How functional is iphone overseas?

[boss.king]

What if you have an iPhone 3G that's been off contract, but no longer works. Can you transfer the "unlockability" to the new iPhone under contract.

Nope, not that I know of.

 

[Italianblend]

I'm only going for 10 days.

I looked at my usage and since october, I've sent 251mb and received 2.5gb.

That doesn't really seem like a lot to me. I can purchase 50mb for $25, Buy world traveler for discounted calling rates for $6, a small texting plan for $10.

That's $41 plus .99 per calling minute.

Or, am I missing something?

 

[ET iPhone Home]

they normally do, but..... You have to contact the foreign carrier and enable roaming on that Sim otherwise no service outside home country. 🙂

It still doesn't actually save you any money though because the foreign sim will now be using USA carrier nd you'll be charged the foreign carriers roaming price per unit which is significantly costlier than it would have been from the same country, so there would be no actual tangible benefit to using the foreign sim with roaming enabled to dial back to country it was originally bought in.

Makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

 

[hajime]

Remember that if you NEED TO be reached at your US phone number, you pretty much have limited options, other than roam internationally on AT&T's ridiculous rates, or some fancy call forwarding setup.

Somebody in this forum suggested me to get a Skype number.

 

[Italianblend]

I don't understand - those foreign plans aren't really all that expensive considering. What is the big deal about unlocking?

 

[Italianblend]

Bumping my question. What is so advantageous about unlocking when you can just buy an international data plan?

 

[MRU]

Bumping my question. What is so advantageous about unlocking when you can just buy an international data plan?

Price. Simple as.

 

[Italianblend]

So, the $40 that I would spend on a data/message plan is more expensive than going through the trouble of unlocking my phone and signing up with an Italian carrier?

 

[0007776]

So, the $40 that I would spend on a data/message plan is more expensive than going through the trouble of unlocking my phone and signing up with an Italian carrier?

Based on looking at google and using google translate to try to understand the carrier's websites, you can get 500mb of data for 15 euros, so I'd say the $40 is more expensive.