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.
