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Roaming with your iphone, better have lots of cash!

Posted by Chris under Apple, Mobile, Technology, Travel, iPhone

So I’m getting ready for a trip to Canada, which according to AT&T, may be our northern neighbor but your phone and data plan is US only. Which means get ready for some extra $$, especially around data usage.

Now I’m well used to paying high costs when traveling internationally for mobile phone calls. Of course paying for an international plan can lower the rate slightly or going full native and getting local pay as you go sim/phone can be one way to go. Or at the other end use Skype or tools like that for free skype to skype calls.

But it’s the data that will really get you. After all in my article on TalentZoo.com I wrote about how the iPhone was more computer then phone and I still stand by that.

So first a BIG thanks to AT&T for calling attention to the issue and for Felix Salmon over at Portfolio.com for pointing out even more.

International data roaming can get expensive quickly. In two weeks I’ve pushed almost 100MB to/from my iphone, which if I was international would be about a $2000 bill (based on pay-per-use international data rates of $.0195/KB). Or breaking it down a bit more uploading one photo to Flickr would be about $20-30. OUCH!

What can you do to minimize your international data charges? Here’s where AT&T is very helpful.

1) Turn Data Roaming “OFF”: Be sure to download and install the latest version of iPhone software (version 2.0) from iTunes. By default, this setting for international data roaming will be in the “OFF” position.

To turn data roaming “ON/OFF” tap on: Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming

2) Utilize Wi-Fi instead of GPRS/EDGE/3G: Wi-Fi is available in many international airports, hotels and restaurants to browse the web or check email.

Turn Off Your Phone’s “Auto-Check” Function for Email: Data usage from email can accrue quickly. Check email manually using Wi-Fi instead of having email downloaded automatically to your iPhone. This way you can control the flow of data coming to your iPhone.

To turn off the Auto-Check functionality tap on: Settings>Fetch New Data and select manually

3) Consider Purchasing an International Data Package: Purchasing an international data package can significantly reduce the cost of using data abroad. AT&T now offers two discount international data packages.

$24.99 per month - 20 MB Data Global Plan (20 MB of usage in over 65 countries*. Overage is $.005/KB)

$59.99 per month - 50 MB Data Global Plan (50 MB of usage in over 65 countries*. Overage is $.005/KB)

*for a list of countries visit att.com/dataconnectglobal for current information

Reading Felix’s article he points out the issues of the Data Global Plan, one being that you have to keep it for multiple billing cycle. Otherwise if you cancel it upon your return and the charges haven’t come in yet you be charged the non-plan rate. -note my call to AT&T did confirm this as well but they also said there is no termination charge for the plan you can keep it as long/short as you like. They also did, to their credit, point out the same point that Felix made.

So what am I going to do? Well the plan is to get the 20MB plan so at least if I really need to use things like Google Maps (as in help I’ve wondered off and am lost) I won’t feel like my $ are flying away. But this is for “emergency” use only I’ll plan to use WiFi as much as I can.

I’ll let you know when I return how that all worked out. Oh and one last note I’ll be resetting the Usage Tracker to Zero when the plane touches down (in the general settings menu & select reset statistics.) This way I’ll rally know how much data usage I use. Unfortunately it doesn’t differentiate between WiFi and 3G/Edge.

Lastly, no comment on how crazy this feels having to plan my data usage, so much for the ubiqutous internet, I guess that’s just for the well heeled vertu crowd.