International Use???

[CRK17]

I’ve been searching on the forum for information concerning using an U.S. (AT&T) iPhone in Europe but I’m more confused after reading all the posts.

We have a small business that is Mac based and we want to integrate the iPhone so we can use maximize iCal, mail, extra when we’re away from the home office. The business also requires my wife to travel to Italy several times a year for several weeks at a time. While there she would like to be able to check email, use iCal, use the internet, etc. Since we are a small business using the iPhone in Italy can get expensive. We aren’t concerned with using it as a phone since we have a PAYG phone already setup for the Italy trips. So my questions are:

1) Can the iPhone be used in Wi-Fi mode without encountering roaming charges?

2) If Wi-Fi can be used without encountering roaming charges, can it sync with iCal?

3) Can we disable the phone so it won’t except incoming calls and any push features but still retain the Wi-Fi capabilities?

Thanks

 

[efp1]

Well, I live in Barcelona and I've traveled around Europe with my iPhone 3G.

1)Whenever I travel abroad, I set my phone to disable data roaming. There's an option in the settings menu to do so. This pretty much makes it an iPod Touch with a phone feature.

2)I'm pretty sure it can sync with iCal using Wi-Fi. After all, all it needs to do is connect to the internet to get the new information from the server.

3) Right now I just tried to put my iPhone in airplane mode and turn Wi-Fi on. This disables the phone feature and, of course, the 3G data. This essentially turns the iPhone into an iPod touch.

I'd like to point out that i've never been charged for data roaming with the setting switched to data roaming off. I've received phones calls while roaming but never answered and never got charged for that either. But of course, the latter depends on your carrier. You can always set it to airplane mode to be sure.

 

[CRK17]

Thanks

efp1

Thanks for the quick reply. One more question I have is using 3G. If we use the 3G then there would be a cost for data roaming correct?

Barcelona is one place my wife and I are dying to get to.

 

[efp1]

Yeah, if you use data when you're not on Wi-Fi be prepared to pay a lot. Not sure how much at&t charges but here in Europe it's quite a lot. My carrier charges about 10 euros for one quick daily connection, then charges by the MB.

About Barcelona, trust me, it's an amazing city. One of the nicest cities in Europe that I've been to. I'm American and been living here for about 4 years now. It's great. I highly recommend it.

 

[sibruk]

1) Can the iPhone be used in Wi-Fi mode without encountering roaming charges?

Yes - "roaming charges" are only applied to cellular activity. Go into Settings, turn on Airplane mode, and after that turn on WiFi. All radio activity except WiFi is stopped. Use free public WiFi, or use your own WiFi router locally, or get a cheap local WiFi subscription.

2) If Wi-Fi can be used without encountering roaming charges, can it sync with iCal?

Yes, same as normal. Plug it in, and away it syncs.

3) Can we disable the phone so it won’t except incoming calls and any push features but still retain the Wi-Fi capabilities?

Yes, see answer to 1 above. Push mail will continue to work over WiFi. If your wife wants to be able to make calls back to the US periodically, I suggest you get the free Truphone app installed on her iPhone. It works over WiFi and it's probably going to be a lot cheaper than using a landline.

 

[Northness]

Roaming In Europe (and maybe elsewhere)

My iphone is with ATT in US, and I have just returned from trip to UK.

While WiFi works fine in many settings, I have found two limitations:

In a large London hotel, while I could get to login page on browser to access internet, it would not accept password. The support, if u can call it that, was useless. They just said they did not support the Iphone.

In the British Airways lounge at Heathrow they have free wifi, but you have to enter email address. That is fine, but you can never get to the login page to do this. I spoke to provider (BT Openzone) and they said that this relates to the fact that in UK Iphone service is provided by O2; O2 has set up something to allow this access, but other Iphone carriers on roaming have not. I am not clear as to exactly what is blocking things .. but the only way I could get WifI access on Iphone there was to pay subscription charges. Not a very good deal.

I am not sure what the underlying issue is .. phone or carrier or what. But, it is very frustrating (to say the least). I do not know if anyone has other experiences or further insight ?

 

[ColeUK]

British Iphone usr abroad.....

Hi guys, wonder if anyone could shed some light on international use and charges etc...

In particular I am looking to upgrade to an iPhone 3G 16B with O2 here in the UK.

I am Cabin Crew and fly all over the world. That said I tend to spend a lot more of my time with work in the US.

Can a British iPhone's connect to WiFi in the US?

What do I need to consider and do when I arrive into another country, E.g the US and turn my phone on?

 

[skubish]

Hi guys, wonder if anyone could shed some light on international use and charges etc...

In particular I am looking to upgrade to an iPhone 3G 16B with O2 here in the UK.

I am Cabin Crew and fly all over the world. That said I tend to spend a lot more of my time with work in the US.

Can a British iPhone's connect to WiFi in the US?

What do I need to consider and do when I arrive into another country, E.g the US and turn my phone on?

Wifi is Wifi. Its the same in the US and the UK. To avoid roaming charges make sure data roaming is OFF in the Settings>General>Network panel. You will still probably get charged a lot if you make/receive calls while in the US.