01 May 2009

International Roaming Horror on iPhone™

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LOL!  Gotta applaud the video creator’s sense of humor, but I also empathize for his international roaming horror.  I’m sure that’s not the first horror story you’ve heard about international roaming bills either! 

Yeah…these wireless carriers always advertise about their international roaming coverage, but don’t always tell you the rates upfront.  Then when you come back from an overseas trip, you feel like you’ve been robbed as you see the phone bill.  Darn! You could have flown first class…stayed at a five-star resort with champaign and caviar!  Well…ok, realistic speaking, under this economic weather, that phone bill could have paid for a family’s living expense for a month.

So far, the cheapest and convenient way, I find, to make cell phone calls while you travel abroad is to buy a local prepaid SIM card and use OneSuite International Access number.  The savings are just insane!  See it for yourself.  In terms of internet access on your mobile device, your cheapest option would be to use a WiFi-enabled cell phone, and look for free WiFi hotspots. 

I know for a fact that iPhones™, by default, will automatically search for any available data roaming unless you disable it ahead of time; because if you accidentally touch the browser icon, you’ll be charged with the per kb rates immediately. 

While I’m a sucker for gadgets and don’t want to miss out on the fun apps, my frugality kicks in.  So instead of an iPhone™ and a $1000 contract with AT&T, I got myself an iPod Touch™ using free WiFi, and live happily ever after with my old no-drop-calls cell phone perked up with OneSuite.

2 comments

  • Comment Link Zee Monday, 04 May 2009 19:59 posted by Zee

    There were like hundreds if not thousands of stories like this. Rates for international roaming are way over priced not to mention the data charges and get ready for the shock of your life.

    By the way, I'm never an iPhone fan and I think its overhype. My HTC Touch HD can do those too plus a lot more and cost cheaper at the same time.

    Speaking of roaming, I never activate my roaming because the charges are insane plus if somebody called you and it goes to voicemail, you get charge for that plus another charge for retrieving it. Oh well I learned my lessons the expensive way.

    And I got news for you, iPod can make voip calls. All you need is a jailbroken (unlocked) iPod Touch, Touchmod mic (so you can speak on your iPod) and a voip application like Fring. A friend of mine was able to set up a Onesuite voip account on his iPod Touch and it works like a charm. Clever huh?

  • Comment Link Ethan Friday, 01 May 2009 17:10 posted by Ethan

    Next time get your iPhone unlocked or get a "un-lock" code form AT&T and use it with a local SIM card of the country you are traveling to, which you can get online even before you leave for your trip.

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