Smartphone in the States - Roaming fees, phone calls, text messages etc

[canabiz]

Folks, I have an iPhone 3GS with Rogers (voice + data) and will visit Philly this long weekend. I have heard horror stories about people getting raped for roaming fees when they use their smartphones in the States so I decided to call Rogers Tech Support and Customer Service and here is what I got

To turn off data plan so as not to incur exorbitant charges, this is what I have to do on the iPhone

1. Turn OFF Location Services under Settings -> General

2. Turn OFF Enable 3G under Settings -> General

3. Turn OFF Data Roaming under Settings -> General

4. Turn OFF Cellular Data under Settings -> General

A phone call will cost me $1.75/minute and a text message is $0.75 while I am down there. Not sure if that's incoming or outgoing but at those rates, it probably doesn't matter much...The CSR then went on and on about different *Travel pack* plans that he encourages me to add but which I have no interest as I only want to use the phone in case of emergency.

Make me feel like i should just leave the phone at home and not to bother with any of this.

Did you guys bring your smartphones to the States and what did you do to minimize the damage while still ensuring the phone is available for emergency usage?

Thanks.

[brad]

Did you guys bring your smartphones to the States and what did you do to minimize the damage while still ensuring the phone is available for emergency usage?

I have a Nokia E71, and use it in the States whenever I go -- it's pretty easy to avoid data charges if you just use the thing as a telephone and never check email, browse the web, etc.

But I think with the iPhone if you have a data plan in Canada it will still connect to your email server to update your email while you're traveling unless you turn off those settings that Rogers told you to turn off -- I thought there was some way to make the iPhone connect to WiFi only when you're traveling but I'm not sure if that's true. Back when I had a data plan, whenever I was in a WiFi zone and wanted to check email on my Nokia, the phone asked me if I wanted to connect using WiFi or 3G...a nice touch.

[Sampson]

Keep it turned off. I also often turn to Airplane mode, and then turn WiFi back on, lots of free sources these days.

With Android, turning data or any other feature off is as easy as one touch.

[mode3sour]

I travel a lot with my 3Gs and I was with Rogers as well

I used to pay them $10/month or something to do data roaming in the US but they've been jacking their data rates something obscene lately. I just looked it up and it's quite pitiful, $30 for 10MB bahaha. That would certainly avoid roaming fees if you just want to use facebook etc on a short trip though

You can certainly carry it for emergencies with just data roaming turned off (and cellulaire data off so you don't answer/make a call by mistake). I leave data roaming off all the time because even in Canada you can roam if you're next to the border (lots of people get billed for this). I leave the other settings on (Location services and 3G) and I've never been charged, I just don't answer/make calls when I'm roaming. GPS sensor has nothing to do with roaming, and 3G won't work on another network anyways if you have data roaming off already....

I sometimes use text messages when I travel and just pay the $.75. Sometimes it's quite worth it for the convenience, to send an important message. I've never been charged for incoming but I could be wrong

The best way to "roam" is to use a local SIM card. Unfortunately being Cdn your 3Gs is locked to Rogers. Google started the movement to sell unlocked phones online and iPhone 4 followed suit. It is easy to jailbreak iPhone 3Gs if you wanted to, but if you just want it for emergency I would turn off all those settings and carry it as an iPod etc. I can usually buy a prepaid SIM card in other countries for under $20 that lasts for my trip and is by far the cheapest method. Any cell phone can make an emergency call even without a SIM card though FYI.

[KaeJS]

Keep it turned off. I also often turn to Airplane mode, and then turn WiFi back on, lots of free sources these days.With Android, turning data or any other feature off is as easy as one touch.

Do this.

Airplane mode will let you have the 3GS on, but you will not be able to receive, or send, calls/data while Airplane Mode is active.

To turn on Airplane mode, simply:

Settings->Airplane Mode

It is the very first option when you open the settings "application".

Quick. Easy. Painless. And in the event of an emergency, its only two taps and you're back to having data

[ddkay]

If you only need to use the phone for a true emergency (911) just use the phone without a sim card. The FCC requires all emergency service calls be forwarded whether or not a device is registered to a carrier. They can get your gps coordinates too if you have that turned on.