing at the moment. If you have a decent wifi signal, it’s great. If you only have a good signal at your hotel, you can quickly map your destination before you leave and have it list out the directions for you. But as I said, Paris is littered with wifi so I had few problems with using Maps all around the city.
I was all wifi all the time. I never turned off airplane mode.
Thanks for the explanation Minette – I’ll have to download and try that.
If I want to use only email while in Madrid, can I just put phone in airplane mode or do I have to go through the above steps to disable the cellular network?
Fiveholmes: As I understand it, you can do that, but the buttons for the Airplane mode and turning on the WiFi are so close together that I have accidentally turned off the Airplane mode when I really wanted to turn on the WiFi, and once it got jostled in my backpack and Airplane mode got turned off that way. In this case, if you don’t have all the “push” applications – like automatically checking for email or apps that access the Internet automatically to update – turned off, you risk huge charges on your bill. Better to be safe than sorry.
So what happens if you don’t forward your calls anywhere?
Well Amy, it’s just a guess, but I guess they’d start piling up in your
voice mailbox until it was full, and then people would start getting a
message that your voicemail is full and they would be unable to leave any
further messages. Alternatively, you could change your vociemail message to
say that you are traveling and will not be picking up messages until you
return, and instruct people not to leave any messages.
If you don’t forward your phone, you will get 2 international charges per call. One for the AT&T system to find your phone, and the other to send the call back to your VM. Sounds counterintuitive, if your phone doesn’t even ring…but confirmed on AT&T discussion boards.
…OR, you could just remove the SIM card.
I have an IPhone 4 and am traveling to London next month. Planning on using wifi from my hotel to connect via email. I d/l skype mobile for the iphone and thought it would be simple to buy a plan. Boy- the choices are daunting…plan or credit, minutes or monthly?? How does one make sense of Skype and the Iphone and calling within the London area, plus the small possibility of needing to call the states??
Oh boy, Barry, that’s a subject for an entirely different post. Skype can
indeed be daunting, but it is worth the aggravation to get it up and
running. I have an annual subscription for $29.99 that gives me unlimited
free calls to or from mobile or landlines in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico.
That subscription also includes voice mail, SMS, and allows me to get a
SkypeIn phone number for a discounted rate of $29.99 per year, so my total
cost per year is only around $60 for those two packages. A SkypeIn number is
a local U.S. phone number that your friends and family can call, but that
rings through Skype, wherever you are in the world, as long as you are
online. If you are offline, they can leave a voice mail message.
Outside of the U.S, Mexico or Canada, Skype calls are still free, as long as
the persn whom I am calling also has Skype downloaded – Skype-to-Skype is
always free. However, not everyone has Skype, so I also “load” my account
with some funds – $50 at a time or so – and when I make an international
call to someone who does not have Skype (whether I am at home calling
internationally, or traveling in foreign countries and calling home), Skype
automatically deducts the cost of the call from that credit balance and
alerts me when I need to recharge. I’ve been traveling about a month in Asia
and have only used about $3 of my credit – the rates are pennies per minute.
The biggest problem is always finding a connection that has enough bandwidth
to use it. Hope that helps.
I am using an iPhone 3G in Europe without a data plan or calling plan for just gps mapping from a TomTom app that includes all of the data. It works fine as soon as it gets a gps fix, which can take up to 10 minutes without the companion 3g data. One it gets it the app works pretty well for navigation, with features that are not on the BMW navigation system we used in Europe. BMW insisted on sending me the wrong way on a one-way street and the TomTom did not. The iPhone needs to be plugged in at all times to power and still cannot be used for more than about 4 continuous hours, since it is continually searching for a gps signal.
Efithian: So, if you have no data plan, does the TomTom app download all the
data on your local iPhone? How much space does that take up -must be an
immense chunk of data. Barbara
Hi Barbara,
Great blog! You can eliminate a lot of your problems through the use of Google Voice – and since you still have a US number you can sign up. GV is like a super smart front-end to your phone that can ring to multiple phones whenever a call comes in (to your GV number). It can screen your calls, forward text transcriptions of voice messages to your email account, forward mp3 formatted voice mail messages to your email, forward calls to your inbound Skype number, and much more.
So you could have it setup so that all these phones ring whenever an incoming call comes in and you could simply pick up the phone that’s closes to you … or cheapest… or the one that you like best. And if, for example, you arrived home while talking on an incoming call on your mobile, you can just push the * button and all your phones will ring again and you can pick up your home phone (or Skype… or whatever) and resume the call from that phone – thus saving more mobile minutes.
Granted, most of those features only work in the US, or at least with US phone numbers, but with some experience with GV and a little thought and planning, you can setup a truly formidable communications system – and most of it is free. Well, my inbound Skype number costs me $30 US per year and my Skype North American subscription (unlimited mobile and landline calling for US, CA, MX phones) is another $30/yr. The rest, except for my prepaid wireless, is all free! And, that includes all my text messages (SMS-only), because I use GV for that, too – so I rarely send a message over my mobile number unless there’s no WiFi and the message is urgent.
Again, great blog.
Hi wbu45, and thanks for your comment and information. I actually have a GV
number – have had it for a while – but haven’t used it because most of my
travel is International. I have only one phone, the iPhone, and am thinking
seriously about dropping that one and just going to an iPod and using it
with Skype (like you, I have both the Skype number and subscription). But
for those who travel primarily in the US, GV is an excellent alternative.
You do have the option of signing up for Google Voice (while in the US), then use the GV number as your text contact number. Text messages will be stored on the GV web site and, optionally, they can be forwarded to any email account (preferably GMail). When you reply to the email, from any browser, the reply gets transmitted as a (SMS) text message. Voice mails can also be sent as mp3 files into your gmail account along with text transcriptions of your voice mail messages! Best of all, the whole thing is free!
Only limitations: 1-Must sign up in the USA (you need a US number as the number GV rings-through to). 2-The optional GV phone number you’re given (again for free) is a US number (numbers are available in almost every metro area and all states). 3-All texting is free, but Google has stopped international SMS – which was previously free – probably due to excessive cost to them. However, you can still get your text messages since they won’t be international (due to the fact that your GV US phone number is not an international number). Final bonus, all calls between phones in US and CA are free when placed using Google Voice.
There’s a lot more that can be done with one or more GV numbers, just search for more info using… you guessed it, Google. I’ve gotten my cellular bill down to an average of $3.75 per month from a previous $77 (US) per month through the use of Skype, GV, Gizmo5 Prepaid and VOIP over WiFi (VOWF?). And I consume between 1200 and 1800 minutes per month from my Droid.
Enjoy your trip!
Hi Barbara, what great info. I’ll be traveling to Ireland in a few days. My initial plan was this: use wifi to place any calls with Skype, check email, etc. Then purchase the $5.99 World Traveler phone plan from AT&T in case I must place a call when not on wifi (emergency only– it’s vacation, I don’t want to spend it chatting on the phone ;), and then the 20 MB of data for $25 plan as well. My main reason for the data was in case I really wanted to use the Maps app when I’m not on wifi. However I just did a little test and only about 15 seconds on the Mapps app used over 0.5 MB so that seems like it would blow through 20 MB in a heartbeat! But now that I’m looking at AT&T’s web site, if I understand it correct (and of course they don’t make it easy), standard international roaming charges for phone calls to the US from Ireland is $1.29/min vs. $0.99/min if you get the $5.99 plan. Am I right about this? Because if I only plan to place a call when NOT on wifi in the case of an emergency, a difference of $0.30/min isn’t going to be an issue. But, let me know if my theory is sound here and if I understand them correctly– if I don’t have AT&T turn off international roaming (i.e. enabling me to use it to place an emergency call if necessary), but keep my phone in Airplane Mode, and have fetch OFF, do I still run the risk of accruing data charges in the event I turn Airplane Mode off to place a call? Basically I’m wondering if I should bother buying any of their plans at all, but want to at least know I have the option of placing a call when not on wifi if I needed to.
Tashamoss: As you say, AT&T does not make it easy to understand all the
“fine print.” That’s why people come home to phone bills n the thousands of
dollars. My understanding is that the only way to absolutely ensure that
there is no data exchange is to keep it in Airplane mode, which would of
course mean you coudn’t make an emergency call when not on wifi. I haven’t
checked into the different rates for Ireland, but for 30 cents per minute
difference I agree that it does not make sense to buy the pricier package.
Probabnly worth a call to AT&T (record the conversation, if at all possible,
and tell them you’re recording it – if you don’t know how, download Cal
Recorder for Skype, call them on Skype, and hit the red record button).
The other thing you could consider is buying a disposable mobile in Ireland;
the rates to the States are going to be much cheaper that way. Or, if you
bought another brand of unlocked smart phone (you can get them on the
Internet for $100) you could get a SIMM card for that second phone once you
got there. I know some people have unlocked and jailbroken their iPhones,
but then you have to turn off the auto update option for the operating
system updates, since unlocked phones can turn into bricks if they are
updated. I’m not willing to deal with that kind of technology problem while
traveling. Hope that helps.
Thanks all. We brainstormed and realized between the two of us, the second phone line on our account isn’t a Smart phone so we’re taking that as the emergency phone, and I’m putting my iPhone in Airplane Mode and following the instructions in the blog post and going wifi only.
You should consider using Copilot or TomTom for iPhone. They can both be used without any data connection since the maps are stored on your phone at installation. I actually can’t confirm this first-hand for iPhone since I have Copilot installed on a Motorola Droid, but I’ve been told both apps work as described. Then, you might consider unlocking your phone (you can buy an unlocked iPhone in Europe, or get yours unlocked – requires jailbreak). Once unlocked, you can pick up a prepaid SIM card at your destination, plug it into your phone and be online (voice or voice and data) with a local number in a matter of minutes. That’ll cover you for the times and places where you don’t have access to WiFi. When you get back to the US, plug your AT&T SIM card back in and everything’s back to the way it was.
If you do what wm suggests – and I’m not saying you shouldn’t – make very
sure you turn off abtomatic updating of the iPhone operating system in
iTunes, as it has been known to turn jailbroken iPhones into bricks. And
that would make it a pretty price brick.
Do you have to but an international plan though, even after all these steps are taken?
Absolutely not, Kris. That’s the whole point -use the wifi and avoid having
to buy the pricey international plan.
I have a question, I understand that i can activate my call forwarding on my 3g while travelling in Europe, but can I forward it to a international number eg local sim card number
Hi Mehransd: I must admit you’ve stumped me with your question. I suspect you can forward to an international number but my guess is that doing so would incur international roaming charges. Best to check with AT&T on this question.
Thanks Barbara for the simplification of using the iphone internationally, this has been quite the challenge trying to sort it all out, and your article really helped. We also found another post that shows you can “text” by actually using email via wifi and everything else turned off, we tried it and it worked – here’s how:
Email them a text message using this method
1. Create a new email message.
2. The important part of the trick is to also know the address of the
friend you want to send a picture or text message to. Below is the
list of common providers:
All you will need to do is enter the recipients 10 digit number
instead of xxx.. in the To: box for picture messages depending on the
your friend’s carrier.
mms messages
Alltel = [email protected]
AT&T = [email protected]
Boost Mobile = [email protected]
Cingular (AT&T) = [email protected]
Einstein PCS = [email protected]
Sprint = [email protected]
T-Mobile = [email protected]
US Cellular = [email protected]
Verizon Wireless = [email protected]
Virgin Mobile = [email protected]
Cricket= [email protected]
and the following for text messages:
Verizon: [email protected]
AT&T: [email protected]
Sprint: [email protected]?
T-Mobile: [email protected]?
Nextel: [email protected]?
Cingular: [email protected]?
Virgin Mobile: [email protected]?
Alltel: [email protected]?
CellularOne: [email protected]?
Omnipoint: [email protected]?
Qwest: [email protected]
Cricket= [email protected]
3. Type a message and click send.
4. The message will be sent to the cell phone with the number in the
To: box
Valerie – thanks for sharing that cool trick for texting via wifi!
I think I’m in a similar situation as Theresa, and here’s what I’m thinking: Since I travel with either my husband or my mom, that allows a bit of flexibility in that I plan to take my iPhone and follow Barb’s instructions without variation. I will also add Mom’s email account to my iPhone so when we do have free wi-fi, she can check her email from my phone.
Second cell phone – Since we do want the ability for family to get a message to us in real time (most likely via text messaging which is affordable), I will do the following to Mom’s AT&T cell phone (NOT an iPhone) account:
1. Block Data from this phone – even with blocked data, a cell phone can still receive and send text messages but cannot connect to the internet.
2. Pay $5.99 per month for the international calling plan to get a reduced rate in case we do need to call out or accept an emergency call.
3. Record new voicemail greeting instructing callers not to leave a message, and whom to call back at home in case of an urgent matter.
We end up with an iPhone from which we can check email and call through Skype when we have free wi-fi available, AND we have a second phone from which we can receive and send affordable text messages in real time. Both phones are protected from racking up expensive international fees. Does anyone see a problem I’m overlooking?
Dear Barbara,
You are an angel. I am new to this discussion and am thrilled to know my 2 month travel to Australia and New Zealand will proceed with my new i-phone. I have not read beyond your July 30th post, but have one question that may not be relevant to this thread.
I like to write too. I am leaving my heavy MacBook Pro laptop at home and have just purchased (to my son’s horror) an Acer Aspire One. What do you use to write on as you travel? I still have time to return this if I need to.
Again……thank you so much for sharing this information.
Marianne
Hi Marianne: I carry a Macbook with me wherever I go. Converted from Windows four years ago and you couldn’t pay me enough to go back. The new Macbook Pro is much lighter than the older models 😉 Thanks for the kind words about my post.
Thank You For This Post, was added to my bookmarks.
Maybe I’ll get an iPhone now :0)
I have been looking into cheap phone calls recently (am based in the UK) and am interested in Google Voice when it finally gets here plus a few other options, like mobile phonecards from Lichtenstein and The Isle of Man that allow you to recieve free mobile calls (in the UK we get to recieve mobile calls for free unless abroad).
Thanks for the tips,
Dom
Hi Barb, I’m still trying to decide what to do with my Iphone, to take it or not. I like to have it for just an emergency phone when we are on the road, since we will be traveling all over S. Ireland. And also to keep in contact with my children here at home. I haven’t talked to an ATT rep yet, and leery about them not telling me the truth. Like I said before in my other message, getting the international plan and using the free wi-fi in place where I can hook up. What would I actually be doing different than the instructions you gave at the top of the page. And when I have the phone on, when on the road do I have to make setting changes. When I hook up to the free wi-fi, can I check my emails, post on FB and not get charged. I would appreciate any input you give on what to do if I used both the plan and the free wi-fi. I will only use the phone as a phone on the road, and suggestions would greatly be appreciated.
Hi Theresa. Well, you are trying to do two things, which fight against one another, with regard to making sure you don’t incur large charges for international calls. What I have suggested is to turn off the cellular access entirely and use ONLY the wifi. To make phone calls you can download the Skype app and call over any wifi network for just 2.1 cents per minute (or 1.2 cents if you have a subscription) for calls from Ireland to the U.S. Or, if both parties have Skype installed on their respective computers, calls are free from anywhere in the world, as long as you have access to a wifi network. However, it sounds like you are anxious about being unable to stay in touch with your children in the event you are unable to find a wifi connection, and therefore are considering buying the International package for emergency purposes. That will work, however remember the data limits on those packages – you want to make VERY sure that you don’t do emails, go to Facebook, view videos – essentially anything that eats up a lot of data – through the 3G connection. What makes that difficult is that any time you used the 3G connection, you’d have to go through all the steps to re-enable toe connection (per my post), and then after finishing the call, you’d have to reverse the process and shut off the 3G connection. I guess you could print out the steps and carry them with you to make it easier. And yes, using wifi you can access Facebook, check emails, etc, without getting charged, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE 3G SHUT OFF AND THE PHONE INN AIRPORT MODE. I know it can be confusing, but compare it to a laptop computer, When you’re at home, you plug in your laptop to your Internet provider; when you’re mobile you hook up to the wifi network offered by the coffee shop, etc. Same with the iPhone. You have two different modes of connection – the cellular (3G) network, which is owned by AT&T, and for which you pay them according to usage, and wifi, which can be provided by anyone on the road. In the case of the latter, it’s free – someone else is paying for the Internet access and you’re just logging on to their connection. Whatever you can do on the cell connection you can do on the wifi connection, for free.